Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/138

128 received was in accordance with the system of public instruction of his country. For Persia, unlike other countries (this is meant as a hit at Athens, and at the same time as a compliment to Sparta), did not content herself with legislating against crime; she moulded the minds of her citizens from childhood, by a public educational system, to virtue. This system, according to Xenophon, extended only to the higher classes of society. Unlike our Committee of the Privy Council, the Persian educational department appears to have begun from the top. Only those were admitted to the privileges of the state education who were above the necessity of manual labour.

The headquarters of public instruction in Persia are described as being in the metropolis, in a grand square, where the king's palace and the public offices stood, and from which all merchandise and trades, with their "noise and vulgarity," were banished. The square was divided into four parts, which were severally assigned to the boys, youths, men, and elders. The first three classes attended regularly from early morning. The elders appear to have joined the place of instruction at such times as suited them, chiefly to furnish an example to their juniors, but, when on the spot, to have been under discipline like the rest. The youths, till married, slept round the public offices, in light armour, as guards. Each of the four classes was under the control of presidents. In the boys' quarter the time appears chiefly to have been occupied in trying, under the president, all cases of crime and misdemeanour which had arisen among the boys them-