it." The man, surprised at this, said: "Why, 'tis impossible to find
such a bull." Geradas smilingly replied: "It is as impossible to find an
adulterer in Sparta."

Though we have to recognize much in the Spartan polity which is
repugnant to our ideas of the sacredness of family ties, yet we must
feel the utmost respect for the Spartan matron in the best days of
Lacedaemon. This rigid system provided for four or five centuries "a
succession of the strongest men that possibly ever existed on the face
of the earth," and the strength of character of the mothers made the
sons what they were. Only the Roman matron can be fitly compared to the
Spartan mother.

It is not surprising that such mothers possessed an influence envied
throughout Greece. "You Spartan women are the only ones who rule over
men," said a stranger to Gorgo, wife of Leonidas. "True," she rejoined;
"for we are the only ones who are the mothers of men."

For several centuries, owing to her peculiar discipline, Sparta was,
excepting Athens, the foremost State of Greece. But time is an enemy
often not taken sufficiently into consideration by men who establish
peculiar systems. And Lycurgus, who wished to make his system perpetual,
did not fully consider the disintegrating effects which time exerts on
all things temporal. "_Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret_
[You may repress natural propensities by force, but they will be
certain to reappear]," says Horace, the wisest of Roman satirists; and
the Spartan polity had attempted to repress nature in men and women and
to control it by law. The great fault in the Lacedaemonian constitution
was in effect the violation of the eternal laws which assign to each
creature his role in the harmony of the world. Men are made for war, but
they are made for peace as well. Therefore, as Lycurgus made the city an
armed camp, in periods of peace the Spartan man "rusted like an unused
sword in its scabbard," and in idleness at home or in garrison duty
abroad fell an easy victim to avarice and lust.

In his legislation concerning women, Lycurgus violated natural
propensities to an even greater extent than he had in his laws governing
the conduct of men. Woman was destined primarily for domestic life. She
was created to bear children; but her kingdom is the home, with its
manifold duties, and rearing children is as much her function as bearing
them. Yet the Spartan lad was taken forcibly from his mother at the
tender ag