be invaded. This custom, and that of the bridegroom's stealing his bride,—as the form of marriage,—seem to indicate an open and merry contest of the individual with the social power, in the one case; and of masculine with feminine force, in the other;—a gay admission of the fact, that the problem of adjustment, in either case, was not quite solved, and that it should be left to the right of the strongest, heroically exercised. The Doric organization of society, in these respects, bears the same relation to the ideal Christian organization, as the hero to the saint. But the law of property, and the physical advantage of the masculine sex, never descended with the Dorians to the brutality of the Roman rule, where the debtor, and woman from her birth to her death, were absolute chattel slaves.[1]
The gymnastic exercises of youth were not confined to the male sex. The virgins also contended in classes. But there is no proof of Plutarch's assertion, that they contended naked before men. There is sufficient circumstantial evidence against this.[2] Their bodily exercises were in private, although, in some religious festivals, they raced in public, as well as danced, but in the usual Dorian dress for virgins. This dress, it is true, only covered the bosom, and reached to the knee; and it is a noticeable fact, in connection with the known chastity of this race, where adultery was unknown before Alcibiades' visit to Sparta, and every approach to impurity was punished with death. The married women among the Dorians alone appeared veiled, or with long garments. The education of girls was so invigorating to mind and body, they could be safely trusted to the chaste instincts of true womanhood. But the Athenians, and other later Greeks, whom Asia had corrupted with its female license, and who were thrown upon the virtue of outward restraints, might have characterized the Dorian virgins as "naked;" not being able to appreciate the drapery of purity.
That to which we sequestrate the name of music stands in the forefront of Dorian education. The musical ear is that
- ↑ See Dr. Arnold's "History of Rome," for proof of these facts.
- ↑ Vide K. O. Müller, passim.
