notion concerning God among the ignorant multitude. Yet do
some men look upon Plato's discourses as no better than
certain idle words set off with great artifice. However, they
admire Lycurgus as the principal lawgiver, and all men
celebrate Sparta for having continued in the firm observance
of his laws for a very long time. So far then we have gained,
that it is to be confessed a mark of virtue to submit to laws.
(24) But then let such as admire this in the Lacedemonians
compare that duration of theirs with more than two thousand
years which our political government hath continued; and let
them further consider, that though the Lacedemonians did
seem to observe their laws exactly while they enjoyed their
liberty, yet that when they underwent a change of their
fortune, they forgot almost all those laws; while we, having
been under ten thousand changes in our fortune by the
changes that happened among the kings of Asia, have never
betrayed our laws under the most pressing distresses we have
been in; nor have we neglected them either out of sloth or
for a livelihood. (25) if any one will consider it, the
difficulties and labors laid upon us have been greater than
what appears to have been borne by the Lacedemonian
fortitude, while they neither ploughed their land, nor
exercised any trades, but lived in their own city, free from
all
such pains-taking, in the enjoyment of plenty, and using such
exercises as might improve their bodies, while they made use
of other men as their servants for all the necessaries of life,
and had their food prepared for them by the others; and
these good and humane actions they do for no other purpose
but this, that by their actions and their sufferings they may