Now in Sparta and Crete there are common meals for men, and this, as I was saying, is a divine and natural institution.

But the women are left to themselves; they live in dark places, and, being weaker, and therefore wickeder, than men, they are at the bottom of a good deal more than half the evil of states.

This must be corrected, and the institution of common meals extended to both sexes.

But, in the present unfortunate state of opinion, who would dare to establish them?
And still more, who can compel women to eat and drink in public?
They will defy the legislator to drag them out of their holes.

And in any other state such a proposal would be drowned in clamour, but in our own I think that I can show the attempt to be just and reasonable.