Nor were the domestic institutions of Lacedaemon less hateful or less contemptible than her foreign policy.A perpetual interference with every part of the system of human life, a constant struggle against nature and reason, characterised all her laws.To violate even prejudices which have taken deep root in the minds of a people is scarcely expedient; to think of extirpating natural appetites and passions is frantic: the external symptoms may be occasionally repressed; but the feeling still exists, and, debarred from its natural objects, preys on the disordered mind and body of its victim.Thus it is in convents---thus it is among ascetic sects--thus it was among the Lacedaemonians.Hence arose that madness, or violence approaching to madness, which, in spite of every external restraint, often appeared among the most distinguished citizens of Sparta.Cleomenes terminated his career of raving cruelty by cutting himself to pieces.Pausanias seems to have been absolutely insane; he formed a hopeless and profligate scheme; he betrayed it by the ostentation of his behaviour, and the imprudence of his measures; and he alienated, by his insolence, all who might have served or protected him.Xenophon, a warm admirer of Lacedaemon, furnishes us with the strongest evidence to this effect.It is impossible not to observe the brutal and senseless fury which characterises almost every Spartan with whom he was connected.Clearchus nearly lost his life by his cruelty.
Chirisophus deprived his army of the services of a faithful guide by his unreasonable and ferocious severity.But it is needless to multiply instances.Lycurgus, Mr Mitford's favourite legislator, founded his whole system on a mistaken principle.He never considered that governments were made for men, and not men for governments.Instead of adapting the constitution to the people, he distorted the minds of the people to suit the constitution, a scheme worthy of the Laputan Academy of Projectors.And this appears to Mr Mitford to constitute his peculiar title to admiration.Hear himself: "What to modern eyes most strikingly sets that extraordinary man above all other legislators is, that in so many circumstances, apparently out of the reach of law, he controlled and formed to his own mind the wills and habits of his people." I should suppose that this gentleman had the advantage of receiving his education under the ferula of Dr Pangloss; for his metaphysics are clearly those of the castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh: "Remarquez bien que les nez ont ete faits pour porter des lunettes, aussi avons nous des lunettes.Les jambes sont visiblement institues pour etre chaussees, et nous avons des chausses.Les cochons etant faits pour etre manges, nous mangeons du porc toute l'annee."At Athens the laws did not constantly interfere with the tastes of the people.The children were not taken from their parents by that universal step-mother, the state.They were not starved into thieves, or tortured into bullies; there was no established table at which every one must dine, no established style in which every one must converse.An Athenian might eat whatever he could afford to buy, and talk as long as he could find people to listen.The government did not tell the people what opinions they were to hold, or what songs they were to sing.Freedom produced excellence.Thus philosophy took its origin.Thus were produced those models of poetry, of oratory, and of the arts, which scarcely fall short of the standard of ideal excellence.
Nothing is more conducive to happiness than the free exercise of the mind in pursuits congenial to it.This happiness, assuredly, was enjoyed far more at Athens than at Sparta.The Athenians are acknowledged even by their enemies to have been distinguished, in private life, by their courteous and amiable demeanour.Their levity, at least, was better than Spartan sullenness and their impertinence than Spartan insolence.Even in courage it may be questioned whether they were inferior to the Lacedaemonians.The great Athenian historian has reported a remarkable observation of the great Athenian minister.Pericles maintained that his countrymen, without submitting to the hardships of a Spartan education, rivalled all the achievements of Spartan valour, and that therefore the pleasures and amusements which they enjoyed were to be considered as so much clear gain.The infantry of Athens was certainly not equal to that of Lacedaemon; but this seems to have been caused merely by want of practice: the attention of the Athenians was diverted from the discipline of the phalanx to that of the trireme.The Lacedaemonians, in spite of all their boasted valour, were, from the same cause, timid and disorderly in naval action.
But we are told that crimes of great enormity were perpetrated by the Athenian government, and the democracies under its protection.It is true that Athens too often acted up to the full extent of the laws of war in an age when those laws had not been mitigated by causes which have operated in later times.
This accusation is, in fact, common to Athens, to Lacedaemon, to all the states of Greece, and to all states similarly situated.
Where communities are very large, the heavier evils of war are felt but by few.The ploughboy sings, the spinning-wheel turns round, the wedding-day is fixed, whether the last battle were lost or won.In little states it cannot be thus; every man feels in his own property and person the effect of a war.Every man is a soldier, and a soldier fighting for his nearest interests.His own trees have been cut down--his own corn has been burnt--his own house has been pillaged--his own relations have been killed.
How can he entertain towards the enemies of his country the same feelings with one who has suffered nothing from them, except perhaps the addition of a small sum to the taxes which he pays?