Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/157

V men of letters compiled with evident delight and reverence.

Without going unnecessarily into the details of an oft-told story, let us briefly see in what the reasonableness of Solon's work consisted. All political progress of which the conscious or unconscious aim is to develop the resources, material and intellectual, of a whole people, ought to be accompanied by social and economic reform. We in England, after 1832, were slow to realise this principle. Our political leaders did not at first perceive that a new population had arisen among us, suggesting many new problems which could not be solved by political legislation alone. It is partly owing to this that our proletariat is still in fermentation, i.e. socially and economically uncomfortable, though, owing to political changes, it has a powerful hold on the executive which governs it. Now the reasonableness of Solon is seen in the fact that he combined social, economic, and political reform. The problems before the Greek statesman were always simpler and on a smaller scale than those of the modern State; and Solon was able to take in at a glance the whole of his field of work, and to deal with it step by step. He did not give the "people" political weight without also, giving them the material means of maintaining it; nor, conversely, did he aid them economically without