पृष्ठ 535 / 1391

But upon this platform of circumstances or within this wall of

necessity, we have still the power of creating a life for

ourselves by the informing energy of the human will.

There is another aspect of the marriage question to which Plato

is a stranger. All the children born in his state are foundlings.

It never occurred to him that the greater part of them, according

to universal experience, would have perished. For children can

only be brought up in families. There is a subtle sympathy

between the mother and the child which cannot be supplied by

other mothers, or by 'strong nurses one or more' (Laws). If

Plato's 'pen' was as fatal as the Creches of Paris, or the

foundling hospital of Dublin, more than nine-tenths of his

children would have perished. There would have been no need to

expose or put out of the way the weaklier children, for they

would have died of themselves. So emphatically does nature

protest against the destruction of the family.