as the right.  But the truth is that nature made all things to balance, and the power of using the left hand, which is of little importance in the case of the plectrum of the lyre, may make a great difference in the art of the warrior, who should be a skilled gymnast and able to fight and balance himself in any position.  If a man were a Briareus, he should use all his hundred hands at once; at any rate, let everybody employ the two which they have.  To these matters the magistrates, male and female, should attend; the women superintending the nursing and amusement of the children, and the men superintending their education, that all of them, boys and girls alike, may be sound, wind and limb, and not spoil the gifts of nature by bad habits.

Education has two branches—­gymnastic, which is concerned with the body; and music, which improves the soul.  And gymnastic has two parts, dancing and wrestling.  Of dancing one kind imitates musical recitation and aims at stateliness and freedom; another kind is concerned with the training of the body, and produces health, agility, and beauty.  There is no military use in the complex systems of wrestling which pass under the names of Antaeus and Cercyon, or in the tricks of boxing, which are attributed to Amycus and Epeius; but good wrestling and the habit of extricating the neck, hands, and sides, should be diligently learnt and taught.  In our dances imitations of war should be practised, as in the dances of the Curetes in Crete and of the Dioscuri at Sparta, or as in the dances in complete armour which were taught us Athenians by the goddess Athene.  Youths who are not yet of an age to go to war should make religious processions armed and on horseback; and they should also engage in military games and contests.  These exercises will be equally useful in peace and war, and will benefit both states and families.

Next follows music, to which we will once more return; and here I shall venture to repeat my old paradox, that amusements have great influence on laws.  He who has been taught to play at the same games and with the same playthings will be content with the same laws.  There is no greater evil in a state than the spirit of innovation.  In the case of the seasons and winds, in the management of our bodies and in the habits of our minds, change is a dangerous thing.  And in everything but what is bad the same rule holds.  We all venerate and acquiesce in the laws to which we are accustomed; and if they have continued during long periods of time, and there is no remembrance of their ever having been otherwise, people are absolutely afraid to change them.  Now how can we create this quality of immobility in the laws?  I say, by not allowing innovations in the games and plays of children.  The children who are always having new plays, when grown up will be always having new laws.  Changes in mere fashions are not serious evils, but changes in our estimate of men’s characters are most serious; and rhythms