He set sail, therefore, and landed in Crete. There having observed the
forms of government, and conversed with the most illustrious personages,
he was struck with admiration of some of their laws, and resolved at his
return to make use of them in Sparta. Some others he rejected. Among the
friends he gained in Crete was Thales, with whom he had interest enough
to persuade him to go and settle at Sparta. Thales was famed for his
wisdom and political abilities: he was withal a lyric poet, who under
colour of exercising his art, performed as great things as the most
excellent lawgivers. For his odes were so many persuasives to obedience
and unanimity, as by means of melody and numbers they had great grace
and power, they softened insensibly the manners of the audience, drew
them off from the animosities which then prevailed, and united them in
zeal for excellence and virtue. So that, in some measure, he prepared
the way for Lycurgus towards the instruction of the Spartans. From Crete
Lycurgus passed to Asia, desirous, as is said, to compare the Ionian
expense and luxury with the Cretan frugality and hard diet, so as to
judge what effect each had on their several manners and governments;
just as physicians compare bodies that are weak and sickly with the
healthy and robust. There also, probably, he met with Homer's poems,
which were preserved by the posterity of Cleophylus. Observing that many
moral sentences and much political knowledge were intermixed with his
stories, which had an irresistible charm, he collected them into one
body, and transcribed them with pleasure, in order to take them home
with him. For his glorious poetry was not yet fully known in Greece;
only some particular pieces were in a few hands, as they happened to be
dispersed. Lycurgus was the first that made them generally known. The
Egyptians likewise suppose that he visited them; and as of all their
institutions he was most pleased with their distinguishing the military
men from the rest of the people, he took the same method at Sparta, and,