the first in history. They resolved to govern by concurrence. The laws, which had the sanction of tradition were reduced to a code; and no act of the sovereign assembly was valid with which they might be found to disagree. Between the sacred lines of the Constitution which were to remain inviolate, and the decrees which met from time to time the needs and notions of the day, a broad distinction was drawn; and the fabric of a law which had been the work of generations was made independent of momentary variations in the popular will. The repentance of the Athenians came too late to save the Republic. But the lesson of their experience endures for all times, for it teaches that government by the whole people, being the government of the most numerous and most powerful class, is an evil of the same nature as unmixed monarchy, and requires, for nearly the same reasons, institutions that shall protect it against itself, and shall uphold the permanent reign of law against arbitrary revolutions of opinion.
Parallel with the rise and fall of Athenian freedom,
Rome was employed in working out the same problems,
with greater constructive sense, and greater temporary
success, but ending at last in a far more terrible catastrophe. That which among the ingenious Athenians had been a development carried forward by the spell of plausible argument, was in Rome a conflict between rival
forces. Speculative politics had no attraction for the
grim and practical genius of the Romans. They did not
consider what would be the cleverest way of getting over
a difficulty, but what way was indicated by analogous
cases; and they assigned less influence to the impulse
and spirit of the moment, than to precedent and example.
Their peculiar character prompted them to ascribe the
origin of their laws to early times, and in their desire to
justify the continuity of their institutions, and to get rid
of the reproach of innovation, they imagined the legendary
history of the kings of Rome. The energy of their
adherence to traditions made their progress slow, they
