490 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



regarded as a most glorious and valor-inspiring proclamation, recount- 

 ing that " the fathers of these youths, like brave and good men, had 

 fallen in their country's battles, wherefore the nation had taken charge 

 of their bringing-up, and now on the verge of manhood, having adorned 

 them with an entire suit of armor, dismissed them under happy aus- 

 pices to watch over their own affairs, granting them likewise most 

 honorable seats in the theatre." 



Though the services rendered by the old Greek volunteer were not 

 only national, but even continental in their influence, their recognition 

 by the most celebrated and artistic memorials of the day, and by pen- 

 sion legislation — which, even in the fragmentary laws and references 

 preserved, suffers little, if at all, by comparison with the finished prod- 

 uct of the twentieth century — shows a devotion and sacrifice on the 

 part of the people, unique in their loyalty to the constitution of that 

 first republic in the world, political prototype of the great American 

 republic in nearly everything but size. The people of Athens knew no 

 king but law, and early learned that the stability and very existence of 

 a republic, more than any other form of government, depend on grati- 

 tude to the citizen-soldier who defends the constitution, and on the 

 creation and cultivation of a spirit of loving allegiance to and loyal 

 observance of the supremacy and sanctity of the law of the land; and 

 the little republic insisted on that truth and taught her citizens that 

 lesson — which all republics must learn sooner or later — but probably 

 never with more striking or exemplary emphasis than in the oath the 

 youth was required to take at the Temple of Aglauros, when, as citizen 

 and soldier, he swore 



That he would not disgrace his arms nor desert his comrade in battle but 

 would fight for his country's shrines; and leave his fatherland not feebler than 

 he found it but greater and mightier; that he would obey the orders of his 

 commanders; that he would keep the laws, not stand idly by if any one violated 

 or disregarded them, but do his best to maintain them; and that he would honor 

 the shrines of his native land." 



" Lycurgus, " Leocrates," § 76. 



