L A W. 
5S 6 
tnirals or their lives. The reader will continually notice 
certain points of refemblance, as well as of oppofition, 
between this code and that of Lycurgus, which was now 
flourifhing in the rival date of Lacedaemon. Among the 
more wealthy citizens, the child palled from the hands of 
his mother and nurfe to the tuition of the fchools. Here 
the mind was opened to the very different numbers of 
mufic and arithmetic, and great attention was paid to his 
writing and pronouncing his native language with truth 
and accuracy. The hayings of the wile were taught, and 
the actions of the former great recounted to him ; and, 
that the memory of the fcholar might the better retain, 
and treafure up for the period of maturer recolledlon, the 
leffons of early youth, the aid of poetry was called in, and 
thefe leffons were chiefly felected from the fongs of Hefiod 
and Homer. 
The ftudy of the laws formed the next period of edu¬ 
cation ; thefe being open to the reading of all, it was 
within the reach of every one to know what was to be 
done, and what to be avoided. The next gradation was 
that of entering among the followers of the fophifts and 
philofophers, with whom Athens, more happily than any 
other Itate, abounded. What the ftudent had hitherto 
learnt was now put to the tiial, and the learning to i'peak 
jullly on fubjedts was the fruit of his liftenings and de¬ 
putations; but the aftion mult be fuited to the word, and 
the word to the aflion. The theatre was the fchool for 
both ; and here all his prior acquirements were called to 
memory in the mimic lcene, and his leffons in fome fort 
renewed in the reprefentations of the vices and virtues, 
the amiable qualifications and the paflions, that difgrace 
or adorn mankind in every fituation of life. The exer- 
cifes of the body kept pace with thofe of the mind ; and 
the young Athenian entered the career of life, of politics, 
and of war, with a fund of acquirements fufficient to 
render him an ufeful friend or a dangerous enemy to his 
country. 
Lawful marriage could only be contracted between free 
citizens ; and the offspring of fuch marriages alone were 
declared free. As to what we call levitical degrees, there 
exifted no prohibition at Athens, except between lineal 
afcendants and defendants, and uterine brothers and lif¬ 
ters ; the latter to prevent the union of inheritances. 
Brothers and filters of the whole blood might intermarry ; 
and the great Cimon is an illuftrious example of legalised 
inceft. To obviate the cruel expofure of female infants 
by rendering their apportionment no burthen to the pa¬ 
rent, Solon enafted that no dowry fhould be given in 
marriage; the only portion the bride was allowed to 
bring, confilted of three fuits of clothes and fome houfe- 
hold fluff of flnall value. The adulterer might be pu- 
nilhed with death by the offended hulband, if furprifed 
jlagrante deliflo , and the hulband continuing to live with 
the adulterefs afterwards was deemed infamous; but the 
frailty of the Athenian lady was refpeCted fo far as her 
life, though fine was Subjected to a punilhment not a lit¬ 
tle fevere to a woman who could have no other mode of 
livelihood afterwards than what the expofure of her per- 
fon afforded ; Ihe was forbidden to adorn herfelf, and any 
one finding her fo, might with impunity tear the clothes 
off her back, and add the further chaftifement of a beating. 
The laws of Solon with regard to females, exhibit an 
inconfiftent mixture of laxity and harlhnefs. A man 
might devife his wife, as well as his daughter and pro¬ 
perty ; and, if he did not, the unfortunate female, even 
the widow, if an heirefs without male ifl'ue, was difpofa- 
ble by the neareft kinfman, and, in default, by the ar- 
chon; "and, when her fons attained their fixteenth year, 
the elfate was taken from her again. An heirefs could 
not marry out of her own family, and her neareft kinfman 
might claim her of right; and this right extended fo far, 
that, if a father gave his daughter in marriage to a per- 
fon not his neareft kinfman, and afterwards died intellate 
and without iffue male, fuch neareft kinfman might a£tu- 
i 
ally take her from her hulband; and marry her himfelf; 
a cafe by no means unfrequer.t. 
In the dilfipation of Athens, where, as in London or 
Paris, “ all the varied hours are day,” Solon was deter¬ 
mined at lealt to preferve appearances, and to expofe vice, 
though he did little towards the reftoration of virtue. In 
order therefore to prevent the midnight revels of the 
Athenian dames from palling unnoticed, or elfe for the 
purpofe of apprizing the parties molt interefted, he enact¬ 
ed, that no woman fhould go abroad by night but in a 
chariot with a torch borne before her. It could be little 
fatisfadlion to the unmarried daughter of a free citizen to 
know, that fhe could not be fold for a Have by her father 
or brother, unlefs (lie had by her unchaftity dishonoured 
her family ; the only eft'eft of fuch a law would be, to 
keep that woman virtuous from whole incontinency lealt 
mifchief was to be dreaded. It is true, flie might marry 
whom Ihe pleafed if not an heirefs, and without parents 
or brothers, and if the relation in the fituation of guar¬ 
dian refufed to marry her himfelf; but where, in a city 
which preferred wealth to virtue, which actually offered 
facrifices and prayers to the god of riches, was Ihe to find 
an hulband ? and Ihe couid not marry a ftranger. But 
Solon, as if willing to make fome amends to thofe women 
who were not heireffes for the privileges allowed to thofe 
that were, and to reduce the opprefiion of the laft-men- 
tioned law, ordered, that he who forced a free woman 
ftiould be punilhed by a fine of xoo drachmas, about 
3I. 10s. rod. fterling, and he wdio feduced the wife be 
fined 20 drachmas ; by this means incontinency was co¬ 
vered under the denomination of rape ; the honour of a 
virgin fixed at 3I. 10s. iod. and at the rate of 14s. 2d. 
every married woman enjoyed the envied privileges of an 
heirefs. It is fingular that the number of free citizens of 
Athens was never increafed by marriage. Was it want 
of peace, or want of morals, or want of both, that occa- 
fioned this ftationary population ? How different was 
early Rome! 
Indeed that part of the legillation of Solon which re¬ 
gards morals is lead to be admired ; we may even lay it 
abounds with defeft and abfurdity. By prohibiting the 
men from entering the fchools of youth, he made an ef¬ 
fort to protect the rifing generation from the abominable 
perverfion of inftinCt fo prevalent among the Greeks; yet, 
by the ftrangeft contradiction, he approves it as honourable 
in thofe grown up. See Du Pauw on the Greeks, §. ii. 
and the fpeech of Efchines againlt Timarchus. He pu- 
nilhes incontinency in the virgin with llavery; but what 
woman would incur llavery whilft the mode of finning by 
rape prefented fuch an ealy acquittal ? or what adulterer 
would not prefer the moderate fine of feduftion, to the 
hazard of life in the hulband’s houfe ? Xenophon, the 
grey-headed and fober difciple of Socrates, has revealed to 
the world the falhionable latitude allowed to the Grecian 
matrons by the pliant liberality of their lmlbands ; pro¬ 
vided peace and friendship reigned in families, every in¬ 
dulgence was difcovered for them, by fympathiling with 
all their natural defeats ; and, even where the lady chanced 
to yield to the irrefiftible tyranny of her paflions, it was 
ufual to pardon the firft act of weaknefs, and forget the 
fecond. Xenophon. Hiero £? Simonides. 
Though divorce was commanded by Solon in the cafe 
of adultery, and the Athenian hulbands feem to have been 
afraid of exercifing their prerogative, the Athenian ladies 
were not always fo timid, and, from the irregularities and 
infidelities of their lords, were fometimes tempted to de¬ 
mand a divorce. In order to acquire this legal repara¬ 
tion, the wife mull have appeared perfonally before the 
arch on, and given in to him a bill of divorce with her 
own hand ; for the doing it through another was infuf- 
ficient. Upon fuch an occafion, either the apprehenfion 
of expofure, or inability to reftore the portion, induced 
Alcibiades to carry off his wife by force from the market¬ 
place to her home again, where, as Plutarch informs us, 
