INTRODUCTION. 37 



came before the assembly of the people ; the second, though but a 

 court of justice, gained a prodigious ascendency in the republic, 

 by the wisdom and gravity of its members, who were not chosen 

 but after the strictest scrutiny and the most serious deliberation. 



Such was the system of government established by Solon, which, 

 the nearer we examine it, will the more excite our admiration. 

 Upon the same plan most of the other ancient republics were esta- 

 blished. To insist on all of them, therefore, would neither be en- 

 tertaining nor instructive. But the government of Sparta, or La- 

 cedsemon, had something in it so peculiar, that the great outlines 

 of it at least ought not to be here omitted. The country, of which 

 Spurta afterwards became the capital, was, like the other states of 

 Greece, originally divided into several petty principalities, of which 

 each was under the jurisdiction of its own immediate chieftain. 

 Lelex is said to have been the first king, about the year before 

 Christ 1516. At length, the two brothers, Eurysthenes and -n p 

 Procles, obtaining possession of this country, became con- , 

 junct in the royalty ; and, what is extremely singular, their 

 posterity, in a direct line, continued to rule conjunctly for nine 

 hundred years, ending with Cleomenes, anno 220 before the Chris- 

 tian sera. The Spartan government, however, did not take t> p 

 that singular form which renders it so remarkable, until the ' " 

 time of Lycurgus, the celebrated legislator. The plan of 

 policy devised by Lycurgus agreed with that already described, in 

 comprehending a senate and assembly of the people, and, in gene- 

 ral, all those establishments which are deemed most requisite for 

 the security of political independence. It differed from that of 

 Athens, and indeed from all other governments, in having two 

 kings, whose office was hereditary, though their power was suffi- 

 ciently circumscribed by proper checks and restraints. But the 

 great characteristic of the Spartan constitution arose from this, 

 that, in all his laws, Lycurgus had at least as much respect to war 

 as to political liberty. With this view, all sorts of luxury, all arts 

 ef elegance or entertainment, every thing, in fine, which had the 

 smallest tendency to soften the minds of the Spartans, was abso- 

 lutely proscribed. They were forbidden the use of money ; they 

 lived at public tables on the coarsest fare ; the younger were 

 taught to pay the utmost reverence to the more advanced in years ; 

 and all ranks capable of bearing arms were daily accustomed to 

 the most painful exercises. To the Spartans, alone, war was a re- 

 laxation rather than a hardship; and they behaved in it with a spi- 

 rit, of which scarcely any but a Spartan could even form a con- 

 ception. 



In order to see the effect of these principles, and to connect un- 

 der one point of view the history of the different quarters of the 

 globe, we must now cast our eyes on Asia, and observe the events 

 which happened in those great empires of which we have so long- 

 lost sight. We have already mentioned in what obscurity „ p 

 the history of Egypt is involved, until the reign of Boccho- y fi , 

 ris. From this period to the dissolution of their govern- 

 ment by Cambyses of Persia, in the year before Christ 524, the 

 Egyptians are more celebrated for the wisdom of their laws and 

 political institutions, than for the power of their arms. Several of 

 theae seem to have been dictated by the true spirit of civil wis- 

 dom, and were admirably calculated for preserving order and good 



