At a later age, for instance that of Plutarch, the spectacle of young maidens appearing on occasions of public festivity in a single garment, loose, and reaching a little below the knee, would have been associated with ideas of disgrace and shame; but, under a condition of society in which the animal instincts had not wholly gained the ascendency over the higher faculties, or in which the characters peculiar to women had not been overshadowed or subdued by the grosser elements developed in human nature, such a proceeding might not, as we have seen, be inconsistent with the purest motives and the highest aims. Something of the extent to which the influence of women was exerted to stimulate bravery and courage in the opposite sex is shown in the description by Plutarch of the festivals in which the young people appeared before each other in a semi-nude state to practise the popular games of strength and skill. Concerning these festivals this writer remarks that the young women engaged in little raillery upon those who lacked skill, or who had not done their best, while “on such as deserved them they sang encomiums, thus exciting in the young men a useful emulation and love of glory.” Plutarch observes also that “those who were praised for their bravery and celebrated among the virgins went away perfectly happy, while their satirical glances were no less cutting than serious admonitions.”[207] [207] _Lycurgus._ These facts indicate something of the extent to which female influence still survived in ancient Sparta, and reveal plainly the fact that although in the time of Lycurgus the coarser instincts developed in human nature had made considerable headway, they had not totally eclipsed the finer characters peculiar to women, as was the case at a later period of Grecian history—more particularly among the Athenians. “As for the virgins appearing naked,” Plutarch himself assures us, there was nothing disgraceful in it, because everything was conducted with modesty, and without one indecent word or action. Nay, it caused a simplicity of manner and an emulation for the best habit of body; their ideas too were naturally enlarged while they were not excluded from their share of bravery and honour. Regarding the commingling of the sexes among the Spartans, Mr. Grote says: When we read the restrictions which Spartan custom imposed upon the intercourse even between married persons, we shall conclude without hesitation that the public intermixture of the sexes led to no such liberties between persons not married, as might be likely to arise from it under other circumstances.[208] [208] _History of Greece_, vol. ii., p. 385.