that they divided the kingdoms of Mycena, Argos, and Lacedæmon, among themselves. So great a revolution as this changed almost the whole face of the country, and made way for several very famous transmigrations. To understand these the better, and to have the clearer idea of the situation of many of the Grecian nations, as also of the four dialects, or different idioms of speech, that prevailed among them, it will be necessary to look a little farther back into history. Deucalion, who reigned in Thessaly, and under whom happened the flood that bears his name, had by Pyrrha his wife two sons, Hellen and Amphictyon. The latter, having driven Cranaus out of Athens, reigned there in his place. Hellen, if we may believe the historians of his country, gave the name of Hellenes to the Greeks: he had three sons, Æolus, Dorus, and Xuthus. Eolus, who was the eldest, succeeded his father, and besides Thessaly, had Locris and Boeotia added to his dominions. Several of his descendants went into Peloponnesus with Pelops, the son of Tantalus, king of Phrygia, from whom Peloponnesus took its name, and settled themselves in Laconia. The country contiguous to Parnassus fell to the share of Dorus, and from him was called Doris. Xuthus, compelled by his brothers, upon some private quarrel, to quit his country, retired into Attica, where he married the daughter of Erechtheus, king of the Athenians, by whom he had two sons, Achæus and Ion. An involuntary murder committed by Achæus, obliged him to retire to Peloponnesus, which was then called Egialæa, of which one part was from him called Achaia. His descendants settled at Lacedæmon. Ion, having signalized himself by his victories, was invited by the Athenians to govern their city, and gave his name to the country; for the inhabitants of Attica were likewise called Ionians. The number of the citizens increased to such a degree, that the Athenians were obliged to send a colony of Ionians into Peloponnesus, who likewise gave their name to the country they possessed. Thus all the inhabitants of Peloponnesus, though composed of different people, were united under the names of Achæans and Ionians. The Heraclidæ, fourscore years after the taking of Troy, resolved seriously to recover Peloponnesus, which, they imagined, of right belonged to them. They had three principal leaders, sons of Aristomachus, namely, Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus; the last dying, his two sons, Eurysthenes and Procles, succeeded him. The success of their expedition was as happy as their motive was just, and they recovered the possession of their ancient domain. Argos fell to Temenus, Messenia to Chresphontes, and Laconia to the two sons of Aristodemus. Such of the Achæans as were descended from Æolus, and had hitherto inhabited Laconia, being driven from thence by the Dorians, who accompanied the Heraclide into Peloponnesus, after some wandering, settled in that part of Asia Minor which from them took the name of Eolus, where they founded Smyrna, and eleven other cities; but the city of Smyrna came afterwards into the hands of the Ionians. The Eolians became likewise possessed of several cities of Lesbos. As for the Achæans of Mycena and Argos, being compelled to abandon their country to the Heraclidæ, they seized upon that of the Ionians, who dwelt at that time in a part of Peloponnesus. The latter fled at first to Athens, their original country, from whence they some time afterwards departed under the conduct of Nileus and Androcles, both sons of Codrus, and seized upon that part of the coast of Asia Minor which lies between Caria and Lydia, and from them was named Ionia; here they built cwelve cities, Ephesus, Clazomenæ, Samos, &c. 4 Strab. 1. viii. p. 383, &c. Pausan. 1. vii. p. 396, &c. The power of the Athenians, who had then Codrus for their king, being very much augmented by the great number of refugees that had fled into their country, the Heraclidae thought proper to oppose the progress of their power, and for that reason made war upon them. The latter were worsted in a battle, but still remained masters of Megaris, where they built Megara, and settled the Dorians in that country in the room of the Ionians. One part of the Dorians continued in the country after the death of Codrus, another went to Crete; the greatest number settled in that part of Asia Minor which from them was called Doris, where they built Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and other cities, and made themselves masters of the island of Rhodes, Cos, &c. The Grecian Dialects. It will now be more easy to understand what we have to say concerning the several Grecian dialects. These were four in number: the Attic, the Ionic, the Doric, and the Eolic. They were in reality four dif ferent languages, each of them perfect in its kind, and used by a distinct nation; but yet all derived from, and grounded upon, the same original tongue. And this diversity of languages can no ways appear wonderful in a country where the inhabitants consisted of different nations, that did not depend upon one another, but had each its particular territories. 1. The Attic dialect is that which was used in Athens, and the country round about. This dialect has been chiefly used by Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Isocrates, Xenophon, and Demosthenes. 2. The Ionic dialect was almost the same with the ancient Attic; but after it had passed into several towns of Asia Minor, and into the adjacent islands, which were colonies of the Athenians, and of the people of Achaia, it received a sort of new tincture, and did not come up to that perfect delicacy which the Athenians afterwards attained. Hippocrates and Herodotus wrote in this dialect. 3. The Doric was first in use among the Spartans, and the people of Argos; it passed afterwards into Epirus, Libya, Sicily, Rhodes, and Crete. Archimedes and Theocritus, both of them Syracusans, and Pindar, followed this dialect. 4. The Eolic dialect was at first used by the Bootians and their neighbours, and then in Eolis, a country in Asia Minor, between Ionia and Mysia, which contained ten or twelve cities, that were Grecian colonies. Sappho and Alcæus, of whose works very little remains, wrote in this dialect. We find also a mixture of it in the writings of Theocritus, Pindar, Homer, and many others. ARTICLE VI: THE REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT ALMOST GENERALLY ESTABLISHED THROUGHOUT GREECE. The reader may have observed, in the little I have said about the several settlements of Greece, that the primordial grounds of all those different states was monarchical government, the most ancient of all forms, the most universally received and established, the most proper to maintain peace and concord; and which, as Plato observes, is formed upon the model of paternal authority, and of that gentle and moderate dominion, which fathers exercise over their families. But as the state of things degenerated by degrees, through the injustice of usurpers, the severity of law. ful masters, the insurrections of the people, and a thousand accidents and revolutions, that happened in those states; a totally different spirit seized the people, which prevailed all over Greece, kindled a violent desire of liberty, and brought about a general change of government every where, except in Macedonia; so that monarchy gave way to a republican government, 2 Strab. P. 393. • Ibid. p. 653. Plat. de Leg. 1. iii. p. 680. which however was diversified into almost as many him; and in fact he was king for some days. But, various forms as there were different cities, according as soon as his sister-in-law was found to be with to the different genius and peculiar character of each child, he declared that the crown belonged to her son, people. However, there still remained a kind of tinc-if she had one; and from thenceforth he governed the ture or leaven of the ancient monarchical government, kingdom only as his guardian. In the mean time, the which from time to time inflamed the ambition of widow gave him secretly to understand, that if he many private citizens, and made them desire to become would promise to marry her when he was king, she masters of their country. In almost every one of these would destroy the fruit of her womb. So detestable a petty states of Greece, some private persons arose, proposal struck Lycurgus with horror; however, he who without any right to the throne, either by birth concealed his indignation, and amusing the woman or election of the citizens, endeavoured to advance with different pretences, so managed it, that she went themselves to it by cabal, treachery, and violence; her full time, and was delivered. As soon as the and who, without any respect for the laws, or regard child was born, he proclaimed him king, and took to the public good, exercised a sovereign authority, care to have him brought up and educated in a proper with a despotic empire and arbitrary sway. In order manner. This prince, on account of the joy which the to support their unjust usurpations in the midst of people testified at his birth, was named Charilaus. distrusts and alarms, they thought themselves obliged to prevent imaginary, or to suppress real conspiracies, by the most cruel proscriptions; and to sacrifice to their own security all those whom merit, rank, wealth, zeal for liberty, or love of their country, rendered obnoxious to a suspicious and tottering government, which found itself hated by all, and was sensible it deserved to be so. It was this cruel and inhuman treatment that rendered these men so odious, under the appellation of Tyrants, and which furnished such ample matter for the declamation of orators, and the tragical representations of the theatre. The state was at this time in great disorder; the authority, both of the kings and the laws, being absolutely despised and disregarded. No curb was strong enough to restrain the audaciousness of the people, which every day increased more and more. Lycurgus formed the bold design of making a thorough reformation in the Spartan government; and to be the more capable of making wise regulations, he thought fit to travel into several countries, in order to acquaint himself with the different manners of other nations, and to consult the most able and experienced persons in the art of government. He began with the island of Crete, whose harsh and austere laws are very famous; from thence he passed into Asia, where quite different customs prevailed; and, last of all, he went into Egypt, which was then the seat of science, wisdom, and good counsels. All these cities and districts of Greece, that seemed so entirely disjointed from one another by their laws, customs, and interests, were nevertheless formed and combined into one sole, entire, and united body; whose strength increased to such a degree, as to make the formidable power of the Persians under Darius and His long absence only made his country the more Xerxes tremble; and which even then, perhaps, would desirous of his return; and the kings themselves have entirely overthrown the Persian greatness, had importuned him to that purpose, being sensible how the Grecian states been wise enough to preserve that much they stood in need of his authority to keep the union and concord among themselves, which after-people within bounds, and in some degree of subjecwards rendered them invincible. This is the scene which I am now to open, and which certainly merits the reader's whole attention. We shall see, in the following books, a small nation, confined within a country not equal to the fourth part of France, disputing for dominion with the most powerful empire then upon the earth; and we shall see this handful of men, not only making head against the innumerable army of the Persians, but dispersing, routing, and cutting them to pieces, and sometimes reducing the Persian pride so low, as to make them submit to conditions of peace, as shameful to the conquered, as glorious for the conquerors. Among the cities of Greece, there were two that particularly distinguished themselves, and acquired an authority and a kind of superiority over the rest, solely by their merit and conduct: these two were Lacedæmon and Athens.-As these cities make a considerable figure, and act an illustrious part in the ensuing history, before I enter upon particulars, I think I ought first to give the reader some idea of the genius, character, manners, and government, of their respective inhabitants. Plutarch, in the lives of Lycurgus and Solon, will furnish me with the greatest part of what I have to say upon this head. ARTICLE VII. THE SPARTAN GOVERNMENT. LAWS ESTABLISHED BY LYCURGUS. There is perhaps nothing in profane history better attested, and at the same time more incredible, than what relates to the government of Sparta, and the discipline established in it by Lycurgus. This legislator was the son of Eunomus, one of the two kings who reigned together in Sparta. It would have been easy for Lycurgus to have ascended the throne after the death of his eldest brother, who left no son behind This word originally signified no more than king, and was anciently the title of lawful princes. Plut. in vit. Lyc. p. 40. tion and order. When he came back to Sparta, he undertook to change the whole form of their government, being persuaded, that a few particular laws would produce no great effect. But before he put this design in execution, he went to Delphi, to consult the oracle of Apollo: where after having offered his sacrifice, he received that famous answer, in which the priestess called him a friend of the gods, and rather a god than a man. And as for the favour he desired of being able to frame a set of good laws for his country, she told him, the god had heard his prayers, and that the commonwealth he was going to establish would be the most excellent state in the world. On his return to Sparta, the first thing he did was to bring over to his designs the leading men of the city, whom he made acquainted with his views; and when he was assured of their approbation and concurrence, he went into the public market-place, accompanied with a number of armed men, in order to astonish and intimidate those who might desire to oppose his undertaking. The new form of government which he introduced into Sparta, may be reduced to three principal institu tions. FIRST INSTITUTION. The Senate. Of all the new regulations or institutions made by Lycurgus, the greatest and most considerable was that of the senate; which, by tempering and balancing, as Plato observes, the too absolute power of the kings, by an authority of equal weight and influence with theirs, became the principal support and preservation of that state. For whereas before, it was ever unsteady, and tending one while towards tyranny, by the violent proceeding of the kings; at other times towards democracy, by the excessive power of the people; the senate served as a kind of counterpoise to both, which kept the state in a due equilibrium, and | avarice. For first he cried down al gold and silver preserved it in a firm and steady situation; the twenty-eight senators, of which it consisted, siding with the kings, when the people were grasping at too much power; and on the other hand espousing the interests of the people, whenever the kings attempted to carry their authority too far. Lycurgus having thus tempered the government, those that came after him thought the power of the thirty, that composed the senate, still too strong and absolute; and therefore, as a check upon them, they devised the authority of the Ephori, about 130 years after Lycurgus. The Ephori were five in number, and remained but one year in office. They were all chosen out of the people; and in that respect considerably resembled the tribunes of the people among the Romans. Their authority extended to the arresting and imprisoning the persons of their kings, as it happened in the case of Pausanias. The institution of the Ephori began in the reign of Theopompus, whose wife reproaching him, that he would leave to his children the regal authority in a worse condition than he had received it on the contrary, said he, I shall leave it to them in a much better condition, as it will be more permanent and lasting. The Spartan government then was not purely monarchical. The nobility had a great share in it, and the people were not excluded. Each part of this body politic, in proportion as it contributed to the public good, found in it their advantage; so that in spite of the natural restlessness and inconstancy of man's heart, which is always thirsting after novelty and change, and is never cured of its disgust to uniformity, Lacedæmon persevered for many ages in the exact observance of her laws. SECOND INSTITUTION. The Division of the Lands, and the Prohibition of Gold and Silver Money. The second and the boldest institution of Lycurgus,' was the division of the lands, which he looked upon as absolutely necessary for establishing peace and good order in the commonwealth. The greater part of the people were so poor, that they had not one inch of land of their own, whilst a small number of individuals were possessed of all the lands and wealth of the country; in order therefore to banish insolence, envy, fraud, luxury, and two other distempers of the state, still greater and more ancient than those, I mean extreme poverty and excessive wealth, he persuaded the citizens to give up all their lands to the commonwealth, and to make a new division of them, that they might all live together in a perfect equality, and that no pre-eminence or honours should be given but to virtue and merit alone. This scheme, extraordinary as it was, was immediately executed. Lycurgus divided the lands of Laconia into 30,000 parts, which he distributed among the inhabitants of the country; and the territories of Sparta into 9000 parts, which he distributed among an equal number of citizens. It is said, that some years after, as Lycurgus was returning from a long journey, and passing through the lands of Laconia in the time of harvest, and observing, as he went along, the perfect equality of the sheaves of reaped corn, he turned towards those that were with him, and said smiling, Does not Laconia look like the possession of several brothers, who have just been dividing their inheritance amongst them? After having divided their immoveables, he undertook likewise to make the same equal division of all their moveable goods and chattels, that he might utterly banish from among them all manner of inequality. But perceiving that this would meet with more opposition if he went openly about it, he endeavoured to effect it by sapping the very foundations of This council consisted of thirty persons, including the two kings. 2 The word signifies comptroller or inspector. money, and ordained that no other should be current than that of iron, which he made so very heavy, and fixed at so low a rate, that a cart and two oxen were necessary to carry home a sum of ten minæ, and a whole chamber to keep it in. The next thing he did was to banish all useless and superfluous arts from Sparta. But if he had not done this, most of them would have sunk of themselves and disappeared with the gold and silver money; because the tradesmen and artificers would have found no vent for their commodities; and this iron money had no currency among any other of the Grecian states, who were so far from esteeming it, that it became the subject of their banter and ridicule. THIRD INSTITUTION. The Public Meals. LYCURGUS, being desirous to make war still more vigorously upon effeminacy and luxury, and utterly te extirpate the love of riches, made a third regulation, which was that of public meals. That he might entirely suppress all the magnificence and extravagance of expensive tables," he ordained, that all the citizens should eat together of the same common victuals, which were prescribed by law, and expressly forbade all private eating at their own houses. By this institution of public and common meals, and this frugality and simplicity in eating, it may be said, that he made riches in some measure change their very nature, by putting them out of a condition of being desired or stolen, or of enriching their possessors; for there was no way left for a man to use or enjoy his opulence, or even to make any show of it; since the poor and the rich ate together in the same place, and none were allowed to appear at the public eating-rooms, after having taken care to fill themselves with other diet; because every body present took particular notice of any one that did not eat or drink, and the whole company were sure to reproach him with the delicacy and intemperance that made him despise the common food and public table. The rich were extremely enraged at this regulation; and it was upon this occasion, that in a tumult of the people, a young man, named Álcander, struck out one of Lycurgus's eyes. The people, provoked at such an outrage, delivered the young man into Lycurgus's hands, who knew how to revenge himself in a proper manner; for, by the extraordinary kindness and gentleness with which he treated him, he made the violent and hot-headed youth in a little time become very moderate and wise. The tables consisted of about fifteen persons each; where none could be admitted without the consent of the whole company. Each person furnished every month a bushel of flour, eight measures of wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and a small sum of money for preparing and cooking the victuals. Every one, without exception of persons, was obliged to be at the common meal; and a long time after the making of these regulations, king Agis, at his return from a glorious expedition, having taken the liberty to dispense with that law, in order to eat with the queen his wife, was reprimanded and punished. The very children were present at these public tables, and were carried thither as to a school of wisdom and temperance. There they were sure to hear grave discourses upon government, and to see nothing but what tended to their instruction and improvement. The conversation was often enlivened with ingenious and sprightly raillery; but never intermixed with any thing vulgar or disgusting; and if their jesting seemed to make any person uneasy, they never proceeded any farther. Here their children were likewise trained up and accustomed to great secrecy: as soon as a young Five hundred livres French, about 201. English. 6 Plut. in vit. Lyc. p. 45. Τὸν πλοῦτον ἔσυλον, μᾶλλον δὲ ἄζηλον, καὶ ἄπλουτον ἀπειργάσατο. Plut. man came into the dining-room, the oldest person of the company used to say to him, pointing to the door, Nothing spoken here, must ever go out there. The most exquisite of all their dishes was what they called their black broth;1 and the old men preferred it to every thing that was set upon the table. Dionysius the tyrant, when he was at one of these meals, was not of the same opinion; and what was a ragout to them, was to him very insipid :-I do not wonder at it, said the cook, for the seasoning is wanting. What seasoning? replied the tyrant.-Running, sweating, fatigue, hunger, and thirst; these are the ingredients, says the cook, with which we season all our food. OTHER ORDINANCES. I When I speak of the ordinances of Lycurgus, do not mean written laws; he thought proper to leave very few of that kind, being persuaded, that the most powerful and effectual means of rendering communiues happy, and people virtuous, is by the good example, and the impression made on 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 stronger and more durable tie than the yoke of necessity; and the youth that have been thus nurtured and educated, become laws and legislators to themselves. These are the reasons why Lycurgus, instead of leaving his ordinances in writing, endeavoured to imprint and enforce them by practice and example. 8 While they are at table, it was usual for the masters to instruct the boys by proposing hem questions. They would ask them, for example, Who is the most worthy man in the town? What do you think of such or such an action? The boys were obliged to give a quick or ready answer, which was also to be accompa nied with a reason and a proof, both couched in few words: for they were accustomed betimes to the laconic style, that is, to a close and concise way of speaking and writing. Lycurgus was for having the money bulky, heavy, and of little value, and their language, on the contrary, very pithy and short; and a great deal of sense comprised in few words, As for literature, they only learned as much as was necessary. All the sciences were banished out of their country; their study tended only to know how to obey, to bear hardship and fatigue, and to conquer in battle. The superintendant of their education was one of the most honourable men of the city, and of the first rank and condition, who appointed over every class of boys masters of the most approved wisdom and probity. There was one kind of theft only (and that too more a nominal than a real one) which the boys were allowed,1° and even ordered to practise. They were taught to slip, as cunningly and cleverly as they could, into the gardens and public 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 stolen a young He looked upon the education of youth as the great-fox, hid it under his robe, and suffered, without utterest and most important object of a legislator's care. ing a complaint, the animal to gnaw into his belly, His grand principle was, that children belonged more and tear out his very bowels, till he fell dead upon to the state than to their parents; and therefore he the spot. This kind of theft, as I have said, was but would not have them brought up according to their nominal, and not properly a robbery; since it was auhumours and caprice, but would have the state intrust-thorized by the law and the consent of the citizens. ed with the care of their education, in order to have The intent of the legislator in allowing it, was to inthem formed upon fixed and uniform principles which spire the Spartan youth, who were all designed might inspire them betimes with the love of their for war, with greater boldness, subtilty, and address; country and of virtue. to inure them betimes to the life of a soldier; to teach them to live upon a little, and to be able to shift for themselves. But I have already treated this matter more at large elsewhere.11 As soon as a boy was born, the elders of each tribe visited him; and if they found him well made, strong, and vigorous, they ordered him to be brought up, and assigned him one of the 9000 portions of land for his inheritance; if, on the contrary, they found him to be deformed, tender, and weakly, so that they could not expect that he would ever have a strong and healthful constitution, they condemned him to perish, and caused the infant to be exposed. Children were early accustomed 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; to walk barefoot, that they might be inured to fatigue; to lie hard at nights; to wear the same clothes winter and summer, in order to harden them against cold and heat. 6 At the age of seven years they were put into the classes, where they were brought up altogether under the same discipline. Their education, properly speaking, was only an apprenticeship of obedience: the legislator having rightly considered, that the surest way to have citizens submissive to the law and to the magistrates, in which the good order and happiness of a state chiefly consists, was to teach children early, and to accustom them from their tender years, to be perfectly obedient to their masters and superiors. 1 Cic. Tusc. Quæst. lib. v. n. 98. 2 Plut. vit. Lyc. p. 47. Ibid. p. 49. I do not comprehend how they could assign to every one of these children one of the 9000 portions, appropriated to the city, for his inheritance. Was the number of citizens always the same? Did it never exceed 9000? It is not said in this case, as in the division of the holy land, that the portions allotted to a family always continued in it and could not be entirely alienated. Xen. de Lac. rep. p. 677. Plut. in Lyc. p. 50. 7 "Ωστε τὴν παιδείαν εἶναι μελέτην εὐπειθείας· The patience and constancy of the Spartan youth most conspicuously appeared in a certain festival,11 celebrated in honour of Diana, surnamed Orthia, where the children before the eyes of their parents, and in presence of the whole city," suffered themselves to be whipped till the blood ran down upon the altar of this cruel goddess, where sometimes they expired under the strokes, and all this without uttering the least cry, or so much as a groan or a sigh; and even their own fathers, when they saw them covered with blood and ready to expire, exhorted them to persevere to the end with constancy and resolution. Plutarch assures us, that he had seen with his own eyes a great many children lose there lives at the celebration of these cruel rites. Hence it is that Horace gives the epithet of patient to the city of Lacedæmon, Patiens Lacedæmon; and another author makes a man who had received three strokes of a stick without complaining, say, Tres plagas Spartana nobilitate concoxi. The most usual occupation of the Lacedæmons was hunting, and other bodily exercises. They were forbidden to exercise any mechanic art. The Elota, who were a sort of slaves, tilled their land for them, and paid them a certain proportion of the produce. Lycurgus was willing that his citizens should enjoy a great deal of leisure; 16 they had large common-halls, where the people used to meet to converse together, and though their discourses chiefly turned upon grave and Plut. in Lyc, 51. Ibid. p. 52. 8 p. 10 Plut. vit. Lyc. p. 50. Idem in institut. Lacon. p. 237. 14 Ode vii. lib. 1. 10 Ibid. serious topics, yet they seasoned them with a mixture | diversions; but it was reckoned scandalous to nake of wit and facetious humour, both agreeable and in- any alliances with them by marriage; and a thousand structive. They passed little of their time alone, affronts and insults were publicly offered them with being accustomed to live like bees, always together, impunity. always about their chiefs and leaders. The love of their country and of the public good was their pre-ploring the help of the gods by public sacrifices and dominant passion: they did not imagine they belonged to themselves, but to their country. Pædaretus, having missed the honour of being chosen one of the 300 who had a certain rank of distinction in the city, went home extremely pleased and satisfied, saying, He was overjoyed there were 300 men in Sparta more worthy than himself. The Spartans never went to fight without first imprayers; and when that was done they marched against the enemy with a perfect confidence and expectation of success, as being assured of the divine protection; and, to make use of Plutarch's expressions, As if God were present with, and fought for them, s rov Oεov ovμrapóvтos When they had broken and routed the enemy's forces," they never pursued them farther than was necessary to make themselves sure of the victory; after which they retired, as thinking it neither glorious, nor worthy of Greece, to cut in pieces and destroy an enemy that yielded and fled. And this proved as useful as it was honourable to the Spartans; for their enemies, knowing all who resisted them were put to the sword, and that they spared none but those that fled, generally chose rather to fly than to resist. When the first institutions of Lycurgus were re government he had established seemed strong and vigorous enough to support itself; as Plato says of God, that after he had finished the creation of the world, he rejoiced, when he saw it revolve and perform its first motions with so much justness and harmony; so the Spartan legislator, pleased with the greatness and beauty of its laws, felt his joy and satisfaction redouble, when he saw them, as it were, walk alone, and go forward so happily. At Sparta every thing tended to inspire the love of virtue and the hatred of vice; the actions of the citizens, their conversations, and even their public nonuments and inscriptions. It was hard for men, brought up in the midst of so many living precepts and example, not to become virtuous, as far as heathens were capable of virtue. It was to preserve these happy dispositions, that Lycurgus did not allow all sorts of persons to travel, lest they should bring home foreign manners, and return infected with the licentious customs of other countries, which would neces-ceived and confirmed by practice, and the form of sarily create in a little time an aversion for the mode of life and maxims of Lacedæmon. Neither would he suffer any strangers to remain in the city, who did not come thither to some useful or profitable end, but out of mere curiosity: being afraid they should bring along with them the defects and vices of their own countries; and being persuaded, at the same time, that it was more important and necessary to shut the gates of a city against depraved and corrupt manners, than against infectious distempers. Properly speaking, the very trade and business of the Lacedæmonians was war; every thing with them tended that way: arms were their only exercise and employment; their life was much less hard and austere in the camp than in the city; and they were the only people in the world, to whom the time of war was a time of ease and refreshment; because then the reins of that strict and severe discipline which prevailed at Sparta, were somewhat relaxed, and the men were indulged in a little more liberty. With them the first and most inviolable law of war, as Demaratus told Xerxes, was, never to fly, or turn their backs, whatever superiority of numbers the enemy's army might consist of; never to quit their posts: never to deliver up their arms; in a word, either to conquer or to die. This maxim was so important and essential in their opinion, that when the poet Archilochus came to Sparta, they obliged him to leave their city immediately because they understood, that, in one of his poems he had said, It was better for a man to throw down his arms, than to expose himself to be killed. 2 Hence it is, that a mother recommended to her son, who was going to make a campaign, that he should return either with or upon his shield; and that another, hearing that her son was killed in fighting for his country, answered very coldly, I brought him into the world for no other end." This temper of mind was general among the Lacedæmonians. After the famous battle of Leuctra, which was so fatal to the Spartans, the parents of those that died in the action, congratulated one another upon it, and went to the temples to thank the gods that their children had done their duty; whereas the relations of those who survived the defeat, were inconsolable. If any of the Spartans fled in battle they were dishonoured and disgraced for ever. They were not only excluded from all posts and employments in the state, from all assemblies and public But desiring, as far as depended on human prudence, to render them immortal and unchangeable, he signified to the people, that there was still one point remaining to be performed, the most essential and important of all, about which he would go and consult the oracle of Apollo; and in the mean time he made them all take an oath, that till his return they would inviolably maintain the form of government which he had established. When he was arrived at Delphi, he consulted the god, to know whether the laws he had made were good and sufficient to render the Lacedæ. monians happy and virtuous. The priestess answered, that nothing was wanting to his laws; and that, as long as Sparta observed them, she would be the most glorious and happy city in the world. Lycurgus sent this answer to Sparta; and then, thinking he had fulfilled his ministry, he voluntarily died at Delphi, by abstaining from all manner of sustenance. His notion was, that even the death of great persons and statesmen should not be useless and unprofitable to the state, but a kind of supplement to their ministry, and one of their most important actions, which ought to do them as much or more honour than all the rest. He therefore thought, that in dying thus he should crown and complete all the services which he had rendered his fellow-citizens during his life; since his death would engage them to a perpetual observation of his institu tions, which they had sworn to observe inviolably till his return. Although I represent Lycurgus's sentiments upon his own death in the light wherein Plutarch has transmitted them to us, I am very far from approving them; and I make the same declaration with respect to several other facts of the like nature, which I sometimes relate without making any reflections upon them, though I think them very unworthy of approbation. The pretended wise men among the heathens had, as well concerning this article as several others, but very faint and imperfect notions; or to speak more properly, remained in great darkness and error. They laid down Plut. in vit. Lycurg. p. 53. 7 Ibid. p. 54. This passage of Plato is in his Timæus, and gives us reason to believe that this philosopher had read what Moses said of God when he created the world; Vidit Deus cuncta quæ fecerat, et erant valde bona. Gen. i. 31. |