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[173]
But for our legislator, he very carefully joined these two methods
of instruction together; for he neither left these practical exercises
to go on without verbal instruction, nor did he permit the hearing of the
law to proceed without the exercises for practice; but beginning immediately
from the earliest infancy, and the appointment of every one's diet, he
left nothing of the very smallest consequence to be done at the pleasure
and disposal of the person himself. Accordingly, he made a fixed rule of
law what sorts of food they should abstain from, and what sorts they should
make use of; as also, what communion they should have with others what
great diligence they should use in their occupations, and what times of
rest should be interposed, that, by living under that law as under a father
and a master, we might be guilty of no sin, neither voluntary nor out of
ignorance; for he did not suffer the guilt of ignorance to go on without
punishment, but demonstrated the law to be the best and the most necessary
instruction of all others, permitting the people to leave off their other
employments, and to assemble together for the hearing of the law, and learning
it exactly, and this not once or twice, or oftener, but every week; which
thing all the other legislators seem to have neglected.
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