"
Here, again, we see the equalisation of fortunes by law, that is, by
force.
"There were, in Greece, two kinds of republics. One was military,
as Lacedaemon; the other commercial, as Athens. In the one it was
wished (by whom?) that the citizens should be idle: in the other,
the love of labour was encouraged.
"It is worth our while to pay a little attention to the extent of
genius required by these legislators, that we may see how, by
confounding all the virtues, they showed their wisdom to the world.
Lycurgus, blending theft with the spirit of justice, the hardest
slavery with extreme liberty, the most atrocious sentiments with
the greatest moderation, gave stability to his city. He seemed to
deprive it of all its resources, arts, commerce, money, and walls;
there Was ambition without the hope of rising; there were natural
sentiments where the individual was neither child, nor husband,
nor father. Chastity even was deprived of modesty. _By this road
Sparta was led on to grandeur and to glory_.
"The phenomenon which we observe in the institutions of Greece has
been seen in the midst of the _degeneracy and corruption of our
modern times_. An honest legislator has formed a people where
probity has appeared as natural as bravery among the Spartans.
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