Civil and Savage Life Compared. 



The statement as to the Athenian age may be 

 disputed ; it is a question difficult to verify. I 

 have heard it stated as such, but the only work 

 in which I could find the age mentioned is the 

 "London Encyclopaedia." In the article on 

 "Marriage," we read that the Spartans 

 were not permitted to marry until they had 

 arrived at their full strength, that their children 

 might be strong and vigorous and that the 

 Athenian laws are said to have once ordered that 

 men should not marry till thirty-five years of 

 age." 



I take this age limit to correspond well with 

 the condition of the people, and there seems to 

 be no other reasonable way to account for the 

 height of glory, opulence, and intelligence to 

 which they attained. It was not by accident 

 that they arrived at that condition ; they were 

 bred to it, and when they fell from their most 

 exalted position the cause was obvious, as I shall 

 endeavour to point out later. 



Unfortunately, in all accounts of ancient 

 civilisation, the information as to the manners 

 and customs of the people during their rise to 

 greatness is so vague, that we are left to form 

 our own opinions about them. We only know 

 positively of them after they have formed their 

 systems, and are either at the height of their 

 development or are already on the downward 

 track. 



The Athenians must have been physically, as 

 well as intellectually, great ; as witness Mara- 

 thon, and their rivalry with the Spartans. It is 

 no doubt owing to the proximity of Sparta to 



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