418 



ON THE LEADING PASSIONS 



and benevolence, seemed labouring with happy concert to subjugate the 

 rug-ged feelings of the savage heart, and attune it to harmony and peace. 

 Nor was the magic force exerted in vain. The agreeable ideas hereby ex- 

 cited, prompted them, in their migrations, to seek, as far as they were able, 

 for regions of a similar character ; and the growing impulse of internal plea- 

 sure thus derived from external beauty gave a new direction to their mental 

 powers. Selfish lust softened gradually into social love ; the activity of a 

 sportive fancy subdued the gloomy dictates of cruelty and revenge ; the 

 Gorgon form of fear gave place to the young radiance of hope ; and super- 

 stition dropped her circlet of snakes, and half listened to the soothing song 

 of reason and of truth. 



In proof of this, it is only necessary to mention that they spread themseives 

 from the headspring of the Danube, or Ister, as it was formerly called, to the 

 mouth of the Tagus, and peopled in their progress Phrygia, so celebrated for its 

 dithyrambic music and vigorous dance ; the Troad, or country of Troy, 

 ages ago 



INIarried to immortal verse ; 



Thrace, of scarcely less distinction than Troy; Hungary, the greater part of 

 Germany, Gaul, Italy, Spain, and the British islands ; sometimes confining 

 themselves to small independent tribes, and sometimes, as in the warmer re- 

 gions more especially, sinking conjointly into subjugation, under one ambi- 

 tious and powerful chieftain. Different local circumstances diversified their 

 general character ; but for the most part we find them equally courteous and 

 courageous, faithful to their engagements, hospitable to strangers, full ol 

 patriotism, loyalty, and domestic virtue ; and let me add, it is to the quarter 

 I am now speaking of that the Greeks were indebted not only for their Phry- 

 gian music, which formed their most enthusiastic and maddening movements, as 

 I have just observed, but also for their Lydian, which formed its opposite, and 

 was equally adapted to quell the cares and fury of the breast, and melt it into 

 feelings of tenderness and affection. It is under this description Dryden 

 speaks of it in his Ode to Alexander's Feast— 



Softly sweet in Lydian measures 

 Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures. 



And thus a greater than Dryden, in his well-known poem, entitled L' Allegro— 



And ever against eating cares 

 Lap me in soft Lydian airs ; 

 In notes with many a winding bout 

 Of linked sweetness long drawn out: 

 With wanton heed and giddy cunning, 

 The melting voice through mazes running, 

 Untwisting all the chains that tie 

 The hidden soul of harmony. 



Such, in most parts of the world, has been the effect of climate and sur- 

 rounding scenery. But there is another cause, and a still more powerful one, 

 that ought not to be omitted in the consideration of national character : and 

 that is the government and habits of a people. 



These may, in the first instance, be produced by accident ; they may be the 

 result of the cause already adverted to ; but, when once formed and esta- 

 blished, they lay a much firmer basis for public feeling and conduct than can 

 be derived from any physical impulse whatever. 



Persia had at one time as much reason as Macedonia to boast of her mili- 

 tary hardihood and heroism ; and, under the guidance of Cyrus, is well known 

 to have overrun all Egypt and Asia Minor, taken Babylon, and destroyed the 

 Assyrian empire. But her government was at that time most excellent ; her 

 code of laws full of wisdom ; her administration of Justice exemplary ; and her 

 morals the simplest and most correct in the Pagan world. Her youth, from the 

 age of seven to that of seventeen, were allowed no other food than bread and 



