from modern democracy), the blessings of our representative government, and of our deliverance from any approximation towards that mob-government to which universal suffrage would be the natural and necessary introduction.

The delicate and refined female of our favoured country will feel peculiar sensations of thankfulness, in comparing her happy lot with the degraded state of women in the politest ages of Greece. Condemned to ignorance, labour, and obscurity; excluded from rational intercourse; debarred from every species of intellectual improvement or innocent enjoyment; they never seem to have been the objects of respect or esteem; in the conjugal relation, the servile agent, not the endeared companion. Their depressed state was, in some measure, confirmed by illiberal legal institutions; and their native genius was systematically restrained from rising above one degraded level. Such was the lot of the virtuous part of the

sex.

We forbear to oppose to this gloomy picture the profligate renown to which the bold pretensions of daring vice elevated mercenary beauty; nor would we glance at the impure topic, but to remind our amiable country women, that immodesty in dress, contempt of the sober duties of domestic life, a boundless appetite for pleasure, and a misapplied devotion to the arts, were among the steps which led to this systematic profession of shameless profligacy, and to the establishment of those countenanced corruptions which raised

the more celebrated, but infamous Athenian

women

"To that bad eminence."

Every description of men, who know how to estimate public good, or private happiness, will joyfully acknowledge the visible effect which Christianity has had (independently of its influence over its real votaries) in improving and elevating the general standard of morals, so as considerably to rectify and raise the conduct of those who are not directly actuated by its principles. And, lastly, to say nothing of a pure church establishment, so diametrically the reverse of the deplorably blind and ignorant rites of Athenian worship *, - who can contemplate, with out a thankful heart, that large infusion of Chris tianity into our national laws, which has set them so infinitely above all comparison with the admired codes of Lycurgus and of Solon?

• Acts of the Apostles, ch. xvii.

72

CHAP. VIII.

ROME.

IF the Romans, from being a handful of banditti, rendered themselves in a short period lords of the universe; if Rome, from being an ordinary town in Italy, became foremost in genius and in arms, and at length unrivalled in imperial magnificence; let it be remembered that the foundations of this greatness were laid in some of the extraordinary virtues of that republic. The personal frugality of her citizens; the remarkable simplicity of their manners; the habit of transferring from themselves to the state all pretensions to external consequence and splendour; the strictness of her laws, and the striking impartiality of their execution; that inflexible regard to justice, which led them, in the early ages of the republic - so little was the doctrine of expediency in repute among them

to inflict penalties on those citizens who even conquered by deceit, and not by valour; that vigilant attention to private morals which the establishment of a censorship secured, and that zeal for liberty, which was at the same time supported by her political constitution. These causes were the true origin of the Roman greatness. This was the pedestal on which her colossal

power was erected; and though she remained mistress of the world, even at a time when these virtues had begun to decline, the first impulse not having ceased to operate, yet a discerning eye might even then perceive her growing internal weakness, and might anticipate her final dissolution.

Republican Rome, however, has been much too highly panegyrised. The Romans had, indeed, a public feeling, to which every kind of private affection gave way; and it is chiefly on the credit of their sacrificing their individual interests to the national cause, that they acquired so high a

renown.

It may not be unworthy of remark, that the grand fundamental principle of the ancient republics (and though it was still more strikingly manifest in the Grecian, it was in no small degree the case with Republican Rome,) was different from that which constitutes the essential principle of the British constitution, and even opposite to it. In the former, the public was every thing; the rights, the comforts, the very existence of individuals, were as nothing. With us, happily, the case is very different, nay, even exactly the reverse. The well-being of the whole community is provided for, by effectually securing the rights, the safety, the comforts of every individual. Among the ancients, the grossest acts of injustice against private persons were continually perpetrated, and were regarded as beneath account, when they stood in the way of the will, the interest, the

aggrandisement, the glory of the state. In our happier country, not the meanest subject can be injured in his person or his possessions. The little stock of the artisan, the peaceful cottage of of the peasant, is secured to him by the universal superintendence, and the strong protection of the public force. The state is justly considered as made up of an aggregate of particular families; and it is by securing the well-being of each, that all are preserved in prosperity. We could delight to descant largely on this topic; and surely the contemplation could not but warm the hearts of Britons with lively gratitude to the Author of all their blessings, and with zealous attachment to that constitution which conveys and secures to them the enjoyment of such unequalled happiness? But we dare not expatiate in so wide a field. Let us, however, remark the degree in which the benevolent spirit of Christianity is transfused into our political system. As it was the glory of our religion to take the poor under her instruction, and to administer her consolations to the wretched, so it is the beauty of our constitution that she considers not as below her care, the seats of humble but honest industry; the peaceful dwellings, and quiet enjoyments, of the lover of domestic comfort.

Again This vital spirit of our constitution is favourable to virtue, as well as congenial with religion, and conducive to happiness. It checks that spirit of injustice and oppression which is so manifest in the conduct of the ancient republics towards