ry one
also has a vote in their public assembly; but this has only the power of
confirming what has already passed the council and the _kosmoi_.

The Cretans conducted their public meals better than the Lacedaemonians,
for at Lacedsemon each individual was obliged to furnish what was
assessed upon him; which if he could not do, there was a law which
deprived him of the rights of a citizen, as has been already mentioned:
but in Crete they were furnished by the community; for all the corn and
cattle, taxes and contributions, which the domestic slaves were obliged
to furnish, were divided into parts and allotted to the gods, the
exigencies of the state, and these public meals; so that all the men,
women, and children were maintained from a common stock. The legislator
gave great attention to encourage a habit of eating sparingly, as very
useful to the citizens. He also endeavoured, that his community might
not be too populous, to lessen the connection with women, by introducing
the love of boys: whether in this he did well or ill we shall have some
other opportunity of considering. But that the public meals were better
ordered at Crete than at Lacedaemon is very evident.

The institution of the _kosmoi_, was still worse than that of the
ephori: for it contained all the faults incident to that magistracy and
some peculiar to itself; for in both cases it is uncertain who will be
elected: but the Lacedae-monians have this advantage which the others
have not, that as all are eligible, the whole community have a share
in the highest honours, and therefore all desire to preserve the state:
whereas among the Cretans the _kosmoi_ are not chosen out of the people
in general, but out of some certain families, and the senate out of the
_kosmoi_. And the same observations which may be made on the senate at
Lacedaemon may be applied to these; for their being under no control,
and their continuing for life, is an honour greater than they merit; and
to have their proceedings not regulated by a written law, but left to
their own discretion, is dangerous. (As to there being no insurrections,
although the people share not in the management of public affairs, this
is no proof of a well-constituted government, as the _kosmoi_ have no
opportunity of being bribed like the ephori, as they live in an [1272b]
island far from those who would corrupt them.) But the method they take
to correct that fault is absurd, impolitic, and tyrannical: for very