garded as a powerful nation; their maritime commerce is mentioned by Jacob in his laft words to his children; and, according to Herodotus, the Phoenicians had by this time navigated the coafts of Greece, and carried off the daughter of Inachus. The arts of agriculture, commerce, and navigation, fuppofe the knowledge of feveral others: aftronomy, for inftance, or a knowledge of the fituation and revolutions of the heavenly bodies, is neceffary both to agriculture and navigation; that of working metals, to commerce; and fo of other arts. In fact, we find, that before the death of Jacob several nations were fo well acquainted with the revolutions of the moon, as to measure by them the duration of their year. It had been a univerfal cuftom among all the nations of antiquity, as well as the Jews, to divide time into portions of a week, or feven days: this undoubtedly arofe from the tradition with regard to the origin of the world. It was natural for those nations who led a paftoral life, or who lived under a ferene fky, to obferve that the various appearances of the moon were completed nearly in four weeks; hence the divifion of a month. Those people, again, who lived by agriculture, and were become acquainted. with the divifion of the month, would naturally remark that twelve of these brought back the fame temperature of the air, or the fame feafons; hence the origin of what is called the lunar year, which has every where taken place in the infancy of fcience. This, together with the obfervation of the fixed ftars, which, as we learn from the book of Job, must have been very ancient, naturally prepared the way for the discovery of the fular year, which at that time would be thought an immenfe improvement in aftronomy. But, with regard to those branches of knowledge which we have mentioned, it is to be remembered that they were peculiar to the Egyptians, and a few nations of Afia. Europe offers a gloomy fpectacle during this period. Who could believe that the Greeks, who in later ages became the patterns of politenefs and of every elegant art, were defcended from a favage race of men, traverfing the woods and wilds, inhabiting the rocks and caverns, a wretched prey to wild animals, and fometimes to each other? This, however, is no more than what was to be expected. Those defcendants of Noah, who had removed to a great distance from the plains of Shinar, loft all connection with the civilifed part of mankind. Their pofterity became ftill more ignorant; and the human mind was at length funk into an abyfs of mifery and wretchedness. We might naturally expect, that, from the death of Jacob, and as we advance forward in time, the hiftory of the great empires of Egypt and Affyria would emerge from their obfcurity. This, however, is far from being the cafe; we only get a glimpse of them, and they disappear B. C. entirely for many ages. After the reign of Ninias, who fucceeded 1965. Semiramis and Ninus in the Affyrian throne, we find an astonishing blank in the history of that empire, for no less than eight hundred years. The filence of ancient hiftory on this fubject is commonly attributed to the softness and effeminacy of the fucceffors of Ninus, whofe lives afforded no events worthy of narration. Wars and commotions are the great themes of the hiftorian, while the gentle and happy reigns of wife princes pass unobserved and unrecorded. Sefoftris, a prince of wonderful abilities, is fuppofed to have mounted the throne of Egypt after Amenophis, who was fwallowed up in the Red Sea about the year before Christ 1492. By his affiduity and attention, the civil and military establishments of the Egyptians received very confiderable improvements. Egypt, in the time of Sefoftris and his immediate fucceffors, was, in all probability, the most powerful kingdom upon earth, and, according to the beft calculation, is fuppofed to have contained twenty-feven millions of inhabitants. But ancient hiftory often excites, without gratifying, our curiofity; for, from the reign of Sefoftris to that of Bocchoris, in the year before Chrift 1781, we have little knowledge of even the names of the intermediate princes. If we judge, however, from collateral circumftances, the country muft ftill have continued in a very flourishing condition: for Egypt continued to pour forth her colonies into diftant nations. Athens, that feat of learning and politeness, that school for all who afpired to wisdom, owed its B. C. foundation to Cecrops, who landed in Greece with an Egyptian 1556. colony, and endeavoured to civilife the rough manners of the original inhabitants. From the inftitutions which Cecrops established among the Athenians, it is eafy to infer in what a condition they must have lived before his arrival. The laws of marriage, which few nations are fo barbarous as to be altogether unacquainted with, were not known in Greece. Mankind, like the beafts of the field, were propagated by accidental connections, and with little knowledge of thofe to whom they owed their generation. Cranaüs, who fucceeded Cecrops in the king1506. dom of Attica, pursued the fame beneficial plan, and endeavoured, by wife inftitutions, to bridle the keen paffions of a rude people. B. C. B. C. Whilft these princes ufed their endeavours for civilifing this corner of Greece, the other kingdoms, into which this country, by the natural boundaries of rocks, mountains, and rivers, was divided, and which had been already peopled by colonies from Egypt and the Eaft, began to affume fome appearance of form and regularity. This engaged Amphictyon, one of thofe uncommon geniufes who appear in the world 1496. for the benefit of the age in which they live, and the admiration of pofterity, to endeavour to unite in one confederacy the feveral independent kingdoms of Greece, and thereby deliver them from thofe inteftine devifions which muft render them a prey to one another, or to the first enemy who might think proper to invade them. This plan he commu nicated to the kings or leaders of the different territories, and by his eloquence and addreis engaged twelve cities to unite together for their com mon prefervation. Two deputies from each of thofe cities affembled twice a year at Thermopyle, and formed what, after the name of its founder, was called the Amphictyonic Council. In this aflembly, whatever related to the general intereft. of the confederacy was difcuffed and finally determined. Amphictyon likewife, fenfible that thofe political connections are the moft lafting which are ftrengthened by religion, committed to the Amphictyons the care of the temple at Delphi, and of the riches which, from the dedications of thofe who confulted the oracle, had been amaffed in it. This aflembly, conftituted on fuch folid foundations, was the great fpring of action in Greece, while that country preferved its independence; and, by the union which it infpired among the Greeks, enabled them to defend their liberties against all the force of the Perfian empire. Confidering the circumftances of the age in which it was inftituted, the Amphictyonic council is, perhaps, the moft remarkable po•litical establishment which ever took place among mankind. In the year before Chrift 1322, the Itthmian games were inftituted at Corinth; and in 1303 the famous Olympic games by Pelops; which games, together with the Pythian and Nemean, have been rendered immortal by the genius of Pindar. The Greek ftates, formerly unconnected with each other except by mutual inroads and hoftilities, foon began to act with concert, and to 'ndertake diftant expeditions for the general intereft of the confederacy. The first of thefe was the famous expedition of the Argonauts, in which all Greece appears to have taken part. The object of the Argonauts was to open the commerce of B. C. the Euxine fea, and to eftablith colonies in the adjacent country of 1263. Colchis. The hip Argo, which was the admiral of the fleet, is the only one particularly named; though we learn from Homer and other ancient writers, that feveral veffels were employed in that expedition. The fleet was, from the ignorance of those who conducted it, long toffed about on different coafts. The rocks at fome distance from the mouth of the Euxine fea occafioned great difficulty to the Argonauts: they fent forward a light veffel, which paffed through, but returned with the lofs of her rudder. This is expreffed, in the fabulous language of antiquity, by their fending out a bird, which returned with the lofs of its tail, and may give us an idea of the allegorical obfcurity in which the other events of that expedition are involved. The fleet, however, at length arrived at B. C. 1184. a, the capital of Colchis, after performing a voyage, which, confidering the mean condition of the naval art during that age, was not lefs important than the circumnavigation of the earth by our modern discoverers. From this expedition to that against Troy, which was undertaken to recover the fair Helena, a queen of Sparta, who had been carried off by Paris, fon of the Trojan king, the Greeks muft have made a wonderful progrefs in arts, in power, and opulence: no less than twelve hundred vellels were employed in this voyage, each of which, at a medium, contained upwards of a hundred men. Thefe veffels, however, were but half-decked; and it does not appear that iron entered at all into their construction. If we add to thefe circumftances, that the Greeks had not the use of the faw, an inftrument fo neceffary to the carpenter, a modern mult form but a mean notion of the ftrength or elegance of this fleet. Having thus confidered the ftate of Greece as a whole, let us examine the circumstances of the particular countries into which it was divided. This is of great importance to our prefent undertaking, because it is in this country only that we can trace the origin and progrefs of government, arts, and manners, which compose to great a part of our prefent work. There appears originally to have been a remarkable refemblauce, as to their political fituation, between the different kingdoms of Greece. They were governed each by a king, or rather by a chieftain, who was their leader in time of war, their judge in time of peace, and who prefided in the adminiftration of their religious ceremonies. This prince, however, was far from being abfolute. In each fociety there were a number of other leaders, whofe influence over their particular clans or tribes was not lefs confiderable than that of the king over his immediate followers. Thefe captains were often at war with each other, and fometimes with their fovereign; and each particular ftate was in miniature, what the whole country had been before the time of Amphictyon. They required the hand of another delicate painter to blend the oppofite colours, and to enable them to produce one powerful effect. The hiftory of Athens affords us an example of the manner in which thefe ftates, which for want of union, were weak and infignificant, became, by being cemented together, important and powerful. Thefeus, king of Attica, about the year B, C. 1234, had, by his exploits, acquired great reputation for valour and ability. He faw the inconveniences to which his country, from being divided into twelve diftricts, was expofed; and he conceived, that, by means of the influence which bis perfonal character, united to the royal authority with which he was invetted, had univerfally procured him, he might be able to remove thein For this purpose he endeavoured to maintain and even to increase his popularity among the peasants and artifans; he detached, as much as poffible, the different tribes from the leaders who commanded them; he abolished the courts which had been established in different parts of Attica, and appointed one council-hall common to all the Athenians, Thefeus, however, did not truft folely to the force of political regulations. He called to his aid all the power of religious prejudices. By establishing common rites of religion to be performed in Athens, and by inviting thither ftrangers from all quarters by the profpect of protection and privileges, he raifed that city from an inconfiderable village to a powerful metropolis. The fplendour of Athens and of Thefeus now totally eclipfed that of the other villages and their particular leaders. All the power of the state was united in one city, and under one fovereign, The petty chieftains, who had formerly occafioned fo much confufion, being now divefted of all influence and confideration, became humble and fubmiffive; and Attica remained under the peaceable government of a monarch. This is a rude sketch of the origin of the firft monarchy of which we have a distinct account, and may, without much variation, be applied to the other states of Greece. This country, however, was not deftined to continue long under the government of kings. A new influence arose, which in a fhort time proved too powerful both for the king and the nobles. Thefeus had divided the Athenians into three distinct claffes, -the nobles, the artifans, and the husbandmen. In order to abridge the exorbitant power of the nobles, he had beftowed many privileges on the two other ranks of citizens. This plan of politics was followed by his fucceffors; and the lower ranks of the Athenians, partly from the countenance of their fovereign, and partly from the progrefs of arts and manufactures which gave them an opportunity of acquiring property, becaine confiderable and independent. Thefe circumstances were attended with a remarkable effect. Upon the death of Codrus, a prince of great merit, in the year before Chrift 1070, the Athenians, become weary of the regal authority, under pretence of finding no one worthy of filling the throne of that monarch, who had devoted himself to death for the fafety of his people, abolished the regal power, and proclaimed that none but Jupiter fhould be king of Athens. This revolution in favour of liberty was fo much the more remarkable, as it happened about the fame time that the Jews became unwilling to 1095. remain under the government of the true God, and defired a mortal fovereign, that they might be like other nations. B. C. The government of Thebes, another of the Grecian ftates, much about the fame time, affumed the republican form. Near a century before the Trojan war, Cadmus, with a colony from Phoenicia, had founded this city, which from that time had been governed by kings. But the laft fovereign being overcome in fingle combat by a neighbouring prince, the Thebans abolished the regal power. Till the days however of Pelopidas and Epaminondas (a period of feven hundred years) the Thebans performed nothing worthy of the republican fpirit, Other cities of Greece, after the example of Thebes and Athens, erected themselves into republics. But the revolutions of Athens and Sparta, two rival ftates, which, by means of the fuperiority they acquired, gave the tone to the manners, genius, and politics of the Greeks, deferve our particular attention. We have feen a tender fhoot of liberty B. C. fpring up in the city of Athens, upon the decease of Codrus, its laft fovereign. This thoot gradually improved into a vigorous 1070. B. C. 681. plant. The Athenians, by abolishing the name of king, did not entirely fubvert the regal authority: they eftablished a perpetual magifirate, who, under the name of Archon, was invested with almoft the fame powers which their kings had enjoyed. The Athenians in time became fenfible that the archontic office was too lively an image of royalty for a free ftate. After it had continued, therefore, three hundred and thirty-one years in the family of Codrus, they endeavoured to leffen its dignity, not by abridging its power, but by fhortening its duration. The firft period affigned for the continuance of the archonfhip in the fame perfon was three years. But the defire of the Athenians for a more perfect fyftem of freedom than had hitherto been established, increased in proportion to the liberty they enjoyed. They again demanded a reduction of the power of their archons; and it was at length determined that nine annual magiftrates fhould be appointed under this title. These magiftrates were not only chofen by the people, but accountable to them for their conduct at the expiration of their office. Thefe alterations were too violent not to be attended with fome dangerous confequences. The Athenians, intoxicated with their freedom, broke out into the most unruly licentiousness. No written laws had been as yet enacted in Athens; and it was hardly poffible that the ancient cuftoms of the realm, which were naturally fuppofed to be in part abolished by the fucceffive changes in the government, fhould fufficiently reftrain the tumultuous fpirits of the Athenians in the firft flutter of their independence. The wifer part of the ftate, therefore, who began to prefer any fyftem of government to their prefent anarchy and confufion, were induced to caft their eyes on Draco, a man of an auftere but virtuous difpofition, as the fitteft perfon for compofing a fyftem of law to bridle the furious and unruly multitude. Draco undertook the office about the year 628, but executed it with fo much rigour, that, in the words of an ancient hiftorian, "His laws were "written with blood, and not with ink." Death was the indifcriminate punishment of every offence; and the code of Draco proved to be a remedy worse than the difeafe. Affairs again fell into confufion, which continued till thofe laws were reformed in the time of Solon, about the year before Chrift 591. The wisdom, virtue, and amiable manners, of Solon recommended him to the most important of all offices, the giving laws to a free people. This employment was affigned him by the unanimous voice of his country; but he long deliberated whether he fhould undertake it. At length, however, motives of public utility overcame all confiderations of private eafe, fafety, and reputation, and determined him to enter on an ocean pregnant with a thousand dangers. The firft ftep of his legiflation was to abolish all the laws of Draco, excepting thofe relative to murder. The punithment of this crime could not be too great; but to confider other offences as equally criminal, was confounding all notions of right and wrong, and rendering the law ineffectual by means of its feverity. Solon next proceeded to new-model the political law: his establishments on this head remained among the Athenians, while they preferved their liberties. He feems to have fet out with this principle, that a perfect republic, in which each citizen fhould have an equal political importance, was a fyftem of government, beautiful indeed in theory, but not reducible to practice. He divided the citizens therefore into four claffes, according to the wealth which they poffelfed; and the poorest clafs he rendered altogether incapable of any public office. They had a voice, however, in the general council of the nation, in |