Laws
preservation than the supervision of them by examiners who are better
than the magistrates; failing in this they fall to pieces, and each
becomes many instead of one. Wherefore let the people meet after the
summer solstice, in the precincts of Apollo and the Sun, and appoint
three men of not less than fifty years of age. They shall proceed as
follows:--Each citizen shall select some one, not himself, whom he
thinks the best. The persons selected shall be reduced to one half, who
have the greatest number of votes, if they are an even number; but if an
odd number, he who has the smallest number of votes shall be previously
withdrawn. The voting shall continue in the same manner until three only
remain; and if the number of votes cast for them be equal, a distinction
between the first, second, and third shall be made by lot. The three
shall be crowned with an olive wreath, and proclamation made, that the
city of the Magnetes, once more preserved by the Gods, presents her
three best men to Apollo and the Sun, to whom she dedicates them as long
as their lives answer to the judgment formed of them. They shall choose
in the first year of their office twelve examiners, to continue until
they are seventy-five years of age; afterwards three shall be added
annually. While they hold office, they shall dwell within the precinct
of the God. They are to divide all the magistracies into twelve classes,
and may apply any methods of enquiry, and inflict any punishments which
they please; in some cases singly, in other cases together, announcing
the acquittal or punishment of the magistrate on a tablet which they
will place in the agora. A magistrate who has been condemned by the
examiners may appeal to the select judges, and, if he gain his suit,
may in turn prosecute the examiners; but if the appellant is cast,
his punishment shall be doubled, unless he was previously condemned to
death.
And what honours shall be paid to these examiners, whom the whole state
counts worthy of the rewards of virtue? They shall have the first place
at all sacrifices and other ceremonies, and in all assemblies and
public places; they shall go on sacred embassies, and have the exclusive
privilege of wearing a crown of laurel. They are priests of Apollo
and the Sun, and he of their number who is judged first shall be high
priest, and give his name to the year. The manner of their burial, too,
shall be different from that of the other citizens. The colour of their
funeral array shall be white, and, instead of the voice of lamentation,
around the bier shall stand a chorus of fifteen boys and fifteen
maidens, chanting hymns in honour of the deceased in alternate strains
during an entire day; and at dawn a band of a hundred youths shall carry
the bier to the grave, marching in the garb of warriors, and the boys in
front of the bier shall sing their national hymn, while the maidens and
women past child-bearing follow after. Priests and priestesses may also
follow, unless the Pythian oracle forbids. The sepulchre shall be a
vault built underground, which will last for ever, having couches of
stone placed side by side; on one of these they shall lay the departed
saint, and then cover the tomb with a mound, and plant trees on every
side except one, where an opening shall be left for other interments.
Every year there shall be games--musical, gymnastic, or equestrian, in
honour of those who have passed every ordeal. But if any of them, after
having been acquitted on any occasion, begin to show the wickedness
of human nature, he who pleases may bring them to trial before a court
composed of the guardians of the law, and of the select judges, and
of any of the examiners who are alive. If he be convicted he shall be
deprived of his honours, and if the accuser do not obtain a fifth part
of the votes, he shall pay a fine according to his class.
What is called the judgment of Rhadamanthus is suited to 'ages of
faith,' but not to our days. He knew that his contemporaries believed
in the Gods, for many of them were the sons of Gods; and he thought that
the easiest and surest method of ending litigation was to commit the
decision to Heaven. In our own day, men either deny the existence
of Gods or their care of men, or maintain that they may be bribed by
attentions and gifts; and the procedure of Rhadamanthus would therefore
be out of date. When the religious ideas of mankind change, their laws
should also change. Thus oaths should no longer be taken from plaintiff
and defendant; simple statements of affirmation and denial should be
substituted. For there is something dreadful in the thought, that nearly
half the citizens of a state are perjured men. There is no objection
to an oath, where a man has no interest in forswearing himself; as, for
example, when a judge is about to give his decision, or in voting at
an election, or in the judgment of games and contests. But where
there would be a premium on perjury, oaths and imprecations should be
prohibited as irrelevant, like appeals to feeling. Let the principles of
justice be learned and taught without words of evil omen. The oaths of
a stranger against a stranger may be allowed, because strangers are not
permitted to become permanent residents in our state.
Trials in private causes are to be decided in the same manner as lesser
offences against the state. The non-attendance at a chorus or sacrifice,
or the omission to pay a war-tax, may be regarded as in the first
instance remediable, and the defaulter may give security; but if he
forfeits the security, the goods pledged shall be sold and the money
given to the state. And for obstinate disobedience, the magistrate shall
have the power of inflicting greater penalties.
A city which is without trade or commerce must consider what it will do
about the going abroad of its own people and the admission of strangers.
For out of intercourse with strangers there arises great confusion of
manners, which in most states is not of any consequence, because the
confusion exists already; but in a well-ordered state it may be a great
evil. Yet the absolute prohibition of foreign travel, or the exclusion
of strangers, is impossible, and would appear barbarous to the rest of
mankind. Public opinion should never be lightly regarded, for the many
are not so far wrong in their judgments as in their lives. Even the
worst of men have often a divine instinct, which enables them to judge
of the differences between the good and bad. States are rightly advised
when they desire to have the praise of men; and the greatest and truest
praise is that of virtue. And our Cretan colony should, and probably
will, have a character for virtue, such as few cities have. Let
this, then, be our law about foreign travel and the reception of
strangers:--No one shall be allowed to leave the country who is under
forty years of age--of course military service abroad is not included in
this regulation--and no one at all except in a public capacity. To the
Olympic, and Pythian, and Nemean, and Isthmian games, shall be sent the
fairest and best and bravest, who shall support the dignity of the city
in time of peace. These, when they come home, shall teach the youth the
inferiority of all other governments. Besides those who go on sacred
missions, other persons shall be sent out by permission of the guardians
to study the institutions of foreign countries. For a people which has
no experience, and no knowledge of the characters of men or the reason
of things, but lives by habit only, can never be perfectly civilized.
Moreover, in all states, bad as well as good, there are holy and
inspired men; these the citizen of a well-ordered city should be ever
seeking out; he should go forth to find them over sea and over land,
that he may more firmly establish institutions in his own state which
are good already and amend the bad. 'What will be the best way of
accomplishing such an object?' In the first place, let the visitor of
foreign countries be between fifty and sixty years of age, and let him
be a citizen of repute, especially in military matters. On his return
he shall appear before the Nocturnal Council: this is a body which sits
from dawn to sunrise, and includes amongst its members the priests who
have gained the prize of virtue, and the ten oldest guardians of the
law, and the director and past directors of education; each of whom has
power to bring with him a younger friend of his own selection, who is
between thirty and forty. The assembly thus constituted shall consider
the laws of their own and other states, and gather information relating
to them. Anything of the sort which is approved by the elder members of
the council shall be studied with all diligence by the younger; who are
to be specially watched by the rest of the citizens, and shall receive
honour, if they are deserving of honour, or dishonour, if they prove
inferior. This is the assembly to which the visitor of foreign countries
shall come and tell anything which he has heard from others in the
course of his travels, or which he has himself observed. If he be made
neither better nor worse, let him at least be praised for his zeal; and
let him receive still more praise, and special honour after death, if
he be improved. But if he be deteriorated by his travels, let him be
prohibited from speaking to any one; and if he submit, he may live as
a private individual: but if he be convicted of attempting to make
innovations in education and the laws, let him die.
Next, as to the reception of strangers. Of these there are four
classes:--First, merchants, who, like birds of passage, find their way
over the sea at a certain time of the year, that they may exhibit their
wares. These should be received in markets and public buildings without
the city, by proper officers, who shall see that justice is done them,
and shall also watch against any political designs which they may
entertain; no more intercourse is to be held with them than is
absolutely necessary. Secondly, there are the visitors at the festivals,
who shall be entertained by hospitable persons at the temples for a
reasonable time; the priests and ministers of the temples shall have
a care of them. In small suits brought by them or against them, the
priests shall be the judges; but in the more important, the wardens of
the agora. Thirdly, there are ambassadors of foreign states; these are
to be honourably received by the generals and commanders, and placed
under the care of the Prytanes and of the persons with whom they are
lodged. Fourthly, there is the philosophical stranger, who, like our
own spectators, from time to time goes to see what is rich and rare in
foreign countries. Like them he must be fifty years of age: and let him
go unbidden to the doors of the wise and rich, that he may learn from
them, and they from him.
These are the rules of missions into foreign countries, and of the
reception of strangers. Let Zeus, the God of hospitality, be honoured;
and let not the stranger be excluded, as in Egypt, from meals and
sacrifices, or, (as at Sparta,) driven away by savage proclamations.
Let guarantees be clearly given in writing and before witnesses. The
number of witnesses shall be three when the sum lent is under a thousand
drachmas, or five when above. The agent and principal at a fraudulent
sale shall be equally liable. He who would search another man's house
for anything must swear that he expects to find it there; and he shall
enter naked, or having on a single garment and no girdle. The owner
shall place at the disposal of the searcher all his goods, sealed as
well as unsealed; if he refuse, he shall be liable in double the value
of the property, if it shall prove to be in his possession. If the owner
be absent, the searcher may counter-seal the property which is under