Ch. xiii. among the Greeks. 235 



Plato, in the republic which he considers in his 

 books of laws, limits the number of free citizens 

 and of habitations to five thousand and forty ; and 

 this number he thinks may be preserved, if the 

 father of every family choose one out of his sons 

 for his successor to the lot of land which he has 

 possessed, and, disposing of his daughters in mar- 

 riage according to law, distribute his other sons, 

 if he have any, to be adopted by those citizens who 

 are without children. But if the number of chil- 

 dren upon the whole be either too great or too 

 few, the magistrate is to take the subject particu- 

 larly into his consideration, and to contrive so, 

 that the same number of five thousand and forty 

 families should still be maintained. There are 

 many modes, he thinks, of effecting this object. 

 Procreation, when it goes on too fast, may be check- 

 ed, or, when it goes on too slow, may be encou- 

 raged, by the proper distribution of honours and 

 marks of ignominy, and by the admonitions of the 

 elders, to prevent or promote it according to cir- 

 cumstances.* 



In his Philosophical Republic f he enters more 

 particularly into this subject, and proposes that 

 the most excellent among the men should be 

 joined in marriage to the most excellent among 

 the women, and the inferior citizens matched with 

 the inferior females ; and that the offspring of the 

 first should be brought up, of the others not. On 



* Plato tie Lcgibus, lib. v. 

 I l'lato de Republic!, lib. v. 



