Lecture XIIIB
What is the Chief End of Marriage? [1]
1Therefore those who contemplate marriage ought to have regard neither for family, whether either one be of high-born parents, nor for wealth, whether on either side there be great possessions, nor for physical traits, whether one or the other have beauty. F2or neither wealth nor beauty nor high birth is effective in promoting partnership of interest or sympathy, nor again are they significant for producing children. 3But as for the body it is enough for marriage that it be healthy, of normal appearance, and capable of hard work, such as would be less exposed to the snares of tempters, better adapted to perform physical labor, and not wanting in strength to beget or to bear children. 4With respect to character or soul one should expect that it be habituated to self-control and justice, and in a word, naturally disposed to virtue. 5<These qualities should be present in both man and wife.>[2] For without sympathy of mind and character between husband and wife, what marriage can be good, what partnership advantageous? 6How could two human beings who are base have sympathy of spirit one with the other? 7Or how could one that is good be in harmony with one that is bad? 8No more than a crooked piece of wood could be fitted to a straight one, or two crooked ones be put together. 9For the crooked one will not fit another crooked one, and much less the opposite, a crooked with a straight one.[3] 10So a wicked man is not friendly to a wicked one, nor does he agree with him, and much less with a good man.
1 Undoubtedly this is a part of the same large discourse from which XIIIA was taken.
2 A connecting sentence seems to have dropped out of the Greek text at this point.
3 Cf. Plato Lysis 214D.