this supposed hero, and the martyrs of Christianity, who often were young children and tender virgins, and yet were not afraid to shed the last drop of their blood, to defend and confirm the same truths, which Socrates knew, without daring to assert in public. I mean, the unity of God, and the vanity of idols. Let us also compare the so much boasted death of this prince of philosophers, with that of our holy bishops, who have done the Christian religion so much honour, by their sublimity of genius, the extent of their knowledge, and the beauty and excellence of their writings; a St. Cyprian, a St. Augustin, and so many others, who were all seen to die in the bosom of humility, fully convinced of their unworthiness and nothingness, penetrated with a lively fear of the judgments of God, and expecting their salvation from his sole goodness and condescending mercy. Philosophy inspires no such sentiments; they could proceed only from the grace of the Mediator, which, "we are taught to believe," Socrates did not deserve to know.

BOOK TENTH.

THE

HISTORY

OF THE

PERSIANS AND GRECIANS.

CONTAINING THE

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE GREEKS.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE GREEKS.

THE most essential part of history, and which it

concerns the reader most to know, is that which explains the character and manners as well of the people in general, as of the great persons in particular of whom it treats; and this may be said to be in some sort the soul of history, of which the facts are only the body. I have endeavoured, as occasion offered, to paint in their true colours the most illustrious personages of Greece; it remains for me to show the genius and character of the people themselves. I shall confine myself to those of Lacedemon and Athens, who always held the first rank amongst the Greeks, and

shall reduce what I have to say upon this subject to three heads; their political government, war, and religion.

Sigonius, Meursius, Potter, and several others, who have written upon the Grecian antiquities, supply me with great lights, and are of equal use to me in the matters it remains for me to treat.

CHAPTER I.

OF POLITICAL GOVERNMENT.

THERE are three principal forms of government: monarchy, in which a single person reigns; aristocracy, in which the eldest and wisest govern; and democracy, in which the supreme authority is lodged in the hands of the people. The most celebrated writers of antiquity, as Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, and Plutarch, give the preference to the first kind, as including the most advantages with the fewest inconveniences. But all agree, and it cannot be too often inculcated, that the end of all government, and the duty of every one in authority, in whatsoever manner it be, is to use his utmost endeavours to render those under his command happy and just, by obtaining for them on the one side safety and tranquillity, with the advantages and conveniences of life, and on the other, all the means and helps that may contribute to making them virtuous.

As the pilot's end, says Cicero, is to steer his vessel happily into its port, the physician's to preserve or restore health, the general's of an army to obtain victory; so a prince, and every man who governs others, ought to make the utility of the governed his view and motive, and to remember, that the supreme rule of all just government is the good of the public, Salus populi suprema lex esto. He adds, that the greatest and most noble function in the world, is to be the author of the happiness of mankind.

Plato in an hundred places, esteems as nothing the most shining qualities and actions of those who govern, if they do not tend to promote the two great ends I have mentioned, the virtue and happiness of the people; and he refutes at large, in the first book of his Republic, one Thrasymachus, who advanced, that subjects were born for the prince, and not the prince for his subjects; and that whatever promoted the interest of the prince and commonwealth ought to be deemed just and lawful.

In the distinctions which have been made upon the several forms of government, it has been agreed, that would be the most perfect which should unite in itself, by an happy mixture of institutions, all the advantages, and exclude all the inconveniences, of the rest; and almost all the ancients have believed that

d

Tenesne igitur, moderatorem illum reip. quo referre velimus omnia? Ut gubernatori cursus secundus, medico salus, imperatori victoria, sic huic moderatori reip. beata civium vita proposita est, ut opibus firma, copiis locuples, gloria ampla, virtute honesta sit. Hujus enim operis maximi inter homines atque optimi illum esse perfectorem volo. Ad. Attic: 1. viii. epist. 10.

'Cic. de leg. 1. iii. n. 8.

◄ Polyb. 1. vi. p. 458, 459,

• Page 338-342.

the Lacedemonian government came nearest to this

idea of perfection.

ARTICLE I.

OF THE GOVERNMENT OP SPARTA.

FROM the time that the Heraclides had reentered Peloponnesus, Sparta was governed by two kings, who were always of the same two families, descended from Hercules by two different branches, as I have observed elsewhere. Whether from pride, or the abuse of despotic power on the side of the kings, or the desire of independence, and an immoderate love of liberty on that of the people, Sparta, in its beginnings, was always involved in commotions and revolts, which would infallibly have occasioned its ruin, as had happened at Argos and Messene, two neighbouring cities, equally powerful with itself, if the wise foresight of Lycurgus had not prevented fatal consequences by the reformation he made in the state. I have related it at large in the life of that legislator, and shall only touch here upon what regards the government.

SECTION I.

IDEA OF THE SPARTAN GOVERNMENT.

LYCURGUS restored order and peace in Sparta by the establishment of the senate. It consisted of twenty

• Book v. Art. vii.