Note 128 — Chapter XX · STATE OF SOCIETY AND MANNERS AS EXHIBITED IN GRECIAN LEGEND.
Reading edition
Seneca, Epist. xc.; Tacitus. Annal. iii. 26. “Vetustissimi mortalium (says the latter), nullâ adhuc malâ libidine, sine probro, scelere, eoque sine pœnâ aut coërcitione, agebant: neque præmiis opus erat, cum honesta suopte ingenio peterentur; et ubi nihil contra morem cuperent, nihil per metum vetabantur. At postquam exui æqualitas, et pro modestiâ et pudore ambitio et vis incedebat, provenêre dominationes, multosque apud populos æternum mansere,” etc. Compare Strabo, vii. p. 301.
These are the same fancies so eloquently set forth by Rousseau, in the last century. A far more sagacious criticism pervades the preface of Thucydidês.