Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/197

 but despise when I think. that, whether from indifference. or cowardice, they allowed devilish miscreants to earn a despicable livelihood by poisoning the mind of youth. To my mind, the fiery death of the young Carthaginian was preferable to the moral death to which the fathers of your period seemed willing to have their children exposed. In the name of common sense and decency, what strange influence was at work, that parents tolerated for a single day the existence of such an iniquity? What were your legislators about? Was property, in those days, of more importance than life, life than moral purity?"

"If you knew any thing of the average character of the legislators then sent from our city," replied I, "you would not be surprised at any thing they did, or left undone. They generally represented, and were themselves of, the lowest of the low. As for the parents, many saw and deplored the evils to which you refer, but could effect little against banded greed, ignorance, and vice. Even when, by great efforts, a useful piece of legislation could be carried through, its execution was intrusted to officials elected mainly through the influence of the vicious classes, with whom they, accordingly, more or less openly sympathized."

"What you say," said Utis musingly, "agrees, upon the whole, with the little we know of the state of things in that misty past. One thing, however, surprises me. All history enforces the truth, that, in general, a people enjoys about as good a government as it deserves; that the character and conduct of the rulers fairly reflect that of the ruled. Do you mean to say, that, in your time, the vicious classes formed a majority of your population?"