g the small political
societies of Greece--especially in the age of Solon, when the number of
despots in other parts of Greece seems to have been at its
maximum--every government, whatever might be its form, was sufficiently
weak to make its overthrow a matter of comparative facility. Unless upon
the supposition of a band of foreign mercenaries--which would render the
government a system of naked force, and which the Athenian lawgiver
would of course never contemplate--there was no other stay for it except
a positive and pronounced feeling of attachment on the part of the mass
of citizens. Indifference on their part would render them a prey to
every daring man of wealth who chose to become a conspirator. That they
should be ready to come forward, not only with voice but with arms--and
that they should be known beforehand to be so--was essential to the
maintenance of every good Grecian government. It was salutary in
preventing mere personal attempts at revolution; and pacific in its
tendency, even where the revolution had actually broken out, because in
the greater number of cases the proportion of partisans would probably
be very unequal, and the inferior party would be compelled to renounce
their hopes.

It will be observed that, in this enactment of Solon, the existing
government is ranked merely as one of the contending parties. The
virtuous citizen is enjoined, not to come forward in its support, but to
come forward at all events, either for it or against it. Positive and
early action is all which is prescribed to him as matter of duty. In the
age of Solon there was no political idea or system yet current which
could be assumed as an unquestionable datum--no conspicuous standard to
which the citizens could be pledged under all circumstances to attach
themselves. The option lay only between a mitigated oligarchy in
possession, and a despot in possibility; a contest wherein the
affections of the people could rarely be counted upon in favor of the
established government. But this neutrality in respect to the
constitution was at an end after the revolution of Clisthenes, when the
idea of the sovereign people and the democratical institutions became
both familiar and precious to every individual citizen. We shall
hereafter find the Athenians binding themselves by the most sincere and
solemn oaths to uphold their democracy against all attempts to subvert
it; we shall discover in them a sentiment not less positive and
unc