manner in which his laws come before us,
there does not seem to have been any attempt at a systematic order or
classification. Some of them are mere general and vague directions,
while others again run into the extreme of specialty.

By far the most important of all was the amendment of the law of debtor
and creditor which has already been adverted to, and the abolition of
the power of fathers and brothers to sell their daughters and sisters
into slavery. The prohibition of all contracts on the security of the
body was itself sufficient to produce a vast improvement in the
character and condition of the poorer population,--a result which seems
to have been so sensibly obtained from the legislation of Solon, that
Boeckh and some other eminent authors suppose him to have abolished
villeinage and conferred upon the poor tenants a property in their
lands, annulling the seigniorial rights of the landlord. But this
opinion rests upon no positive evidence, nor are we warranted in
ascribing to him any stronger measure in reference to the land than the
annulment of the previous mortgages.

The first pillar of his laws contained a regulation respecting
exportable produce. He forbade the exportation of all produce of the
Attic soil, except olive oil alone. And the sanction employed to enforce
observance of this law deserves notice, as an illustration of the ideas
of the time: the archon was bound, on pain of forfeiting one hundred
drachmas, to pronounce solemn curses against every offender. We are
probably to take this prohibition in conjunction with other objects said
to have been contemplated by Solon, especially the encouragement of
artisans and manufacturers at Athens. Observing (we are told) that many
new immigrants were just then flocking into Attica to seek an
establishment, in consequence of its greater security, he was anxious to
turn them rather to manufacturing industry than to the cultivation of a
soil naturally poor. He forbade the granting of citizenship to any
immigrants, except to such as had quitted irrevocably their former
abodes and come to Athens for the purpose of carrying on some industrial
profession; and in order to prevent idleness, he directed the senate of
Areopagus to keep watch over the lives of the citizens generally, and
punish every one who had no course of regular labor to support him. If a
father had not taught his son some art or profession, Solon relieved the
son from all obligation to maintain