and fortitude, which fhone out at that time, and continued to do fo long after on like occafions. To what were the Greeks indebted for fuch astonishing fuccefles fo much above all probability, unless to the principles I have mentioned, which were profoundly engraven in their hearts, by education, example, and practice, and, were become, by long habit, a fecond nature in them?

Thofe principles, we cannot repeat it too often, were the love of poverty, contempt of riches, difregard of felf-interest, attention to the public good, defire of glory, love of their country; but, above all, fuch a zeal for liberty, which no danger was capable of intimidating, and fuch an irreconcileable abhorrence for whoever conceived the leaft thought against it, as united their counfels, and put an end to all diffenfion and difcord in a

moment.

There was fome difference between the republics as to authority and power, but none in regard to liberty; on that fide they were perfectly equal. The ftates of ancient Greece were exempt from that ambition which occafions fo many wars in monarchies, and had no thoughts of aggrandizing themselves, or of making conquefts, at the expence of each other. They confined themselves to the cultivation, improvement, and defence of, but did not endeavour to ufurp any thing from their neighbours. The weaker cities, in the peaceable poffeflion of their territory, did not apprehend invasion from the more powerful. This occafioned fuch a multitude of cities, republics, and states of Greece, which fubfifted to the latest times in a perfect independence, retaining their own forms of government, with the laws, cuftoms, and ufages derived from their forefathers.

When we examine, with fome attention, the conduct of these people, either at home or abroad, their affemblies, deliberations, and motives for the refolutions they take, we cannot fufficiently admire the wisdom of their government; and we are tempted to demand of ourfelves, from whence could arife this greatnefs of foul in

`H 3.

the

the burghers of Sparta and Athens, whence these noble fentiments, this confummate wifdom in politics, this profound and univerfal knowledge in the art of war; whether for the invention and construction of machines for the attack and defence of places, or for the drawing up and difpofing all the motions of an army in battle; add to this, that fupreme ability in maritime affairs, which always rendered their fleets victorious, which fo glorioufly acquired them the empire of the fea, and obliged the Perfians to renounce it forever by a folemn treaty?

We fee here a remarkable difference between the Greeks and Romans. The latter, immediately after their conquefts, fuffered themselves to be corrupted by pride and luxury. After Antiochus had fubmitted to the Roman yoke, Afia, fubdued by their victorious arms, con-quered its conquerors by riches and voluptuousness; and that change of manners was very sudden and rapid, especially after Carthage, the haughty rival of Rome, was deftroyed. It was not fo with the Greeks. Nothing was more exalted than the victories they had gained over the Perfians; nothing more foothing than the glory they had acquired by their great and illuftrious exploits. After fo glorious a period, the Greeks long perfevered in the fame love of fimplicity, frugality and poverty; the fame remoteness from pomp and luxury; the fame zeal and ardour for the defence of their liberty, and the prefervation of their ancient manners. It is well known how much the islands and provinces of Afia Minor, over which the Greeks fo often triumphed, were abandoned to effeminate pleafures and luxury; they, however, never fuffered themselves to be infected by that contagious foftnefs, and conftantly preferved themfelves from the vices of conquered people. It is true, they did not make thofe countries provinces; but their commerce and example alone might have proved very dangerous to them.

The introduction of gold and filver into Sparta, from whence they were banished under fevere penalties, did not happen till about fourscore years after the battle of Salamin,

Salamin, and the ancient fimplicity of manners fubfifted very long afterwards, notwithstanding that violation of the laws of Lycurgus. As much may be said of the rest of Greece, which did not grow weak and degenerate, but flowly and by degrees. This is what it remains to fhow.

The fourth Age of Greece.

The principal caufe of the weakening and declenfion of the Greeks, was the difunion which rofe up amongst themselves. The Perfians, who had found them invincible on the fide of arms, as long as their union subsisted, applied their whole attention and policy in sowing the feeds of difcord amongst them. For that reafon they employed their gold and filver, which fucceeded much better than their fteel and arms had done before.

The

Greeks, attacked invifibly in this manner by bribes fecretly conveyed into the hands of thofe who had the greatest share in their governments, were divided by domeftic jealoufies, and turned their victorious arms against themselves, which had rendered them fuperior to their enemies.

Their decline of power, from thefe caufes, gave Philip and Alexander opportunity to fubject them. Thofe princes, to accuftom them to fervitude the more agreeable, coloured their defign with avenging them upon their ancient enemies. The Greeks gave blindly into that grofs fnare, which gave the mortal blow to their liberty. Their avengers became more fatal to them than their enemies. The yoke imposed on them by the hands which had conquered the univerfe, could never be removed; thofe little ftates were no longer in a condition to fhake it off. Greece, from time to time, animated by the remembrance of its ancient glory, roufed from its lethargy, and made fome attempts to reinftate itself in its ancient condition; but those efforts were ill concerted, and as ill fustained by its expiring liberty, and tended only to augment its flavery; because the protectors,

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whom

whom it called to its aid, foon made themselves its mafters; fo that all it did, was to change its fetters, and to make them the heavier.

The Romans at length totally fubjected it; but it was by degrees, and with abundance of artifice. As they continually pushed on their conquefts from province to province, they perceived that they fhould find a barrier to their ambitious projects in Macedonia, formidable by its neighbourhood, advantageous fituation, reputation in arms, and very powerful in itself, and by its allies. The Romans artfully applied to the small states of Greece, from whom they had lefs to fear, and endeavoured to gain them by the attractive charms of liberty, which was their darling paffion, and of which they knew how to awaken in them their ancient ideas. After having, with great addrefs, made ufe of the Greeks to reduce and deftroy the Macedonian power, they subjected all those ftates, one after another, under various pretexts. Greece was thus swallowed at laft up in the Roman empire, and became a province of it, under the name of Achaia.

It did not lofe with its power (t) that ardent paffion for liberty, which was its peculiar character. The Romans, when they reduced it to a province, referved to the people almost all their privileges; and Sylla (u), who punished them fo cruelly fixty years after, for having favoured the arms of Mithridates, did not abridge thofe of their liberty who escaped his vengeance. In the civil wars of Italy, the Athenians were feen to efpoufe with warmth the party of Pompey (x), who fought for the republic. Julius Cæfar revenged himfelf upon them no otherwife, than by declaring, that he pardoned them out of confideration for their ancestors. But, after Cæfar was killed, their inclination for liberty made them forget his clemency. They erected ftatues to Brutus and Caffius near thofe of Harmodius and Ariftogiton, the ancient deliverers of Athens, and did not take them down till folicited by Antony, when become their friend, benefactor, and magiftrate.

After

After having been deprived of their ancient power, they still retained another fovereignty, which the Romans could not take from them, and to which themselves were obliged to pay homage. Athens continued always the metropolis of the fciences, the fchool of polite arts, and the centre and ftandard of refined tafte in all the productions of the mind. Several cities, as Byzantium, Cæfarea, Alexandria, Ephesus, and Rhodes, fhared that glory with Athens, and by its example opened fchools which became very famous. Rome, all haughty as the was, acknowledged this glorious empire. She fent her moft illuftrious citizens to be finifhed and refined in Greece. They were inftructed there in all the parts of found philosophy, the knowledge of mathematics, the fcience of natural things, the rules of manners and du- ties, the art of reasoning with justice and method: All the treasures of eloquence were imbibed there, and the method taught of treating the great fubjects with propriety, force, elegance, and perfpicuity.

A Cicero, already the admiration of the bar, conceived he wanted fomething, and did not blush to become the difciple of the great mafters Greece then produced.' Pompey, in the midst of his glorious conquefts, did not think it a difhonour to him, in paffing Rhodes, to hear the celebrated philofophers, who taught there with great reputation, and to make himfelf in fome meafure their difciple.

Nothing fhows better the respect retained for the, anci-ent reputation of Greece, than a letter of Pliny (y) the younger. He writes in this manner to Maximus, appointed governor of that province by Trajan. "Call "to mind, my dear Maximus, that you are going into "Achaia, the true Greece, the fame Greece where "learning and the polite arts had their birth; where " even agriculture was invented, according to the com"mon opinion. Remember that you are fent to govern "free cities and free men, if ever any fuch there were; "who, by their virtues, actions, alliances, treaties, and "religion, have known how to preferve the liberty they "received

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(ƒ) Lib. viii. c. 24.