Compare the dialogue called [Greek: E)rôtiko/s], among the works of Plutarch, p. 750 seq., where some of the speakers, especially Protogenes, illustrate and enlarge upon this Platonic construction of Eros--[Greek: a)lêthinou= de\ E)/rôtos ou)d' o(tiou=n tê=| gunaikôni/tidi me/testin], &c. (750 C, 761 B, &c.) In the Treatise De Educatione Puerorum (c. 15, p. 11 D-F) Plutarch hesitates to give a decided opinion on the amount of restriction proper to be imposed on youth: he is much impressed with the authority of Sokrates, Plato, Xenophon, Æschines, Kebês, [Greek: kai\ to\n pa/nta cho/ron e)kei/nôn tô=n a)ndrô=n, oi( tou\s a)/r)r(enas e)doki/masan e)/rôtas], &c. See the anecdote about Episthenes, an officer among the Ten Thousand Greeks under Xenophon, in Xenophon, Anabasis, vii. 4, 7, and a remarkable passage about Zeno the Stoic, Diog. Laert. vii. 13. Respecting the general subject of [Greek: paiderasti/a] in Greece, there is a valuable Excursus in Bekker's Charikles, vol. i. pp. 347-377, Excurs. ii. I agree generally with his belief about the practice in Greece, see Cicero, Tusc. Disp. iv. 33, 70. Bekker quotes abundant authorities, which might be farther multiplied if necessary. In appreciating the evidence upon this point, we cannot be too careful to keep in mind what Sokrates says (in the Xenophontic Symposion, viii. 34) when comparing the Thebans and Eleians on one side with the Athenians and Spartans on the other--[Greek: E)kei/nois me\n ga\r tau=ta no/mima, ê(mi=n de\ e)ponei/dista.] We must interpret passages of the classical authors according to their fair and real meanings, not according to the conclusions which we might wish to find proved. If we read the oration of Demosthenes against Neæra (which is full of information about Athenian manners), we find the speaker Apollodôrus distributing the relations of men with women in the following manner (p. 1386)--[Greek: to\ ga\r sunoikei=n tou=t' e)sti/n, o(\s a)\n paidopoiê=tai kai\ ei)sa/gê| ei)/s te tou\s dêmo/tas kai\ tou\s phra/toras tou\s ui(ei=s, kai\ ta\s thugate/ras e)kdidô=| ô(s au)tou= ou)/sas toi=s a)ndra/si. Ta\s me\n ga\r e(tai/ras, ê(donê=s e(/neka e)/chomen--ta\s de\ pallaka/s, tê=s kath' ê(me/ran therapei/as tou= sô/matos--ta\s de\ gunai=kas, tou= paidopoiei=sthai gnêsi/ôs, kai\ tô=n e(/ndon phu/laka pi/stên e)/chein.] To the same purpose, the speaker in Lysias ([Greek: U(pe\r tou= E)ratosthe/nous pho/nou]--sect. 7), describing his wife, says--[Greek: e)n me\n ou)=n tô=| prô/tô| chro/nô| pasô=n ê)=n belti/stê; kai\ ga\r oi)kono/mos deinê\ kai\ pheidôlo\s a)gathê\ kai\ a)kribô=s pa/nta dioikou=sa.]