or probation in them, before he can
obtain the freedom in any corporation, or be
allowed to set up any trade, either in a village
or town corporate.
It was in this manner, by facilitating the
acquisition of their military and gymnastic
exercises, by encouraging it, and even by imposing
upon the whole body of the people the
necessity of learning those exercises, that the
Greek and Roman republics maintained the
martial spirit of their respective citizens. They
facilitated the acquisition of those exercises,
by appointing a certain place for learning and
practising them, and by granting to certain
masters the privilege of teaching in that place.
Those masters do not appear to have had either
salaries or exclusive privileges of any
kind. Their reward consisted altogether in
what they got from their scholars; and a citizen,
who had learnt his exercises in the public
gymnasia, had no sort of legal advantage
over one who had learnt them privately, provided
the latter had learned them equally
well. Those republics encouraged the acquisition
of those exercises, by bestowing little
premiums and badges of distinction upon those
who excelled in them. To have gained a
prize in the Olympic, Isthmian, or Nemæan
games, gave illustration, not only to the person
who gained it, but to his whole family and
kindred. The obligation which every citizen
was under, to serve a certain number of years,
if called upon, in the armies of the republic,
sufficient imposed the necessity of learning
those exercises, without which he could not
be fit for that service.
That in the progress of improvement, the
practice of military exercises, unless government
takes proper pains to support it, goes
gradually to decay, and, together with it, the
martial spirit of the great body of the people,
the example of modern Europe sufficiently
demonstrates. But the security of every society
must always depend, more or less, upon the
martial spirit of the great body of the people.
In the present times, indeed, that martial spirit
alone, and unsupported by a well-disciplined
standing army, would not, perhaps, be sufficient
for the defence and security of any society.
But where every citizen had the spirit
of a soldier, a smaller standing army would
surely be requisite. That spirit, besides, would
necessarily diminish very much the dangers
to liberty, whether real or imaginary, which
are commonly apprehended from a standing
army. As it would very much facilitate the
operations of that army against a foreign invader;
so it would obstruct them as much, if
unfortunately they should ever be directed
against the constitution of the state.
The ancient institutions of Greece and
Rome seem to have been much more effectual
for maintaining the martial spirit of the great
body of the people, than the establishment of
what are called the militias of modern times.
They were much more simple. When they
were once established, they executed themselves,
and it required little or no attention
from government to maintain them in the
most perfect vigour. Whereas to maintain,
even in tolerable execution, the complex regulations
of any modern militia, requires the
continual and painful attention of government,
without which they are constantly falling
into total neglect and disuse. The influence,
besides, of the ancient institutions, was
much more universal. By means of them, the
whole body of the people was completely instructed
in the use of arms; whereas it is but
a very small part of them who can ever be
so instructed by the regulations of any modern
militia, except, perhaps, that of Switzerland.
But a coward, a man incapable either
of defending or of revenging himself, evidently
wants one of the most essential parts
of the character of a man. He is as much
mutilated and deformed in his mind as another
is in his body, who is either deprived of
some of its most essential members, or has
lost the use of them. He is evidently the
more wretched and miserable of the two; because
happiness and misery, which reside altogether
in the mind, must necessarily depend
more upon the healthful or unhealthful, the
mutilated or entire state of the mind, than
upon that of the body. Even though the martial
spirit of the people were of no use towards
the defence of the society, yet, to prevent
that sort of mental mutilation, deformity, and
wretchedness, which cowardice necessarily involves
in it, from spreading themselves through
the great body of the people, would still deserve
the most serious attention of government;
in the same manner as it would deserve
its most serious attention to prevent a
leprosy, or any other loathsome and offensive
disease, though neither mortal nor dangerous,
from spreading itself among them; though,
perhaps, no other public good might result
from such attention, besides the prevention of
so great a public evil.
The same thing may be said of the gross
ignorance and stupidity which, in a civilized
society, seem so frequently to benumb the
understandings of all the inferior ranks of
people. A man without the proper use of the
intellectual faculties of a man, is, if possible,
more contemptible than even a coward, and
seems to be mutilated and deformed in a still
more essential part of the character of human
nature. Though the state was to derive no
advantage from the instruction of the inferior
ranks of people, it would still deserve its attention
that they should not be altogether uninstructed.
The state, however, derives no
inconsiderable advantage from their instruction.
The more they are instructed, the less
liable they are to the delusions of enthusiasm
and superstition, which, among ignorant nations
frequently occasion the most dreadful