ruction which they seem to have received was what was called
learning justice. The boys had certain teachers, who explained to
them, more or less formally, the general principles of right and
wrong, the injunctions and prohibitions of the laws, and the
obligations resulting from them, and the rules by which controversies
between man and man, arising in the various relations of life, should
be settled. The boys were also trained to apply these principles and
rules to the cases which occurred among themselves, each acting as
judge in turn, to discuss and decide the questions that arose from
time to time, either from real transactions as they occurred, or from
hypothetical cases invented to put their powers to the test. To
stimulate the exercise of their powers, they were rewarded when they
decided right, and punished when they decided wrong. Cyrus himself was
punished on one occasion for a wrong decision, under the following
circumstances:

A bigger boy took away the coat of a smaller boy than himself, because
it was larger than his own, and gave him his own smaller coat instead.
The smaller boy complained of the wrong, and the case was referred to
Cyrus for his adjudication. After hearing the case, Cyrus decided that
each boy should keep the coat that fitted him. The teacher condemned
this as a very unjust decision. "When you are called upon," said he,
"to consider a question of what fits best, then you should determine
as you have done in this case; but when you are appointed to decide
whose each coat is, and to adjudge it to the proper owner, then you
are to consider what constitutes right possession, and whether he who
takes a thing by force from one who is weaker than himself, should
have it, or whether he who made it or purchased it should be protected
in his property. You have decided against law, and in favor of
violence and wrong." Cyrus's sentence was thus condemned, and he was
punished for not reasoning more soundly.

The boys at this Persian court were trained to many manly exercises.
They were taught to wrestle and to run. They were instructed in the
use of such arms as were employed in those times, and rendered
dexterous in the use of them by daily exercises. They were taught to
put their skill in practice, too, in hunting excursions, which they
took, by turns, with the king, in the neighboring forest and
mountains. On these occasions, they were armed with a bow, and a
quiver of arrows, a shield, a small s