feek shelter from the diftrefs of employ, and pain of thought, under torpid fubmiffion to a defpot.'

The following paffage is an apology for the cuftom of banishing great men by oftracifm:

The fubtilty of intellect, or fpirit of enterprize, or what elfe may enter into the compofition of thofe we vulgarly term "great men," are particularly to be guarded againft in popular governments: afcendancy of private character may difcompofe the union, or corrupt the virtue of the people; favour to particular men may beget factions in the ftate, and focial love recoil from the extent of patriotifm to the narrow circle of a party; then is it retreated midway to domestics and to felf-intereft; felf-intereft in its turn will quickly fway, and the commonwealth be distracted with various and private influences. Even a virtuous man too much diftinguished and exalted above his peers, may open this fluice to the ruin of his country: let us draw a character more dangerous, as more fitted for felf-elevation; let us delineate the hero of Salamis: his mind was of a fublimate and active spirit, that pervaded, in a momentary course, the past, the prefent, and the future; and had a command of experience, fubtilty, and forefight, for the exigencies of the hour, or for the protractions of policy; quick in thought, and tardy to execute; or dilatory in purpose, and immediate and bold in perpetration, as juncture neceffitated, or as feafon required: no fcheme was too deep for his capacity; no enterprize too hardy for his courage; he had not the winning foftnefs, but he had the force of eloquence; his tongue was not perfuafive but commanding; its art was the fimplicity of truth: when he spoke, it was not a plaufibility of addrefs, it was not a fpecious fhow of argument, or an appeal to the pathetic, that drew the favour of the affembly; but a fomething comprehenfive, intuitive, prophetic, a fomething of genius that rivetted the attention, and on the felf-diffidence of the hearer raised an uncontroulable command; the minds of the audience were amazed and daunted into acquiefcence, even when not argued into conviction; and the artful rhetor forgot his act, and the opinionative were abashed before him! fuch and like pre-eminence of character was fatal to the commonwealth of Athens: Miltiades prepared the way for Themistocles; Themistocles for Pericles: crouching to the fucceffive afcendancy of their great men, the people were habitually brought to confider their popular ftate as dependant; and rather to confide their public weal to the abilities of a statesman, than to the wisdom of the conftitution: they infenfibly deviated from the found and fimple principle of conduct adopted by their forefathers, and to a free progress in the strait road of virtue, preferred a leading ftring in the maze of politics: they were then often led to injuftice, often bewildered in ruinous practices, often betrayed to bloody and ufelefs expeditions; at length inured to fubferviency, they were at times the means of glory and power to the ambitious, tools to the crafty, wealth to the ava ricious, dangerous to good men, and a fubterfuge to the criminal. We shall find other caufes co-operate, but much of these evils is imputable to the afcendancy of great men: let not the oftracism be reprobated, for were it not for that weapon, with which the leaders of the people buffeted and depreffed each other, the republic of

Ii 2

Athens

Athens had not long withstood the meaneft pretender to ufurpation.'

On the manners of the Athenians, and the ftate of the republic at the close of the Perfian wars, Mr. Young thus writes:

Confidering the commonwealth as inftituted by Solon, and as re-established by Cliftthenes, it hath been obferved that whatever general denomination may have been given to its form of government, undoubtedly the larger mafs of the people had but little influence and authority, though they were in poffeffion of general freedom and privileges: opulence, however regulated by agrarian and fumptuary laws, and pretenfions of family, however obliterated by general and equal claims under the spirit of the conftitution, feparated the noble and wealthy few from the many, who, neceffitated to feek fubfiftence from the menial arts, were contented to forego public occupation and confequence; and from the bent and habits of life coincided with the intentions of their legiflator to entrust the great functions of ftate exclufively to thofe, from whom the exacted qualification of property warranted a more perfect fenfe of responsibility: nor did this forbearance imply a difregard of the commonwealth, whilft that refponfibility was to the people at large.

At the period we are now arrived at, fuch moderation could no longer be fuppofed to diftinguifh the commonalty, whom the circumftances of the times had approximated to the higher claffes (or rather had mingled all claffes together), whilft the Perfian wars ftamped with honour every name infcribed on the trophy of Marathon; and whilft the fpoils of Salamis and Platæa devolved hereditary opulence on the family of almost every combatant in those memorable conflicts.

The riches of the conquerors flowed from the triple source of military prize, of territory, and of captives; and the latter employed in the meaner handicrafts and trades, allowed leisure and difengagement, as well as competence to each citizen; who, buoyed up with national pride, and the elevation of his country, chofe to mingle in her councils, with the felf-confequence of having fought her battles, and conduced to thofe victories, which encreafing her empire, encreafed the fubjects of public bufinefs, and importance of employ.

The work-fhop being given up for the affembly, more citizens crouded into action, more individuals became public men, and the ftate of Athens became more democratic.

The growing taste of the people for political interference, was flattered and promoted by thofe leaders, who fought to purchafe their favour and applaufe; the obftacles to popular ambition were removed by fucceflive decrees, annulling ancient diftinétions, founded in the old fyftem of landed intereft, and in the policy of Solon, who fought to temperate the democracy with inftitutions fuggefted by more partial governments. To thefe caufes of change in the constitution of the republic, Plutarch adds that of the long walls built by Cimon to connect the upper city with the Piræus, before feparate and fortified apart: "Thefe walls (fays he) taking within the common circuit of the city, the refidence of the commercial and feafaring populace, they thenceforward more readily mingled in the public affenblies; ever joined, and often originated, the clamour of the day,

and

and abetted alternately the defigns of a favourite, or furious refentments of the commonalty." The dangers hence to be apprehended were the greater, as whilft Ariftides opened the higheft offices of ftate to the claims of the pooreft citizen, Ephialtes degraded the dignity of the Areopagus by introducing the custom of frequent appeals from that jurifdiction to the affemblies; and thus enlarged at once their sphere of ambition, of policy, of favour, and of justice. The evil effects of laying fo many new powers, and of bringing so much new matter before the commonalty, were not inftantaneous, nor enter into the scene of government now before us. New powers are ever at the outfet adminiftered with virtue and moderation; a Plebeian conful at Rome, and a Plebeian archon at Athens, on the first admiffion of their respective pretenfions, were in either ftate uncommon inftances of the people's availing themselves of the rights they had been most earneft to attain; nor doth it appear that the ultimate refort of juftice was conducted otherwife than with modefty and with rectitude. It is an observation of Ifocrates, that in thefe times, "it was as difficult to make office acceptable to any, as in his time to find a man who did not solicit it." If we may credit the reference of the Greek fophifts and orators to this happy period,-what liberty had gained, good government had not loft: its administration was yet firm and confiftent, the decrees of the ftate wife, their execution prompt, and obedience to them fo implicit, that it warranted Plato to affert," that the people were at once masters of, and flaves to the laws;" and this spirit of fubordination he places to account of the dangers which menaced them from the ftupendous invafion of the Perfians, which inftilled a sense of union among themselves, of adherence to their inftitutions, and of acquiefcence in their regulations, and in the command of those they entrusted and empowered, as their fole resource of ftrength adequate to fo great occafion. The pride and love of glory, refulting from the confequences of those wars, for a time fuftained that fpirit which had been the means of fuccefs, and made the citizens juft and difinterested in the exercise of their republican power, as they had been bold and zealous in afferting their pretenfions to it; and in defending it, as well against ufurpers within their state, as again ft foreign invafion.

The effect of public habits on the domeftic demeanour of the Athenians would alone afford fome grounds of enquiry; but further, the genuine fources of information, refpecting the fubjects of manners and of morals, lay in the fimple theories of the human mind and paffions; in the investigation of facts which may be prefumed to have an uniform connection therewith, and, finally, in a fpeculative combination of men and things: or, reverting from confequences to their causes, they are to be fearched out in the affumption of taste from the objects of predilection; and in the affumption of jocial conduct from the effects which we are acquainted with, and which can be pretumed to have originated from no other fource, than the actual manners of the age. Can we read the fublime tragedies of Efchylus, and particularly that of the Perfai, nor fuppofe them penned in conformity to an enthusiastic fpirit of virtue, patriotifm, and renown; which dignifying the audience, incited the poet to touch fuch paffions, as

Ii3

being

being moft general and interefling, as awakening attention, and as enfuring applaufe? When we read thofe of Sophocles, who quickly followed the father of the drama, and who flourished too in these times, can we entertain a doubt, that the people who generally attended and were enamoured with fuch reprefentations, and who beftowed fucceff.ve gratuities and honours on fuch writers, were of no frivolous character, but impregnate equally with the tafte of poetry, and with the fenfe of glory; which never accompany mean habits of felfishness, low debauchery, and idle gratification? The pomp of their feftivals, befpeak equally the magnificent fpirit of the people; and if, from their attention to fuch fubjects beyond other nations, ought elfe is to be deduced, it is a fuperftition that drew at least the attention of the citizens ftill further from diffolute vices and degrading purfuits: nor was this fuperftition intolerant; but, whilst in its fplendor it drew to itself and circulated the articles of commerce, ic bore with all the nations and fects which commerce attracted to its emporium of Athens. We are warranted in affixing to this æra of manners, national pride connected with philanthropy; and in painting the ftrict republican character, as endowed with the complacent virtues of hofpitable intercoufe, when we advert to the reception of ftrangers, and even to the treatment of flaves. The dominion of the feas, and the connections of trade, muft have habituated many citizens to foreign excurfions; many too, from other countries, became their guests in return; national prejudices were thus broken in upon; the minds of men became more knowing and enlarged; and the people were taught to comprize others, as well as Greeks, within the circle of their benevolence: their very flaves partook of that benevolence: they bore no badge of fervitude, but were clothed as citizens; the laws protected them equally from infults and from blows and their feveral merits and accomplishments raised them proportionally to a certain rank in fociety, though never in the state.

This complacency of manners, originating from other sources than the long habits of diffufive intercourfe, implies no depraved or luxurious cuftoms of life: an Athenian feaft was proverbial with furrounding nations for an homely entertainment; nor can the propriety of the application be doubted, when we read of Pericles, and of others, the first men in Athens, meeting at a friend's houfe, followed feverally by a flave bearing a small portion of provifions for the master's diet: I must obviate any reference on thefe topics to the convivial dif courfes of the Greek fophifts, and particularly to the curious fympofion of Xenophon, by reminding the reader, that they were written long after thefe virtuous times, and that the pictures therein are drawn from fubfequent habits of life. In this age there feems to have been little private luxury, or even private oftentation employed in any degree or object: when we are told, that the houfes of Themiftocles, of Cimon, and of Ariftides, and of other great men, were no ways diftinguishable from those of their poorest neighbours; when we confider this exterior equality, and the intrinfic one too of rights and of freedom; and when we obferve that the fole afcendancy in thele times was of ability and of virtue, and that on fuch jointed bafis alone the elevation of thofe men was founded, and yet when

it

it rofe too high, was beaten down and destroyed ;—we might almoft be led to confider the Athenian ftate, in its interior policy and management, as tranfcending the perfections of united fyftems, which reclufe politicians have imagined in their vifionary models of government:-but that we already defcry burfting from the fod thofe feeds of corruption and ruin, which the wealth of Perfia fo widely diffeminated. The accumulated riches of the ftate, and of its citizens too individually, however, lay not hidden in coffers :-private temperance as yet rejected their abuse; but private thrift threw the fuperfluities from ceconomical management into funds for aggrandifement of the ftate, or fplendor of the city.

⚫ Domestic parcimony is no ways incompatible with public magnificence: the citizens of Athens had yet the feelings of patriotism, were yet capable of fympathizing with the glory of the commonwealth, and of facrificing thereto fome portion of more private interests, and more selfish concerns: their forefathers loved their country, they were proud of it; and pride for a time propped up that fabric which virtue had raised. The firft fuitors of the fair mistress, Athens, were sentimentally attached to the foul (as Ifocrates emphatically terms the fpiritual tenor of the political inftitution); their fucceffors too were yet conftant to the fair; but it was a groffer paffion for the fenfible object, and was no longer difplayed by a brave and knight-like affiduity of fervice, and a fubferviency of morals to the pure and correct pattern of the republic, but was fhown in a prodigality of ornament and a profufion of wealth, corruptive of, and ruinous to, the very patriot-love that lavished it for an attachment to fenfible objects paffes almoft with the novelty, and further the mind degenerates into a vicious levity.'

In the paffages we have quoted are certainly many just notions and fentiments; but they are frequently buried under a confused heap of words, ill-chofen and awkwardly arranged.

Mr. Young has devoted a chapter to the fubject of the state of the arts in Greece, written with the fame fingular combination of real meaning and obfcure language: from this we shall felect the following fhort paffage, on the priority (in the order of time) of ftatuary to painting:

At the time when fculpture was at the highest pitch, then painting began to emulate its excellence; much it was to feek without the pale of imitation, but much too it was to borrow from the prior art; colour, and its contingencies of light and fhade, it was to feek for in nature, but the precife outline it could more readily copy from the correct, and unvarying models of a Phidias or Alcamenes: from attention to fuch finished performances, defign foon attained a degree of perfection, which no modern work can be fuppofed to give a juft idea of: when Pliny favs, that, "Ambire debet fe extremitas, et fic definere, ut promittat alia poft fe, oftendatque que occultat;" I confefs my eye is but ill fatisfied even with the Seftine chapel. Whilft we allow the fuperiority of defign to the ancient painters, let us not extravagantly deal them out every accomplishment of the profeffion from the old poets, and from the antiquarians Ælian and Paufanias, and from Lucian and others, I think it may be gathered

Ii 4

that