The precise age at which an Athenian citizen might legally take upon him the burden of a family, is said, without proof, though not altogether without probability, to have been determined by Solon; for such matters were in those ages supposed to come within the legitimate scope of legislation.[22] They attributed to the season of youth a much greater duration than comports with our notions. It was, in fact, thought to extend to the age of thirty-five or thirty-seven, more or less: when entering upon the less flowery domain of manhood, men would need the aid and consolation of a helpmate. But if there ever existed such a law it was often broken,[23] for early marriages, though less common perhaps than in modern times, are constantly alluded to both by historians and poets. Apprehensions of the too great increase of population already led philosophers, even in those early ages, vainly to apply themselves to the discovery of checks, which the irresistible impulses of nature always render nugatory; and viewing in that light the regulation attributed to Solon,[24] they, with some variation, adopt it in their political works. Plato,[25] in accordance with Hesiod’s notion, fixes for the male, the marriageable age at thirty; but Aristotle, who chose on most points to differ from his master, allows his citizens seven years more of liberty. For women the proper age, he thought, is about eighteen. His reasons are, that the husband and wife will thus flourish and decay together; and, their offspring inheriting the bloom and highest vigour of their parents, be at once[26] healthy in body and energetic in mind. ----- Footnote 22: Censor. de Die Natal. 14. Footnote 23: Thus Mantitheos, in Demosthenes, marries at the age of eighteen, in obedience to his father’s wishes.—Contr. Bœot. ii. § 1. Footnote 24: Aristot. Polit. ii. 7. vii. 14. Gœttling.—Cf. Malthus on Population, i. 9, 10. Footnote 25: Repub. v. t. vi. p. 237. De Legg. vi. t. vii. p. 452. Hesiod, Opp. et Dies, 696. Gœttling. Footnote 26: Polit. vii. 16. Hist. Anim. vii. 5, 6. Cf. Tac. de Mor. Germ. 20. Just. Instit. t. x. Brisson. de Jur. Nupt. p. 99. -----