by their masters, is feriously continued by them thro' the whole year, and thro' the whole course of their lives; accompanied too with fome circumstances, which still farther augment the abfurdity and ridicule. Your fport only elevates for a few days those whom fortune has thrown down, and whom the too, in fport, may really elevate for ever above you: But this nation gravely exalt thofe, whom nature has fubjected to them, and whofe inferiority and infirmities are abfolutely incurable. The women, tho' without virtue, are their mafters and fovereigns: These they reverence, praife and magnify: To thefe, they pay the highest deference and respect: And in all places and at all times, the fuperiority of the females is readily acknowleged and fubmitted to by every one, who has the leaft pretenfions to education and politenefs. Scarce any crime would be fo univerfally detefted as an infraction of this rule.

You need go no farther, replied PALAMEDES; I can easily conjecture the people whom you aim at. The ftrokes, with which you have painted them, are pretty juft; and yet you must acknowlege, that fcarce any people are to be found, either in antient or modern times, whofe national character is, upon the whole, lefs liable to exception. But I give you thanks for helping me out with my argument. I had no intention of exalting the moderns at the expence of the antients. I only meant to reprefent the uncertainty of all thefe judgments concerning characters; and to convince you, that fashion, vogue, cuftom and law, were the chief foundation of all moral determinations. The ATHENIANS furely, were a civilized, intelligent people, if ever there was one; and yet their man of merit might, in this age, be held in horror and execration. The FRENCH are also, without doubt, a very civilized, intelligent people; and yet their man of merit might, with the ATHENIANS, be an object of the highest contempt and ridicule, and even hatred. And what renders the matter more extraordinary: These two people are fuppofed to be the moft fimilar in their national character of any in an tient and modern times; and while the ENGLISH flatter themselves that they refemble the ROMANS, their neighbors on the continent draw the parallel between themselves and thofe polite GREEKS. What wide difference, therefore, in the fentiments of morals, must be found between civilized nations and Barbarians, or between nations whofe characters have little in common? How fhall we pretend to fix a ftandard for judgments of this nature?

By tracing matters, replied I, a little higher, and examining the first principles, which each nation establishes, of blame or cenfure. The RHINE flows north, the RHONE fouth; yet both fpring from the fame mountain, and are also actuated, in their oppofite directions, by the fame principle of gravity. The different inclinations of the ground, on which they run, caufe all the difference of their

courfes.

In how many circumftances would an ATHENIAN and FRENCH man of merit certainly resemble each other? Good-fenfe, knowlege, wit, eloquence, humanity, fidelity, truth, juftice, courage, temperance, conftancy, dignity of mind. Thefe you have all omitted; in order to infift only on the points, in which they may, by accident, differ. Very well: I am willing to comply with you; and fhall endeavor to account for thefe differences from the moft univerfal, eftablished principles of morals.

Q992

THE

THE GREEK loves, I care not to examine more particularly. I fhall only ob serve, that however, blameable, they arofe from a very innocent caufe, the frequency of the gymnaftic exercifes among that people; and were recommended, tho' abfurdly, as the fource of friendfhip, fympathy, mutual attachment, and fidelity; qualities efteemed in all nations and all ages.

THE marriage of half-brothers and fifters feems no great difficulty. Love between the nearer relations is contrary to reafon and public utility; but the precife point, where we are to ftop, can fcarcely be determined by natural reason; and is therefore a very proper fubject of municipal law or cuftom. If the ATHENIANS went a little too far on the one fide, the canon law has furely pushed matters a great way into the other extreme ".

HAD you asked a parent at ATHENS, why he bereaved his child of that life, which he had fo lately given it. 'Tis because I love it, he would reply; and regard the poverty which it muft inherit from me, as a greater evil than a death, which it is not capable of dreading, feeling, or refenting'.

How is public liberty, the most valuable of all bleffings, to be recovered from the hands of an ufurper or tyrant, if his power fhields him from public rebellion, and our fcruples from private vengeance? That his crime is capital by law, you acknowlege: And muft the highest aggravation of his crime, the putting himself above law, form his full fecurity? You can reply nothing, but by fhowing the great inconveniencies of affaffination; which could any one have proved clearly to the antients, he had reformed their fentiments in this particular.

AGAIN, to caft your eye on the picture which I have drawn of modern manners; there is almost as great difficulty, I acknowlege, to juftify FRENCH as GREEK gallantry; except only, that the former is much more natural and agreeable than the latter. But our neighbors, it feems, have refolved to facrifice fome of the domeftic to the fociable pleasures; and to prefer eafe, freedom, and an open commerce to a ftrict fidelity and conftancy. These ends are both good, and are fomewhat difficult to reconcile; nor need we be furprized, if the customs of nations incline too much, fometimes to the one fide, fometimes to the other.

THE moft inviolable attachment to the laws of our country is every-where acknowleged a capital virtue; and where the people are not fo happy, as to have any other legislature but a fingle perfon, the ftricteft loyalty is, in that cafe, the trueft patriotism.

And a

NOTHING furely can be more abfurd and barbarous than the practice of duelling; but thofe, who juftify it, fay, that it begets civility and good manners. duelift, you may obferve, always values himself upon his courage, his fenfe of honor, his fidelity and friendship; qualities, which are here indeed very oddly directed, but which have been esteemed univerfally, fince the foundation of the world.

HAVE the gods forbid felf-murder? An ATHENIAN allows, that it ought to be forborn. Has the Deity permitted it? A FRENCHMAN allows, that death is preferable to pain and infamy.

PLAT. fymp. p. 182. Ex edit. SERR. prolis, fub fine.

See Enquiry, Sect. IV.

i PLUT. de amore

You

You fee then, continued I, that the principles, upon which men reafon in mo rals are always the fame; tho' the conclufions which they draw are often very different. That they all reafon aright with regard to this fubject, more than with regard to any other, it is not incumbent on any moralift to fhow. 'Tis fufficient, that the original principles of cenfure or blame are uniform, and that erroneous conclufions can be corrected by founder reafoning and a larger experience. Tho' many ages have elapfed fince the fall of GREECE and ROME; tho' many changes have arrived in religion, language, laws, and cuftoms; none of thefe revolutions has ever produced any confiderable innovation in the primary fentiments of morals, more than in those ef external beauty. Some minute differences, perhaps, may be observed in both. HORACE celebrates a low forehead, and ANACREON joined eye-brows': But the APOLLO and the VENUS of antiquity are ftill our models for male and female beauty; in like manner as the character of SCIPIO continues our standard for the glory of heroes, and that of CORNELIA for the honor of matrons.

k

Ir appears, that there never was any quality, recommended by any one, as a virtue or moral excellence; but on account of its being ufeful, or agreeable, co a man himself, or to others. For what other reafon can there ever be affigned for praise or approbation? Or where would be the fenfe of extolling a good character or action, which, at the fame time, is allowed to be good for nothing? All the differences, therefore, in morals may be reduced to this one general foundation, and may be accounted for by the different views, which people take of thefe circumftances.

SOMETIMES men differ in their judgment about the usefulness of any habit or action: Sometimes alfo the peculiar circumstances of things render one moral quality more useful than others, and give it a peculiar preference.

'Tis not surprising, that, during a period of war, and diforder, the military virtues fhould be more celebrated than the pacific, and attract more the admiration and attention of mankind. "How ufual is it," fays TULLY ", " to find "CIMBRIANS, CELTIBERIANS, and other barbarians, who bear, with inflexible conftancy, all the fatigues and dangers of the field; but are immediately difpirited under the pain and hazard of a languifhing diftemper: while, on the "other hand, the GREEKS patiently endure the flow approaches of death, when "armed with ficknefs and difeafe; but timoroufly fly his prefence, when he at"tacks them violently with fwords and falchions!" So oppofite is even the fame virtue of courage among warlike or peaceful nations! And indeed, we may observe, that as the difference between war and peace is the greateft, which arifes among nations and public focieties, it produces alfo the greatest variations in moral fentiment; and diverfifies the most our idea of virtue and personal merit.

SOMETIMES too, magnanimity, greatness of mind, disdain of slavery, inflexible rigor and integrity, may fuit better the circumstances of one age than thofe of another, and have a more kindly influence, both on public affairs, and on a man's own fafety and advancement. Our idea of merit, therefore, will alfo vary a little

Epift. lib. 1. epift. 7. Alfo lib. 1. ode 3. thefe circumftances as beauties.

1 Ode 28. PETRONIUS (cap. 86.) joins both Tufc. Quæft. lib. 2. with

with thefe variations; and LABEO, perhaps, be cenfured for the fame qualities, which procured CATO the highest approbation.

A DEGREE of luxury may be ruinous and pernicious in a native of SWITZERLAND, which only fofters the arts, and encourages induftry in a FRENCHMAN or ENGLISHMAN. We are not, therefore, to expect, either the fame fentiments, or the fame laws in BERNE, which prevail in LONDON or PARIS.

DIFFERENT cuftoms have alfo fome influence as well as different utilities; and by giving an early biafs to the mind, may produce a fuperior propenfity, either to the ufetul or the agreeable qualities; to thofe, which regard felf, or thofe, which extend to fociety. Thefe four fources of moral fentiment ftill fubfift; but particular accidents may, at one time, make any one of them flow with greater abundance than at another.

THE cuftoms of fome nations fhut up the women from all focial commerce: Thofe of others make them fo effential a part of fociety and conversation, that, except, where business is transacted, the male-sex alone are fuppofed almost wholly incapable of mutual difcourfe and entertainment. As this difference is the most material, which can happen in private life, it must alfo produce the greatest variation in our moral fentiments.

Of all nations in the world, where polygamy was not allowed, the GREEKS feem to have been the most referved in their commerce with the fair-fex, and to have impofed on them the ftricteft laws of modefty and decency. We have a ftrong inftance of this in an oration of LYSIAS ". A widow injured, ruined, undone, calls a meeting of a few of her nearest friends and relations; and tho' never before accustomed, fays the orator, to speak in the prefence of men, the diftrefs of her circumftances conftrained her to lay the cafe before them. The very opening her mouth in fuch company required, it feems, an apology.

WHEN DEMOSTHENES profecuted his tutors, to make them refund his patrimony, it became neceffary for him, in the course of the law-fuit, to prove that the marriage of APHOBUS's fifter with ONETER was entirely fraudulent, and that, notwithstanding her fham marriage, fhe had lived with her brother at ATHENS for two years laft paft, ever fince her divorce from her former husband. And 'tis remarkable, that tho' thefe were people of the first fortune and diftinction in the city, the orator could prove this fact no way, but by calling for her female flaves to be put to the queftion, and by the evidence of one phyfician, who had seen her in her brother's house during her illness. So referved were GREEK

manners.

WE

We may be affured, that an extreme purity was the confequence of this referve. Accordingly we find, that, except the fabulous ftories of an HELEN and a CLYTEMNESTRA, there fcarce is an inftance of any event in the GREEK hiftory, which proceeded from the intrigues of women. On the other hand, in modern times, particularly in a neighboring nation, the females enter into all transactions and all management of church and state: and no man can expect fuccefs, who takes not care to obtain their good graces. HARRY the third, by incurring the difpleasure of the fair, endangered his crown, and loft his life, as much as by his indulgence to herefy.

'Tis needlefs to diffemble: The confequence of a very free commerce between the fexes, and of their living much together, will often terminate in intrigues and gallantry. We mull facrifice fomewhat of the useful, if we be very anxious to obtain all the agreeable qualities; and cannot pretend to reach alike every kind of advantage. Inftances of licence, daily multiplying, will weaken the fcandal with the one fex, and teach the other, by degrees, to adopt the famous maxim of La FONTAINE, with regard to female infidelity, that if one knows it, it is but a small matter; if one knows it not, it is nothing .

SOME people are inclined to think, that the best way of adjusting all differences, and of keeping the proper medium between the agreeable and the useful qualities of the fex is to live with them after the manner of the ROMANS and the ENGLISH (for the customs of these two nations feem fimilar in this refpect ) that is, without gallantry and without jealoufy. By a parity of reafon, the customs of the SPANIARDS and of the ITALIANS of an age ago (for the prefent are very different) must be the worst of any; because they favor both gallantry and jealoufy.

NOR will these different customs of nations affect only the one fex: The idea of perfonal merit in the males muft alfo be fomewhat different with regard, at leaft, to converfation, address, and humor. The one nation, where the men live much apart, will naturally more approve of prudence; the other, of gaiety. With the one, fimplicity of manners will be in the highest esteem; with the other, politenefs. The one will diftinguish themfelves by good-fenfe and judgment; the other, by taste and delicacy. The eloquence of the former will fhine most in the fenate; that of the other, on the theatre.

THESE, I fay, are the natural effects of fuch customs. For it must be confeffed, that chance has a great influence on national manners; and many events. happen in fociety, which are not to be accounted for by general rules. Who could. imagine, for inftance, that the ROMANS, who lived freely with their women, fhould be very indifferent about mufic, and efteem dancing infamous: While the GREEKS, who never almoft faw a woman but in their own houses, were continually piping, finging, and dancing?

THE differences of moral fentiment, which naturally arife from a republican or monarchical government, are alfo very obvious; as well as thofe, which proceed from general riches or poverty, union or faction, ignorance or learning. I fhall conclude this long difcourfe with obferving, that different cuftoms and fituations vary not the original ideas of merit (however they may, fome confequences) in any very effential point, and prevail chiefly with regard to young men, who can afpire to the agreeable qualities, and may attempt to please. The

Quand on le fçait c'est peu de chofe : Quand on ne le fçait pas, ce n'eft rien. During the time of the emperors, the RoMANS feem to have been more given to intrigues and gallantry than the ENGLISH are at prefent: And the women of condition, in order to retain their lovers, endeavored to fix a name of reproach on those, who were addicted to wenching and

low amours. They were called ANCILLARIOLI. See SENECA de beneficiis. Lib. 1. cap. 9. See alfo MARTIAL. lib. 12. epig. 58.

The gallantry here meant is that of amours and attachments, not that of complaifance, which is as much paid to the fair-fex in England as in any other country.

MANNER,