but in populousness.  This we must remember and console the mortal element of our being with an endless succession of generations like torches.  Thus the one gap which separates us from divine happiness may through relays of men be filled by immortality.  It was for this cause most of all that that first and greatest god who fashioned us divided the race of mortals in twain, rendering one half of it male and the other female, and added love and the compulsion of their intercourse together, making their association fruitful, that by the young continually born he might in a way render mortality eternal.  Even of the gods themselves some are believed to be male, the rest female:  and the tradition prevails that some have begotten others and certain ones have been born of others.  So, even among them, who need no such device, marriage and child-begetting have been approved as noble. [-3-] You have done right, then, to imitate the gods and right to emulate your fathers, that, just as they begot you, you may also bring others into the world.  Just as you deem them and name them ancestors, others will regard you and address you in similar fashion.  The undertakings which they nobly achieved and handed down to you with glory you will hand on to others.  The possessions which they acquired and left to you will leave to others sprung from your own loins.  Surely the best of all things is a woman who is temperate, domestic, a good house-keeper, a rearer of children; one to gladden you when in health, to tend you when sick; to be your partner in good fortune, to console you in misfortune; to restrain the frenzied nature of the youth and to temper the superannuated severity of the old man.  Is it not a delight to acknowledge a child bearing the nature of both, to nurture and educate it, a physical image and a spiritual image, so that in its growth you yourself live again?  Is it not most blessed on departing from life to leave behind a successor to and inheritor of one’s substance and family, something that is one’s own, sprung from one’s self?  And to have only one’s human part waste away, but to live through the child as successor?  We need not be in the hands of aliens, as in war, nor perish utterly, as in war.  These are the private advantages that accrue to those who marry and beget children:  but for the State, for whose sake we ought to do many things that are even distasteful to us, how excellent and how necessary it is, if cities and peoples are to exist, if you are to rule others and others are to obey you, that there should be a multitude of men to till the earth in peace and quiet, to make voyages, practice arts, follow handicrafts, men who in war will protect what we already have with the greater zeal because of family ties and will replace those that fall by others.  Therefore, men,—­for you alone may properly be called men,—­and fathers,—­for you are worthy to hold this title like myself,—­I love you and I praise you for this, I am glad of the prizes I have already offered and I will glorify you still more besides by honors and offices.  Thus you may yourselves reap great benefits and leave them to your children undiminished.  I shall now descend to speak to the rest, who have not done like you, and whose lot will therefore be directly the opposite:  you will thus learn not only from words but by facts even more how far you excel them.”