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CONSTITUTIONS OF THE GRECIAN STATES. 121the people the account which was due to them. 1The usualsupport of such an authority, is an armed power, composedof foreigners and hirelings which was;therefore always regarded as the sure mark of a tyrant. 2Such a governmentby no means necessarily implied, that the existing regulationsand laws would be entirelyset aside.They could continue ;even a usurper needs an administration ; only he raiseshimself above the laws. The natural aim of these tyrantsin their families.usually was, to make their power hereditaryBut though this happened in many cities, the supremepower was seldom retained for a long time by the samefamily. It continued longest, says 3 Aristotle, in the houseof Orthagoras in Sicyon, for as it was very moderate andeven popular,it lasted a century ;and for the same causesit was preserved about as long in the house of Cypselus inCorinth. But if it could not be maintained by such means,how could it have been kept up by mere violence andterror? Where the love of freedom is once so deeply fixed,as it was in the character of the Grecians, the attempts tooppress it only give a new impulse to its defenders.And by what criterion shall the historian, who investigatesthe history of humanity; form his judgment of the worth ofthese constitutions ?By that, which a modern school, placingthe object of the state in the security of person and of property, desires to see adopted We ? may observe in Greeceexertions made to gain that security ;but it is equally clear,that it was, and, with such constitutions, could have been,but imperfectly attained. In the midst of the frequentstorms, to which those states were exposed, that tranquillitycould not long be preserved,in which men limit their activepowers to the improvement of their domestic condition. Itdoes not belong to us to institute inquiriesinto the correctness of those principles but; experience does not admit ofits being denied, that in these, to all appearances, so imperfect constitutions, every thing, which forms the glory of man,flourished in its highest perfection.It was those very storms,which called forth master spirits, by opening to them asphere of action. There was no place here for indolenceand inactivity of mind ;where each individual felt mostBy desiring; to become dwirtv&vvoc, Aristot Polit. iv. 10. See above, p. xxx.* 3Aristot PoMt iii. 14."Aristot, Polit. v. 12.