d while he was not unhappy in
any one circumstance. He, therefore, destroyed himself by abstaining
from food, persuaded that the very death of lawgivers should have its
use, and their exit, so far from being insignificant, have its share of
virtue, and be considered as a great action. To him, indeed, whose
performances were so illustrious, the conclusion of life was the crown
of happiness, and his death was left guardian of those invaluable
blessings he had procured his countrymen through life, as they had taken
an oath not to depart from his establishment till his return. Nor was he
deceived in his expectations. Sparta continued superior to the rest of
Greece, both in its government at home and reputation abroad, so long as
it retained the institution of Lycurgus: and this it did during the
space of five hundred years, and the reign of fourteen successive kings,
down to Agis the son of Archidamus. As for the appointment of the
Ephori, it was so far from weakening the constitution, that it gave it
additional vigour, and though it seemed to be established in favour of
the people, it strengthened the aristocracy.

But in the reign of Agis money found its way into Sparta, and with money
came its inseparable attendant--avarice. This was by means of Lysander;
who, though himself incapable of being corrupted by money, filled his
country with the love of it, and with luxury too. He brought both gold
and silver from the wars, and thereby broke through the laws of
Lycurgus. While these were in force, Sparta was not so much under the
political regulations of a commonwealth, as the strict rules of a
philosophic life; and as the poets feign of Hercules, that only with a
club and lion's skin he travelled over the world, clearing it of lawless
ruffians and cruel tyrants; so the Lacedaemonians with a piece of
parchment and coarse coat kept Greece in a voluntary obedience,
destroyed usurpation and tyranny in the states, put an end to wars, and
laid seditions asleep, very often without either shield or lance, and
only by sending one ambassador; to whose directions all parties
concerned immediately submitted. Thus bees, when their prince appears,
compose their quarrels and unite in one swarm. So much did justice and
good government prevail in that state, that I am surprised at those who
say the Lacedaemonians knew indeed how to obey, but not how to govern:
and on this occasion quote the saying of king Theopompus, who, when one
told him t