not been acquired by the poor. After a first restoration had failed,
which is only memorable because Thucydides, whose judgment in politics
is never at fault, pronounced it the best Government Athens had enjoyed,
the attempt was renewed with more experience and greater singleness of
purpose. The hostile parties were reconciled, and proclaimed an
amnesty, the first in history. They resolved to govern by concurrence.
The laws, which had the sanction of tradition, were reduced to a code;
and no act of the sovereign assembly was valid with which they might be
found to disagree. Between the sacred lines of the Constitution which
were to remain inviolate, and the decrees which met from time to time
the needs and notions of the day, a broad distinction was drawn; and the
fabric of a law which had been the work of generations was made
independent of momentary variations in the popular will. The repentance
of the Athenians came too late to save the Republic. But the lesson of
their experience endures for all times, for it teaches that government
by the whole people, being the government of the most numerous and most
powerful class, is an evil of the same nature as unmixed monarchy, and
requires, for nearly the same reasons, institutions that shall protect
it against itself, and shall uphold the permanent reign of law against
arbitrary revolutions of opinion.

* * * * *

Parallel with the rise and fall of Athenian freedom, Rome was employed
in working out the same problems, with greater constructive sense, and
greater temporary success, but ending at last in a far more terrible
catastrophe. That which among the ingenious Athenians had been a
development carried forward by the spell of plausible argument, was in
Rome a conflict between rival forces. Speculative politics had no
attraction for the grim and practical genius of the Romans. They did not
consider what would be the cleverest way of getting over a difficulty,
but what way was indicated by analogous cases; and they assigned less
influence to the impulse and spirit of the moment, than to precedent and
example. Their peculiar character prompted them to ascribe the origin of
their laws to early times, and in their desire to justify the continuity
of their institutions, and to get rid of the reproach of innovation,
they imagined the legendary history of the kings of Rome. The energy of
their adherence to traditions made their progress slow, they