Plato, indeed, at one time entertained a similar fancy.—De Rep. t. vi. p. 385. (Cf. Muret. in Aristot. Ethic. 71.) But, afterwards, in his old age, adopted the general conviction of mankind, that he who spares the rod spoils the child.—De Legg. t. viii. p. 12. seq. Varro, however, who wrote much on education, observes, that “remotissimum ad discendum formido, ac nimius timor, et omnis perturbatio animi. Contra delectatio pro telo ad discendum.” Victor. Var. Lect. l. xv. c. 2. Theodoric, the Gothic king of Italy, had another reason for sparing the rod in education. The child, he said, who had trembled at a rod would never dare to look upon a sword.—Gibbon vii. 19. This Gothic prince was not, therefore, acquainted with the Spartan system of education. Footnote 547: Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 959. Footnote 548: Cf. Cressoll. Theat. Rhet. v. 6. p. 471. seq. Nor did their pædagogues[549] or governors behave towards them with less strictness. These were persons,—slaves for the most part,—who at Athens as in the rest of Greece, Sparta not excepted, were from the earliest ages intrusted with the care of boys, and whose ministry could on no account be dispensed with. By Plato[550] even these precautions were deemed insufficient. In his ideal state he would have the pædagogues themselves, as at Sparta, under the strictest inspection, making it the duty of every citizen to have an eye upon them, and arming him with the power to correct their delinquencies as well as those of the boys under their charge. There was to be, moreover, a general inspector intrusted with authority to punish neglect, by whichsoever of the parties committed. Upon these points the views of the Athenians were unquestionably judicious, for since boys did not amongst them pass at once from the hands of their mothers and domestic guardianship into those of the state as at Sparta, such governors were necessary to preserve their manners from defilement and contamination.[551] Their principal duty consisted in leading the lad to and from school, in attending him to the theatre, to the public games, to the forum, and wherever else it was thought fit he should go.[552] It has been by some conjectured that while the boys continued under the care of the schoolmaster the governors remained in the house, or in a building adjoining denominated the pædagogeion, to await their return; but the inference, drawn chiefly from the name of the edifice, is erroneous; pædagogeion was employed to signify the school itself,[553] and we have the testimony of Plato to prove that the pædagogue having delivered the boy to the didaskalos, usually returned to his master’s house. Footnote 549: On these and the other persons engaged in the education of youth, see Bergmann, ad Isoc. Areop. § 14. Footnote 550: De Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 42. See p. 11 of Cramer’s excellent little pamphlet, which I have frequently found extremely useful. Footnote 551: