tinent.

III

Coming to the critical period at which a boy ceases to be a boy and
becomes a youth, (1) we find that it is just then that the rest of the
world proceed to emancipate their children from the private tutor and
the schoolmaster, and, without substituting any further ruler, are
content to launch them into absolute independence.

(1) {eis to meirakiousthai}, "with reference to hobbledehoy-hood."
Cobet erases the phrase as post-Xenophontine.

Here, again, Lycurgus took an entirely opposite view of the matter.
This, if observation might be trusted, was the season when the tide
of animal spirits flows fast, and the froth of insolence rises to the
surface; when, too, the most violent appetites for divers pleasures, in
serried ranks, invade (2) the mind. This, then, was the right moment at
which to impose tenfold labours upon the growing youth, and to devise
for him a subtle system of absorbing occupation. And by a crowning
enactment, which said that "he who shrank from the duties imposed on
him would forfeit henceforth all claim to the glorious honours of the
state," he caused, not only the public authorities, but those personally
interested (3) in the several companies of youths to take serious
pains so that no single individual of them should by an act of craven
cowardice find himself utterly rejected and reprobate within the body
politic.

(2) Lit. "range themselves." For the idea, see "Mem." I. ii. 23;
Swinburne, "Songs before Sunrise": Prelude, "Past youth where
shoreward shallows are."

(3) Or, "the friends and connections."

Furthermore, in his desire to implant in their youthful souls a root of
modesty he imposed upon these bigger boys a special rule. In the very
streets they were to keep their two hands (4) within the folds of the
cloak; they were to walk in silence and without turning their heads to
gaze, now here, now there, but rather to keep their eyes fixed upon the
ground before them. And hereby it would seem to be proved conclusively
that, even in the matter of quiet bearing and sobriety, (5) the
masculine type may claim greater strength than that which we attribute
to the nature of women. At any rate, you might sooner expect a stone
image to find voice than one of those Spartan youths; to divert the eyes
of some bronze stature were less difficult. And as to quiet bearing, no
bride ever stepped in bridal bower (6) with more natural modesty. Note
them when they have reach