wild exceffes of this fanguinary temper. The brave Tydeus loft for ever the protection of his adored Minerva by a single act of favage ferocity. Humanity was inculcated by every precept of reason, and enforced by the strongest motives of hope and fear. It was a firm article of belief, that hands ftained with blood, even in the exercise of honourable war, were unworthy, till purified by luftration, to be employed in the moft ordinary functions of facred worship.

It would require a volume completely to illuftrate the falutary effects of this ancient and venerable fuperftition, which was diftinguifhed above moft other falfe religions, by the uncommon merit of doing much good, without feemingly occafioning any confiderable harm to fociety.'

The religion of the ancient Greeks, like that of all other barbarous nations, arofe from a perplexed apprehenfion of invifible but powerful agents in nature, the arbiters of human life, who difpofed of happiness or mifery; whose characters refembled thofe of men; and whofe wrath was to be appeased, or favour procured, by facrifices, libations, flattery, and prayers, without much reference to virtue or morality.

Mr. Mitford, who has carefully explored the best fources of information with regard to the Greeks, and who blends the judgment of a philofopher and a man of the world with the learning of an antiquary and a fcholar, has thus expreffed himself with regard to the Grecian religion *; " It was raifed, without fyftem, on a foundation of mistake; and "incongruities were natural to it. The fum of the duty of men to the gods, according to Homer, confifted in facrifice chiefly. That due honour was paid him by offerings 66 on his altars, is the reason given by Jupiter for his affection "for the Trojans, and particularly for Hector. Songs to the "gods were alfo grateful to them; but, without facrifice,

nothing was effectual. Here and there only, like ftars glittering for a moment through fmall bright openings in a "ftormy fky, we find some sparks of morality with Homer's "religion." Among all nations with whofe hiftory we are acquainted, the opinions they entertained of religion and a future state were in exact proportion to the progrefs they had made in knowledge, refinement and virtue. Heaven is the picture of the earth, and God the image of man. Homer's deities are men on a larger fcale, with the fame paffions, prapenfities, and vices. Jupiter, the chief of the heathen divinities, was neither eminent for wifdom nor goodness. He himfelf was under the ftrict control of the fates; and the inferior gods and goddeffes paid him reverence only on account of

his fuperior ftrength. Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, speaks of her fovereign and her father in the moft difhonourable and debafing terms, as raging with an evil mind, perpetually against her inclinations" The fame goddess is reprefented advifing Pandarus to bribe Apollo with the promise of a hecatomb, to affift him in affaffinating Menelaus, contrary to the faith of a folemn treaty; and Jupiter joins with Juno in prompting this deed, in which the moft atrocious perjury, and the groffeft treachery, are united t. It was propofed, among the fuitors of Penelope, to kill her fon Telemachus, and divide his property. One only hefitated. "To kill a "perfon of royal race," fays he, is no light matter. Let 66 us, therefore, confult the gods. If the laws of the great "Jupiter approve it, I will be the first both to perfuade and "to ftrike the blow; but, if the gods forbid, I advise to for"bear t." Thus, lefs than a volume" (to use the phrase of our author) " may fuffice to fhew the harm that such a "fyftem of fuperftition might do to fociety." It was from this juft reprefentation of the theology of the early Greeks, that Plato profcribed Homer from his commonwealth; that Longinus affirmed, that he made his gods inferior to his men ; that Mr. Hume inferred, "that the heathen religion had "little or no connection with morality; and that the ad"mirers of the ancients, in every age, have endeavoured to "allegorize the machinery of Homer §."

Dr. Gillies next examines the political ftate of the Greeks during the heroic ages.

The common obfervation, that power follows property, though not altogether correct, affords perhaps the best fuccedaneum to written laws, for determining the political rights of the different members of fociety. If we examine, by this rule, the policies of the heroic ages, we shall find that they deserve the title of republics, rather than that of monarchies. When a warlike tribe fallied from its woods and mountains, to take poffeffion of a more fertile territory, the foldiers fought and conquered, not for their leaders, but for themselves. The land acquired by their united valour was confidered as a common property. It was cultivated by the joint labour and affiduity of all the members of the tribe, who affembled at a public table, celebrated together their religious rites, and, at the end of harvest, received their due fhares of the annual produce of the ground, for the maintenance of their respective families. Superior opulence gave not to one a title to despise another; nor was there any

* Iliad, lib. viii. ver. 361.

↑ Odyff. lib. xvi. ver. 398.

+ Iliad, lib. iv. ver. 101.

If the reader is not fatisfied with these quotations, let him confult Homer at large, and Lucian, Dialog. Menipp.

Q4

distinction

distinction knowp among them, but what was occafioned by the difference of perfonal merit and abilities. This difference, however, had naturally raised a chief or leader to the head of every society; the frequent neceffity of employing his valour, or his wifdom,' rendered his merit more confpicuous and more useful; and his fuperior ufefulness was rewarded, by the gratitude of his tribe, with a valuable portion of ground, feparated from the common property. This was cultivated, not by the hands of his martial followers, who laboured only for the community, but by the captives taken in war, of whom a confiderable number were always bestowed on the general. Being accustomed to command in the field, and to direct the measures, as well as to decide the quarrels, of his affociates, he naturally became the judge of their civil differences; and, as the peculiar favour of the gods always attended on fuperior virtue, he was alfo invested with the honourable office of prefiding in their religious folemnities. Thefe important functions of priest, judge, and general, which had naturally been conferred on the best and bravest character of each particalar tribe, were, upon the union of feveral tribes into one state, or nation, conferred on the best and bravest of all the different leaders. Before the various ftates of Greece had united in a general confederacy, the refources derived from the domains appropriated to the prince (which, unless there was fome particular reafon to the contrary, were tranfmitted to his defcendants), had enabled the several kings and leaders to extend their influence and authority. Their comparative power and splendour did not entirely arife from the merit of perfonal abilities, but was determined, in part, by the extent and value of their poffeffions: and Agamemnon was appointed to the command of combined Greece, as much on account of his fuperior opulence, as of his many princely qualities. But whether we examine the pre-eminence that Agamemnon enjoyed over the other princes of the confederacy, which is fully explained in the Iliad; or the authority with which each prince was invested in his own dominions, which is as fully explained in the Odyffey; or the influence of a warlike chief over the feveral members of his tribe, which we have already endeavoured to delineate; we shall every where discover the limited power of kings, and the mild moderation of mixed government. As, in the general confederacy, the councils of princes controlled the refolves of the monarch, and the voice of the affembly was fuperior to that of the council; fo, in each particular kingdom, the decifions of the fenate prevailed over the will of the prince, and the acknowledged majesty of the people governed the decifions of the fenate. If we defcend ftill lower, we fhall find the fame diftribution of power in every particular village, which afforded a picture, in miniature, of a kingdom, while a kingdom itself afforded a fimilar picture of the whole confederacy.'

A common obfervation affording a fuccedaneum, and the best fuccedaneum, to written laws, is a very uncommon obfervation, and merits a place among the novelties in this New History of Greece. The third fentence, in this paffage which we have quoted, is taken from Dr. Robertfon's Introduction to his

Hiftory

Hiftory of Charles the Fifth, and applies much better to the ancient Germans than the ancient Greeks, There was no occafion to expatiate on the limited form of early monarchies. "It is eafy to remark," fays Ariftotle, "by the ancient forms "of government, exactly copied by Homer, that the kings propofed to the people what had been refolved in council." Concerning the rife of the leader of a tribe to dóminion merely by personal merit, (unless the venerable authority of age, and the certain influence of fuperior wealth, be included in the idea) he is certainly mistaken; as well as by fuppofing, that, from "commanding in the field," and from an idea of his fuperior virtue, the chief was "invefted with the office of prefiding in "religious folemnities." The latter opinion, indeed, is embraced by political writers; but whoever will caft a liberal eye over the history of mankind, from the dawning form of civilization in Peruvian America, to the mature and declining empires of Afia, will eafily difcern, that the command of that mighty engine in government, religion, was not the 'confequence, but the cause, of power. The idea of patriarchal, or family government, the first that takes place after nations have left the favage ftate, feems to have totally efcaped our author; though, if any thing could have led him to this discovery, it would have been perufing the poems of Homer.

With regard to the domeftic life, general character, and manners of the Greeks, in the heroic ages, Dr. Gillies fupposes that they had attained to a degree of improvement and perfection fuperior to the refinements of polifhed life; and from which their pofterity gradually degenerated. Such a boundless panegyric is not the language of hiftory, and is contradicted by Homer. By producing facts of an oppofite kind, and enlarging the fhades of the picture, a very different conclufion might be drawn. In a ftate of fociety, where every chief was a robber, and the law of the ftrongest prevailed, the virtues or the enjoyments of private life were not to be expected. The ftate of women could neither be respectable nor happy, where ftrength and valour, in which the female fex could not vie with the male, were chiefly confidered as virtues. Accordingly the fair fex, in Homer, are degraded and depreffed. They pafs with facility from one fpoufe to another; and folicit, or efpouse, the hand that is imbrued with a father's or a husband's blood. They are doomed to the lowest and most fervile offices which violate decorum and modeity; women of the highest diftinction conducted the men to bed, and to the bath; dreffed and undreffed them; perfumed and anointed them. At the games and contests a beautiful tripod was preferred to a beautiful woman. Little regard was paid to antinuptial chastity; and this is quoted, by Dr. Gillies, as a mark

of

of their tendernefs to women; on the contrary, it furnishes the ftrongeft proof in what contempt they were held. It reminds us of the American manners, and the feast of rice.

With regard to their moral qualities, they had none, except hofpitality, friendship, and natural affection, which correfpond to the name. They had not fo much as the idea of humanity or compaffion. Wisdom, juftice, probity, and the moral virtues, had not even names in the ancient language of the Greeks, any more than they have at present among the favages of America. Aper denotes valour; copia fignifies skill and addrefs in the mechanic arts.

Refinement in morals and in manners was never introduced into a country but by means of literature. Inhuman and brutal vices are the portion of grofs and ignorant nations. The history of the heroic ages prefents us with a hideous picture of ufurpations, murders, and the most atrocious guilt. Thefeus, Atreus, Eteocles, Oreftes, Phædra, and Clytemnestra, are only celebrated in story for their crimes and calamities. Almoft all the princes, who went to the war of Troy, were betrayed by their wives. The kingdom of Mycenæ prefents the moft fignal and bloody catastrophies. The hiftory of PeJops, and his defcendants, is a continued feries of crimes and horrors. In fhort, the heroic ages are more fruitful in adultery and murder, incest and parricide, than any period defcribed in hiftory.

But a philofopher will avoid the extremes of panegyric on the one hand, and fatire on the other; and confider the baJance and compenfation of excellencies and defects which is to be found in every ftate of fociety. The character of barbarians is prominent and bold; every feature is large, and every expreffion strong. They poffefs great virtues and great vices periods of oppreffion produce talents and heroism; times of diforder call forth illuftrious individuals; every paffion is carried to vehemence and excefs; and the human character appears in the wildnefs and luxuriancy of nature.

The heroic ages of Greece bore a near refemblance to the barbarous times of modern Europe, with this difference, that they are marked with a groffer atrocity of favage manners, and a certain tinge of the oriental character; and with this diftinction, that what we have rejected as the waste, the refuse of our annals, the Greeks, by their fine imagination, and the beauty of their language, have made the poetic ftory of the world. Dr. Gillies tells us, in his preface," that, if he might affume "any merit to himself, in the execution of his extenfive plan, "it would be that of having diligently ftudied the Greek "writers ;" and foon after adds, "in the work throughout "I have ventured to think for myfelf; and my opinions are