the common lot of Greek society, but it met them in a way that
displayed a singular genius for politics. The struggle of competing
classes for supremacy, almost everywhere a cause of oppression and
bloodshed, became with them a genuine struggle for freedom; and the
Athenian constitution grew, with little pressure from below, under the
intelligent action of statesmen who were swayed by political reasoning
more than by public opinion. They avoided violent and convulsive change,
because the rate of their reforms kept ahead of the popular demand.
Solon, whose laws began the reign of mind over force, instituted
democracy by making the people, not indeed the administrators, but the
source of power. He committed the Government not to rank or birth, but
to land; and he regulated the political influence of the landowners by
their share in the burdens of the public service. To the lower class,
who neither bore arms nor paid taxes, and were excluded from the
Government, he granted the privilege of choosing and of calling to
account the men by whom they were governed, of confirming or rejecting
the acts of the legislature and the judgments of the courts. Although he
charged the Areopagus with the preservation of his laws, he provided
that they might be revised according to need; and the ideal before his
mind was government by all free citizens. His concessions to the popular
element were narrow, and were carefully guarded. He yielded no more than
was necessary to guarantee the attachment of the whole people to the
State. But he admitted principles that went further than the claims
which he conceded. He took only one step towards democracy, but it was
the first of a series.

When the Persian wars, which converted aristocratic Athens into a
maritime state, had developed new sources of wealth and a new
description of interests, the class which had supplied many of the ships
and most of the men that had saved the national independence and founded
an empire, could not be excluded from power. Solon's principle, that
political influence should be commensurate with political service, broke
through the forms in which he had confined it, and the spirit of his
constitution was too strong for the letter. The fourth estate was
admitted to office, and in order that its candidates might obtain their
share, and no more than their share, and that neither interest nor
numbers might prevail, many public functionaries were appointed by lot.
The Athen