Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/195

 EFFICACY OF THE DEMOCRATICAL IDEA. )77 Herodotus in terms too emphatic to be omitted. After narrating the successive victories of the Athenians over both Boeotians and Chalkidians, that historian proceeds : " Thus did the Athe- nians grow in strength. And we may find proof, not merely in this instance but everywhere else, how valuable a thing freedom is: since even the Athenians, while under a despot, were not superior in war to any of their surrounding neighbors, but, so eoon as they got rid of their despots, became by far the first of all. Thest things show that while kept down by one man, they were slack and timid, like men working for a master ; but when they were liberated, every single man became eager in exertions for his own benefit." The same comparison reappears a short time afterwards, where he tells us, that " the Athenians when free, felt themselves a match for Sparta ; but while kept down. by any man under a despotism, were feeble and apt for sub- mission." ! Stronger expressions cannot be found to depict the rapid improvement wrought in the Athenian people by their new democracy. Of course this did not arise merely from suspension of previous cruelties, or better laws, or better administration. These, indeed, were essential conditions, but the active trans- forming cause here was, the principle and system of which such amendments formed the detail : the grand and new idea of the sovereign People, composed of free and equal citizens, or liberty and equality, to use words which so profoundly moved the French nation half a century ago. It was this comprehen- sive political idea which acted with electric effect upon the Athenians, creating within them a host of sentiments, motives, sympathies, and capacities, to which they had before been stran- gers. Democracy in Grecian antiquity possessed the privilege, 1 Herodot. v, 78-91. 'Atiyvaloi /aev vvv ifo&jVTO' dr)?.ol 6e ov /car' et/ fiovQV uTCku. Kavraxi/, 77 iaij-yopir) a>f er<2, fj.ev, 6e, airdf /caorof iuvrti (c. 91.) Oi AaKeSaifj.6vioi- vou hajBovrec, wf i7ivfepov fj.lv euv rb ytvo; fti 'ArriKdv, iabpponov ri euvruv av yevoiro, KaTe^oftevov de VTTO TOU rv/w viSi, acr&evef nal Treii^ap^eecnJat iroifiov, vol.. ir. 8*