to give up all his conquests, if he and all his army might drink of the neighbouring spring. When these conditions were ratified, he assembled his forces, and offered his kingdom to the man that would forbear drinking; not one of them, however, could deny himself, but they all drank. Then Sous himself went down to the spring, and having only sprinkled his face in sight of the enemy marched off, and still held the country, because all had not drank. Yet, though he was highly honoured for this, the family had not their name from him, but were called after his son Eurytionidæ : and this, because Eurytion seems to have been the first who relaxed the strictness of kingly government, inclining to the interest of the people, and insinuating himself into their favour. Hence their encroachments increased, and the succeeding kings either becoming odious from treating them with greater rigour, or else giving way through weakness or in hopes of popularity, for a long time anarchy and confusion. prevailed in Sparta; by which one of it's kings, the father of Lycurgus, lost his life. For, while he was endeavouring to part some persons con

9 It may be proper here to give the reader a short view of the regal government of Lacedæmon, under the Herculean line. The Heraclidæ having driven out Tisamenes the son of Orestes, Eurysthenes and Procles (Patrocles, or Protocles) the sons of Aristodemus, reigned in that kingdom. Under them the government took a new form, and instead of one sovereign became subject to two. These two brothers did not divide the kingdom between them, neither did they agree to reign alternately; but governed jointly, and with equal power and authority. What is surprising is that, notwithstanding their mutual jealousy, this diarchy did not end with these two brothers, but continued under a succession of thirty princes of the line of Eurysthenes, and twenty-seven of that of Procles. Eurysthenes was succeeded by his son Agis, from whom all the descendents of that line were surnamed Agidæ, as the other line took the name of Eurytionidæ from Eurytion, the grandson of Procles. (Pausan., Strab., et al.)

cerned in a fray, he received a wound by a kitchen-knife of which he died, leaving the kingdom to his eldest son Polydectes.

But he too dying soon afterward, the general voice called Lycurgus to ascend the throne; and he actually did so, till it appeared that his brother's widow was pregnant. As soon as he perceived this, he declared that the kingdom belonged to her issue, provided it were male; and he retained the administration, only as his guardian, with the title of Prodicos,' which the Lacedæ monians gave to the guardians of infant-kings, Within a little time the queen made him a private overture, that she would destroy her child upon condition that he would marry her, when king of Sparta. Though he detested her wickedness, he said nothing against the proposal; but pretending to approve it, charged her not to take any drugs to procure an abortion, lest she should endanger her own health or life; for he would take care that the child, as soon as born, should be destroyed. Thus he artfully drew on the woman to her full time: and, when he heard she was in labour, he sent persons to attend and watch her delivery; with orders if it were a girl to give it to the women, but if a boy to bring it to him, in whatever business he might be engaged. It happened that he was at supper with the magistrates, when she was delivered of a boy, and his servants who were present carried him the child. When he received it, he is reported to have said to the company, "Spartans, see here your new-born king." He then laid him down upon the chair of state, and named him Charilaus, because of the joy (chara) and admiration of his magnanimity and justice, testified by all present. Thus the reign of Lycurgus lasted only eight months. But the citizens had a high veneration

for him upon other accounts; and there were more that paid him attention, and were ready to execute his commands, out of regard to his virtues, than that obeyed him as a guardian to the king and director of the administration. There were not wanting, however, those that envied him, and opposed his advancement as too high for so young a man; particularly, the relations and friends of the queen-mother, who seemed to have been treated with contempt. Her brother Leonidas one day boldly attacked him with virulent language, and scrupled not to tell him, that he was well assured he would soon mount the throne; thus preparing suspicions and matter of accusation against Lycurgus, in case any accident should befal the king. Insinuations of the same kind were likewise spread by the queen-mother. Moved with this ill treatment, and fearing some dark design, he determined to avoid suspicion by traveling into other countries, till his nephew should be grown up and have a son to succeed him in the kingdom.

He set sail, therefore, and landed in Crete. There having observed the forms of government, and conversed with the most illustrious personages, he was struck with admiration of some of their laws 10, and resolved on his return to introduce them into Sparta. Some others he rejected.

"

10 The most ancient writers (as Ephorus, Callisthenes, Aristotle, and Plato) are of opinion, that Lycurgus adopted many things from the Cretan polity. But Polybius (vi.) will have it, that they are all mistaken. "At Sparta," says he," the lands are equally divided among all the citizens, wealth is banished, the "crown is hereditary; whereas in Crete the contrary obtains." But this does not prove, that Lycurgus might not take some good laws and usages from Crete, and omit what he thought defective. There is, indeed, so great a conformity between the laws of Lycurgus and those of Minos, that we must with Strabo (xvi.) believe the one the foundation of the other.

Among the friends he gained in Crete was Thales", whom he had interest enough to persuade to go and settle at Sparta. Thales was famed for his wisdom and political abilities: he was withal a lyric poet who, under colour of exercising his art, performed things as surprising as the most excellent lawgivers. For his odes were so many persuasives to obedience and unanimity, as by means of melody and numbers they had great grace and power, softened insensibly the manners of the audience, drew them off from the animosities which then prevailed, and united them in zeal for excellence and virtue. So that he, in some measure, prepared the way for Lycurgus toward the instruction of the Spartans. From Crete Lycurgus passed to Asia, desirous (as it is said) of comparing the Ionian 22 expence and luxury with the Cretan frugality and hard diet, so as to judge what effect each produced on their several manners and governments; just as physicians compare bodies, that are weak and sickly, with the healthy and robust. There also, probably 13, he first met

12

"This Thales, who was a poet and musician, must be distinguished from Thales the Milesian, who was one of the seven wise men of Greece. The poet lived 250 years before the philosopher. (L.) The compliment here paid to the lyre ought not, in these times of "sweet sounds," to escape our notice. "Often (says Plato, as quoted by Plutarch) the soul, withdrawn from the influence of the Muses and the Graces, sinks into disorder, loses it's moral harmony, and requires the aid of music to attune it's jarring strings."*

12 The Ionians sent a colony from Attica into a part of Asia Minor between Lydia and Caria, about B. C. 1050, and 150 before Lycurgus. And, though they might not be greatly degenerated in so short a time, yet our lawgiver would be able to judge of the effect, which the climate and Asiatic plenty had produced. They afterward became proverbial for their effemi

nancy.

13 He adds "probably" (ws ɛoxer) because some Greek authors have affirmed that Lycurgus saw Homer himself, who was at that time at Chios. But Plutarch's opinion is more to be relied

with Homer's poems, which were preserved by the posterity of Cleophylus. Observing that many moral sentences and much political knowledge were intermixed with his stories, which had an irresistible charm, he collected them into one body, and transcribed them with pleasure, in order to take them home with him. For this noble poetry was not yet fully known in Greece; some particular pieces only were in a few hands, as they happened to be dispersed. Lycurgus was the first, who made them generally known.

The

Egyptians likewise suppose, that he visited their country; and, as of all their institutions he was most pleased with their distinguishing the military men from the rest of the people 15, he adopted the

upon. Homer died, before Lycurgus was born. Before the time of Lycurgus, they had nothing of Homer in Greece, except some detached pieces; which were severally named, from their respective subjects, The Valour of Diomede,' Hector's Ransom,' and the like. (L.) So the Romans, previously to the death of Virgil, had only separate portions of the Eneid; The éloge on Marcellus,' the passion and death of Dido,' the descent into the Shades,' &c. But this in no degree affects the integrity of those illustrious poems in their present arrangement.

*

14 Plato's judgement upon this subject was so different from that of Lycurgus that, when he excludes poets from his republic, he makes no exception in favour even of Homer himself; whom, on account principally of his misrepresentation of the gods, he represents as a writer pernicious to youth. In this hostility however he stands nearly single, for the mere Zoili of antiquity deserve not to be mentioned: and the reader will easily recollect the high testimony of Alexander the Great, among those of others, in his behalf. Horace indeed (Ep.-I. ii. 3, 4.) asserts his superiority, as an ethical writer, to the most eminent teachers of the Academy and the Porch.*

15 The ancient Egyptians kept not only the priests and mili tary men, who consisted chiefly of the nobility, distinct from the rest of the people; but the other employments, viz. those of herdsmen, shepherds, merchants, interpreters, and seamen, descended in particular tribes or Castes from father to son. (L.) The above institution however, according to Herodot. (ii. 168.) might have been derived by Lycurgus from a source nearer home, as it prevailed among the Thracians, Scythians, &c.*