Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/452

 446 THE REVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV» amination of the aiFair, heard the orators anew, dis- cussed, and dehberated. If the commissioners rejected the proposed law, their decision was without appeal. If they approved it, the people were again assembled ;, and this third time they voted, and by their votes the bill became a law.' Notwithstanding so much prudence, an unjust or un- wise proposition might still be adopted; but the new law forever carried the name of its author, who might afterwards be prosecuted and punished. The peo].le,, as the real sovereign, were reputed infallible, but every orator always remained answerable for the advice he had given. '^ Such were the rules which the democracy obeyed. But we are not to conclude from this that they never made mistakes. Whatever the form of government, — monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, — there are days when reason governs, and others when passion rules.. No constitution ever suppressed the weaknesses and vices of human nature. The more minute the rules, the more difficult and full of peril they show the direc- tion of society to be. Democracy could last only by force of prudence. We are astonished, too, at the amount of labor which this democracy required of men. It was a very labori- ous government. See how the life of an Athenian is passed. One day he is called to the assembly of his deme, and has to deliberate on the religious and politi- cal interests of this little association. Another day he must go to the assembly of his tribe ; a religious ' ^schines, in Ctesiph., 38. Demosthenes, in Timocr. ; in Leptin. Andocides, I. 83. ' Thucydides, III. 43. Demosthenes, in Timocratem.