Ath. Enough of laws relating to education and learning. Buthunting and similar pursuits in like manner claim our attention. Forthe legislator appears to have a duty imposed upon him which goesbeyond mere legislation. There is something over and above law whichlies in a region between admonition and law, and has several timesoccurred to us in the course of discussion; for example, in theeducation of very young children there were things, as we maintain,which are not to be defined, and to regard them as matters of positivelaw is a great absurdity. Now, our laws and the whole constitutionof our state having been thus delineated, the praise of the virtuouscitizen is not complete when he is described as the person whoserves the laws best and obeys them most, but the higher form ofpraise is that which describes him as the good citizen who passesthrough life undefiled and is obedient to the words of the legislator,both when he is giving laws and when he assigns praise and blame. Thisis the truest word that can be spoken in praise of a citizen; andthe true legislator ought not only to write his laws, but also tointerweave with them all such things as seem to him honourable anddishonourable. And the perfect citizen ought to seek to strengthenthese no less than the principles of law which are sanctioned bypunishments. I will adduce an example which will clear up mymeaning, and will be a sort of witness to my words. Hunting is of wideextent, and has a name under which many things are included, for thereis a hunting of creatures in the water, and of creatures in the air,and there is a great deal of hunting of land animals of all kinds, andnot of wild beasts only. The hunting after man is also worthy ofconsideration; there is the hunting after him in war, and there isoften a hunting after him in the way of friendship, which is praisedand also blamed; and there is thieving, and the hunting which ispractised by robbers, and that of armies against armies. Now thelegislator, in laying down laws about hunting, can neither abstainfrom noting these things, nor can he make threatening ordinances whichwill assign rules and penalties about all of them. What is he to do?
He will have to praise and blame hunting with a view to the exerciseand pursuits of youth. And, on the other hand, the young man mustlisten obediently; neither pleasure nor pain should hinder him, and heshould regard as his standard of action the praises and injunctions ofthe legislator rather than the punishments which he imposes by law.
This being premised, there will follow next in order moderate praiseand censure of hunting; the praise being assigned to that kind whichwill make the souls of young men better, and the censure to that whichhas the opposite effect.
And now let us address young men in the form of a prayer for theirwelfare: O friends, we will say to them, may no desire or love ofhunting in the sea, or of angling or of catching the creatures inthe waters, ever take possession of you, either when you are awakeor when you are asleep, by hook or with weels, which latter is avery lazy contrivance; and let not any desire of catching men and ofpiracy by sea enter into your souls and make you cruel and lawlesshunters. And as to the desire of thieving in town or country, may itnever enter into your most passing thoughts; nor let the insidiousfancy of catching birds, which is hardly worthy of freemen, comeinto the head of any youth. There remains therefore for our athletesonly the hunting and catching of land animals, of which the one sortis called hunting by night, in which the hunters sleep in turn and arelazy; this is not to be commended any more than that which hasintervals of rest, in which the will strength of beasts is subduedby nets and snares, and not by the victory of a laborious spirit.
Thus, only the best kind of hunting is allowed at all-that ofquadrupeds, which is carried on with horses and dogs and men"s ownpersons, and they get the victory over the animals by running themdown and striking them and hurling at them, those who have a care ofgodlike manhood taking them with their own hands. The praise and blamewhich is assigned to all these things has now been declared; and letthe law be as follows:-Let no one hinder these who verily are sacredhunters from following the chase wherever and whither soever theywill; but the hunter by night, who trusts to his nets and gins,shall not be allowed to hunt anywhere. The fowler in the mountains andwaste places shall be permitted, but on cultivated ground and onconsecrated wilds he shall not be permitted; and any one who meets himmay stop him. As to the hunter in waters, he may hunt anywhereexcept in harbours or sacred streams or marshes or pools, providedonly that he do not pollute the water with poisonous juices. And nowwe may say that all our enactments about education are complete.
Cle. Very good.
