When once the principles of government are corrupted, the very best
laws become bad, and turn against the state: but when the principles are
sound, even bad laws have the same effect as good; the force of the
principle draws everything to it.
The inhabitants of Crete used a very singular method to keep the
principal magistrates dependent on the laws, which was that of
Insurrection. Part of the citizens rose up in arms,
[13]
put the magistrates to flight, and obliged them to return to a private life.
This was supposed to be done in consequence of the law. One would have
imagined that an institution of this nature, which established sedition
to hinder the abuse of power, would have subverted any republic
whatsoever; and yet it did not subvert that of Crete. The reason is
this.
[14]
When the ancients would cite a people that had the strongest
affection for their country, they were sure to mention the inhabitants
of Crete: "Our Country," said Plato,
[15]
"a name so dear to the Cretans." They called it by a name which signifies the
love of a mother for her children.
[16]
Now the love of our country sets everything right.
The laws of Poland have likewise their Insurrection: but the
inconveniences thence arising plainly show that the people of Crete
alone were capable of using such a remedy with success.
The gymnic exercises established among the Greeks had the same
dependence on the goodness of the principle of government. "It was the
Lacedmonians and Cretans," said Plato,
[17]
"that opened those celebrated
academies which gave them so eminent a rank in the world. Modesty at
first was alarmed; but it yielded to the public utility." In Plato's
time these institutions were admirable:
[18]
as they bore a relation to a
very important object, which was the military art. But when virtue fled
from Greece, the military art was destroyed by these institutions;
people appeared then on the arena, not for improvement, but for
debauch.
[19]
Plutarch informs us
[20]
that the Romans in his time were of
opinion that those games had been the principal cause of the slavery
into which the Greeks had fallen. On the contrary, it was the slavery of
the Greeks that corrupted those exercises. In Plutarch's time,
[21]
their fighting naked in the parks, and their wrestling, infected the young
people with a spirit of cowardice, inclined them to infamous passions,
and made them mere dancers. But under Epaminondas the exercise of
wrestling made the Thebans win the famous battle of Leuctra.
[22]
There are very few laws which are not good, while the state retains
its principles: here I may apply what Epicurus said of riches. "It is
not the liquor, but the vessel that is corrupted."
