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music, with which it was ill united, and which had taken place of the ancient poetry and music, that had something noble, majestic, and even religious and heavenly in them. He adds, that being made subservient to low taste and sensuality, by their aid it exercised a kind of tyrannical power in the theatres, which were become the public schools of criminal passions and gross vices, wherein no regard was had to reason.

The reader, without my observing upon it to him, will make the application of this passage of Plutarch to the sort of music which engrosses our theatres at this day, and which, by its effeminate and wanton airs, has given the last wound to the little manly force and virtue that remained among us. Quintilian describes the music of his times in these terms, * Quæ nunc in scenis effeminata, et impudicis modis fracta, non ex parte minima, si quid in nobis virilis roboris manebat, excidit.

II. OF THE OTHER EXERCISES OF THE BODY.

The young Athenians, and in general all the Greeks, were very intent upon forming themselves to all the exercises of the body, and to go through their lessons regularly with the masters of the Palæstræ. They called the places allotted for these exercises Palæstræ, or Gymnasia; which answers very near to our academies. Plato, in his books of laws, after having shown of what importance it was in war to cultivate the hands and feet, addst, that far from banishing from a well-regulated republic the profession of the athletæ, on the contrary, prizes ought to be proposed for all exercises that conduce to the improvement of military virtue; such are those which render the body more active, and fitter for the race; more hard, robust, and supple; more capable of supporting great fatigues, and effecting great enterprises. We must remember, that there was no Athenian who ought not to have been capable of handling the bar in the largest galleys. The citizens themselves did this office, which was not left to slaves and criminals, as in these days. They were all destined to the trade of war, and often obliged to wear arms of iron from head to foot of a great weight. For this reason Plato, and all the ancients, looked upon the exercises of the body as highly useful, and even absolutely necessary to the good of the public, and therefore this philosopher excludes only those from them who were incapable of service in war.

There were also masters, who taught the youth to ride, and to handle their arms, or fence; and others whose business it was ot instruct them in all that was necessary to be known,, in order to excel in the art military, and to become good commanders. The whole science of the latter consisted in what ↑ Lib. viii. de leg. p. 832. 833.

* Quintil. 1. i. c. 1.

Plut. in Lachete, p. 181.

the ancients called the tactic, that is to say, the art of draw. ing up troops in battle, and of making military_evolutions. That science was useful, but did not suffice. Xenophon shows its defect, in producing a young man lately come from such a school, in which he imagined he had learned every thing, though in reality he had only acquired a foolish esteem for himself, attended with perfect ignorance. He gives him, by the mouth of Socrates, admirable precepts upon the busi ness of a soldier, and very proper to form an excellent officer.

Hunting was also considered by the ancients as a fit exercise. for forming youth to the stratagems and fatigues of war. It is for this reason Xenophon, who was no less a great generalthan a great philosopher, * did not think it below him to write a treatise expressly upon hunting, in which he descends to the lowest particular, and observes upon the considerable advantages consequential of it, from being inured to suffer hunger, thirst, heat, cold, without being discouraged either by the length of the course, the difficulty of the clifts and thickets through which it is often necessary to press, or the small success of the long and painful fatigues, which they often undergo to no purpose. He adds, that this innocent pleasure removes others equally shameful and criminal; and that a wise and moderate man would not however abandon himself so much to it as to neglect the care of his domestic affairs.

The same author, in the Cyropædia frequently praises bunt. ing, which he looks upon as a real exercise of war, and shows, in the example of his young hero, the good use that may be

made of it.

1 OF THE EXERCISE OF THE MIND.

Athens, to speak properly, was the school and abode of polite learning, arts and sciences. The study of poesy, eloquence, philosophy, and mathematics, were in great vogue there, and much cultivated by the youth.

The young people were sent first to learn grammar under masters who taught them regularly, and upon proper prin ciples, their own language; by which they attained a knowledge of its whole beauty, energy, number, and cadence. Hence proceeded the universal fine taste of Athens, where, as history informs us, a simple herb-woman distinguished The ophrastus to be a stranger, from the affectation of a single word in expressing himself: and from the same cause the orators were greatly apprehensive of letting fall the least inju dicious expression, for fear of offending so refined and deli cate an audience. It was very common for the young peo

§ Memorab. 1. iii. p. 761, &c.

De venatione.

‡ Çiç. in Brut. n. 172.

Cyrop. l. i. 5. 6. et l. ii. p. 59, 60.. Quintil. I. viii. c. 1.. Plut. in Peric. p. 156.

ple to get the tragedies represented upon the stage by heart. We have seen, that, after the defeat of the Athenians before Syracuse, many of them who had been taken prisoners and made slaves, softened their slavery by reciting the works of Euripides to their masters, who, extremely delighted with hearing such sublime verses, treated them from thenceforth with kindness and humanity. The compositions of the other poets had no doubt the same effect: and Plutarch tells us, that Alcibiades, when very young, having entered a school. in which there was not an Homer, gave the master a box on the ear as an ignorant fellow, * and one who dishonoured his profession.

As for eloquence, it is no wonder that it was particularly studied at Athens. It was that which opened the way to the highest offices, reigned absolute in the assemblies, decided the most important affairs of the state, and gave an almost unlimited power to those who had the talent of speaking in/ an eminent degree.

This therefore was the great employment of the young citi zens of Athens, especially of those who aspired to the highest employments. To the study of rhetoric they annexed that of philosophy: I comprise under the latter all the sciences, which are either parts of, or relate to it. The persons known to antiquity under the name of sophists, had acquired a great reputation at Athens, especially in the time of Socrates. These teachers, who were as presumptuous as avaricious, set themselves up for universal scholars. Their whole art lay in philo sophy and eloquence, both of which they corrupted by the false taste and wrong principles they instilled into their dis ciples. I have observed, in the life of Socrates, that philoso pher's endeavours and success in discrediting them.

CHAP. II.

OF WAR:

SECTION I.

PEOPLE OF GREECE IN ALL TIMES VERY WARLIKE.

No people of antiquity, I except the Romans, could dis

pute the glory of arms and military virtue with the Greeks. During the Trojan war, Greece signalized her valour in battle, and acquired immortal fame by the bravery of the captains she sent thither. This expedition was however,,

In Alcib. p. 194,

properly speaking, no more than the cradle of her infant glory; and the great exploits by which she distinguished herself there were only her first essays and apprenticeship in the art of war. There were in Greece at that time several small republics, neighbours to one another by their situation, but extremely remote in their customs, laws, characters, and particularly in their interests. This difference of manners and interests was a continual source and occasion of divisions amongst them. Every city, little satisfied with its own dominion, was studious to aggrandize itself at the expence of its next neighbours, according as they lay most commodious for it. Hence all these little states, either out of ambition, and to extend their conquests, or the necessity of a just defence, were always underarms, and by that continual exercise of war formed in the universal people a martial spirit, and an intrepidity of courage, which made them invincible in the field; as appeared in the sequel, when the whole united forces of the east came to invade Greece, and made her sensible what she was, and of what capable.

Two cities distinguished themselves above the rest, and held: indisputably the first rank; these were Sparta and Athens: in consequence of which, those cities either successively or together had the empire of Greece, and maintained themselves through a long series of time in a power which the sole superiority of merit, universally acknowledged by all the other states, had acquired them. This merit consisted principally in their military knowledge and martial virtue ; of which they had given the most glorious proofs in the war against the Persians. Thebes disputed this honour with them for some years, by surprising actions of valour, which had something of prodigy in them; but this was but a short-lived blaze, which, af ter having shone out with exceeding splendour, soon disappeared, and left that city in its original obscurity. Sparta and Athens will therefore be the only objects of our reflections as to what relates to war, and we shall join them together in order to be the better able to distinguish their characters, as wellin what they resemble as in what they differ from each other.

SECTION II.

ORIGIN AND CAUSE OF THE VALOUR AND MILITARY VIRTUE OF THE LACEDÆMONIANS AND ATHENIANS.

ALL the laws of Sparta and institutions of Lycurgus seem to have no other object than war, and tended solely to the making the subjects of that republic a body of soldiers. All other employments, all other exercises, were prohibited amongst them. Arts, polite learning, sciences, trades, even husbandry itself, had no share, in their applications, and seemed in their

eyes unworthy of them. From their earliest infancy no other taste was instilled into them but for arms; and indeed the Spartan education was wonderfully well adapted to that end. To go barefoot, to lie hard, to shift with little meat and drink, to suffer heat and cold, to exercise continually, hunting, wrestling, running on foot and horseback, to be inured to blows and wounds, so as to vent neither complaint nor groan; these were the rudiments of the Spartan youth with regard to war, and enabled them one day to support all its fatigues, and to confront all its dangers.

The habit of obeying, contracted from the most early years, respect for the magistrates and elders, a perfect submission to the laws, from which no age nor condition was exempted, prepared them amazingly for military discipline, which is in a man ner the soul of war, and the principle of success in all great enterprises.

Now one of these laws was, to conquer or die, and never to surrender to the enemy. Leonidas with his 300 Spartans was an illustrious example of this; and his intrepid valour, extolled in all ages with the highest applauses, and proposed as a model to all posterity, had given the same spirit to the nation, and traced them out the plan they were to follow. The disgrace and infamy annexed to the violation of this law, and to such as quitted their arms in battle, confirmed the observance of it, and rendered it in a manner inviolable. The mothers recommended to their sons, when they set out for the field, to return either with, or upon their bucklers. They did not weep for those who died with their arms in their hands, but for those who preserved themselves by flight. Can we be surprised after this, that a small body of such soldiers, with such principles, should put an innumerable army of barbarians to a stand?

The Athenians were not bred up so roughly as the people of Sparta, but had no less valour. The taste of the two people was quite different in regard to education and employment; but they attained the same end, though by different means. The Spartans knew only how to use their arms, and were no more than soldiers: but among the Athenians (and we must say as much of the other people of Greece), arts, trades, husbandry, commerce, and navigation, were held in honour, and thought no disgrace to any one. These occupations were no obstacles to the valour and knowledge necessary in war; they disqualified none for rising to the greatest commands and the first dignities of the republic. Plutarch observes, that Solon, seeing the territory of Attica was barren, applied himself to turning the industry of his citizens upon arts, trades, and commerce, in order to supply his country thereby with what it wanted on the side of fertility. This taste became one of the

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