are ye not much better than they? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of "the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do "they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solo

mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of "these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of "the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much rather clothe you, O ye of little faith*?"

When we look to the high character which he sometimes assumed, we are more affected by this graciousness of his demeanour to the poor. He occasionally put on a majesty and a dignity which astonished and confounded his enemies. He was greater than Solomon; he could command legions of angels; he was the giver of life to whom he pleased; he was the Son of God, who was one day to sit on his glorious throne, and to judge the world in righteousness and truth. Nothing appeared to be concealed from his knowledge, nothing was beyond the reach of his power. He searched, at one moment, and laid open, the secret recesses of the heart; at another, he revealed the distant events of future times, announced the promise of immortality, asserted a co-equality with the Father, and held forth the keys of life and death. But, when he mingled as a teacher of righteousness among the people, how did he throw aside the garb of majesty, and clothe himself in the beauty of meekness, condescension and humility! With what a spirit of conciliating tenderness did this august and pre-eminent Personage address himself to his auditory, and what indulgence did he extend to their occasional heedlessness and incre

*Matt. vi. 26, 30.

dulity! He lifted not up his voice in the streets. He quenched not the smoking flax. He broke not the bruised reed. He rejected not the little ones who were brought unto him. He communicated with the lowest of his hearers as with friends and brethren, and he cheered the weary and heavy laden, with an' exuberant and paternal affection. "Whosoever will "be great among you, let him be your minister; and "whosoever will be chief among you, let him be

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your servant. Every man that exalteth himself "shall be abased, and he that abaseth himself shall "be exalted. Blessed are the poor in spirit. I came "not to be ministered unto, but to minister. If "I wash not your feet, how shall ye learn to wash "one another's feet!" In this manner he preached, and exemplified, humility and good will. What was the result? He laid the foundations of his law in the hearts of the multitude. Many of those who, under other religions, would have been considered as unworthy of instruction, or occupied, for priestly or political purpose, in vicious ceremonies, were associated in the number of his faithful and enlightened followers, and adopted into his church to become heirs of his glory. The picture is new as it is affecting and interesting; and we delight to see such majesty and dignity, softening, on due occasions, into the meekness of condescension and love, and pronouncing the blessing, and conferring the wisdom, of God, on the poor and lowly of the earth.

That wisdom was foolishness to the Jew, and a stumbling-block to the Greek; to the Jew, who was devoted to his talmuds and his rituals, and taught to prefer the letter to the spirit of his law; to the Greek, who was fascinated by the extravagant systems of the schools, and disciplined for the conflicts of

sophistical eloquence. It was not for such persons to admire and follow the teacher who uttered the language of simplicity and truth, who addressed himself to the heart, and whose audience were the poor. That which they despised, he preferred. The "foolishness" which they thought below their cunning, was to be his recommendation; and, while they delighted to indulge in the reveries of mysticism, or to dazzle and confound by the artifices of rhetoric, he chose to adapt his lessons to the rudeness of an ignorant auditory, and to infuse his simple but sublime precepts into the bosom of the multitude.

Thus did Christ. The prediction of the prophet, and his own declaration, were fulfilled*. The hitherto outcast poor were enlightened and evangelized. After a long period of darkness, the day-star arose which was to shed its beams on the lowest and humblest of mankind. Philosophers addressed themselves to the learned and great. Priests were busied with their traditions and forms. Legislators were occupied with political regulations. But Christ, including all mankind, devoted his especial regard to the spiritual wants of the forlorn and desolate. Well, therefore, might it be said of him that he strengthened the feeble knees, and healed the infirmities of the diseased; that he opened the spring in the parched and thirsty soil, and bade the myrtle-tree and the rose to spring up in the desertt.

Even now he may be said to abide with the poor, as in the days of his mission. His spirit yet breathes in the pages of the Gospel, and the language in which he addressed himself to the multitude of Jerusalem is still heard. The most humble and

*Matt. xi. 5.

Luke vii. 21.

+ Isaiah.

ignorant of men may yet be instructed by his voice or by his life, and the precept which once descended on the heart of the favoured Jew, continue to be tendered to the children of lowliness and of obscurity. It is the express character of the wisdom which he taught, that he who runs may read and understand it, that it is milk for babes, that it is a light to lighten the darkness of the world, and that it is a common legacy to all times and to all people, for the common information of men in all the essential doctrines of piety and of virtue. If, therefore, the humble and sober inquirer seek here for edification, he will find it; and, according as he continues his search in the simplicity of a meek and candid spirit, he shall discover new cause for gratitude to that teacher of men, who alone, of all the legislators of the earth, has merited the title of the friend, the guide, and the instructor of the poor.

CHAPTER IX.

DOMESTIC AND FEMALE MANNERS.

SECT. I.

Manners permitted or sanctioned by the Greek and Roman mythology-Early manners of the Greeks-Inferior condition of the female sex--Coarseness and rudeness of intercourse—At a subsequent period women more humiliated and depressed -Their education-Seclusion before and after marriage-Drudges in their household-Guarded with suspicion and jealousy -No intimacy beyond the walls of their dwelling-Public officers appointed to superintend their conduct-The reign of courtezans—The matron and the wife openly deserted-The increasing rigour of the laws— Emblems of female slavery publicly displayed-Women of Sparta -No maternal property in the child - Female exercises-The open robes--The naked dance-Exposition of children-Domestic tyranny-Facility of divorce-Final depravity of manners-Picture by Juvenal-Effects on the stage and on general literature— Instances-Sallust - Horace -Euripides-Plautus—Terence— Aristophanes-Martial.

NOTHING is more important to the welfare

and refinement of social and private life, than to ascertain the respective duties, in the union of marriage, of the two sexes. Both are gifted with the same moral and intellectual faculties, and both possess rights founded in nature, and, therefore, not to be violated without injustice. The wife and mother, indeed, are to be exercised in a train of engagements very different from those by which the father and the husband are to be occupied. The last, more capable of toil and effort, are to labour for the immediate and future provision of their families, and often to encounter, in doing so, difficulties not to be subdued but by many and patient struggles. The