man into Lycurgus's hands, who knew how to revenge himfet in a proper manner: For by the extraordinary kindnefs and gentleness with which he treated him, he made the violent and hot-headed young man in a little time become very moderate and wife. The tables confifted of about fifteen perfons each; where none could be admitted but with the confent of the whole company. Each perfon furnished every month a bufhel of flour, eight meafures of wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and a finall fum of money for preparing and cooking the victuals. Every one, without excep. tion of perfons, was obliged to be at the common meal: And a long time after the making of thefe regulations, king Agis, at his return from a glorious expedition, having taken the li berty to difpenfe with that law, in order to eat with the queen his wife, was reprimanded and punished. The very children eat at these publick tables, and were car. ried thither as to a school of wisdom and temperance. There they were fure to hear grave difcourfes upon government, and to fee nothing but what tended to their inftruction and improvement. The converfation was often enlivened with ingenious and fprightly raillery, but never intermixed with any thing vulgar or fhocking; and if their jefting feemed to make any perfon uneafy, they never proceeded any further. Here their children were likewife trained up and accustomed to great fecrecy: As foon as a young man came into the dining-room, the oldeft perfon of the company used to say to him, pointing to the door, Nothing spoken here, must ever go out there. (e) The most exquifite of all their catables was what they called their black broth; and the old men preferred it before all that was fet upon the table. Dionyfius the tyrant, when he was at one of thefe meals, was not of the fame opinion; and what was a ragoo to them, was to him very infipid. I do not wonder at it, faid the cook, for the feafoning is wanting. What feafoning replied the tyrant. Running, fweating, fatigue, hunger, and thirst; these are the ingredients, fays the cook, with which we feafon all our food. 4. OTHER ORDINANCES. (f) When I fpeak of the ordinances of Lycurgus, I de not mean written laws: He thought proper to leave very few of that kind, being perfuaded, that the most powerful and effectual means of rendering communities happy, and people virtuous, is by the good example, and the impreffion made on (•) Cie. Tufc. Quseft, lib. v, n. 98. (ƒ) Plut, vit. Lyc. p. 47. the the mind by the manners and practice of the citizens: For the principles thus implanted by education remain firm and immoveable, as they are rooted in the will, which is always a ftronger and more durable tie than the yoke of neceffity; and the youth, that have been thus nurtured and educated, become laws and legiflators to themfelves. These are the reasons why Lycurgus, instead of leaving his ordinances in writing, endeavoured to imprint and enforce them by practice and example. He looked upon the education of youth as the greatest and most important object of a legislator's care. His grand principle was, that children belonged more to the ftate, than to their parents; and therefore he would not have them brought up according to their humours and fancies, but would have the ftate entrusted with the general care of their education, in order to have them formed upon conftant and uniform principles, which might infpire them betimes with the love of their country, and of virtue. (g) As foon as a boy was born, the elders of each tribe vifited him; and if they found him well-made, ftrong and vigorous, they ordered him to be brought up, and affigned him. one of the nine thoufand portions of land for his inheritance; if, on the contrary, they found him to be deformed, tender and weakly, fo that they could not expect that he would ever have a strong and healthful conftitution, they condemned him to perish, and caufed the infant to be exposed. Children were accustomed betimes not to be nice or difficult in their eating; not to be afraid in the dark, or when they were left alone; not to give themselves up to peevishness and ill-humour, to crying and bawling; (b) to walk bare-foot, that they might be inured to fatigue; to lie hard at nights; to wear the fame cloaths winter and fummer, in order to harden them against cold and heat. (i) At the age of seven years they were put into the claffes, where they were brought up all together under the fame difcipline. Their education, properly fpeaking, was only an apprenticeship of obedience. The legislator having rightly confidered, that the fureft way to have citizens fubmiffive to the law and to the magiftrates (in which the good order and 04 happiness (g) Plut, vit. Lyc. p. 48. (b) Xen. de Lac. rep. p. 677. (i) Plat. in Lyc. p. 50. * I do not comprehend, bow they could | is not said in this case, as in the divifion affign to every one of these children one of the boly land, that the portions allotof the nine boufand portions, appropri- | ted to a family alsays continued in it, ated to the city, for bis inheritance. Was and could not be entirely alienated. "the number of citizens always the fame? Did it never exceed nine thousand? It | sime:Oslag. † Ωςε τὴν παιδείαν εἶναι μελέτην happiness of a ftate chiefly confifts) was to teach children early, and to accuftom them from their tender years to be perfectly obedient to their mafters and fuperiors. (4) While they were at table, it was ufual for the mafters to inftruct the boys by propofing them queftions. They would afk them, for example, Who is the honefteft man in the town? What do you think of fuch or fuch an action? The boys were obliged to give a quick and ready anfwer, which was alfo to be accompanied with a reafon and a proof, both couched in few words: For they were accustomed betimes to the Laconick ftyle, that is, to a clofe and concife way of fpeaking and writing. Lycurgus was for having the money bulky, heavy, ard of little value, and their language, on the contrary, very pithy and fhort; a great deal of fenfe comprized in few words. () As for literature, they only learned as much as was neceffary. All the fciences were banished out of their country: Their ftudy only tended to know how to obey, to bear hardfhip and fatigue, and to conquer in battle. The fuperintendant of their education was one of the moft honourable men of the city, and of the firft rank and condition, who appointed over every class of boys mafters of the most approved wisdom and probity. (m) There was one kind of theft only (and that too more a nominal than a real one) which the boys were allowed, and even ordered to practife. They were taught to flip, as cuningly and cleverly as they could, into the gardens and publick halls, in order to fteal away herbs or meat; and if they were caught in the fact, they were punished for their want of dexterity. We are told, that one of them, having ftolen a young fox, hid it under his robe, and fuffered the animal to gnaw into his belly, and tear out his very bowels, till he fell dead upon the spot, rather than be difcovered. This kind of theft, as I have faid, was but nominal, and not properly a robbery ; fince it was authorized by the law and the confent of the citizens. The intent of the legislator in allowing it, was to inSpire the Spartan youth, who were all defigned for war, with the greater boldness, fubtilty, and addrefs; to inure them betimes to the life of a foldier; to teach them to live upon a little, and to be able to shift for themfelves. But I have al ready given an account of this matter more at large in another treatise. (*) Plut. in Lyc. p. 51. Idem in infitut. Lacon. p. 237. (7) Ibid, p. 526 The (m) Ibid. Vit. p. 5o.* (z) The patience and conftancy of the Spartan youth most confpicuously appeared in a certain feftival, celebrated in honour of Diana, furnamed Orthia, where the children before the eyes of their parents, and in presence of the whole city, (o) fuffered themfelves to be whipped, till the blood ran down upon the altar of this cruel goddefs, where fometimes they expired under the ftrokes, and all this without uttering the leaft cry, or fo much as a groan, or a figh: And even their own fathers, when they faw them covered with blood and wounds and ready to expire, exhorted them to persevere to the end with conftancy and resolution. Plutarch affures he, that he had feen with his own eyes a great many children lofe their lives on thefe cruel occafions. Hence it is, that (p) Horace gives the epithet of patient to the city of Lacedæmon, Patiens Lacedæmon; and another author makes a man, who had received three ftrokes of a flick without complaining, fay, Tres plagas Spartanâ nobilitate concoxi. (9) The moft ufual occupation of the Lacedæmonians was hunting, and other bodily exercifes. They were forbid to exercife any mechanick art. The Helotæ, who were a fort of flaves, tilled their land for them, for which they paid them a certain revenue. (r) Lycurgus would have his citizens enjoy a great deal of leifure: They had large common-halls, where the people used to meet to converfe together: And though their difcourfes chiefly turned upon grave and ferious topicks, yet they feafoned them with a mixture of wit and facetious humour, both agreeable and inftructive. They paffed little of their time. alone, being accustomed to live like bees, always together, always about their chiefs and leaders. The love of their country and of the publick good was their predominate paffion : They did not imagine they belonged to themfelves, but to their country. Pedaretus, having miffed the honour of being chofen one of the three hundred who had a certain rank of diftinction in the city, went home extremely pleafed and fatisfied, faying, He was overjoyed there were three hundred men in Sparta more bonourable and worthy than himself. (s) At Sparta every thing tended to infpire the love of virtue, and the hatred of vice; the actions of the citizens, their converfations, publick monuments and inferiptions. It was hard for men, brought up in the midst of so many living precepts and examples, not to become virtuous, as far as heathens 0.5 were (0) Cic. Tufc. Quæft 1. ii. (9) Plut, in vit. Lyc, p. 54. (7) Ibid. happiness of a state chiefly confifts) was to teach children early, and to accuftom them from their tender years to be perfectly obedient to their mafters and fuperiors. (4) While they were at table, it was ufual for the mafters to inftruct the boys by propofing them queftions. They would afk them, for example, Who is the honefteft man in the town? What do you think of fuch or fuch an action? The boys were obliged to give a quick and ready anfwer, which was alfo to be accompanied with a reason and a proof, both couched in few words: For they were accustomed betimes to the Laconick ftyle, that is, to a clofe and concife way of fpeaking and writing. Lycurgus was for having the money bulky, heavy, and of little value, and their language, on the contrary, very pithy and fhort; a great deal of fenfe comprized in few words. () As for literature, they only learned as much as was neceffary. All the fciences were banished out of their country: Their ftudy only tended to know how to obey, to bear hardfhip and fatigue, and to conquer in battle. The fuperintendant of their education was one of the most honourable men of the city, and of the firft rank and condition, who appointed over every clafs of boys mafters of the most approved wifdom and probity. (m) There was one kind of theft only (and that too more a nominal than a real one) which the boys were allowed, and even ordered to practife. They were taught to flip, as cunLingly and cleverly as they could, into the gardens and publick halls, in order to steal away herbs or meat; and if they were caught in the fact, they were punished for their want of dexterity. We are told, that one of them, having ftolen a young fox, hid it under his robe, and fuffered the animal to gnaw into his belly, and tear out his very bowels, till he fell dead upon the spot, rather than be difcovered. This kind of theft, as I have faid, was but nominal, and not properly a robbery; fince it was authorized by the law and the confent of the citizens. The intent of the legislator in allowing it, was to inSpire the Spartan youth, who were all defigned for war, with the greater boldness, fubtilty, and addrefs; to inure them betimes to the life of a foldier; to teach them to live upon a little, and to be able to fhift for themfelves. But I have already given an account of this matter more at large in another treatise. (k) Plut. in Lyc. p. 51. Idem in inflitut. Lacon. p. 237. (7) Ibid. p. 52. The (m) Ibid. Vit. p. 50%* |