Ideal Commonwealths | Page 5

and settle at Sparta.
Thales was famed for his wisdom and political abilities: he was withal
a lyric poet, who under colour of exercising his art, performed as great

things as the most excellent lawgivers. For his odes were so many
persuasives to obedience and unanimity, as by means of melody and
numbers they had great grace and power, they softened insensibly the
manners of the audience, drew them off from the animosities which
then prevailed, and united them in zeal for excellence and virtue. So
that, in some measure, he prepared the way for Lycurgus towards the
instruction of the Spartans. From Crete Lycurgus passed to Asia,
desirous, as is said, to compare the Ionian expense and luxury with the
Cretan frugality and hard diet, so as to judge what effect each had on
their several manners and governments; just as physicians compare
bodies that are weak and sickly with the healthy and robust. There also,
probably, he met with Homer's poems, which were preserved by the
posterity of Cleophylus. Observing that many moral sentences and
much political knowledge were intermixed with his stories, which had
an irresistible charm, he collected them into one body, and transcribed
them with pleasure, in order to take them home with him. For his
glorious poetry was not yet fully known in Greece; only some
particular pieces were in a few hands, as they happened to be dispersed.
Lycurgus was the first that made them generally known. The Egyptians
likewise suppose that he visited them; and as of all their institutions he
was most pleased with their distinguishing the military men from the
rest of the people, he took the same method at Sparta, and, by
separating from these the mechanics and artificers, he rendered the
constitution more noble and more of a piece. This assertion of the
Egyptians is confirmed by some of the Greek writers. But we know of
no one, except Aristocrates, son of Hipparchus, and a Spartan, who has
affirmed that he went to Libya and Spain, and in his Indian excursions
conversed with the Gymnosophists.
The Lacedæmonians found the want of Lycurgus when absent, and sent
many embassies to entreat him to return. For they perceived that their
kings had barely the title and outward appendages of royalty, but in
nothing else differed from the multitude; whereas Lycurgus had
abilities from nature to guide the measures of government, and powers
of persuasion, that drew the hearts of men to him. The kings, however,
where consulted about his return, and they hoped that in his presence
they should experience less insolence amongst the people. Returning

then to a city thus disposed, he immediately applied himself to alter the
whole frame of the constitution; sensible that a partial change, and the
introducing of some new laws, would be of no sort of advantage; but,
as in the case of a body diseased and full of bad humours, whose
temperament is to be corrected and new formed by medicines, it was
necessary to begin a new regimen. With these sentiments he went to
Delphi, and when he had offered and consulted the god, he returned
with that celebrated oracle, in which the priestess called him "Beloved
of the gods, and rather a god than a man." As to his request that he
might enact good laws, she told him, Apollo had heard his request, and
promised that the constitution he should establish would be the most
excellent in the world. Thus encouraged, he applied to the nobility, and
desired them to put their hands to the work; addressing himself
privately at first to his friends, and afterwards by degrees, trying the
disposition of others, and preparing them to concur in the business.
When matters were ripe, he ordered thirty of the principal citizens to
appear armed in the market-place by break of day, to strike terror into
such as might desire to oppose him. Hermippus has given us the names
of twenty of the most eminent of them; but he that had the greatest
share in the whole enterprise, and gave Lycurgus the best assistance in
the establishing of his laws, was called Arithmiades. Upon the first
alarm, king Charilaus, apprehending it to be a design against his person,
took refuge in the Chalcioicos. But he was soon satisfied, and accepted
of their oath. Nay, so far from being obstinate, he joined in the
undertaking. Indeed, he was so remarkable for the gentleness of his
disposition, that Archelaus, his partner in the throne, is reported to have
said to some that were praising the young king, "Yes, Charilaus is a
good man to be sure, who cannot find in his heart to punish the bad."
Among the many new institutions of Lycurgus, the first and most
important was that of a senate; which