S55 
L A W. 
to the temples, that all people might he familiar with 
death, and not conceive of it as a thing dreadful in itfelf, 
or that dead bodies defiled the living. Magnificent fepul- 
chres were forbidden; nor was the plaiiveit or molt modelt 
inl'cription permitted, except for fitch as were (lain in the 
wars, or for women who had devoted themfelves to a re¬ 
ligious life. Tears, fighs, and outcries, were not permit¬ 
ted in public, becaufe they dilhonoured Spartans, who 
ought to bear all things with equanimity. Mournings 
were redrafted to feven days. 
Celibacy in men was regarded as infamous, and pu- 
nifhed by various tokens of contempt. If a man did not 
marry when at full age, he was liable to an aftion ; as 
thofe alfo were who married above or below themfelves. 
Such as had three children had certain immunities, and 
thofe who had four were free from all taxes. Virgins 
were married without portions ; hufbands were allowed 
to beat their wives; and there were fome other laws which 
we fhall not here recite. The men of Sparta are generally 
faid to have been diftinguifhed for their virtue; but the 
Spartan women have been as generally decried for their 
boldnefs, and contempt of decency. 
At Sparta, it has been faid, every thing tended to in- 
fpire the love of virtue, and the hatred of vice; the ac¬ 
tions of the citizens, their converfations and mutual in- 
tercourfe which frequently occurred, their public monu¬ 
ments, and their infcriptions. Accordingly Lycurgus 
would not allow all forts of perfons to travel, left they 
fhould bring home foreign manners, and return infefted 
with the licentious cuftoms of other countries, and thus 
become averfe from the life and maxims of Lacedaemon. 
On the other hand, he would fuffer no ftrangers to remain 
in the city, who did not come thither to lome ufeful or 
profitable end, left they fhould difleminate the vices of their 
own countries. A foldier was the only reputable profef- 
fion in Sparta; a mechanic or hufbandman was looked 
upon with contempt. War, indeed, was the trade and 
bufinefs of the Lacedaemonians; and the firft law of war 
with them was never to fly, or turn their backs upon 
their enemies, however fuperior in number; never to 
quit their poll; never to deliver up their arms; in a word, 
either to conquer, or to die upon the lpot. When their 
enemies began to fly, they purfued no longer than till 
vitftory was alcertained; becaufe they would l'eem to fight 
rather for the honour of conquering than of putting their 
enemies to death. After forty years’ fervice, a man was, 
by law, no longer required to go into the field; and con- 
fequently, if the military age was thirty, the Spartans were 
not held invalids till they were feventy. 
The inftitutions of Lycurgus have been much extolled 
both by ancients and moderns, but they are unqueftion- 
ably liable to many objections. The legiflator himfelf, 
when he framed them, muft have been in a great degree 
devoid of that comprehenfion and fenfibility of mind, 
which takes an enlarged view of the frame and condition 
of men, and which duly attends to the feelings of human 
nature; particularly thofe of parents and children. The 
underftanding was left in a great degree uncultivated; 
decency was profcribed, barbarity rendered familiar; and 
all thofe tender fenfations that humanize fociety were 
fmothered, as it were, in the birth. The conftitution 
was a rnoft unnatural effect of fpeculation, founded upon 
the mifery of the individuals that compofed the commu¬ 
nity ; for, if the Spartans were free with refpeCt to other 
nations, they were flaves to their own legiflature. In a 
word, fay the authors of the Univerfal Hiftory, “ it was a 
difcipline calculated, not for a free people who had a right 
to cultivate the powers of reafon, and tafte the nobleft en¬ 
joyments of life, but for the defperate militia of a defpo- 
tic tyrant, who wants to extinguifh every fentiment of 
humanity, and produce a contempt of life by itripping it 
of all its comforts.” 
The laws of Lycurgus remained in force among the 
Lacedaemonians long after the Athenians had received 
and rejected thofe. of Solon , fo that thefe two codes may 
be compared together, which has been done under the 
article Greece, voi. viii. p. 961. But the laws of Solon 
are more peculiarly interefting to us, becaufe they became 
partly the model of the decemviral enaftments, the fons 
omnis publici privatique juris , according to Livy, the fource 
of the Roman law, from which every European country 
has borrowed more or lefs, in order to complete their fub- 
fequent fyftems. 
About the year 56a B. C. according to fir Ifaac Newton, 
but 594. according to Blair and Dufrefnoy, the Athe¬ 
nian people feem to have reached the laft ftage of bad go¬ 
vernment ; that ftate which nothing could apparently 
render worfe, and almoft any thing could improve. See 
the article Attica, vol. ii. p. 501. In this emergency, 
all eyes were fixed upon Solon, and to him were referred 
the common grievances of all. 
In undertaking the redrefs of wrongs, and the civil re¬ 
gulation of the ftate, Solon feems to have avoided a general 
abrogation of all laws then in force, and to have confined 
himfelf to the repeal of fuch as were more particularly 
grievous, and to the depriving others of their paft effeft, 
without annulling them-as to the future. Thus'he cleared 
the debtor, and enafted that none fliould in future take 
his perfon as fecurity. He fvvept the then exifting mort¬ 
gage from his lands; but it does not appear that he anni¬ 
hilated, or in other refpeCts altered, the laws of mortgage, 
except in the abolition of the intereft already incurred, 
the future rate of which he left completely arbitrary be¬ 
tween the debtor and creditor, according to the fufiiciency 
or infufficiency of the fecurity upon which the money was 
to be borrowed. In Athens the rate of intereft afterwards 
fixed itfelf at u per cent, on effefts, and 18 per cent, 
where payment appeared doubtful; whoever took more 
was confidered vile and ignominious, although there was 
no law againft it. 
The citizens he divided into four claffes, as explained 
under the article Greece, vol. viii. p. 870. (See alfo 
Attica, vol. ii. p. 536.) And, to divert as much as 
poflible the public mind from the factions that muft ever 
attend republican government, he was anxious to keep 
every part of the community in employ; for this purpofe, 
(differing widely from Lycurgus,) lie not only ordered 
that all trades fhould be accounted honourable, but com¬ 
manded that all who had not the means of following the 
higher occupations of mufic, riding, philolbphy, and gym- 
naltic exercifes, fliould learn and follow fome trade, ma¬ 
nufacture, or hufbandry ; and to the areopagus, as the 
chief council of the ftate, he committed the infpeftion of 
the people, the enquiry how each one procured his fub- 
fiftence, and the punifliment of the idle. The law even 
fet aiide the rights of nature, by decreeing that fon ac¬ 
quitted from maintaining his parent who had not procured 
liis being taught fome trade or occupation. To complete- 
the whole, he who fliould be thrice convifted of idlenefs 
was declared infamous, and liable to the criminal punifh- 
nients attached to infamy, and to be profecuted for it by 
any perfon. Socrates afterwards deemed thefe laws againft 
idlenefs to be inconfiltent with liberty; but a Chinefe em¬ 
peror, who had probably never heard of fuch a thing as 
liberty, thought much better: “When,” fays he, “ any¬ 
one in the empire paffes a day in idlenefs, fome one or 
other of my people fuffers hunger or cold.” The coun¬ 
try of Attica itfelf rendered the law neceffary; it was fo 
poor, and afforded fo little food, that no produft except 
oil was allowed fo be exported. 
Where all might be judges, it was neceffary they fliould 
poffefs fome portion of general knowledge; hence Solon 
ordered that all fhould be inftrufted in the rudiments of 
literature ; and, for the prefervation of the lives of feamem 
and foldiers, all were to be taught to fvvim. So valuable 
was the life of every fubjeft in a final! republic, that in 
after-times, the unfounded accufation of following up 
victory in preference to delaying, for the purpofe of fav- 
ing thofe who, in a great naval fig'ht, had fallen into the 
fea, was fufficient to deprive fix out of eight ill-fated ad¬ 
miral® 
