any farther than to obferve, that there were two hereditary kings, or prefidents, whofe power he controlled by giving an equal authority to twentyeight fenators. The kings were commanders of the armies, and high priests of the temples. Of the senators was compofed the executive and legiflative council of the ftate, and with them all laws originated. The affembly of the people was invefted with the power of electing the fenators; they could give a fimple negative, or affirmative, to the meafures propofed to them, but had no right to difcufs their propriety. Lycurgus allotted to every family an equal fhare of land, prohibited the ufe of gold and filver, and made iron money alone current, with a view to check the avarice of his fubjects. He forbad foreign travel, left their morals fhould be corrupted by an intercourfe with effeminate nations. He inftituted public tables, at which even the kings of Sparta were required to share the coarseft viands with their people, and to fet examples of the most rigid temperance. To produce a hardy and vigorous race of men, he ordered the women not to be confined to the fedentary employments of the diftaff and the shuttle, but to be exercised in throwing the quoit, and hurling the fpear. The children were carefully infpected as foon as born; the well-proportioned and • B. C. 884 years. "We are told, that Lycurgus being afked why he, who in other refpects appeared fo zealous for the equal rights of men, did not make his government democratical rather than oligarchal, "Go, you," the legislator aufwered, "and try a democracy in your own house," healthy healthy were delivered to the public nurses; and the deformed, or fickly, were expofed to perifh in the wilds of Mount Taygetus. Celibacy was held difreputable; yet the rights of female honour and marriage were not fecured from violation: for provided, the children born by promifcuous intercourse were strong and robuft, no inquiry was made to afcertain their fathers. All children were confidered as the offspring, or rather the property, of the state; and their public education confifted in accuftoming them to bear the cravings of hunger and thirft, to fuffer extreme heat and cold, fleep in the open air, and endure the fcourge of difcipline, and every degree of pain with patience, and even exultation. As they approached to manhood, their discipline was made more fevere. Military and athletic exercifes employed the largest portion of their time; it was held difreputable for private bufinefs or domeftic concerns to engross their attention. The whole energy of their minds was directed to war, and they lived as if always in a camp. Plutarch obferved, that they were taught neither to defire nor to know how to live by themfelves nor for themfelves. Their paffions and ambition were abforbed in the public fervice, and as they were hardened by conftant exercife, they were both eager to undertake, and powerful to accomplish every exploit for the glory of their country. da As Lycurgus wifhed his people to enjoy complete independence, he provided the means of fecurity against foreign attacks by establishing the the ftricteft military difcipline. In order, however, to guard against the defire of conqueft, he forbad his fubjects to engage too frequently in war with the fame nations. This was the curb, by which he endeavoured to reftrain their military ardour: the defire of conqueft however was a difeafe inherent in the vitals of his fyftem, and it frequently broke out in fucceeding times, as often as any temptation occurred of extending their dominions. By laws the moft fevere ever impofed on mankind, Lycurgus formed the habits of his people, and even far furpaffed other legislators, by regulating their conduct in many circumstances, which are generally fuppofed not to come within the province of legal restrictions. He prescribed the most rigid fobriety, refpect to age, modefty of behaviour, and even a particular kind of mirth and converfation. In other governments, many inftitutions arife out of accidental circumftances; the character of the people, and the particular state - of affairs: but in Lacedemon almoft every rule feems to have fprung from the comprehenfive mind of Lycurgus, and his plan of government was eminently his own. Before his death he saw every part of his political machine fet in motion. The Spartans exulted in their new strength; and their defire to exert it was fo ardent, that they were foon diftinguished among the neighbouring states as a warlike and formidable people. For many ages they firmly adhered to the will of their lawgiver ; and, not to adduce other examples, the monument erected in the ftraits of Thermopyla, to record the glorious glorious fall of Leonidas, king of Sparta, and his three hundred brave affociates, expreffed in an infcription characteristic of the genius and spirit of the nation, that they maintained their poft to the laft extremity, in obedience to the orders of their country P. The reverence of the Spartans for old age, their abftemioufnefs, perfect difcipline, and great bravery, muft not fo far blind our judgment, as to induce us to palliate the imperfections of their laws, and the impropriety of their conduct. The honour in which they held the fuccefsful perpetration of theft, their cruelty to their flaves, their inhumanity to children, the indelicacy of their conduct to women, and the infenfibility and mafculine energy of character, with which they endeavoured to inspire them, all unite to mark a ferocious and a barbarous people. The improvement of the mind, and the pureft feelings of nature, were facrificed to fevere difcipline, and the businefs of war. They extended the fame rigour to Ρ Ω ξειν' αγγελλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τηδε Herod. lib. vii. fect. 455. The fentiment is the fame which Demaratus expreffed to Xerxes in his character of the Spartans. Herod. Polym. fect, civ. To them more awful than the name of king Glover's Leonidas. their allies, which they exercised at home; and thus became the objects of hoftility and averfion. By a strange inconsistency in their laws, they were trained to arms, but stopped in the career of conqueft; they were made a nation of warriors, yet forbidden to purfue a flying enemy, or to enrich themselves with his fpoils. Eminent as they were in the field of battle, both kings and generals were incapable of compofing the histories of their campaigns, and no book has ever been tranfmitted to modern times, written by a genuine Spartan of the Doric race. They preferred the exercife of arms to the cultivation of letters, and left their exploits to be handed down to posterity by their enemies. During the reign of fourteen fucceffive kings, for the long period of five hundred years, their power and influence were felt throughout Greece-; and for a confiderable part of that period, the glory of Sparta eclipfed the other ftates. But in procefs of time the auftere manners of her warriors were relaxed by fuccefs. The univerfal applaufe with which they welcomed, and the rapacity with which they divided, the spoils of Athens, when that city was taken by Lyfander, were ftrong indications of their degeneracy. Of this gradual departure from the inftitutions of Lycurgus, their subsequent venality, luxury, and avarice, were fufficient proofs. III. Athens: |