tizens, was performed every year, and was very interesting. It was on this occasion, perhaps, that the boy received the first imperfect notion that he was a member of society, as well as of his father's household.

5. Persons of distinguished merit were chosen to be preceptors of children. These endeavoured to make the examples set before their pupils, the conversation addressed to them, their studies, and their bodily exercises, altogether suitable to a sound constitution, an accomplished mind, and a right conduct. Boys, the sons of citizens, were taught reading and writing-the latter on smooth pieces of wood, neatly covered upon the surface with wax, upon which they marked, with a pointed instrument called a Stylus, the forms of let

ters.

6. Select passages of Homer, and other poets, were put into the hands of children, and their memory was exercised in acquiring these verses. They were also taught music, and to celebrate the bounties of the gods and the virtues of heroes, by means of poetry adapted to music. They were carefully taught grammar and rhetoric, and all the beauties of their own delightful language; nor were the mathematical sciences neglected in the Athenian education.

7. Bodily exercises were early taught in all the states of Greece. To be able to swim, to manage

a horse, to run in sand, to hurl the javelin, to throw great weights of stone and brass, were necessary to nations of warriors and Athletæ, as much as music and dancing, history and rhetoric, were necessary to young persons who first exhibited themselves in festivals, and at trials of skill

in accomplishments, and who, when they became men, were destined to be orators and legislators.

8. The desire of pleasing, good manners, just expressions, an elegant appearance, deference to parents, and reverence to age, were all made to concur in the graceful, and amiable deportment of the young. The young people went also to the theatres, and were allotted to places in the public festivals. Abroad, they beheld the works of art; and at home, the genius of fine writers, and the discourses of cultivated men, formed their minds.

9. At the age of eighteen the Athenian youth was enrolled in the militia, and then, before the altars of the gods, solemnly promised never to dishonour the republic, and to sacrifice his life, if need were, for the defence of it. At the age of

twenty he was admitted to the privileges of a citizen, might attend the public assembles, aspire to the office of a magistrate, and dispose of his fortune, if he should happen to lose his father.

10. The Athenian females were taught to read, write, sew, spin, and to attend to the care of their families. The daughters of the richer citizens, in the latter times of the republic, were brought up with more refinement. From the age of seven years they were assistants in religious solemnities, some carrying baskets of flowers on their heads, others singing hymns, and others performing dan

ces.

The Greeks were persuaded that offerings made to the gods were more acceptable when presented by youth and beauty.

11. Why then were the Athenians not better men? why were they ungrateful to their benefactors, and addicted to a multitude of vices, as their history relates, if a nation of virtuous citizens is

formed by a virtuous education? Because the persons who were so educated were but a small class of the whole population. Those who were thus taught were not only highly accomplished, but eminently wise. The disinterestedness and purity of their conduct were shown in the examples of statesmen, warriors, philosophers, and poets, and in countless multitudes who have left no name in the world. The institutions of Greece did not provide for the virtue and welfare of all the people, as the religion of Christ has since instructed all legislators to do; and they who neglected the moral improvement of the inferior orders, suffered from the blindness and cruelty which grew out of their neglect of them.

AREOPAGUS.

66 your

awful court

High on the mount of Mars

Coeval with your land."

Potter's Sophocles.

When Paul, the apostle, was waiting at Athens for two of his friends, Silas and Timotheus, "his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given up to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoicks encountered

him. And some said, What will this babbler say? He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the re

surrection.

2. "And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians, and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.)

3. "Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars-hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotion, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

God that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

4. "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is

like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

5. "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit, certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite."

1. The Areopagus was a court of high antiquity among the Athenians. While men remain in an uncivilized state, they resemble those children who are selfish, who want, each more than his share of what belongs to a whole number. Children readily resort to blows to obtain what they desire, or to express their angry feelings against those who have violently taken possession of it. Uncivilized men do the same thing, and kill one another from the same feelings. But in time they discover that it is best to have laws which shall set bounds to their property, and settle the differences that arise concerning it, or any other disputed question; and after the laws are acknowledged by the people to be wise and equitable, or for the benefit of all, it becomes necessary to have magistrates who can apply the laws, and to whom injured persons may resort for the redress of injuries.