What is fair and honourable
ought then to take place in education of what is fierce and cruel: for
it is not a wolf, nor any other wild beast, which will brave any noble
danger, but rather a good man. So that those who permit boys to engage
too earnestly in these exercises, while they do not take care to
instruct them in what is necessary to do, to speak the real truth,
render them mean and vile, accomplished only in one duty of a citizen,
and in every other respect, as reason evinces, good for nothing. Nor
should we form our judgments from past events, but from what we see at
present: for now they have rivals in their mode of education, whereas
formerly they had not. That gymnastic exercises are useful, and in
what manner, is admitted; for during youth it is very proper to go
through a course of those which are most gentle, omitting that violent
diet and those painful exercises which are prescribed as necessary;
that they may not prevent the growth of the body: and it is no small
proof that they have this effect, that amongst the Olympic candidates
we can scarce find two or three who have gained a victory both when
boys and men: because the necessary exercises they went through when
young deprived them of their strength. When they have allotted three
years from the time of puberty to other parts of education, they are
then of a proper age to submit to labour and a regulated diet; for it
is impossible for the mind and body both to labour at the same time,
as they are productive of contrary evils to each other; the labour of
the body preventing the progress of the mind, and the mind of the
body.
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