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[14]
The best thing is then that there should be a proper system of public regulation; but
when the matter is neglected by the community, it would seem to be the duty of the
individual to assist his own children and friends to attain virtue, or even if not able to
do so successfully,1 at all events to make
this his aim. But it would seem to follow from what has been said before, that he will be
more likely to be successful in this if he has acquired the science of legislation. Public
regulations in any case must clearly be established by law, and only good laws will
produce good regulations; but it would not seem to make any difference whether these laws are
written or unwritten, or whether they are to regulate the education of a single person or
of a number of people, any more than in the case of music or athletics or any other form
of training. Paternal exhortations and family habits have authority in the household, just
as legal enactments and national customs have authority in the state, and the more so on
account of the ties of relationship and of benefits conferred that unite the head of the
household to its other members: he can count on their natural affection and obedience at
the outset.
1 This clause, literally ‘and to be able to do it,’ Bywater would place here; it comes in the mss. after ‘public regulation’ above.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 19, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1934.
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