My son, you ought to marry, but not in order to gain wealth or to avoid poverty; neither should you, as men are wont to do, choose a wife who is like yourself in property and character.  You ought to consult the interests of the state rather than your own pleasure; for by equal marriages a society becomes unequal.  And yet to enact a law that the rich and mighty shall not marry the rich and mighty, that the quick shall be united to the slow, and the slow to the quick, will arouse anger in some persons and laughter in others; for they do not understand that opposite elements ought to be mingled in the state, as wine should be mingled with water.  The object at which we aim must therefore be left to the influence of public opinion.  And do not forget our former precept, that every one should seek to attain immortality and raise up a fair posterity to serve God.—­Let this be the prelude of the law about the duty of marriage.  But if a man will not listen, and at thirty-five years of age is still unmarried, he shall pay an annual fine:  if he be of the first class, 100 drachmas; if of the second, 70; if of the third, 60; and if of the fourth, 30.  This fine shall be sacred to Here; and if he refuse to pay, a tenfold penalty shall be exacted by the treasurer of Here, who shall be responsible for the payment.  Further, the unmarried man shall receive no honour or obedience from the young, and he shall not retain the right of punishing others.  A man is neither to give nor receive a dowry beyond a certain fixed sum; in our state, for his consolation, if he be poor, let him know that he need neither receive nor give one, for every citizen is provided with the necessaries of life.  Again, if the woman is not rich, her husband will not be her humble servant.  He who disobeys this law shall pay a fine according to his class, which shall be exacted by the treasurers of Here and Zeus.

The betrothal of the parties shall be made by the next of kin, or if there are none, by the guardians.  The offerings and ceremonies of marriage shall be determined by the interpreters of sacred rites.  Let the wedding party be moderate; five male and five female friends, and a like number of kinsmen, will be enough.  The expense should not exceed, for the first class, a mina; and for the second, half a mina; and should be in like proportion for the other classes.  Extravagance is to be regarded as vulgarity and ignorance of nuptial proprieties.  Much wine is only to be drunk at the festivals of Dionysus, and certainly not on the occasion of a marriage.  The bride and bridegroom, who are taking a great step in life, ought to have all their wits about them; they should be especially careful of the night on which God may give them increase, and which this will be none can say.  Their bodies and souls should be in the most temperate condition; they should abstain from all that partakes of the nature of disease or vice, which will otherwise become hereditary.  There is an original divinity in man which preserves all things, if used with proper respect.  He who marries should make one of the two houses on the lot the nest and nursery of his young; he should leave his father and mother, and then his affection for them will be only increased by absence.  He will go forth as to a colony, and will there rear up his offspring, handing on the torch of life to another generation.