Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/196

 178 HISTORY OF GREECE. not only of kindling an earnest and unanimous attachment t the constitution in the bosoms of the citizens, but also of creating n energy of public and private action, such as could never be obtained under an oligarchy, where the utmost that could be hoped for was a passive acquiescence and obedience. Mr. Burke has remarked that the mass of the people are generally very hid jferent about theories of government ; but such indifference although improvements in the practical working of all govern- ments tend to foster it is hardly to be expected among any people who exhibit decided mental activity and spirit on other matters ; and the reverse was unquestionably true, in the year 500 B.C., among the communities of ancient Greece. Theories of government were there anything but a dead letter : they were connected with emotions of the strongest as well as of the most opposite character. The theory of a permanent ruling One, for example, was universally odious : that of a ruling Few, though acquiesced in, was never positively attractive, unless either where it was associated with the maintenance of peculiar educa- tion and habits, as at Sparta, or where it presented itself as the only antithesis to democracy, the latter having by peculiar cir- cumstances become an object of terror. But the 'theory of democracy was preeminently seductive ; creating in the mass of the citizens an intense positive attachment, and disposing them to voluntary action and suffering on its behalf, such as no coer- cion on the part of other governments could extort. Herodotus, 1 in his comparison of the three sorts of government, puts in the front rank of the advantages of democracy, " its most splendid name and promise," its power of enlisting the hearts of the citizens in support of their constitution, and of providing for all a common bond of union and fraternity. This is what even democracy did not always do : but it was what no other govern- ment in Greece could do : a reason alone sufficient to stamp it as icuXTiioTov exei, laovofiiriv deiirgpa 6s, TOVTUV rCiv 6 ftovapxof, iroiKct ovdi-v -niiXu fiev /)f up%ei, inrevdwov de upxqv I%EI, /Jot'Aeiyzaro de Tavra f rd KOIVOV uvafpei. The demo '.ratical speaker at Syracuse, Athenagoras, also puts this name and promise in the first rank of advantages (Thucyd. vi, 39) t}-iW typi, xpura fiev, drjuov tf'pirai" uvo/iaa&ai, bliiyapxiav cJf, fitpo(, etc
 * Herodot. iii, 80. Hhy'&of 6e up%ov, Trpura fiev, ovvo/ua TTUVTUV