betrothed to another man, or entices another man's wife. The law, moreover, enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature, and diminishing human kind; if any one, therefore, proceeds to such fornication or murder, he cannot be clean. Moreover, the law enjoins, that after the man and wife have lain together in a regular way, they shall bathe themselves; for there is defilement contracted thereby, both in soul and body, as if they had gone into another country; for, indeed, the soul by being united to the body, is subject to miseries, and is not freed therefrom again but by death: on which account the law requires this purification to be entirely performed.

26. Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at the births of our children, and thereby afford occasion of drinking to excess; but it ordains, that the very beginning of our education should be immediately directed to so briety. It also commands us to bring those children up in learning, and to exer. cise them in the laws, and to make them acquainted with the acts of their prede. cessors, in order to then imitation of them, and that they might be nourished up in the laws from their infancy, and might neither transgress them, nor have any pretence for their ignorance of them.

27. Our law hath also taken care of the deceat burial of the dead, but without any extravagant expenses for the funerals, and without the erection of any illus. trious monuments for them; but hath ordered that their nearest relation should perform their obsequies; and hath showed it to be regular, that all who pass by when any one is buried should accompany the funeral, and join in the lamentation. It also ordains, that the house and its inhabitants should be purified after the fu. neral is over, that every one may thence learn to keep at a great distance from the thoughts of being pure, if he hath been once guilty of murder.

28. The law ordains also, that parents should be honoured immediately after God himself; and delivers that son, who does not requite them for the benefits he hath received from them, but is deficient on any such occasion, to be stoned. It also says, that the young men should pay due respect to every elder, since God is the eldest of all beings. It does not give leave to conceal any thing from our friends, because that is not true friendship which will not commit all things to their fidelity: it also forbids the revelation of secrets, even though an enmity arise between them. If any judge takes bribes, his punishment is death; he that overlooks one that offers him a petition, and this when he is able to relieve him, he is a guilty person. What is not by any one intrusted to another, ought not to be required back again. No one is to touch another's goods. He that lends money must not demand usury for its loan. These and many more of the like sort are the rules that unite us in the bands of society one with another.

29. It will be also worth our while to see what equity our legislator would have us exercise in our intercourse with strangers; for it will thence appear, that he made the best provision he possibly could, both that we should not dissolve our own constitution, nor show any envious mind towards those that would cultivate a friendship with us. Accordingly, our legislator admits all those that have a mind to observe our laws so to do, and this after a friendly manner, as esteeming that a true union which not only extends to our own stock, but to those that would live after the same manner with us: yet does he not allow those that come to us by accident only to be admitted into communion with us.

30. However, there are other things which our legislator ordained for us be forehand, which of necessity we ought to do in common to all men; as to afford fire, and water, and food to such as want it; to show them the roads, nor to let any one lie unburied. He also would have us treat those that are esteemed our enemies with moderation; for he doth not allow us to set their country on fire, nor to permit us to cut down those trees that bear fruit; nay, farther, he forbids us to spoil those that have been slain in war. He hath also provided for such as

are taken captive, that they may not be injured, and especially that the women may not be abused. Indeed, he hath taught us gentleness and humanity so ef. fectually, that he hath not despised the care of brute beasts, by permitting no other than a regular use of them, and forbidding any other; and if any of them come to our houses, like supplicants, we are forbidden to slay them: nor may we kill the dams, together with their young ones; but we are obliged, even in an enemy's country, to spare and not kill those creatures that labour for mankind. Thus hath our lawgiver contrived to teach us an equitable conduct every way. by using us to such laws as instruct us therein; while at the same time he hath ordained, that such as break these laws should be punished, without the allowance of any excuse whatsoever.

31. Now the greatest part of offences with us are capital; as if any one be guilty of adultery; if any one force a virgin; if any one be so impudent as to at tempt sodomy with a male, or if, upon another's making an attempt upon him, he submits to be so used. There is also a law for slaves of the like nature that can never be avoided. Moreover, if any one cheats another in measures or weights, or makes a knavish bargain and sale in order to cheat another; if any one steals what belongs to another, and takes what he never deposited, all these have punish. nents allotted them; not so much as are met with among other nations, but more severe ones. And as for attempts of unjust behaviour toward parents, or for impiety against God, though they be not actually accomplished, the offenders are destroyed immediately. However, the reward for such as live exactly according to the laws is not silver nor gold; it is not a garland of olive branches or of smallage, nor any such public sign of commendation; but every good man hath his own conscience bearing witness to himself; and by virtue of our legislator's prophetic spirit, and of the firm security God himself affords such a one, he be. lieves that God hath made this grant to those that observe these laws, even though they be obliged readily to die for thein, that they shall come into being again, and at a certain revolution of things shall receive a better life than they had enjoyed before. Nor would I venture to write thus at this time, were it not well known to all by our actions, that many of our people have many a time bravely resolvet to endure any sufferings rather than speak one word against our law.

32. Nay, indeed, in case it had so fallen out, that our nation had not beer. so thoroughly known among all men as they are, and our voluntary submissior to our laws had not been so open and manifest as it is; but that somebody had pretended to have written these laws himself, and had read them to the Greeks, or had pretended that he had met with men out of the limits of the known world, that had such reverent notions of God, and had continued a long time in the firm observance of such laws as ours, I cannot but suppose that all men would admire them, on a reflection upon the frequent changes they had therein been themselves subject to; and this while those that have attempted to write some. what of the same kind for politic government and for laws are accused as com. posing monstrous things, and are said to have undertaken an impossible task upon thein. And here I will say nothing of those other philosophers who have undertaken any thing of this nature in their writings. But even Plato himself, who is so admired by the Greeks on account of that gravity in his manners, and force in his words, and that ability he had to persuade men beyond all other phi losophers, is little better than laughed at, and exposed to ridicule on that ac count, by those that pretend to sagacity in political affairs; although he that shall diligently peruse his writings will find his precepts to be somewhat gentle, and pretty near to the customs of the generality of mankind. Nay, Plato himself confesseth, that it is not safe to publish the true notion concerning God among the ignorant multitude. Yet do some men look upon Plato's discoursee as no better than certain idle words set off with great artifice. However, they admire Lycurgus as the principal lawgiver; and all men celebrate Sparta for having continued in the firm observance of his laws for a very long time. Sa

far, then, we have gained that it is to be confessed a mark of virtue to submit to laws*. But then, let such as admire this in the Lacedemonians compare that duration of theirs with more than two thousand years which our political govern ment hath continued; and let them farther consider, that though the Lacedemonians did seem to observe their laws exactly, while they enjoyed their liberty, yet that when they underwent a change in their fortune they forgot almost all those laws; while we having been under ten thousand changes in our fortune, by the changes that happened among the kings of Asia, we have never betrayed our laws under the most pressing distresses we have been in, nor have we neglected them either out of sloth or for a livelihoodt. Nay, if any one will con sider it, the difficulties and labours laid upon us have been greater than what appears to have been borne by the Lacedemonian fortitude, while they neither ploughed their land nor exercised any trades, but lived in their own city, free from all such pains-taking, in the enjoyment of plenty, and using such exer. cises as might improve their bodies; while they made use of other men as their servants for all the necessaries of life, and had their food prepared for them by the others and these good and humane actions they do for no other purpose but this, that by their actions and their sufferings they may be able to conquer all those against whom they make war. I need not add this, that they have not been fully able to observe their laws; for not only a few single persons, but multitudes of them, have in heaps neglected those laws, and have delivered themselves together with their arms, into the hands of their enemies.

33. Now, as for ourselves, I venture to say, that no one can tell of so many, nay, not more than one or two, that have betrayed our laws; no, not out of fear of death itself: I do not mean such an easy death as happens in battles, but that which comes with bodily torments, and seems to be the severest kind of death of all others. Now I think those that have conquered us have put us to such deaths, not out of their hatred to us when they had subdued us, but rather out of their de sire to see a surprising sight, which is this, whether there be such men in the world who believe that no evil is to them so great as to be compelled to do or to speak any thing contrary to their own laws! Nor ought men to wonder at us, if we are more courageous in dying for our laws than all other men are; for other men do not easily submit to the easier things in which we are instituted; I mean working with our hands and eating but little, and being contented to eat and drink not at random, or at every one's pleasure, or being under inviolable rules in lying with our wives, in magnificent furniture, and again in the observation of our times of rest; while those that can use their swords in war, and can put their enemies to flight when they attack them, cannot bear to submit to such laws about their way of living whereas our being accustomed willingly to submit to laws in these instances, renders us fit to show our fortitude upon other occasions also.

34. Yet do the Lysimachi and the Molones, and some other writers (unskilful sophists as they are,) and the deceivers of young men, reproach us as the vilest of all mankind. Now I have no mind to make an inquiry into the laws of other nations; for the custom of our country is to keep our own laws, but not to bring accusations against the laws of others. And, indeed, our legislator hath expressly forbidden us to laugh at and revile those that are esteemed gods by other peoplet, on account of the very name of God ascribed to them. But since our antagonists think to run us down upon the comparison of their religion and ours, it is not possible to keep silence here, especially while what I shall say to confute these men will not be now first said, but hath been already said by many, and these of the highest reputation also: for who is there among those that have been ad

* It may not be amiss to set down here a very remarkable testimony of the great philosopher Cicero as to the preference of laws to philosophy. "I will," says he, "boldly declare my opinion, though the whole world be offended at it. I prefer this little book of the Twelve Tables alone to all the volumes of the philosophers. I find it to be not only of more weight, but also much more useful." De Oratore. + Or, we have observed our times of rest and sorts of food allowed us [during those distresses.] ↑ See Antiq. B. iv. ch. viii. sect. 10, and its note.

mired among the Greeks for wisdom, who hath not greatly blamed both the most famous poets, and most celebrated legislators for spreading such notions original. ly among the body of the people concerning the gods? such as these, that they may be allowed to be as numerous as they have a mind to have them; that they are begotten one by another, and that after all the kinds of generation you can imagine. They also distinguish them in their places and ways of living, as they would distinguish several sorts of animals: as some to be under the earth; as some to be in the sea; and the ancientest of them all to be bound in hell: and for those to whom they have allotted heaven, they have set over them one, who in title is their father, but in his actions a tyrant and a lord; whence it came to pass that his wife, and brother, and daughter (which daughter he brought forth from his own head,) made a conspiracy against him to seize upon him and confine him, as he had himself seized upon and confined his own father before.

35. And justly have the wisest men thought these notions deserved severe rebukes; they also laugh at them for determining that we ought to believe some of the gods to be beardless and young, and others of them to be old, and to have beards accordingly: that some are set to trades: that one god is a smith, and another goddess is a weaver; that one god is a warrior, and fights with men : that some of them are harpers, or delight in archery, and, besides, that mutual seditions arise among them, and that they quarrel about men, and this so far that they not only lay hands upon one another, but that they are wounded by men, and lament, and take on for such their afflictions. But what is the grossest of all in point of lasciviousness, are those unbounded lusts ascribed to almost all of them and their amours, which how can it be other than a most-absurd supposal, especially when it reaches to the male gods, and to the female goddesses also? Moreover, the chief of all their gods, and their first father himself, overlooks those goddesses whom he hath deluded and begotten with child, and suffers them to be kept in prison or drowned in the sea. He is also so bound up by fate, that he cannot save his own offspring, nor can he bear their deaths without shedding of tears. These are fine things indeed! as are the rest that follow. Adulteries truly are so impudently looked on in heaven by the gods, that some of them have confessed they envied those that were bound in the very act. And why should they not do so, when the eldest of them, who is their king also, hath not been able to restrain himself in the violence of his lust from lying with his wife so long as they might get into their bedchamber? Now some of the gods are servants to men, and will sometimes be builders for a reward and sometimes will be shepherds; while others of them, like malefactors, are bound up in a prison of brass. And what sober person is there who would not be provoked at such stories, and rebuke those that forged them, and condemn the great silliness of those that admit them for true? Nay, others there are that have advanced a cer tain timorousness and fear, as also madness and fraud, and any other of the vilest passions into the nature and form of gods, and have persuaded whole cities to offer sacrifice to the better sort of them; on which account they have been ab. solutely forced to esteem some gods as the givers of good things, and to call others of them averters of evil. They also endeavour to move them, as they would the vilest of men, by gifts and presents, as looking for nothing else than to receive some great mischief from them unless they pay them such wages.

36. Wherefore it deserves our inquiry, what should be the occasion of this un just management and of these scandals about the Deity? And truly I suppose i to be derived from the imperfect knowledge the heathen legislators had at first of the true nature of God: nor did they explain to the people even so far as they did comprehend of it; nor did they compose the other parts of their political settlements according to it, but omitted it as a thing of very little consequence; and gave leave both to the poets to introduce what gods they pleased, and those subject to all sorts of passions, and to the orators to procure political decrees from the people for the admission of such foreign gods as they thought proper

The painters also and statuaries of Greece had herein great power, as each of them could contrive a shape [proper for a god ;] the one to be formed out of clay and the other by making a bare picture of such a one. But those workmen that were principally admired had the use of ivory and of gold as the constant materials for their new statutes: [whereby it comes to pass, that some temples are quite deserted, while others are in great esteem, and adorned with all the rites of all kinds of purification.] Besides this, the first gods, who have long flourished in the honours done them, are now grown old, [while those that flourished after them are come in their room as a second rank, that I may speak the most honourably of them that I can ;] nay, certain other gods there are who are newly introduced, and newly worshiped, [as we by way of digression have said already, and yet have left their places of worship desolate;] and for their temples, some of them are already left desolate, and others are built anew, according to the pleasure of men whereas they ought to have preserved their opinion about God, and that worship which is due to him, always and immutably the same.

37. But now this Apollonius Molo was one of these foolish and proud men. However, nothing that I have said was unknown to those that were real philoso phers among the Greeks; nor were they unacquainted with those frigid pre tences of allegories [which had been alleged for such things ;] on which account they justly despised them, but have still agreed with us as to the true and be. coming notions of God; whence it was that Plato would not have political settle. ments admit of any one of the other poets, and dismisses even Homer himself, with a garland on his head, and with ointment poured upon him, and this because he should not destroy the right notions of God with his fables. Nay, Plato principally imitated our legislator in this point, that he enjoined his citizens to have the main regard to this precept, that every one of them should learn their laws accurately. He also ordained, that they should not admit of foreigners intermix. ing with the. own people at random; and provided that the commonwealth should

keep itself pure, and consist of such only as persevered in their own laws. Apol

lonius Molo did no way consider this, when he made it one branch of his accusa. tion against us, that we do not admit of such as have different notions about God, nor will we have fellowship with those that choose to observe a way of living dif ferent from ourselves; yet is not this method peculiar to us, but common to all other men; not among the ordinary Grecians only, but among such of those Grecians as are of the greatest reputation among them. Moreover, the Lacedemonians continued in their way of expelling foreigners, and would not, indeed, give leave to their own people to travel abroad, as suspecting that those two things would introduce a dissolution of their own laws: and, perhaps, there may be some reason to blame the rigid severity of the Lacedemonians; for they betowed the privilege of their city on no foreigners, nor, indeed, would give leave to them to stay among them: whereas we, though we do not think fit to imitate other institutions, yet do we willingly admit of those that desire to partake of ours, which, I think, I may reckon to be a plain indication of our humanity, and at the same time of our magnanimity also.

38. But I shall say no more of the Lacedemonians. As for the Athenians, who glory in having made their city to be common to all men, what their behaviour was Apollonius did not know, while they punished those that did but speak one word contrary to their laws about the gods without any mercy: for on what other account was it that Socrates was put to death by them? For certainly he neither betrayed their city to its enemies, nor was he guilty of any sacrilege with regard to any of their temples; but it was on this account that he swore certain new oaths, and that he affirmed either in earnest, or, as some say, only in jest, that a certain demon used to make signs to him [what he should not do.] For these

* See what these novel oaths were in Dr. Hudson's note, viz. To swear by an oak, by a goat, ang by a dog, as also by a gander, as says Philostratus and others. This swearing strange oaths was also forbidden by the Tyrians, B. i. sect. 22, as Spanheim here notes.