Areopagiticus

​They managed their relations with one another in a manner similar to what has been said. For they not only agreed on public affairs, but also showed such mutual concern for their private lives as is proper for those who are sensible and share the same fatherland. For the poorer citizens were so far from envying those who possessed more ​that they cared for the great estates as if they were their own, believing that the prosperity of those men was a source of resources for themselves. On the other hand, those who possessed wealth, far from looking down on those who were worse off, regarded the destitution of their fellow citizens as a disgrace to themselves and came to the aid of their needs, handing over land to some for farming at moderate rents, sending others out for trade, and providing others with capital for other occupations.

​For they did not fear that they might suffer one of two things—either that they would be deprived of everything, or that after much trouble they would recover only a fraction of what they had advanced; but they were as confident about what was lent out as they were about what lay stored within their homes. For they saw that those who judged disputes over contracts did not make use of leniency but obeyed the laws, ​nor did they prepare for themselves the license to do wrong in the lawsuits of others, but were rather more angry at those who defrauded than were the victims of the injustice themselves, and believed that those who made contracts untrustworthy injured the poor more than those who possessed much wealth; for the latter, if they ceased lending, would be deprived of small revenues, while the former, if they lacked those who supported them, would be reduced to extreme destitution.

​And indeed, because of this attitude, no one concealed his wealth nor hesitated to lend, but they saw those who borrowed with greater pleasure than those who repaid. For both things happened to them which sensible men would desire: at the same time they helped their fellow citizens and made their own property productive. The sum of their excellent relations with one another was this: ownership was secure for those to whom it belonged by right, while the use of it was shared by all citizens who were in need.

​Perhaps, then, someone might criticize what has been said, on the ground that while I praise the actions performed in those times, I do not state the causes through which they maintained such excellent relations with one another and governed the city so well. Now, I believe I have already said something of this sort, but nevertheless I will attempt to discuss them at greater length and more clearly.

​For those men did not have many supervisors during their childhood only to be allowed to do whatever they wished once they were approved as men; rather, in the very prime of their lives they were subject to more supervision than when they were children. For our ancestors were so extremely zealous for temperance that they appointed the Council of the Areopagus to supervise good order, in which it was not possible to participate except for those of noble birth who had displayed great virtue and temperance in their lives, so that it naturally surpassed the other assemblies in Greece.

​And one might use present occurrences as evidence of the established order of those times; for even now, when everything concerning election and scrutiny is neglected, we can see that those who in other matters are intolerable, once they ascend to the Areopagus, hesitate to follow their natural disposition and conform to the customs there rather than to their own vices. Such fear did those ancestors instill in the wicked, and such a monument of their own virtue and temperance did they leave behind in that place.