first of thefe was the obfcure expedition of the Argonauts, in which all Greece appears to have been concerned.

53. The object of the Argonauts was to open the commerce of the Euxine fea, and to establish colonies in the adjacent country of Colchis. The fhip Argo, which was the admiral of the fleet, is the only one particularly taken notice of; though we learn from Homer, and other ancient writers, that feveral fail were employed in this expedition..

54. The fleet of the Argonauts was, from the ignorance of those who conducted it, long toffed about on different coafts. The rocks, at fome diftance from the mouth of the Euxine fea, occafioned great labor: they fent forward a light veffel, which paffed through, but returned with the lofs of her rudder.

55. This is expreffed in the fabulous language of antiquity, by their fending out a bird which returned with the lofs of its tail, and may give us an idea of the allegorical obfcurity in which the other events of this expedition are involved. The fleet, however, at length arrived at Æon, the capital of Colchis, after performing a voyage, which, confidering the mean condition of the naval art during this age, was not lefs confiderable than the circumnavigation of the world by our modern difcoverers.

56. From this expedition to that against Troy, which was undertaken to recover the fair Helena, a queen of Sparta, who had been carrried off by Paris, fon of the Trojan king, the Greeks must have made a wonderful progrefs in power and opulence no less than twelve hundred veffels were employed in this voyage, each of which, at a medi-um, contained upwards of a hundred men.

57. Thefe veffels, however, were but half decked; and it does not appear that iron entered at all into their conftruction. If we add to thefe circumstances, that the Greeks had not the use of the faw, an inftrument fo neceffary to the carpenter, a modern must form but a mean notion of the ftrength or elegance of this fleet.

58. Having t thus confidered the ftate of Greece as a whole, let us examine the circumftances of the particular countries into which it was divided. This is of great im portance to our prefent undertaking. because it is in thisCountry only that we can trace the origin and progrefs of

government, arts, and manners, which compose so great a part of our present work.

59. There appears originally to have been a very rẻmarkable resemblance between the political fituation of the different kingdoms of Greece. They were governed each by a king, or rather by a chieftain, who was their leader in time of war, their judge in time of peace, and who prefided in the adminiftration of their religious ceremonies. This prince, however, was far from being abfolute.

60. In each fociety there were a number of other leaders whofe influence over their particular clans, or tribes, was not lefs considerable than that of the king over his immediate followers. These captains were often at war with one another, and fonetimes with their fovereign. fituation was, in all refpects, extremely unfavorable: each particular ftate was in miniature what the whole country had been before the time of Amphictyon.

Such a

61. They required the hand of another delicate painter to fhade the oppofite colors, and to enable them to produce one powerful effect. The history of Athens affords us an example of the manner in which these states, that, for want of union, were weak and infignificant, became, by being cemented together, important and powerful.

62. Thefeus king of Attica, about thè year before Chrift one thousand two hundred and thirty-four, had acquired a great reputation by his exploits of valor and ability. He faw the inconveniences to which his country, from being divided into twelve districts, was expofed; and he conceived, that by means of the influence which his perfonal character, united to the royal authority with which he was invested, had univerfally procured him, he might be able to remove them.

63. For this purpofe he endeavored to maintain, and even to increase, his popularity among the peasants and artifans he detached, as much as poffible, the different tribes from the leaders who commanded them: he abolished the courts which had been established in differt parts of Attioa, and appointed one council-hall common to all the Athenians.

64. Thefeus, however, did not trust folely to the force of political regulations. He called to his aid all the power

of religious prejudices; by eftablishing common rites of re ligion to be performed in Athens, and by inviting thither ftrangers from all quarters, by the profpect of protection and privileges, he raised this city from an inconfiderable village to a powerful metropolis.

65. The fplendor of Athens and of Thefeus now totally eclipfed that of the other villages and their particular leaders. All the power of the state was united in one city, and under one fovereign. The petty chieftains, who had formerly occafioned fo much confufion, by being divested of all influence and confideration, became humble and submiffive; and Attica remained under the peaceable government of a monarch.

66. This is a rude sketch of the origin of the first monarchy of which we have a distinct account, and may without much variation, be applied to the other states of Greece. This country, however, was not destined to continue long under the government of kings. A new influence arofe, which in a short time proved too powerful both for the king and the nobles.

67. Thefeus had divided the Athenians into three dif tinct claffes; the nobles, the artisans, and the husbandmen. In order to abridge the exorbitant power of the nobles, he had bestowed many privileges on the two other ranks of perfons.

68. This plan of politics was followed by his fucceffors, and the lower ranks of the Athenians, partly from the countenance of their fovereign, and partly from the progrefs of arts and manufactures, which gave them an opportunity of acquiring property, became confiderable and independent. Thefe circumftances were attended with a remarkable effect.

69. On the death of Codrus, a prince of great merit, in the year before Chrift one thousand and feventy, the Athenians, become weary of the regal authority, under pretence of finding no one worthy of filling the throne of that monarch, who had devoted himself to death for the fafety of his people, abolished the regal power, and proclaimed that none but Jupiter fhould be king of Athens.

70. This revolution in favor of liberty was so much the more remarkable, as it happened foon after that the Jews

became unwilling to remain under the government of the true God, and defired a mortal fovereign, that they might be like other nations.

71. The government of Thebes, another of the Grecian ftates, much about the fame time, affumed the republican form. Near a century before the Trojan war, Cadmus, with a cololy from Phoenicia, had.founded this city, which from that time had been governed by kings. But the laft fovereign being overcome in fingle combat, by a neighboring prince, the Thebans abolished the regal power.

72. Till the days however of Pelopidas and Epaminondas, a period of feven hundred years, the Thebans performed nothing worthy of the republican fpirit. Other cities of Greece, after the examples of Thebes and Athens, erected themfelves into republics.

73. But the revolutions of Athens and Sparta, two rival ftates, which, by means of the fuperiority they acquir ed, gave the tone to the manners, genius and politics of the Greeks, deferve our principal attention. We have feen a tender shoot of liberty fpring up in the city of Athens, on the decease of Codrus, its laft fovereign. This fhoot gradually improved into a vigorous plant; and it cannot but be pleasant to obferve its progrefs.

74. The Athenians, by abolishing the name of king, did not entirely fubvert the regal authority: they established a perpetual magiftrate, who, under the name of Archon, was invested with almoft the fame rights which their kings had enjoyed. The Athenians, in time, became fenfible, that the archonic office was too lively an image of royalty for a free ftate.

75. After it had continued therefore three hundred and thirty-one years in the family of Codrus, they endeavored to leffen its dignity, not by abridging its power, but by fhortening its duration. The firft period affigned for the continuance of the archonfhip in the fame hands, was three years. But the defire of the Athenians for a more perfect Tystem of freedom than had hitherto been established, increased in proportion to the liberty they enjoyed.

76. They again called for a freth reduction of the power of their archons; and it was at length determined that nine annual magiftrates fhould be appointed for this office.

Thefe magiftrates were not only chofen by the people, but accountable to them for their conduct at the expiration of their office.

77. Thefe alterations were too violent not to be attended with fome dangerous confequences. The Athenians, intoxicated with their freedom, broke out into the most unrų-. ly and licentious behavior.

78. No written laws had been as yet enacted in Athens, and it was hardly pollible that the ancient customs of the realm, which were naturally fuppofed to be in part abolished by the fucceffive changes in the government, fhould fufficiently reftrain the tumultuary fpirits of the Athenians, in the first flutter of their independence.

79. This engaged the wifer part of the ftate, who began to prefer any fyftem of government to their present anarchy and confufion, to caft their eyes on Draco, a man of an auftere but virtuous difpofition, as the fittest person for compofing a fyftem of law, to bridle the furious and unruly manners of their countrymen.

80. Draco undertook the office about the year fix hundred and twenty-eight, but executed it with fo much rigor, that, in the words of an ancient hiftorian, "His laws were written with blood, and not with ink." Death was the indifcriminate punishment of every offence, and the laws of Draco were found to be a remedy worfe than the disease.

81. Affairs again returned into confufion and disorder, and remained fo till the time of Solon, who died in the year before Chrift five hundred and forty-nine. The gentle manners, difinterested virtue, and wisdom more than human, by which this fage was diftinguished, pointed him out as the only character adapted to the most important of all offices, the giving laws to a free people.

82. Solon, though this employment was affigned him by the unanimous voice of his country, long deliberated whether he should undertake it. At length, however, the motives of public utility overcame all confiderations of private ease, fafety, and reputation, and determined him to enter an ocean pregnant with a thousand dangers.

83. The first step of his legiflation was to abolish all the laws of Draco, excepting thofe relative to murder. The punishment of this crime could not be too great; but to