termined than
the latter. Such was one of the first known instances in which this
memorable stratagem was played off against the liberty of a Grecian
community.

The unbounded popular favor which had procured the passing of this grant
was still further manifested by the absence of all precautions to
prevent the limits of the grant from being exceeded. The number of the
body-guard was not long confined to fifty, and probably their clubs were
soon exchanged for sharper weapons. Pisistratus thus found himself
strong enough to throw off the mask and seize the Acropolis. His leading
opponents, Megacles and the Alcinaeonids, immediately fled the city, and
it was left to the venerable age and undaunted patriotism of Solon to
stand forward almost alone in a vain attempt to resist the usurpation.
He publicly presented himself in the market-place, employing
encouragement, remonstrance and reproach, in order to rouse the spirit
of the people. To prevent this despotism from coming (he told them)
would have been easy; to shake it off now was more difficult, yet at the
same time more glorious. But he spoke in vain, for all who were not
actually favorable to Pisistratus listened only to their fears, and
remained passive; nor did any one join Solon, when, as a last appeal, he
put on his armor and planted himself in military posture before the door
of his house. "I have done my duty (he exclaimed at length); I have
sustained to the best of my power my country and the laws"; and he then
renounced all further hope of opposition--though resisting the instances
of his friends that he should flee, and returning for answer, when they
asked him on what he relied for protection, "On my old age." Nor did he
even think it necessary to repress the inspirations of his Muse. Some
verses yet remain, composed seemingly at a moment when the strong hand
of the new despot had begun to make itself sorely felt, in which he
tells his countrymen--"If ye have endured sorrow from your own baseness
of soul, impute not the fault of this to the gods. Ye have yourselves
put force and dominion into the hands of these men, and have thus drawn
upon yourselves wretched slavery."

It is gratifying to learn that Pisistratus, whose conduct throughout his
despotism was comparatively mild, left Solon untouched. How long this
distinguished man survived the practical subversion of his own
constitution, we cannot certainly determine; but according to the most
probable state