Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/407

 LAWS AND DISCIPLINE OF LYKURGUS AT SPARTA. gyj gus is of a low type, rendered savage and fierce by exclusive and overdone bodily discipline, destitute even of the elements of letters, immersed in their own narrow specialities, and taught to despise all that lay beyond, possessing all the quali- ties requisite to procure dominion, but none of those calculated to render dominion popular or salutary to the subject ; while the habits and attributes of the guardians, as shadowed forth by Plato, are enlarged as well as philanthropic, qualifying them not simply to govern, but to govern for purposes protective, concilia- tory, and exalted. Both Plato and Aristotle conceive as the per- fection of society something of the Spartan type, a select body of equally privileged citizens, disengaged from industrious pur- suits, and subjected to public and uniform training. Both admit (with Lykurgus) that the citizen belongs neither to himself nor to his family, but to his city ; both at the same time note with regret, that the Sparfim training was turned only to one portion of human virtue, that which is called forth in a state of war ; l the citizens being converted into a sort of garrison, always under drill, and always ready to be called forth either against Helots at home or against enemies abroad. Such exclusive tendency will appear less astonishing if we consider the very early and inse- cure period at which the Lykurgean institutions arose, when none of those guarantees which afterwards maintained the peace of the Hellenic world had as yet become effective, no constant habits of intercourse, no custom of meeting in Amphiktyony from the distant parts of Greece, no common or largely fre- quented festivals, no multiplication of proxenies (or standing tickets of hospitality) between the important cities, no pacific or industrious habits anywhere. When we contemplate the general insecurity of Grecian life in the ninth or eighth century before the Christian era, and especially the precarious condition of a small band of Dorian conquerors in Sparta and its district, with sub-' dued Helots on their own lands and Achaeans unsubdued all around them, we shall not be surprised that the language firms it. " The most rational Spartans (he says) will appreciate this discourse, if theyjind any one to read it to them" f/v AoSoxrt rbv uvayvood- uevov (p. 285). 1 Aristot. Polit. ii. 6, 22; vii. 13, 11 ; viii. 1, 3 ; viii. 3, 3. Plato, Legg. i pp. 626-629. Plutarch, Solon, c. 22.