POLITICS OF ARISTOTLE

288 ARZSTOTLE'S POLZTZCS.

for cohabitation in either would nearly coincide, i.e. 35 and j2

years.

The relative ages to us appear singular. Malthus, On Population

vol. i. p. 237, remarks that this regulation 'must of course

condemn a great number of women to celibacy, as there never call

be so many men of thirty-seven as there are aomen of eighteen.'

But the real and great disparity is between the total number of

women after eighteen and the total number of men after thirtp

five.

He

assigns twenry to forty as the marriageable age for Romen: for

men, from the time (when they have passed the greatest speed of

life ' (twenty-five?) to fifty-five. In the Laws (iv. 721) the citizens

are required to marry between the ages of thirty and thirty-five;

but in another passage (772 D, E) between twenty-five and thirty-

five.

In the History of Animals (Aristotle?) the age proper for

marriage in men is limited to sixty, or at the utmost seventy; in

nomen to forty, or at the utmost fifty.

There is therefore no reason for doubting the reading.

Plato in the Republic (v. 460) makes the interval less.

16. 
    
    
    
    10. :TI 61 6 8kU6OXI) TGV T;KVwV 70;s paw CiPXOpi~S bak TjS &pi?, ;dV
        YiyTTal KaTA hdyOV f;&S 4 Y;VfULS, 10;s 6; $87 KaTUhfhlJp;UqS Tis GhkKkP
        apls TAU T& i@op+ovra ir;v dp&h.
        According to this way of reckoning Aristotle seems to consider
        the prime of life to be thirty-five. The father having begun io
        keep house at thirty-five years of age would at seventy give up to
        the son, who might be expected to begin family life over again at
        thirty-five.
        In speaking of the succession of children to their parents
        Aristotle takes account only of the fathers.
    
    
    
    


17. IO. Tois 61 acpi njv Gpav ~pdvors, is oi nohhoi XptmaL rah&s rai v&, @Pimu-
    7cs ppchs T$V uuvauXiav soiriuffat raljtqu.
    The
    better XISS. read 6ci Xpiu'Bat after ~pdvors, but this is unnecessarrt
    and the repetition of XpSvrar after Xpeuffac is unpleasant.

Sc. 6s; oCos aotriv, taking 6ci from the previous sentence.

ouvod;av, cohabitation ' probably from aihi not from athds.