When the suits of the year are completed the following laws shallregulate their execution:-In the first place, the judge shall assignto the party who wins the suit the whole property of him who loses,with the exception of mere necessaries, and the assignment shall bemade through the herald immediately after each decision in the hearingof the judges; and when the month arrives following the month in whichthe courts are sitting (unless the gainer of the suit has beenpreviously satisfied), the court shall follow up the case, and handover to the winner the goods of the loser; but if they find that hehas not the means of paying, and the sum deficient is not less thana drachma, the insolvent person shall not have any right of going tolaw with any other man until he have satisfied the debt of the winningparty; but other persons shall still have the right of bringingsuits against him. And if any one after he is condemned refuses toacknowledge the authority which condemned him, let the magistrates whoare thus deprived of their authority bring him before the court of theguardians of the law, and if he be cast, let him be punished withdeath, as a subverter of the whole state and of the laws.
Thus a man is born and brought up, and after this manner he begetsand brings up his own children, and has his share of dealings withother men, and suffers if he has done wrong to any one, and receivessatisfaction if he has been wronged, and so at length in due time hegrows old under the protection of the laws, and his end comes in theorder of nature. Concerning the dead of either sex, the religiousceremonies which may fittingly be performed, whether appertaining tothe Gods of the underworld or of this, shall be decided by theinterpreters with absolute authority. Their sepulchres are not to bein places which are fit for cultivation, and there shall be nomonuments in such spots, either large or small, but they shalloccupy that part of the country which is naturally adapted forreceiving and concealing the bodies of the dead with as little hurt aspossible to the living. No man, living or dead, shall deprive theliving of the sustenance which the earth, their foster-parent, isnaturally inclined to provide for them. And let not the mound be piledhigher than would be the work of five men completed in five days;nor shall the stone which is placed over the spot be larger than wouldbe sufficient to receive the praises of the dead included in fourheroic lines. Nor shall the laying out of the dead in the housecontinue for a longer time than is sufficient to distinguish betweenhim who is in a trance only and him who is really dead, and speakinggenerally, the third day after death will be a fair time forcarrying out the body to the sepulchre. Now we must believe thelegislator when he tells us that the soul is in all respectssuperior to the body, and that even in life what makes each one usto be what we are is only the soul; and that the body follows us aboutin the likeness of each of us, and therefore, when we are dead, thebodies of the dead are quite rightly said to be our shades orimages; for the true and immortal being of each one of us which iscalled the soul goes on her way to other Gods, before them to givean account-which is an inspiring hope to the good, but very terribleto the bad, as the laws of our fathers tell us; and they also saythat not much can be done in the way of helping a man after he isdead. But the living-he should be helped by all his kindred, thatwhile in life he may be the holiest and justest of men, and afterdeath may have no great sins to be punished in the world below. Ifthis be true, a man ought not to waste his substance under the ideathat all this lifeless mass of flesh which is in process of burialis connected with him; he should consider that the son, or brother, orthe beloved one, whoever he may be, whom he thinks he is laying in theearth, has gone away to complete and fulfil his own destiny, andthat his duty is rightly to order the present, and to spend moderatelyon the lifeless altar of the Gods below. But the legislator does notintend moderation to be take, in the sense of meanness. Let the law,then, be as follows:-The expenditure on the entire funeral of himwho is of the highest class shall not exceed five minae; and for himwho is of the second class, three minae, and for him who is of thethird class, two minae, and for him, who is of the fourth class, onemina, will be a fair limit of expense. The guardians of the lawought to take especial care of the different ages of life, whetherchildhood, or manhood, or any other age. And at the end of all, letthere be some one guardian of the law presiding, who shall be chosenby the friends of the deceased to superintend, and let it be gloryto him to manage with fairness and moderation what relates to thedead, and a discredit to him if they are not well managed. Let thelaying out and other ceremonies be in accordance with custom, but tothe statesman who adopts custom as his law we must give way in certainparticulars. It would be monstrous for example that he shouldcommand any man to weep or abstain from weeping over the dead; buthe may forbid cries of lamentation, and not allow the voice of themourner to be heard outside the house; also, he may forbid thebringing of the dead body into the open streets, or the processions ofmourners in the streets, and may require that before daybreak theyshould be outside the city. Let these, then, be our laws relating tosuch matters, and let him who obeys be free from penalty; but he whodisobeys even a single guardian of the law shall be punished by themall with a fitting penalty. Other modes of burial, or again the denialof burial, which is to be refused in the case of robbers of templesand parricides and the like, have been devised and are embodied in thepreceding laws, so that now our work of legislation is pretty nearlyat an end; but in all cases the end does not consist in doingsomething or acquiring something or establishing something-the endwill be attained and finally accomplished, when we have provided forthe perfect and lasting continuance of our institutions until then ourcreation is incomplete.
