liable to have been cenfured as enthufiafts, than as fatyrists. We are, in this place, impatient to declare what we may, perhaps, at fome future time, have occafion to repeat: and this is, that we cannot too much wonder at the falfe road (if the expreffion be allowable) which we are, daily, pursuing in our ftudies; quitting the path which would conduct us to the fources of our knowledge, to tread on the path which directs us to a crowd of exceedingly imperfect imitators; the reader must perceive that the preference given to the Latin, in prejudice to the Grecian literature, is, here, alluded to. What time do we not employ in learning a mixed, and half barbarous language, inftead of acquiring one fo accurate, and fo metaphysical, that it may be confidered as, of itself, an introduction to all the fciences! how furprized muft Cicero be (that Cicero, who not only profecuted his ftudies in Greece, but collected an immense library, confifting, entirely, of Greek books) were he to revifit the world, and perceive our youths learning his mother tongue, in preference to the language of his tutors!

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

The condition of humanity amongst the Greeks; its fituation in thofe countries which were known during this fecond epoch.

WERE we to confine our fearch to

fuch objects, as might administer comfort to humanity, in its depreffed. fituation, our advances through the different periods of history, would prove useless. Far from perceiving mankind to be enlightened with ideas of their real interefts, we observe an univerfal encrease of confusion, and disorder. Even Egypt, that happy, and renowned country, on which we have fixed our attention, with fo much pleasure, became fubject to the laws of a stranger, and bore, with

Asia, a share in the misfortune of exifting under the most cruel defpotism. Greece feems to have been divided into fo large a number of different ftates, for no other reason, than that it might (if the expreffion be allowable) ftretch the furface of war, and calamity; for it is worthy of obfervation, that the divifion of fovereignties multiplies difafters through the land. We can, boldly, affirm that each of the little republics of Greece, underwent, during a period of fifty years, several revolutions to which one half of its citizens became the victims; that each, throughout the fame space of time, saw its territories ravaged by wars; in fhort, that no individual of these unhappy towns had run the common course of life, without detefting the hour, in which he had received it.(k)

I am not certain that fufficient attention hath been paid to this vice, fo inherent in little ftates. Mr. Rouffeau hath remarked,

that

(k) Diodorus Siculus (b. 15.) mentions a revolution effected at Argos, in the hundred and fecond olympiad, when, after several acts of barbarity, perpetrated by each party, the prevailing party ordered twelve hundred citizens to be led to execution.

that wherever the citizens become fo numerous, as to render it neceffary, that the government should be lodged in a representative body, there can exist no true liberty. (1) I am, nevertheless, of opinion, that there will be no fubftantial, and lafting liberty, and, in particular, no happiness, but amongst individuals, where every thing is tranfacted by a representative body. Obferve this little republic, where each citizen is, as it were, all, because the state is nothing; where, at one moment, he affumes the gown, and at another, his military armour: a fhallow politician, an incapable judge, and an undisciplined foldier; continually, either a prey to faction, or expofed to the rage of war: where as an extenfive fociety, in which every individual is united to each other, by the fame interefts, and the fame laws, derives its peaceful fituation from the prudent participation of its labours. In fuch a fociety, the foldier is not engaged in pleading the cause of the oppreffed; nor is the magistrate employed in defending the ramparts. The labourer, unmolested, pursues the cultivation

F

(1) See the focial contract.

of

of his ground, whilft the judge watches over the political welfare of the ftate, and the warrior repels its invaders: and if the laft appear to bear, entirely, the public burden, he is amply indemnified by falaries, and honours. In fuch a fociety, peace wears a hundred additional charms, and war throws off a hundred of its horrors. The extent of the domain, and the precautions taken to prevent al accefs to it, like a centrifugal force, inceffantly, drive back the war to the frontiers; and in the fame manner, as the interior affairs are tranfacted by a reprefentative body, a fimilar body is invested with the power of prolonging, or determining the operations of the war. At the opening of the Peloponnefian war, when Athens wanted to raise fuch an army, as might withstand the attacks of her enemies, the militia of the city was, of neceffity, compofed of old men, and boys. All the citizens, including those, before, scattered up and down the lands of Attica, were compelled to confine themfelves within the town: and from this circumftance arofe that remarkable contagion, to which one half of the people fell a facrifice. Every place, then, may be faid

to