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70 70 Dr Arnold on the pursuits, and even of the use of money itself, was founded on the same fear that the military efficiency of the soldier- citizen might be impaired. So completely did the lawgiver set at nought those moral rules which most nations have re- cognized, that it even seemed worth while to train the youths in their profession of warfare by sending them out to plunder in the countrv and bv exercising them in adroit stealing, in order that from irregular pilferers they might ripen mto regular soldiers. By these mischievous institutions, the re- sult of great prudence and a determined resolution working at a mistaken object, the military government of Sparta, having been made an oligarchy within an oligarchy, having so successfully discouraged all art, science and literature, that none of its citizens contributed anything to the delight or instruction of mankind, having cramped by an unbending system of legal interference and inquisition the very citizens for whose benefit the subject classes were avowedly sacrificed, until their number dwindled to insignificance^^, and having ^^ The constant decline in the number of the Spartans is traced by Mr Clinton, in his admirable Appendix on the population of Ancient Greece (p. 410), to the unequal distribution of the lands, which gradually fell into the hands of a few persons, and to the prohibition of gainful employments, which prevented the citizens from obtaining a livelihood by their own industry. Compare, besides the passages quoted by Mr Clinton, Aristot. Pol. v. 7» ei/ A.aKeoalfxovL eis oXiyov^ al ovcrlaL epyovTai^ koI e^ecTTi iroLeiv otl av deXcoan toI? yvcopi/moL^ fxaXXov Kal K7]6€V€li/ otu) QeXwcriv, The extreme poverty of the younger brothers of the Spartan families is strikingly proved by a fact mentioned in the lately published fragments of Polybius, that it was an ancient and prevailing practice for several brothers to have only one wife among them, and the children were common to all : 'wapd jmev toIs AaKedaL/uLovioL^ Kal Tra- Tpiov rv Kal avv^Qe^ n-pei^ dvdpa's e^eiv yvvalKa Kal TCTTapa^y tote (1. TroTe) dh Kal TrXeious, dSeXcjyov^ 6vi-a£, Kal TeKva tovtdov elvai Koivd. XII. 6. in Mai. Script. Vet. Vol. II. p. 384. and see Miiller, Vol. ii. p. 204. This practice, which is a proof not only of the most pinching poverty, but also of a very depraved state of morality, is (1 have understood) not uncommon among the lower classes in some parts of Italy. With regard to the decline of the Spartan population, it should likewise be mentioned thr.t there were no paid offices in Lacedcemon ; and the public coffers seem to have been always ill supplied, notwithstanding the tributes of the Periceci. There were no salaries for citizens serving in the army or navy. There was no class of advocates, rhetoricians, or sophists, who could earn a subsistence by pleading causes, by writing speeches, or by instructing the youth; medicine was not a profession, and literature, even if under any circumstances it could in Greece have produced a pecuniary reward, was in Lacedaemon discouraged and discounte- nanced. In this state of things a law of compulsory succession by primogeniture was tantamount to a law that all younger brothers and unmarried women should be beggars: for (as Mr Clinton has properly remarked from Aristotle) the public tables