Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/161

DEMOCRACY CONTRASTED. 14$ 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 es- sential 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 pro- portion 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 exist- ing government is ranked merely as one of the contending parties. The virtuous citizen is enjoined not to come forward in its sup- port, but to come forward at all events, either for it or against it : positive and early action is all that is pr, '.scribed to hirn as matter of duty. In the age of Solon, there was no political idea or system yet current which could be assumed as an unquestion- able 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 Kleisthenes, 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 sin- cere and solemn oaths to uphold their democracy against all attempts to subvert it ; we shall discover in them a sentiment not less positive and uncompromising in its direction, than energetic in its inspirations. But while we notice this very important change in their character, we shall at the same time perceive that the wise precautionary recommendation of Solon, to obviate se- dition by an early declaration of the impartial public between two contending leaders, was not lost upon them. Such, in point of fact, was the purpose of that salutary and protective institu- tion which is called Ostracism. "When two party-leaders, in the early stages of the Athenian democracy, each powerful in aclbc- voi.. in. 7 lOoc.