And in choosing young men to be their companions,
they mean to be faithful to them, and pass their whole life in company with
them, not to take them in their inexperience, and deceive them, and play
the fool with them, or run away from one to another of them. But the love
of young boys should be forbidden by law, because their future is
uncertain; they may turn out good or bad, either in body or soul, and much
noble enthusiasm may be thrown away upon them; in this matter the good are
a law to themselves, and the coarser sort of lovers ought to be restrained
by force; as we restrain or attempt to restrain them from fixing their
affections on women of free birth. These are the persons who bring a
reproach on love; and some have been led to deny the lawfulness of such
attachments because they see the impropriety and evil of them; for surely
nothing that is decorously and lawfully done can justly be censured. Now
here and in Lacedaemon the rules about love are perplexing, but in most
cities they are simple and easily intelligible; in Elis and Boeotia, and in
countries having no gifts of eloquence, they are very straightforward; the
law is simply in favour of these connexions, and no one, whether young or
old, has anything to say to their discredit; the reason being, as I
suppose, that they are men of few words in those parts, and therefore the
lovers do not like the trouble of pleading their suit.
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