OF FORMER TIMES. 



291 



ordinate consideration. Nor was the time of the student allowed to be in- 

 fringed upon by the acquisition of any other language ; the vanity of the 

 Greeks inducing them to regard almost all other nations as barbarians ; and 

 only a few of their philosophers thinking it worth while to make any sort of 

 inquiry into the literature of remote countries. 



Next to a critical initiation into their native language under the most cele- 

 brated grammarians, the chief object of Athenian education was, as I have 

 just observed, to strengthen the body, and give pliancy to the muscles by 

 athletic exercises ; for which purpose three magnificent establishments were 

 instituted and supported at the public expense, consisting of an extensive range 

 of buildings surrounding gardens that were defended by groves, porticoes, 

 and shady walks, from the rays of the midday sun, and still farther cooled 

 and embellished by sheets of limpid water. These schools were called gym- 

 nasia, and comprised the Lyceum, the Cynosarges, and the Academy. Here 

 the Athenian youth were instructed in the arts of wrestling, leaping, boxing, 

 tennis, and foot-racing. In different parts of the buildings, large and com- 

 modious halls, duly provided with seats, were allotted to the philosophers, 

 rhetoricians, and sophists ; and in these halls the students were completed in 

 the higher branches of instruction. At the age of eighteen, the young Athe- 

 nian had his name formally enrolled in the register of that division of the 

 curia or militia of which his father was a member; and at twenty, was admitted 

 to all the rights and privileges of citizenship, and might plunge, as soon as 

 he chose, into a contest for its honours and emoluments ; or, if he were able, 

 set up a magnificent establishment, and endeavour to distinguish himself at 

 the chariot and horse-races. 



The education of Athenian females was for the most part very limited. 

 Those of the middle ranks of life were seldom taught any thing more than to 

 read, write, sew, prepare wool for clothhig, and superintend domestic con- 

 cerns ; while even the higher ranks, or those who were educated with more 

 refinement, independently of this general knowledge, were only instructed 

 how to take some part in the public festivals and other religious ceremonies 

 of the country : such as that of carrying the sacred baskets on their heads, 

 or of joining in the hymns and sacred dances. Upon this point, however, no 

 expense was deemed too costly, that could endow them with the requisite 

 arts of modulating their voices and measuring their steps ; no pains or 

 sacrifice too extravagant, that could bestow upon them elegance of shape 

 and gracefulness of motion. Nor is this to be wondered at, since, ex- 

 cepting on such occasions, Athenian females, above the lower classes, 

 seldom appeared abroad, and perhaps never without having their faces 

 veiled. The married women, indeed, were allowed to receive and return 

 visits among themselves, but even these were never permitted to be pre- 

 sent at their husbands' parties, though the latter occasionally joined them 

 at their own houses, and had the liberty of introducing their more intimate 

 friends and companions. So that, among the female sex, none but those 

 of acknowledged licentious manners had even an opportunity of becoming 

 acquainted with the general literature, or literary characters, of their own 

 times ; whence, with a singular subversion of the very principles of their sys- 

 tem of ethics, such persons were often noticed and even visited by philoso- 

 phers and moralists. 



Education, therefore, among the Athenians appears rather to have been 

 directed to purposes of elegance and accomplishment than to the acquisition 

 of useful knowledge. To possess the first dignities of the state ; to be ap- 

 plauded in the assemblies of the people, or at the bar ; to bear away the prize 

 tripods at the palestrae, or public places for games of exercise among men, as 

 the gymnasia were for youths, or the prize crowns at the theatre, were the 

 chief objects of ambition among the more active. While the great body of 

 citizens idled away almost tlie whole of their leisure hours by sauntering on 

 the pleasant banks of the Ilissus, or in the agora, or great square of the city, 

 frequenting every shop in succeasion, and especially those of the perfumers, 

 in quest of news, for which they had an insatiable thirst ; indulging their 



