2. But instead of the pointed and logical reasoning, and the fervid declamation of the Athenians, the Doric race had a peculiar manner of expressing itself, viz. by apophthegms, and sententious and concise sayings. The object appears to have been, to convey as much meaning in as few words as possible, and to allude to, rather than express, the thoughts of the speaker. A habit of mind which might fit its possessor for such a mode of speaking, would best be generated by long and unbroken _silence_; which was enjoined to his scholars by Pythagoras, and by Sparta enforced on all youths during their education:(1758) it being intended that their thoughts should gain force and intensity by compression.(1759) Hence the great brevity of speech,(1760) which was the characteristic of all the genuine Dorians, especially of the Spartans,(1761) Cretans,(1762) and Argives,(1763) forming a remarkable contrast with the copious and headlong torrent of eloquence which distinguished the Athenians. The antiquity of this characteristic of the Spartans is proved by the fact of Homer’s attributing it to Menelaus, When Atreus’ son harangued the list’ning train, Just was his sense, and his expression plain, His words succinct, yet full, without a fault; He spoke no more than just the thing he ought.(1764) In which lines the poet evidently transfers the peculiarity of the Doric Laconians to the earlier inhabitants of that country.(1765) In adopting this mode of expression, the Dorians may be conceived, in the first place, to have wished to avoid all ornament of speech, and to have contented themselves with the simplest manner of conveying their thoughts; as Stesimbrotus the Thasian opposes to the adroit and eloquent Athenian the openness and simplicity of the Peloponnesian, who was plain and unadorned, but of an honest and guileless disposition.(1766) Or, secondly, it was intended to have double force by the contrast of the richness of the thought, with the slight expense of words. Probably, however, both these motives had their weight; though the latter perhaps predominated. In a dialogue of Plato,(1767) Socrates says, half in joke and half in earnest, that “_of all the philosophical systems in Greece, that established in Crete and Lacedæmon was the most ancient and copious, and there the sophists were most numerous; but they concealed their skill, and pretended to be ignorant. And hence, on conversing with the meanest Lacedæmonian, at first indeed he would appear awkward in his language, but when he perceived the drift of the conversation, he would throw in, like a dexterous lancer, some short and nervous remark, so as to make the other look no better than a child. Nor in these cities is such a manner of speaking confined to the men, but it extends also to women._”