But the legislator should
not allow youth to be spectators of iambi or of comedy until they
are of an age to sit at the public tables and to drink strong wine; by
that time education will have armed them against the evil influences
of such representations.
We have made these remarks in a cursory manner- they are enough
for the present occasion; but hereafter we will return to the
subject and after a fuller discussion determine whether such liberty
should or should not be granted, and in what way granted, if at all.
Theodorus, the tragic actor, was quite right in saying that he would
not allow any other actor, not even if he were quite second-rate, to
enter before himself, because the spectators grew fond of the voices
which they first heard. And the same principle applies universally
to association with things as well as with persons, for we always like
best whatever comes first. And therefore youth should be kept
strangers to all that is bad, and especially to things which suggest
vice or hate. When the five years have passed away, during the two
following years they must look on at the pursuits which they are
hereafter to learn. There are two periods of life with reference to
which education has to be divided, from seven to the age of puberty,
and onwards to the age of one and twenty. The poets who divide ages by
sevens are in the main right: but we should observe the divisions
actually made by nature; for the deficiencies of nature are what art
and education seek to fill up.
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