The preceptors also ought to have
an eye upon their manner of life, and those with whom they converse;
and to take care that they are never in the company of slaves. At this
time and till they are seven [1336b] years old it is necessary that
they should be educated at home. It is also very proper to banish,
both from their hearing and sight, everything which is illiberal and
the like. Indeed it is as much the business of the legislator as
anything else, to banish every indecent expression out of the state:
for from a permission to speak whatever is shameful, very quickly
arises the doing it, and this particularly with young people: for
which reason let them never speak nor hear any such thing: but if it
appears that any freeman has done or said anything that is forbidden
before he is of age to be thought fit to partake of the common meals,
let him be punished by disgrace and stripes; but if a person above
that age does so, let him be treated as you would a slave, on account
of his being infamous. Since we forbid his speaking everything which
is forbidden, it is necessary that he neither sees obscene stories nor
pictures; the magistrates therefore are to take care that there are no
statues or pictures of anything of this nature, except only to those
gods to whom the law permits them, and to which the law allows persons
of a certain age to pay their devotions, for themselves, their wives,
and children. It should also be illegal for young persons to be
present either at iambics or comedies before they are arrived at that
age when they are allowed to partake of the pleasures of the table:
indeed a good education will preserve them from all the evils which
attend on these things.
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