So true it is, that a landed interest diffused through a whole people is not only the real strength, but the surest bulwark of the liberty and independency, of a free country. From the tragical fate of the third Agis we learn, that when abuses introduced by corruption are suffered by length of time to take root in the constitution, they will be termed by those whose interest it is to support them, essential parts of the constitution itself; and all attempts to remove them will ever be clamoured against by such men, as attempts to subvert it: As the example of Cleomenes will teach us, that the publick virtue of one great man may not only save his falling country from ruin, but raise her to her former dignity and lustre, by bringing her back to those principles on which her constitution was originally founded. Though the violent remedies made use of by Cleomenes never ought to be applied, unless the disease is grown too desperate to admit of a cure by milder methods. I shall endeavour to show in its proper place, that the constitution established by Lycurgus, which seemed to Polybius to be rather of divine than of human institution, and was so much celebrated by the most eminent philosophers of antiquity, is much inferior to the British constitution as settled at the revolution.[47] But I cannot quit this subject without recommending that excellent institution of Lycurgus which provided for the education of the children of the whole community without distinction. An example which under proper regulations would be highly worthy of our imitation, since nothing could give a more effectual check to the reigning vices and follies of the present age, or contribute so much to a reformation of manners, as to form the minds of the rising generation by the principles of religion and virtue. Where the manners of a people are good, very few laws will be wanting; but when their manners are depraved, all the laws in the world will be insufficient to restrain the excesses of the human passions. For as Horace justly observes.... _Quid legis sine moribus Vanæ proficiunt._ Ode 24. lib. 3. [5] Dion. Halicarn. p. 248. edit. Rob. Steph. 1546. [6] Plutarch relates this affair greatly to the honour of Lycurgus in the beginning of his life. [7] Ἄγιδος γοῦν τοῦ βασιλέως ἐζημίωσαν αὐτόν Plut. vita Lycur. pag. 46. lit. c. Edit. Xiglandri. [8] Lycurgus was the first who collected the entire works of Homer; which he brought into Greece out of Asia-Minor. [9] Plutarch has taken no notice of them. But Xenophon has fully explained them in his treatise on the Spartan republick, p. 542, and seq. [10] Plut. Vit. Lycurg. ad finem. [11] Plut. ibid. p. 58. A. Ἡ γὰρ τῶν Ἐφόρων κατάστασις, &c. [12] De Rebuspubl. cap. 11. p. 154. vol. 2. Edit Basil. 1550. [13] Οὐ δῆτα φάναι παραδίδωμι γὰρ πολυχρονιωτέραν. [14] Arist. de. Rebuspubl. lib. 2. c. 7. p. 122. lit. 1. vol. 2.