The Good Book (88 page)

13. His motion, however, was not carried, and from this beginning disorder arose which caused great distress and overthrew the most excellent government.

14. Therefore the statesman should not despise such offences as may, like diseases in a person, spread quickly,

15. But he should take hold of them, suppress them and cure them.

16. For by attention, as Cato says, the great is made small and the small is reduced to nothing.

17. And for this there is no more persuasive device than for the statesman to show himself in his private differences mild and conciliatory,

18. Persisting without anger in his original reasons for disagreement, and treating no one with contentiousness, anger or any other passion which injects bitterness into disputes.

19. For we put soft gloves on the hands of those who compete in the boxing-school, that the contest may not have a fatal result, its blows being soft and not painful;

20. And in law suits against one’s fellow-citizens it is better to treat the causes of disagreement pure and simple in one’s pleading,

21. And not, by sharpening and poisoning matters with bad words, malice and threats, to make them incurable, great and of public importance.

22. For a man who acts with gentleness and care towards those with whom he has difficulties will find that others also yield to him;

23. And rivalries affecting public interests, if private enmities are done away with, become of slight importance and do no serious or incurable harm.

Acts

Chapter 1

  1. It has been well said that we should contemplate what the great did in the past, not just out of curiosity but to educate ourselves for the present.

  2. Nobility and moral beauty have an active attraction, and invite all who live in later times to nobility again;

  3. Not by imitation alone, but by stimulating thought about how to live, out of the bare contemplation of how some of the great once lived.

  4. It is said, and rightly: to know what was done is to know better what to do now.

  5. Nothing is more fitted to interest reflective minds than accounts of the variety of circumstance in human affairs,

  6. Which, whether prompting admiration for achievement or lamentation for what was suffered, always offers instruction:

  7. The untroubled recollection of past endeavours has a charm of its own to those who shared them,

  8. While to those who did not share them, but who look upon them with interest and sympathy, there is much to be gained.

  9. And yet those of great name are never faultless. Fame either heightens or hides flaws, so that memorials of them distort them into paragons or pariahs.

10. But why can there not be a juster appreciation of the alloy that is man, despite which some rise into the permanent annals of history,

11. Leaving their best achievements as examples to posterity, while we admit the base metal there inmixed?

12. The virtues of the great serve us as a looking glass, in which we may see how to adjust and adorn our own lives,

13. Their faults and frailties admonishing by example likewise, and the whole made of both serving as a manual of humanity.

14. Contemplating lives can be compared to associating with those we thus contemplate;

15. We receive and entertain in our inquiry each successive guest, view their qualities and select from their actions all that is noblest to know.

16. By the study of history and the familiarity acquired in writing, we habituate our memories to receive and retain images of the best and worthiest.

17. We are thus enabled to raise thought above what is base to better examples of our forerunners famous for their success,

18. Who leave no doubt whether they owe their achievements to luck, or their own character and conduct.

19. Of the many portraits one might paint to this end, only a few are necessary,

20. For from the few one can discern the many.

Chapter 2: Lycurgus of Sparta

  1. Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, was the second son of that city’s king and younger brother of Polydectes, who became king after their father’s death.

  2. Their father was killed in a riot, for Sparta was then troubled with faction, the people unruly and undisciplined;

  3. And the father of Lycurgus and Polydectes was stabbed by one of his subjects while trying to bring order.

  4. Soon afterwards Polydectes died also, leaving the right of succession to Lycurgus; and reign he did, until it was discovered that Polydectes’ widow was pregnant;

  5. Upon which Lycurgus immediately declared that the kingdom belonged to her issue, if it were male, and that he himself exercised authority only as the child’s guardian.

  6. A secret overture was made to him by the queen, that she would destroy the infant, on condition that he would marry her when he came to the crown.

  7. Abhorring the woman’s wickedness, Lycurgus pretended not to reject her proposal,

  8. But, making show of agreeing, dispatched a messenger with thanks,

  9. And to dissuade her from aborting herself, which would impair her health, if not endanger her life, he himself, he said, would ensure that the child should be killed as soon as born.

10. By such artifices having drawn on the woman to her time of birth, when he heard that she was in labour, he sent persons to observe all that passed,

11. With orders that if it were a girl they should give it to the women, but if a boy, they should bring it to him wherever he was, and whatever doing.

12. He was at supper with the principal magistrates when the queen produced a boy, who was immediately brought to him at the table;

13. He, taking him into his arms, announced: ‘Men of Sparta, here is our king’;

14. And laid the child in the king’s place, and named him Charilaus, that is, joy of the people;

15. Because all were transported with joy at Lycurgus’ noble heart. His reign had lasted only eight months, but he was honoured by the citizens,

16. Who obeyed him because of his virtues more than because he was regent.

17. Some, however, envied and opposed his growing influence; chiefly the kindred of the queen mother, who pretended to have been treated injuriously.

18. Her brother Leonidas, in a heated debate with Lycurgus, said he was certain they would soon see the latter king,

19. Thus suggesting suspicions and preparing the way for an accusation of him.

20. Similar hints were spread about by the queen mother and her adherents.

21. Troubled by this, and suspecting the outcome, Lycurgus thought it wisest to avoid their envy by a voluntary exile,

22. And to travel abroad until his nephew reached marriageable age, and, by having a son, secured the succession.

23. Setting sail, therefore, he first went to Crete, where, having considered the different city governments there,

24. And having made acquaintance with their principal men, he resolved to make use in Sparta of those of their laws he admired, though much he rejected as useless.

25. Among the persons there renowned for learning and wisdom in state matters was one Thales,

26. Who though by outward profession a poet, was one of the ablest lawgivers in the world.

27. Lycurgus persuaded Thales to go to Sparta, where the songs he composed, which were exhortations to discipline and concord,

28. And the measure and cadence of the verse conveying order and tranquillity,

29. Had so great an influence on the listeners, that they were insensibly softened and civilised,

30. Insomuch that they renounced their private feuds and animosities, and were reunited in common virtue.

31. So that it may truly be said that Thales prepared the way for Lycurgus’ later reforms.

32. From Crete Lycurgus sailed to Asia, with design, as is said, to examine the difference between the societies of the Cretans, which were sober and temperate, and those of the Ionians, a people of luxurious habits.

33. Here he first read Homer’s works, in the library of the family of Creophylus;

34. And having observed that they contained serious lessons of state and morality, set himself eagerly to transcribe and order them, thinking they would be of good use in his own country.

35. They had, indeed, already obtained some slight repute among the Greeks, and scattered portions, as chance conveyed them, were in the hands of individuals;

36. But Lycurgus first made Homer’s works really known.

37. The Egyptians say that he visited them, and some Greek writers also record this.

38. But as for his voyages into Spain, Africa and the Indies, and his conferences there with the Gymnosophists, there is slender evidence only.

39. Lycurgus was much missed at Sparta, and often sent for, ‘for we have kings’, they said, ‘with the name of royalty, but as for the qualities of their minds, they are no different from their subjects’;

40. Adding, that in him alone was the true foundation of sovereignty: a nature made to rule, and a genius to gain obedience.

41. The kings too wished him home, for they looked on his presence as a bulwark against the people.

Chapter 3

  1. So Lycurgus returned, and finding matters in bad posture, applied himself to a thorough reformation,

  2. Resolving to change the whole face of the commonwealth; for what could a few new laws only, and a partial alteration, avail?

  3. He resolved to act as physicians do in the case of a patient suffering a complication of diseases:

  4. By force of medicine reducing and exhausting him, to change his whole temperament, and put him on a totally new regimen.

  5. Having resolved that his laws should be the best, and the resulting commonwealth the most famous in the world,

  6. He set himself to make allies of the leading Spartans, exhorting their help in his great undertaking.

  7. He described the plan first to his particular friends, and then, by degrees, gained others, and animated them all to his designs.

  8. When all was ripe for action, he gave orders to thirty of his principal allies to be ready armed at the marketplace at dawn, in order to quell the opposite party.

  9. Things growing to a tumult, King Charilaus, thinking this a conspiracy against his person, took sanctuary;

10. But, being soon after undeceived, and having the promise of their loyalty, quitted his refuge and joined them.

11. Among the many changes Lycurgus now made, the first and greatest in importance was the establishment of a senate,

12. Which having a power equal to the king’s, and, as Plato expresses it, allaying and qualifying the fiery strength of the royal office, gave steadiness and safety to the commonwealth.

13. For the state, which before had no firm basis, but leaned sometimes towards absolute monarchy and sometimes towards mob rule, found in the senate a central weight, like ballast in a ship;

14. The twenty-eight senators supporting the kings against the people, but supporting the people against royal absolutism.

15. The senate had no building to meet in. Lycurgus thought that ornament was not a help but a hindrance in their counsels,

16. By diverting their attention from the business before them to statues and pictures,

17. And to roofs curiously fretted, the usual embellishments of such places among the other Greeks.

18. The people assembled in the open air, and heard the kings and senators.

19. It was not allowed to any of their order to give advice, but only either to ratify or reject what was proposed to them by the king or senate.

20. But because it happened afterwards that the people, by adding or omitting words, perverted the sense of propositions,

21. The kings inserted into the Rhetra, or grand covenant, a clause saying that if the people did this it would be lawful for the leaders to refuse ratification.

22. Although Lycurgus had used all the qualifications possible in the constitution of his commonwealth,

23. Yet those who succeeded him found the oligarchical element still too dominant,

24. And to check its high temper, established the office of ephor, a hundred and thirty years after Lycurgus’ death.

25. Elatus and his colleagues were the first who had this dignity conferred upon them in the reign of King Theopompus,

26. Who, when his queen criticised him one day that he would leave the regal power less than he had received it from his ancestors, said in answer, ‘No, it will be greater; for it will last longer.’

27. For, indeed, the kings’ prerogative being thus reduced within reasonable bounds, they were at once freed from jealousies and consequent danger,

28. And never experienced the calamities of their neighbours at Messene and Argos,

29. Who, by maintaining the royal prerogative too strictly for want of yielding a little to the populace, lost all.