times, both of the temples and private houses, confifted in their ancient trophies: which were trunks of trees cleared of their branches, and fo formed into a rough kind of posts. Thefe were loaded with the arms they had taken in war; and you may eafily conceive what fort of ornaments these posts must make, when half decayed by time, and hung about with old rufty arms, befmeared with the blood of their enemies. Rome was not then that beautiful Rome, whofe very ruins at this day are fought after with fo much pleasure: it was a town, which carried an air of terror in its appearance; and which made people fhudder, whenever they firft entered within its gates. Ibid. The city of Rome, as well as its inhabitants, was in the beginning rude and unadorned. Thofe old rough foldiers looked on the effects of the politer arts as things fit only for an effeminate people; as too apt to foften and unnerve men; and to take from that martial temper and feriofity, which they encouraged fo much and fo univerfally in the infancy of their ftate. Their houfes were (what the name they gave them fignified) only a covering for them, and a defence againft bad weather. Thefe theds of theirs were more like the caves of wild beafts, than the habitations of men; and were rather flung together as chance led them, than formed into regular fireets and openings: their walls were half mud, and their roofs, pieces of wood ftuck together; nay, even this was an after-improvement; for in Romulus's time, their houfes were only covered with ftraw. If they had any thing that was finer than ordinary, that was chiefly taken up in fetting off the temples of their gods; and when thefe began to be furnished with ftatues (for they had none till long after Numa's time) they were probably more fit to give terror than delight; and feemed rather formed fo as to be horrible enough to ftrike an awe into those who worshipped them, than hand-four reign of Tiberius, was as a fudden fro fome enough to invite any one to look upon them for pleature. Their defign, I fuppofe, was anfwerable to the materials they were made of; and if their gods were of earthen ware, they were reckoned better than ordinary; for many of them were chopt out of wood. One of the chief ornaments in thofe $61. On the Decline of the Arts, Eloquence, and Poetry, upon the Death of Auguftus. On the death of Auguftus, though the arts, and the taste of them, did not fuffer fo great a change, as appeared immediately in the taste of eloquence and poetry, yet they muft have fuffered a good deal. There is a fecret union, a certain kind of fympathy between all the polite arts, which makes them languish and flourish together. The fame circumftances are either kind or unfriendly to all of them. The favour of Auguftus, and the tranquillity of his reign, was as a gentle dew from heaven, in a favourable feason, that made them bud forth and flourish; and the that checked their growth, and at last killed all their beauties. The vanity, and tyranny, and difturbances of the times that followed, gave the finishing ftroke to foulpture as welt as eloquence, and to painting as well as poetry. The Greek artists at Rome were not fo foon or to much infected by the bad taste of the the court, as the Roman writers were; but it reached them too, though by flower and more imperceptible degrees. Indeed what elfe could be expected from fuch a run of monfters as Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero? For thefe were the emperors under whofe reign the arts began to languifh; and they fuffered fo much from their baneful influence, that the Roraan writers foon after them speak of all the arts as being brought to a very low cbb. They talk of their being extremely fallen in general; and as to painting, in particular, they reprefent it as in a moft feeble and dying condition. The feries of fo many good emperors, which happened after Domitian, gave fome fpirit gain to the arts; but foon after the Antonines, they all declined apace, and, by the time of the thirty tyrants, were quite fallen, fo as never to rife again under any future Roman emperor. You may fee by these two accounts I have given you of the Roman poetry, and of the other arts, that the great periods of their rife, their flourishing, and their decline, agree very well; and, as it were, tally with one another. Their ftyle was prepared, and a vaft collection of fine works laid in, under the firft period, or in the times of the republic: in the fecond, or the Auguftan age, their writers and artifs were both in their highest perfection; and in the third, from Tiberius to the Antonines, they both began to languish; and then revived a little; and at last funk totally together. In comparing the descriptions of their poets with the works of art, I should therefore chufe to omit all the Roman poets after the Antonines. Among them all, there is perhaps no one whofe omiffion need be regretted, except that of Claudian; and even as to him it may te confidered, that he wrote when the true knowledge of the arts was no more; and when the true tafte of poetry was strangely corrupted and loft; even if we were to judge of it by his own writings only, which are extremely better than any of the poets long before and long after him. It is therefore much better to confine one's felf to the three great ages, than to run fo far out of one's way for a fingle poet or two, whofe authorities, after all, mutt be very difputable, and indeed fcarce of any weight. Spence. $62, On the Great Hiflorical Ages. Every age has produced heroes and politicians; all nations have experienced revolutions; and all hiftories are nearly alike to thefe who feck only to furnish their memories with facts; but whofoever thinks, or, what is ftill more rare, whofoever has tafte, will find but four ages in the history of the world Thefe four happy ages are thofe in which the arts were carried to perfection; and which, by ferving as the æra of the greatness of the human mind, are examples for pofterity. The first of thefe ages, to which true glory is annexed, is that of Philip and Alexander, or that of a Pericles, a Demofthenes, an Ariftotle, a Plato, an Apelles, a Phidias, and a Praxiteles; and this honour has been con fined within the limits of ancient Greece; the reft of the known world was then in a ftate of barbarism. The fecond age is that of Cæfar and Au guftus, diftinguished likewife by the names of Lucretius, Cicero, Titus, Livius, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Varro, and Vitruvius. The third is that which followed the taks ing of Conftantinople by Mahomet II. Then a family of private citizens was fent to do that which the kings of Europe ought to have undertaken. The Medicis invited to FloH 3 rence rence the Learned, who had been driven out of Greece by the Turks.-This was the age of Italy's glory. The polite arts had already recovered a new life in this country; the Italians honoured them with the title of Virtu, as the firft Greeks had diftinguished them by the name of Wisdom. Every thing tended towards perfection; a Michael Angelo, and Raphael, a Titian, a Taffo, and an Ariofto, flourished. The art of engraving was invented; elegant architecture appeared again, as admirable as in the moft triumphant ages of Rome; and the Gothic barbarism, which had disfigured Europe in every kind of production, was driven from Italy, to make way for good taste. The arts, always tranfplanted from Greece to Italy, found themselves in a favourable foil, where they inftantly produced fruit. France, England, Germany, and Spain, aimed in their turns to gather thefe fruits; but either they could not live in thofe climates, or elfe they degenerated very faft. Francis I. encouraged learned men, but fuch as were merely learned men: he had architects; but he had no Michael Angelo, nor Palladio; he endeavoured in vain to establish fchools for painting; the Italian mafters whom he invited to France, raised no pupils there. Some epigrams, and a few loofe tales, made the whole of our poetry. Rabelais was the only profe writer in vogue in the time of Henry II. In a word, the Italians alone were in poffeffion of every thing that was beautiful, excepting mufic, which was then but in a rude ftate; and experimental philofophy, which was every where equally unknown. Laftly, the fourth age is that known by the name of the age of Lewis XIV. and is perhaps that which approaches the nearest to per fection of all the four: enriched by the discoveries of the three former ones, it has done greater things in certain kinds than those three together. All the arts, indeed, were not carried farther than under the Medicis, Auguftus, and Alexander; but human reafon in general ivas more improved. In this age we firft became acquainted with found philofophy. It may truly be faid, that from the laft years of Cardinal Richelieu's administration till those which followed the death of Lewis XIV. there has happened fuch a general revolution in our arts, our genius, our manners, and even in our government, as will ferve as an immortal mark to the true glory of our country. This happy influence has not been confined to France; it has communicated itself to England, where it has stirred up an emulation which that ingenious and deeply learned nation ftood in need of at that time; it has introduced tafte into Germany, and the fciences into Ruffia; it has even re-animated Italy, which was languishing; and Europe is indebted for its politenefs and fpirit of fociety, to the court of Lewis XIV. Before this time, the Italians called all the people on this fide the Alps by the name of Barbarians. It must be owned that the French, in fome degree, deferved this reproachful epithet. Our forefathers joined the romantic gallantry of the Moors with the Gothic rudeness. They had hardly any of the agreeable arts amongst them; which is a proof that the useful arts were likewife neglected; for, when once the things of ufe are carried to perfection, the transition is quickly made to the elegant and the agreeable; and it is not at all aftonishing, that painting, fculpture, poetry, eloquence, and philofophy, fhould be in a manner unknown to a nation, who, tho' poffeffed of harbours on the Western ocean and and the Mediterranean fea, were without ships; | tion during his time, fo that they all perished and who, though fond of luxury to an excefs, were hardly provided with the most common manufactures. The Jews, the Genoefe, the Venetians, the Portuguese, the Flemish, the Dutch, and the Englife, carried on, in their turns, the trade of France, which was ignorant even of the firit principals of commerce. Lewis XIII. at his acceffion to the crown, had not a fingle fhip; the city of Paris contained not quite four hundred thousand men, and had not above four fine public edifices; the other cities of the kingdom refembled thofe pitiful villages which we fee on the other fide of the Loire. The nobility, who were all ftationed in the country, in dungeons furrounded with deep ditches, oppreffed the peafant who cultivated the land. The high roads were almoft impallable; the towns were deftitute of police; and the government had hardly any credit among foreign nations. We must acknowledge, that, ever fince the decline of the Carlovingian family, France had languifhed more or lefs in this infirm ftate, merely for want of the benefit of a good administration. with him. Henry the Great was on the point of raifing France from the calamities and barbarifins in which the had been plunged by thirty years of difcord, when he was affaffinated in his capital, in the midst of a people whom he had began to make happy. The Cardinal de Richelieu, bufied in humbling the houfe of Auftria, the Calvinifts, and the Grandees, did not enjoy a power fufficiently undif turbed to reform the nation; but he had at leaft the honour of beginning this happy work. Thus, for the fpace of 900 years, our genius had been almost always reftrained under a Gothic government, in the midst of divifons and civil wars; deftitute of any laws or fixed cuftoms; changing every second century a language which still continued rude and unformed. The nobles were without difcipline, and ftrangers to every thing but war and idlenefs; the clergy lived in diforder and ignorance; and the common people without. induftry, and ftupified in their wretchedness, The French had no share either in the great difcoveries, or admirable inventions of other nations: they have no title to the difcoveries For a ftate to be powerful, the people muft of printing, gunpowder, glaffes, telescopes," either enjoy the liberty founded on the laws, or the fcctor, compafs, the air pump, or the true the royal authority must be fixed beyond all fyftem of the univerfe: they were making oppofition. In France, the people were flaves tournaments, while the Portuguese and Spatill the reign of Philip Auguftus; the noble- niards were difcovering and conquering new men were tyrants till Lewis XI.; and the countries from the east to the weft of the kings always employed in maintaining their known world. Charles V. had already fcatauthority against their vaffals, had neither lei- tered the treafures of Mexico over Europe, fare to think about the happiness of their fub- before the fubjects of Francis I. had difcojefts, nor the power of making them happy.vered the uncultivated country of Canada; Lewis XI. did a great deal for the regal but, by the little which the French did in the power, but nothing for the happiness or glory beginning of the fixteenth century, we may of the nation. Francis I. gave birth to trade, fee what they are capable of when properly navigation, and all the arts; but he was too condućted. Voltaire. unfortunate to make them take root in the na $63. On the Conftitution of ENGLAND. In every government there are three forts of power: the legiflative; the executive, in reIpect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive, in regard to things that depend on the civil law. those three powers, that of enacting laws, that of executing the public refolutions, and that of judging the crimes or differences of individuals. Moft kingdoms of Europe enjoy a moderate government, because the prince, who is invested with the two firft powers, leaves the third to his fubjects. In Turky, where these three powers are united in the Sultan's perfon, the fubjects groan under the weight of a moft frightful oppreffion. By virtue of the firft, the prince or magiftrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates thofe that have been already enacted. By the fecond, he makes peace In the republics of Italy, where these three or war, fends or receives embaffics, he efta- powers are united, there is lefs liberty than blishes the public fecurity, and provides againft in our monarchies. Hence their governinvafions. By the third, he punishes crimi- ment is obliged to have recourse to as vionals, or determines the difputes that arife be-lent methods for its fupport, as even that of tween individuals. The latter we fhall call the judiciary power, and the other fimply the executive power of the ftate. The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind, arifing from the opinion each perfon has of his fafety. In order to have this liberty, it is requifite the government be fo conftituted as one man need not be afraid of another. When the legislative and executive powers are united in the fame perfon, or in the fame body of magiftrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehenfions may arife, left the fame monarch or fenate fhould enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. Again, there is no liberty, if the power of judging le not feparated from the legiflative and executive powers. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the fubject would be expofed to arbitrary controul; for the judge would be then the legiflator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all the violence of an oppreffor. There would be an end of every thing, were the fame man, or the fame body, whether f the nobles, or of the people, to exercife the Turks; witnefs the ftate inquifitors at Venice, and the lion's mouth, into which every informer may at all hours throw his written accufations." What a fituation must the poor fubject be in under those republics! The fame body of magiftrates are poffeffed, as executors of the law, of the whole power they have given themfelves in quality of legiflators. They may plunder the ftate by their general determinations; and, as they have likewise the judiciary power in their hands, every private citizen may be ruined by their particular decifions. The whole power is here united in one body; and though there is no external pomp that indicates a defpotic fway, yet the people feel the effects of it every moment. Hence it is that many of the princes of Europe, whofe aim has been levelled at arbitrary power, have conftantly fet out with uniting in their own perfons all the branches of magiftracy, and all the great offices of state. I allow, indeed, that the mere hereditary aristocracy of the Italian republics does not anfwer exactly to the defpotic power of the eaftern princes. The number of magiftrates fometimes foftens the power of the magif tracy i |