population whose temper was uncertain, and who could not be held responsible for their public conduct, Solon himself endeavoured to guard against any misuse of their power. To the old Council of the Areopagus, consisting of ex-Archons, he entrusted the task, — probably no new one, — of superintending the working of the constitution, and of guarding the interests of public and private morality. To him also is ascribed the establishment of another Council of 400, of which we shall hear more, constituting a committee of the whole people, but chosen yearly from the first three classes. And lastly, it is probable, though we cannot indeed be sure of our details here, that Solon endeavoured by other laws to educate the people in morality and self-respect, to curb luxury as he discouraged idleness, and as he had freed them from the hard bondage of custom and convention, so also to direct them on the road towards intellectual as well as political liberty.[1]
Solon's work did but aid the natural development of germs already in existence. It was simply the turning of the light of a rare and sympathetic wisdom on the opening bud at a critical moment. In spite of cloud and storm, the bud expanded slowly and naturally into bloom, and ripened at last into the choicest fruit. Athens, thus fairly started on her way, — emancipated from the discipline of aristocratic schoolmasters, and growing into an age of manly liberty and self-restraint, — came
- ↑ Abbott, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. 419 foll.; Holm, i. 472; Plutarch, Solon, 21-23.
