They ought to be occupied with their letters until they are able to read and write; but the acquisition of perfect beauty or quickness in writing, if nature has not stimulated them to acquire these accomplishments in the given number of years, they should let alone.

And as to the learning of compositions committed to writing which are not set to the lyre, whether metrical or without rhythmical divisions, compositions in prose, as they are termed, having no rhythm or harmony--seeing how dangerous are the writings handed down to us by many writers of this class--what will you do with them, O most excellent guardians of the law?
or how can the lawgiver rightly direct you about them?
I believe that he will be in great difficulty.
CLEINIAS: What troubles you, Stranger?
and why are you so perplexed in your mind?
ATHENIAN: You naturally ask, Cleinias, and to you and Megillus, who are my partners in the work of legislation, I must state the more difficult as well as the easier parts of the task.
CLEINIAS: To what do you refer in this instance?
ATHENIAN: I will tell you.

There is a difficulty in opposing many myriads of mouths.
CLEINIAS: Well, and have we not already opposed the popular voice in many important enactments?
ATHENIAN: That is quite true; and you mean to imply that the road which we are taking may be disagreeable to some but is agreeable to as many others, or if not to as many, at any rate to persons not inferior to the others, and in company with them you bid me, at whatever risk, to proceed along the path of legislation which has opened out of our present discourse, and to be of good cheer, and not to faint.
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: And I do not faint; I say, indeed, that we have a great many poets writing in hexameter, trimeter, and all sorts of measures--some who are serious, others who aim only at raising a laugh--and all mankind declare that the youth who are rightly educated should be brought up in them and saturated with them; some insist that they should be constantly hearing them read aloud, and always learning them, so as to get by heart entire poets; while others select choice passages and long speeches, and make compendiums of them, saying that these ought to be committed to memory, if a man is to be made good and wise by experience and learning of many things.

And you want me now to tell them plainly in what they are right and in what they are wrong.
CLEINIAS: Yes, I do.
ATHENIAN: But how can I in one word rightly comprehend all of them?
I am of opinion, and, if I am not mistaken, there is a general agreement, that every one of these poets has said many things well and many things the reverse of well; and if this be true, then I do affirm that much learning is dangerous to youth.
CLEINIAS: How would you advise the guardian of the law to act?
ATHENIAN: In what respect?
CLEINIAS: I mean to what pattern should he look as his guide in permitting the young to learn some things and forbidding them to learn others.

Do not shrink from answering.
ATHENIAN: My good Cleinias, I rather think that I am fortunate.
CLEINIAS: How so?
ATHENIAN: I think that I am not wholly in want of a pattern, for when I consider the words which we have spoken from early dawn until now, and which, as I believe, have been inspired by Heaven, they appear to me to be quite like a poem.