GREECE. 
l^^ufic, and In the well-direfled efforts of various ti ibes 
to tlie fame object, be attributes tJie caufes of the fupe- 
riority of tiicir beautiful and copious language.—See 
the article Language. The topics of popular faitli, 
tlte tales of tradition, and tlie expolitions of natural ap¬ 
pearances delivered by tlieir fages, blended together 
and worked up by lively imaginations, he confiders 
as the ground-work of their elegant mythology ; while 
their native vivacity difpofed them fo ardently to love 
inutic, the dance, pantomime, and the drama. 
Their arts, he thinks, originated in their religion and 
their political inftitutions; the former requiring ftatues 
and temples, and the latter demanding monuments and 
public edifices. Their quarries yielded the Parian mar¬ 
ble, and their traffic furnifficd tliem with ivory and 
brafs ; they imbibed a take for luxury from tlieir kin¬ 
dred of Ionia and Magna Graecia ; while their inedio- 
crfty of means weaned them from oriental magnificence, 
and difpofed them to ftudy the charms of fimplicity. 
In their climate, the light and elegant flyle of arclihec- 
ture was alfo the convenient one.—The collifion of indi¬ 
viduals fo oppofite in manners and habits, as the refined 
Athenian and the rude Arcadian, the luxurious Ionian 
and the lequefiered Epirot, the auflere Spartan and the 
efl’eminate Sybarite, could not fail, lie conceives, to 
call foith the aebive powers of the mind, and to fei tilize 
the invention. 
1 he religion of Greece confecrated hofpitality, pro- 
teflion to fugitives, and the inviolability of holy places ; 
it reprefented an awful vengeance as hanging over tlie 
head of the murderer, it upheld the fanctity of oaths, 
and it confidered the domeilic hearth as an altar, and 
the recefs of the dead as a temple. The oracle of Del¬ 
phi reproved tyrants, aided the labours of virtuous 
fages, favoured beneficial inflitutions, gave authority to 
moral principles, hallowed the duties of the citizcji,^ 
and gave efficacy to that fingiilar tribunal of Greece, 
the council of the Amphibtyons,—-Manly games ren¬ 
dered youth healthy, robufi, handfome, and aftive, 
while they kindled in them a love of tlieir country, a 
public fpirit, and even the defire of pofthumous fame ; 
and they gave rife to a difinterefted and heroic friend- 
ffiip, which nothing but death could dilTolve. Like 
the untutored children of nature, only the gentleft 
bands united the different tribes of this people ; there 
were no others than a religion, a language, oracles, 
games, a council of Arnphittyons, a defeent, the inhe¬ 
ritance of ancient fame, and the reputation of early ex¬ 
ploits, which belonged to them in common. Their po¬ 
pular governments, though certainly not the belt for 
all purpofes, yet incredibly advanced the human mind, 
and produced a mafs of population more enlightened 
than any on w'hich the fun has ever fince ffione. Thus, 
amid the tranquillity of enterprifing and rival Itates, the 
fons of Greece rendered confpicuous their fuperior abi¬ 
lity, by the fuccefsful profecution of the rigid fciences. 
The period of their independence lalted long enough 
to allow the human mind to reach the higheft pitch of 
excellence, to which culture, under circumltaiices the 
molt favourable and operating on fubjedts the bell cal¬ 
culated, is capable of raifing it.—That this alfertion is 
founded in truth, feems to be confirmed by our in- 
crealing admiration of the yet remaining though mu¬ 
tilated works of the Greeks, whofe pre-eminence in the 
fine arts has hitherto flood unrivalled and undifputed ; 
and it is a fail, however humiliating to modern efforts, 
that the greater the artift of our own times, the more 
enthufiaftic are his encomiums on the talle and fuperior 
ability of the ancient Greeks. 
With refpedt to the efficiency of the feveral forms of 
government among the Grecian Itates, many contrary 
opinions have at different times prevailed. The two 
principal conllitutions, and from which moll of the fub- 
ordinate Hates of Greece copied or legillated for them- 
felves, were the arillqcracy of Sparta, and the demo- 
VoL. VIII. No. 559. 
cracy of Athens. 7 ’hat of Sparta, thotigh nominally a 
republic; was in reality a mixed government, conlifiing 
of two hereditary kings, a fenate of members clecled f.r 
life, and five principal magifirates called ephori ; as al¬ 
ready Hated in our acrount of the legill ttion of Lycur- 
gus. One of the lellbns forcibly impreffed by tliis go¬ 
vernment was, that, innovation was a great evil-," ai'd 
fuel) was the effeit of this principle, and of tlie judi¬ 
cious balance of the Hate, tliat for upwards of four luiii- 
dred years not a fingle ('edition is laid to have diHurbed 
its internal tranquillity. 
I'he democratical form of government given to Athens 
by Solon, has generally been deemed much inferior to 
tliat given to Sparta by Lycurgus; yet the fad has 
been. conteHed by different wrivers. M. Lauliettc, in 
his EJfai fur It'S Grecqttes, publifned in 1805, not only at¬ 
tributes the fuperior talents and genius of the Atlut- 
nians to their democratical form of government, but 
alfo their progrefs in the arts, and their invincible cou¬ 
rage in arins. “ A democratical government, (lie 
obferves,) is propitious to talents of all kinds; it ex¬ 
alts all the piaHions ; it forces men to (liew themfelves, 
with all their virtues and their faults, greedy of power, 
and capable of facrificing every thing to independence. 
Wherever man is found in a Hate of perfed liberty, he 
is in the vicinity of the extremes of virtue, and of the 
extremes of corruption. He tlien difui .ys no medio¬ 
crity either of good or evil. In this Hate, fo favoura¬ 
ble to the developement of bis faculties, he fears no re- 
Hraint, he forms the boldeH projeds, and there is no point, 
however elevated, which he does not wifh to attain.” 
In oppofition to the dodrine of this French hiHorian, 
oiir countryman Dr. Biffet afl'erts, tliat the excellent 
laws which Solon formed for the Athenian democracy, 
were not the conHitution which he thought the bell, but 
which he thought them moH difpofed to bear. He then 
proceeds to Hiew, by tlie fate of Solon’s conHitution, 
that, where power is not divided and checked, the go¬ 
vernment muH foon be overturned ; and that in demo¬ 
cracies the people are not more exempt from the dan¬ 
ger of being duped and enflaved by their own creatures, 
than abfolute monarchs are of being milled by tlieir fa¬ 
vourites. The ingratitude of thfe Athenians towards 
Miltiades, AriHides, 7 'liemillocles, Cymon, and Peri¬ 
cles, and tlieir Hiameful treatment of many of their inoH 
virtuous citizens, he traces up to the nature of their govern¬ 
ment as their genuine fource ; he aferibes them to the genius 
of their coiiHituiion, and not to any depravity of charac¬ 
ter in the people themfelves. Nor will he allow that 
the valour or gallant rellHance of the Athenians, to tlie 
torrent poured on Greece by Perfia, was the refult of 
the natural energy of democratic government : and he 
illuHrates his affertion by fnewing tliat other Hates, by 
no means democratic in their conHitutions, have often 
difplayed not lefs energy and not lefs bravery than the 
Greeks in many of their wars. 
“Where men have great intereHs at Hake, (fays Dr. 
Biffet,) whatever be tlieir form of government, they 
fight HrenuouHy. The government of Scotland was 
certainly far from democratical, when Sir William 
Wallace, with his fmall band, long fuccefsfully op- 
pofed the invaders of his country. Thefe were not 
Afiatics, relaxed by climate, and enfeebled by luxury, 
but from a country which has always.produced foldiers, 
to whom the world never law fuperiors : they were 
Englilhmen. They were headed not by an oHentatious 
caHern defpot, but by one of the ,braveH and wifeH of 
Elngliffi kings. The efforts of England againH the 
Spanifli Armada, containing infinitely better troops than 
the Perfian fleet, were not lei's wife nor lefs vigorous 
than thofe of the Athenians. A general fpirit prevailed 
of fitting out Hiips, and going to combat the enemy. 
Our admirals availed themfelves no lefs of fuperior I'ea- 
nianfliip, and fuperior knowledge of the feas adjoining 
our coalls, than did ThemiHocles. In Holland, when 
II M the 
