EXTRACTS FOR COMPOSITIONS.

1. Origin of the arts and sciences.

THE useful arts are the offspring of necessity: the sciences are the fruit of ease and leisure.

The con

struction of huts, of weapons of war and of hunting, are the earliest arts. Agriculture is not practised till a tribe becomes stationary, and property is defined and secured.

The sciences arise in a cultivated society, where individuals enjoy that leisure which invites to study and speculation. The priests, maintained in that condition by the monarch, were the earliest cultivators of science. The science of the Egyptians was confined to their priests. Astronomy, which is among the earliest of the sciences, owed its origin probably to superstition. Medicine was also among the early sciences. All rude nations have a pharmacy of their own, equal, in general, to their wants. It is not until luxury has created new and more complex diseases, that a profounder knowledge of medicine and of the animal economy, is required.

2. Origin of idolatrous worship.

BEFORE Conceiving the idea of a Being utterly imperceptible to his senses, a savage would naturally seek that Being in the most striking objects of sense, to which he owed his most apparent benefits. The

sun, extending his beneficial influence over all nature, was therefore among the earliest objects of worship. The other celestial bodies naturally attracted their share of veneration. Fire was also worshiped as a symbol of the sun.

Idolatry owes many of its peculiarities to the symbolical mode of writing, which prevailed among the ancient nations. Animals, which, at first, were regarded as symbols of divine attributes, were afterwards confounded with the gods themselves. The same god, represented by different animals, was supposed to have changed himself into different forms. The deification of heroes arose from a belief in the soul's immortality, accompanied by feelings of gratitude and veneration for men whose lives were eminently useful.

3. State of the arts and sciences among the Egyptians.

THE Egyptians preceded most of the ancient nations in the knowledge of the useful arts, and in the cultivation of the sciences. Architecture, among them, was early brought to great perfection. Their pyramids and obelisks have, owing to the mildness of the climate, suffered little injury from time. The whole country abounds with the remains of ancient magnificence. Thebes, in Upper Egypt, was one of the most splendid cities in the world.

The pyramids are supposed to have been erected about 900 years B. C. They were probably the

sepulchral monuments of the sovereigns. The Egyptians did not believe that death separated the soul from the body; and hence their extreme care to preserve the body entire by embalming, concealing it in caves and catacombs, and guarding it by such stupendous structures.

The remains of art in Egypt, though venerable for their great antiquity, are extremely deficient in beauty and elegance. The Egyptians possessed considerable knowledge of geometry, mechanics, and astronomy. In painting and sculpture, their proficiency seems to have been but slender.

4. The government and laws of Egypt.

THE government of Egypt was an hereditary monarchy. The powers of the monarch were regulated by constitutional laws; yet, in many respects, his authority was extremely despotical. The functions of the sovereign were partly civil and partly religious. The king had the chief regulation of all that regarded the worship of the gods; and the priests, considered as his deputies, filled all the offices of state. The latter were both the legislators and the civil judges: they imposed and levied the taxes, and regulated weights and measures. The great national tribunal was composed of thirty judges, chosen from the three principal departments of the empire. The administration of justice was defrayed by the sovereign, and, as parties were their own advocates, was no burden

on the people. The penal laws of Egypt were uncommonly severe. Funeral rites were not conferred, till after a scrutiny into the life of the deceased, and a judicial decree approving his character. The characters even of the sovereigns were subject to this inquiry.

5. Reflections on the rudest eras of Grecian history.

GREECE presents to the eye a large irregular peninsula, intersected by many chains of mountains, separating its different districts, and opposing natural impediments to general intercourse, and, therefore, to rapid civilization. The extreme barbarity of the Pelasgi, who are said to have been cannibals, and to have been ignorant of the use of fire, has its parallel in modern barbarous nations. There were many circumstances that retarded the progress of the Greeks to refinement. The introduction of a national religion was best fitted to remove these obstacles. Receiving this new system of theology from strangers, and entertaining, at first, very confused ideas of it, they would naturally blend its doctrines and worship with the notions of religion, which they formerly possessed; and hence we observe only partial coincidences of the Grecian with the Egyptian and Phoenician mythologies.

A predominant characteristic of the Greeks, in the early stages of their history, was superstition. To these ages, and to this character, we refer the origin

of the Grecian oracles, and the institution of the public games in honour of the gods.-The desire of penetrating into futurity, and the superstition common to rude nations, gave rise to the oracles of Delphi, Dodona, &c. The resort of strangers to these oracles on particular occasions, led to the celebration of a festival, and of public games.

6. The nature and the effects of the legislative ar rangements of Solon.

SOLON, an illustrious Athenian, of the race of Codrus, attained the dignity of Archon 564 B. C., and was entrusted with the care of framing for his country a new form of government, and a new system of laws. He was a man possessed of extensive knowledge, but wanting in that intrepidity of mind, which is necessary to the character of a great statesman. His disposition was too mild, and it not unfrequently betrayed him into temporising conduct. We find, accordingly, that, without attempting to reform the manners of his countrymen, he accommodated his system to their prevailing habits and passions.

The people claimed the sovereign power; and they received it. The rich demanded offices and dignities: the system of Solon accommodated them to the utmost of their wishes. He divided the citizens into four classes, according to the measure of their wealth. To the first three, containing the richer citizens, belonged all the offices of the commonwealth. The fourth, the