by the winds blowing from their own country: nor is he ever more to be reckoned as one of their race, and there is a general mourning observed throughout the kingdom for nine days."

There is also an express law against adultery, which is likewise punished after death; but public disgraces are the sole punishments for all other offences.

On the subject of their religion, we must observe that they are idolaters; for although they acknowledge one supreme God, the maker of all things, yet they consider the sun as the chief instrumental cause of all productions, and on this account offer up their prayers to it. The men look upon the moon to be a material being dependent on the sun; but the women, remarks the author very archly, seem to make a goddess of her, by reason of the influence she has over that sex.

"The sum therefore of the theoretical part of their religion is, first, that the El is the supreme intellectual, rational, and most noble of all beings; that it is the duty of all intellectual beings to imitate the just laws of reason in him, otherwise they depart from the supreme rule of all their actions, since what is contrary to the most perfect reason in God, must be contrary to our own, and by consequence a deformity, highly blameable in his sight; all their prayers, and whatever they ask of this supreme being, is, that they may be just and good as he is."

They have also a superstitious worship of their deceased ancestors, which is partly a religious and partly a politic institution; "because their government being patriarchal, the inviolable respect they shew to their parents makes them obey their governors and elders, not only with the most dutiful observance, but even with a filial love and alacrity." This reverential feeling it was that led them, as the star in the east did the wise men, from their adopted country to the strange lands where the objects of their veneration reposed, for the purpose of performing their devotions to their ancestors' tombs. The very dust around them was sacred, and they collected small portions of it in the course of their journey, which were put into golden urns, to be deposited in their temples, the performance of which forms one of the chief ceremonials of their religion. They believe in the immortality of the soul, and

"The rewards and punishments in the next life, they believe will chiefly consist in this; that in proportion as their actions have been conformable to the just ideas of the Supreme Being in this life, partaking still more and more of his infinite wisdom, so their souls will approach still nearer to the beautiful intelligence of their divine model in the next. But if their actions in this life have been inconsistent with the supreme reason in God, they shall be permitted to go on for ever

in that inconsistency and disagreement, till they become so monstrously wicked and enormous, as to become abominable even to themselves."

The author pleasantly ridicules the metempsychosis, by ascribing to them the belief of the transmigration of souls of a very different kind from that held by the ancient heathen philosophers, not as a punishment in the next but in this life. The substance of this creed is, that the souls of different kinds of brutes enter into the souls of men-a creed which makes them consummate physiognomists.

The subject of education forms a very important branch of the civil polity of the Mezoranians. All the children are taught at the public expense and they have no other distinction than personal merit. The sublimest sciences are most in request with them, and are chiefly the employment of their great men and governors, contrary to the custom of other countries, rightly conceiving that those who excel in the most rational sciences, are not only fittest to govern a rational people, but of making themselves masters of what they undertake; and they are accordingly marked out for governors. On the subject of education, the author has the following judicious observations.

"But now I am speaking of their youth, as they look upon them as seeds of the common-wealth, which if corrupted in the bud will never bring forth fruit, so their particular care is laid out in their education, in which I believe they excel all nations yet known. One cannot say there is one person in the whole nation who may be called an idle person, though they indulge their youth very much in proper recreations, endeavouring to keep them as gay as they can, because they are naturally inclined to gravity, and besides daily recreations, they have set times and seasons for public exercises, as riding, vaulting, running, but particularly hunting wild beasts, and fishing for crocodiles and alligators, in their great lakes, which I shall describe on another occasion; yet they are never suffered to go alone, that is, a company of young men together, without grave men and persons in authority along with them, who are a guard to them in their actions: nay, they are never suffered to lye together, each lying in a single bed, though in a publick room, with some grave person in the same room with them. Their women are kept much in the same manner, which to prevent inconveniencesI shall touch upon when I come to the education of their women, and this so universally, that as there are no idle companions to lead them into extravagancies, so there are no idle and loose women to be found to corrupt their purity. Their whole time, both for men and women, is taken up in employments or publick recreations, which, with the early care to instruct them in the fundamental principles of the morality of the country, prevents all those disorders of youth we see elsewhere. Hence comes that strength of body and mind in their men, and modest bloomy beauty in their women; so that among this people nature seems to have kept itself up to its

primitive and original perfection. Beside that universal likeness in them, proceeding from their conjugal fidelity and exclusion of all foreign mixture in their breed, where all the lineaments of their ancestors, direct and collateral, meet at last in their offspring, gives the parents the comfort of seeing their own bloom and youth renewed in their children, though in my opinion this universal likeness is rather a defect; not but the treasures of nature are so inexhaustible, that there are some distinguishing beauties in every face. Their young men and women meet frequently, but then 'tis in their publick assemblies, with grave people mixt along with them; at all publick exercises the women are placed in view to see and be seen, to enflame the young men with emulation in their performances. They are permitted to be decently familiar on those publick occasions, and can chuse their lovers respectively, according to their liking, there being no such thing as dowries, or interest, but mere personal merit in the case; but more of this in the next paragraph, where I shall speak more particularly of the education of their women and marriages."

From the observations of our Utopian legislator on the female sex, it may be conjectured that he had not a very high opinion of them; indeed he seldom loses an opportunity of giving them a sly hit. The women, he says, caused the governors most trouble of any thing in the commonwealth, so that they were obliged to have frequent consultations on the mode in which they ought to be treated. The most effectual method after all was found to be, to make marriage esteemed the happiest state that could be wished in this life: and as they animated their young men to glory, by all ways capable of stirring up generous minds, they did the same with the women, by means adapted to their genius. And he continues,

"There is a peculiar method allowed by them, in which they differ from all other nations; for whereas other nations endeavour to preserve their young people from love, lest they should throw themselves away, or make disadvantageous matches, these people having no interested views in that respect, encourage a generous and honourable love, and make it their care to fix them in the strictest love they can, as soon as they judge by their age and constitution how they are inclined; this they do sometimes by applauding them on their choice, but mostly by raising vast difficulties, contrived on purpose both to try and enhance their constancy. They have histories and stories of heroic examples of fidelity and constancy in both sexes, but particularly for the young women, by which they are taught rather to suffer ten thousand deaths than violate their plighted faith; one may say, they are a nation of faithful lovers, the longer they live together the more their friendship encreases; and infidelity in either sex is looked upon as a capital crime. Add to this, that being all of the same rank and quality, except the regard paid to eldership and public employments, nothing but personal merit and a liking of each other determines the choice. There must be signal proofs produced that the

woman prefers the man before all others, as his service must be distinguished in the same manner. Where this is approved of by the governours or elders, if the woman insists on her demands, 'tis an inviolable law, that that man must be her husband. Their hands first are joined together in public, then they clasp each other in the closest embrace, in which posture the Elder of the place puts a circle of the finest tempered steel, to shew that this union is never to be dissolved. It is all woven with flowers, and first laid over their necks, as they are thus clasping each other, then round their waist, and last of all, round their breasts or hearts, to signify that the ardency of their love must terminate in an indissoluble friendship, with infinite acclamations and congratulations of the whole assembly. I believe the world cannot furnish such examples of conjugal chastity as are preserved between them by these means. Widowers and widows never marry single persons, and but rarely at all, except left young, when they are to gain each other as before. By such prudent precautions infinite disorders are prevented, proceeding not only from disproportionate and forced marriages, but from the licentiousness of idle persons, who either marry for money, or live on the spoil of other people, till they can get an advantageous match, which often occasions great misfortunes in a commonwealth."

The above is a summary of the constitution of this primitive government, in which the author has depicted the highest degree of perfection and happiness attainable by the light of nature alone. Abstractly considered, a plan more coherent in its parts, and more symmetrical in the whole, cannot well be imagined. The simple patriarchal dependency-the unanimity and singleness of purpose which circulate through all the veins of the nation, animating it, as it were, with one common pulse of kindness and love-the paternal nature of the laws, and of the punishment for their violation, are in perfect harmony with each other. No law disproportionate to the offence, no sanguinary punishment of the offender, disfigures this imaginary system. On the contrary, it exhibits a most exhilarating picture of legislative simplicity and human benignity. What can be more beautiful, and at the same time, more removed from commonly received notions, particularly at the time our author wrote, than the principle, that it is highly criminal to shed the blood of any human being, either with or without the authority of the ruling power? Or what more purely benevolent than his extension of this principle to the total rejection of the art of war? Nor are the punishments assigned to crime less singular and characteristic. The most heinous crime, the taking of the life of another, is punished by the privation of social intercourse during life and disgraceful treatment of the body after death. This species of punishment is a beautiful illustration of the Egyptian practice of sitting in judgement upon the dead previous

to allowing them the right of sepulture. The crime of adultery is punished in a similar manner to that of murder; but for common offences the only punishments are public disgraces.

The scheme of our author is founded on truer and more disinterested principles of liberty, and on larger and more benevolent views of the destiny of man, than the Utopia of Sir Thomas More. The Mezoranians have no such thing as slavery in their commonwealth; virtue is their only distinction, and honour their only reward. They neither shed the blood of brethren at home, nor of enemies abroad. It is also less impracticable than the Utopia, not being incumbered with such trifling and foolish regulations as that celebrated work. How far indeed any such system is practicable, is another question; but whether practicable or not, it may still be delightful as an ingenious speculation, or valuable as a means of conveying useful knowledge. Indeed, the work which we are now reviewing is as valuable for the hints thrown out for the improvement of man in his social character, and for the simplifying and softening down the too harsh laws supposed necessary to keep him in peace and subjection, as it is beautiful as an Utopian scheme. And yet it is in some measure modelled after a government which actually existed, refined and improved it is true, but still bearing strong resemblance to its prototype. Ancient Egypt, the inhabitants of which appear to have arrived at great perfection in their civil polity, as well as in arts and sciences, was the model the author seems to have taken for the kingdom of Mezorania. From that country he has derived the polished race, with which he has peopled his delightful settlement. But he has assigned to them a country superior, in natural beauty and fertility, even to Egypt itself, once "the finest country in the world, the most fertile by nature, and the best cultivated by art." The towns of the Mezoranians are as magnificent, and their temples as superb, as those of the Egyptians, and, like them, they seem as if they intended to "wrestle a fall with time" in the perpetuity of their edifices. He represents the Mezoranians to have the same serious disposition, and to be distinguished by the same inventive mind-to have the same equal respect for all employments which contributed to the public service, and to be imbued with the same ardent love of country. Their legal institutions were as simple as those of the Egyptians, and their observance of them as scrupulous and exact. They had a similar preference for such arts as were most useful, and a similar dislike of any one being idle or useless to the commonwealth. And from the Egyptians he has borrowed the peculiar custom of punishing criminals after death. His plan for the regulation of marriages and the intercourse of the sexes is as charming and disinterested as it is uncommon,