NOTES.

Lycurgus—“considering education to be the most important and the noblest work of a law-giver, he began at the very beginning and regulated marriages and the birth of children.... He strengthened the bodies of the girls by exercise in running, wrestling, and hurling quoits or javelins, in order that their children might spring from a healthy source and so grow up strong, and that they themselves might have strength, so as easily to endure the pains of childbirth. He did away with all affectation of seclusion and retirement among the women, and ordained that the girls, no less than the boys, should go naked in processions, and dance and sing at festivals in the presence of the young men. The jokes which they made upon each man were sometimes of great value as reproofs for ill-conduct; while on the other hand, by reciting verses written in praise of the deserving, they kindled a wonderful emulation and thirst for distinction in the young men: for he who had been praised by the maidens for his valour went away congratulated by his friends; while on the other hand, the raillery which they used in sport or jest had as keen an edge as a serious reproof; because the kings and elders were present at these festivals as well as all the other citizens. This nakedness of the maidens had in it nothing disgraceful, as it was done modestly, not licentiously (as in ballet dances and music halls and ball-rooms of the present day), producing simplicity, andteachingthe women tovalue good health, and to love honour and courage no less than the men. This it was that made them speak and think as we are told Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, did. Some foreign lady, it seems, said to her, ‘You Laconian women are the only ones that rule men....’ She answered, ‘Yes; for we alone bring forth men....’ They considered that if a child did not start in possession of health and strength, it was better for itself and for the State that it should not live at all.”—Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, Bohn’s Standard Library.

Lycurgus did not view children as belonging to their parents, but above all to the state; and therefore he wished his citizens to be born of the best possible parents; besides the inconsistency and folly which he noticed in the customs of the rest of mankind, who are willing to pay money, or use their influence with the owners of well-bred stock, to obtain a good breed of horses or dogs, while they lock up their women in seclusion and permit them to have children by none but themselves, even though they be mad, decrepit, or diseased; just as if the good or bad qualities of children did not depend entirely upon their parents, and did not affect their parents more than anyone else.... Adultery was regarded amongst them as an impossible crime.... The training of the Spartan youth continued till their manhood. No one was permitted to live according to his own pleasure, but they lived in the city as if in a camp, with a fixed diet and public duties, thinking themselves to belong not to themselves but to their country.... Lycurgus would not entrust Spartan boys to anyboughtorhired servantsnor was each man allowed to bring up and educate his son as he chose, but as soon as they were seven years of age he himself received them from their parents, and enrolled them in companies. A superintendent of the boys was appointed, one of the best born and bravest of the state.... The boys were taught to compress much thought in few words; though Lycurgus made the iron-money of little value he made their speech have great value. One of his great reforms was the common dining-table.... In Sparta, as was natural, lawsuits became extinct, together with money, as the people had neither excess nor deficiency, but were all equally well off, and enjoyed abundant leisure by reason of their simple habits.

Women’s Printing Society, Limited, 66, Whitcomb Street, W.C.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESP3, added “THE REVIEW OF A CENTURY; OR, THE FRUIT OF FIVE THOUSAND YEARS” chapter heading.Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Back to Index Next