The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1869-08-26
LYCUKGUs AND sOLON AS LAwGIv-
1y,ygTt SERS---No. 5. .4 frf1st

ed inhumanity towards their slaves
as their duty; in these unhappy vic
tins, humanity was dishonored and
abused. In the Spartan law book,
this dangerous principle was preach
ed; viz, that man should be regarded
as the means and not as the object,
thereby were the principles of .natu-
raj law and morals legally rent in
pieces, The whole system of morals
was given up in order to preserve
something, which can only possess any
value as a means to this morality.
Can aIiyttlting be more contradicto-
ry, and can contradiction have more
terrible results than this? n
enough that Lycurgns should lay the
foundation of his state on the ruins
of morality, ne labored in another
manner against the. highest object of
humanity, while, by his finely elabo-
rate political system, he held fast the
minds Of the Spartans in that same
grade in which he found them, and
forever checked all progress, all I'M
proyement. All the arts pertaining
: to oihddstry were 'banished from Spar
ia, all sciences were neglected, all
commerce with foreign nations was
forbidden, every thing alien was ex-
cluded., All the. channels, by which
enlightened ideas might flow into his
nation, were tightly closed in an
everlasting uniformity, in gloomy
egotism, must the Spartan state for
ever revolve around itself. IC1OI4
= The employment of all his united
citizens was to maintain that which
they possessed5 : and to remain inst as
they already were; to attain nothing
new; not to ascend to a higher de-
gree. Inexorable laws must watch
over this matter, and prevent any in
novation from assailing the clock-work
of the state, so that even the progress
sion of time may not ialteit any thing
in the form of the laws. 4 In order to
make this local, this temporary con-
stitution permanent, the minds of the
people mustebe kept fast in that posi-
ton, in which they were when this
constitution was established.&
Butlwe have seen that intellectual
progress should be the goal of the
state. Lycurgus' state could perma-
nently continue only on the peculiar
condition., that the minds of the peo-
pie should remain stationery; it could
:, therefore only sustain itself by this
means viz : that it failed to accom-
plish the highest and the proper OBJ
Vject of state. What therefore .ha'
been cited in, praise of Lycurgus, tina
Sparta would flourish so long only
as it should follow the letter of hi
institutes, is the worst thing that could
be said of. him. Even by this, tina
she must not yentu re to abandon th,
old political system, which Lycurgu
gave, her, without exposing herself t.
complete ruin, that she must remain
what she was, that she must stand il
the same position in which a singh
man hath placed her, even by this wa
Sparta an unhappy state-and, NJ
present more deplorable could he
.lawgiyer have made her than this ia
NOUS constitution of everlasting du
fEration, (which stood so completelySil il
the way of her true greatness an,
prosperity otvs,5Jf,..s.a
When we sum up all these facts
then the false splendor disappears
whereby the, peculiarly prominen
side of the Spartan state dazzles a
inexperienced eye-we see nothin
more than the imperfect essay of
scholar--the first exercise o t h
youthful age, which lacks experienc
and clear views too much in order t
understand the true relations of thing'
Faulty as this first essay has proved t
be, yet it will and must ever renal
sYery remarkable TO the philosophi
inqtiirefainto the history of mankind
1t was ever a giant stride of the hi
man mind, to manage, as work {
art, that, which hitherto had been d.
livered up to chance and passion. In
perfect must necessarily be the fir
essay in the most difficult of all art
but it ever remains valuable, becau
it has been instated i'll the most in
portant of all arts. Statuaries beg
with statues of Mercury, before the
elevate themselves to the compile
form of an Autinous, of a Vatic'
Apollo; lawgivers will practice st
longer time. in rude essays un
O. finally the happy equilibrium of tt
powers of society, Of its own accor
exhibits itself to them.
The stone patiently endures t
forming chisel, and the strings touch
by the musician, answer him, witho
struggling against his finger.
But the lawgiver labors on Sc
active and restive material-that
human freedom. Only, with imp
fection, can he bring the ileal il
fulfilment, which he had SO clearly
-yveloped and planned in his head ; l
here the essay alone is still worthy
all praise, when it, is undertaken W
disinterested benevolence, and is co
pleted in conformity with the purpo
SOLON.
81 .4 . ~ g.. a n
The Institutes of Solon in Ath
were. almost entirely the reverse
Lycurgus' enactment of laws in Sr
ta-and since the two Republics, SI
to and Athens, play the principal pi
in Grecian History, it is then an int
esting work, to place their differ
political constitutions beside one
other, and to weigh their defects ;
excellencies against one another.
"a" After the death of Codras, the 1
al1dionity in Athens was abroga