Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/122

70 The spirit, says Aristotle, waxes old as well as the body. This reflexion holds good only in regard to a single magistrate, but cannot be applied to a senatorian assembly.

At Athens, beside the Areopagus, there were guardians of the people's morals, and guardians of the laws. At Sparta all the old men were censors. At Rome the censorship was committed to two particular magistrates. As the senate watched over the people, the censors were to have an eye over the people and the senate. Their office was to reform the corruptions of the republic, to stigmatize indolence, to censure irregularities, and to correct faults; and as for notorious crimes, these were left to the punishment of the laws.

That Roman law, which required the accusations of adultery to be public, was admirably well calculated for preserving the purity of morals; it intimidated married women, as well as those who were to watch over their conduct.

Nothing contributes more to the preservation of morals, than an extreme subordination of the young to the old. Thus they are both restrained, the former by the respect they have for those of advanced age, and the latter by the respect they have for themselves.

Nothing gives a greater force to the laws than a perfect subordination between the citizens and the magistrate. The great difference which Lycurgus established between Sparta and the other cities, says Xenophon, consists chiefly in the obedience the citizens shew to the laws; they run, when the magistrate calls Rh