makes an illustrious figure in the fifth book of the Iliad, retires when Hector appears: " Diomedes beheld the

chief, and shuddered to his inmost soul." Antilochus, fon of Neftor, having flain Melanippus (t), rufhed forward, eager to seize his bright arms. But feeing Hector, he fled like a beaft of prey who fhuns the gathering hinds. And the great Hector himself shamefully turns his back upon the near approach of Achilles: " Periphetes, endowed with every virtue, renowned in the race, great in war, in prudence excelling his fellows, gave glory to Hector, covering the chief with renown." One would expect a fierce combat between these two bold warriors. Not fo. Periphetes ftumbling, fell to the ground; and Hedior was not ashamed to transfix with his fpear the unrefifting hero.

In the fame tone of character, nothing is more common among Homer's warriors than to infult a vanquished foe. Patroclus, having beat Cebriones to the ground with a huge stone, derides his fall in the following words. "Good heav'ns! what active feats your artift fhows, "What fkilful divers are our Phrygian foes! "Mark with what ease they fink into the fand:

Pity that all their practice is by land."

The Greeks are reprefented (u) one after another stab. bing the dead body of Hector: "Nor ftood an Argive " near the chief who inflicted not a wound. Surely now, "faid they, more eafy of accefs is Hector, than when "he launched on the fhips brands of devouring fire."

When fuch were the manners of warriors at the fiege of Troy, it is no wonder that the heroes on both fides were not lefs intent on stripping the slain than on victory. They are every where reprefented as greedy of fpoil.

The Jews did not yield to the Greeks in cruelty. It is unneceffary to give inftances, as the hiftorical books of the Old Teftament are in the hands of every one." I fhal felect one inftance for a fpecimen, dreadfully cruel without any juft provocation: "And David gathered all the (t) Book 15. (u) Book 22.

his own.

"people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought againft it, and took it. And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under faws, and "under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and "made them pafs through the brick-kiln: and thus did "he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon (x).” That cruelty was predominant among the Romans is evident from every one of their hiftorians. Brutality to their offspring was confpicuous. Children were held, like cattle, to be the father's property: and fo tenacious was the patria poteftas, that if a fon or daughter fold to be a flave was fet free, he or she fell again under the father's power, to be fold a fecond time, and even a third time. The power of life and death over children was much less unnatural, while no public tribunal exifted for punishing crimes. A fon, being a flave, could have no property of Julius Cæfar was the firft who privileged a fon to retain for his own ufe fpoils acquired in war. When law became a lucrative profeffion, what a fon gained in that way was declared to be his property. In Athens, a man had power of life and death over his children; but as they were not flaves, what they acquired belonged to themfelves. So late as the days of Dioclefian, a fon's. marriage did not diffolve the Roman patria poteftas (y). But the power of felling children wore out of ufe (z). When powers fo unnatural were given to men over their 'children, and exercised so tyrannically as to make a law neceffary prohibiting the difinheriting of children, can there be any doubt of their cruelty to others? During the fecond triumvirate, horrid cruelties were every day perpetrated without pity or remorfe. Antony, having ordered Cicero to be beheaded, and the head to be brought to him, viewed it with favage pleasure. His wife Fulvia laid hold of it, ftruck it on the face, uttered "many bitter execrations, and having placed it between her knees, drew out the tongue, and pierced it with a bodkin. The delight it gave the Romans to fee wild

(x) 2 Samael, xii. 29.

(y) 1. 1. Cod. cap. De patria poteftate.
(z) 1. 1o. eod.

Book I. beafts fet loose against one another in their circus, is a proof not at all ambiguous of their tafte for blood, even at the time of their higheft civilization. The Edile Scaurus fent at one time to Rome 150 panthers, Pompey 410, and Auguftus 420, for the public fpectacles. Their gladiatorian combats are not fo clear a proof of their ferocity : the courage and address exerted in these combats gave a manly pleasure that balanced in fome measure the pain of feeing thefe poor fellows cut and flash one another. And that the Romans were never cured of their itch for blood, appears from Caligula, Nero, and many other monsters, who governed the Romans from Auguftus downward. There is no example in modern times of fuch monsters in France, though an abfolute monarchy, nor even in Turky.

Ferocity was in the Roman empire confiderably mollified by literature and other fine arts; but it acquired new vigour upon the irruption of the barbarous nations who crushed that empire. In the year 559, Clotaire, King of the Franks, burnt alive his son, with all his friends, because they had rebelled against him. Queen Brunehaud being, by Clotaire II. condemned to die, was dragged through the camp at a horfe's tail till she gave up the ghoft. The ferocity of European nations became altogether intolerable during the anarchy of the feudal fyftem. Many peafants in the northern provinces of France being forely oppreffed in civil wars carried on by the nobles against each other, turned defperate, gathered together in bodies, refolving to extirpate all the nobles. A party of them, anno 1358, forced open the castle of a knight, hung him upon a gallows, violated in his prefence his wife and daughters, roafted him upon a spit, compelled his wife and children to eat of his flesh, and terminated that horrid fcene with maffacring the whole family, and burning the castle. When they were asked, fays Froiffard, why they committed fuch abominable actions, their anfwer was, "That they did as they faw o"thers do; and that all the nobles in the world ought to be deftroyed." The nobles, when they got the upper hand, were equally cruel. They put all to fire and

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fword; and maffacred every peafant who came in the way, without troubling themselves to feparate the innocent from the guilty. The Count de Ligny encouraged his nephew, a boy of fifteen, to kill with his own hand fome prifoners who were his countrymen; in which, fays Monftrelet, the young man took great delight. How much worse than brutal must have been the manners of that age! for even a beaft of prey kills not but when inftigated by hunger. The third act, of ftealing from the lead-mines in Derby, was, by a law of Edward I. punifhed in the following manner: A hand of the criminal was nailed to a table; and in that ftate he was left without meat or drink, having to means for freedom but to employ the one hand to cut off the other. The barbarity of the English at that period made fevere punishments neceffary: but the punishment mentioned goes beyond feverity, it is brutal cruelty. The barbarous treatment of the Jews, during the dark ages of Chriftianity, gives pregnant evidence, that Chriftians were not short of Pagans in cruelty. Poifon and affaffination were moft licen tiously perpetrated, no farther back than the laft century. Some pious men made vigorous efforts in more than one general council to have affaffination condemned, as repugnant to the law of God; but in vain *.

I wish to foften the foregoing scene: it may be foftened a little Among barbarians, punishments must be fanguinary; as their bodies only are sensible of pain, not their minds.

The restoration of arts and sciences in Europe, followed with a reformation in religion, had a wonderful effect in sweetening manners, and promoting the interefts

It required the ferocity and cruelty of a barbarous age to give currency to a Mahometan doctrine, That the fword is the most effectual means of converting men to a dominant religion. The establishment of the Inquifition will not permit me to say, that Chriftians never put in practice a doctrine fo deteftable: on the contrary, they furpafs the Mahometans, giving no quarter to heretics, either in this life, or in that to come. The eternity of hell torments is a doctrine no lefs inconsistent with the justice of the Deity, than with his benevolence.

of fociety. Of all crimes high treason is the most involved in circumstances, and upon that account the most difficult to be defined or circumscribed: at the same time, the influence of government upon its judges feldom permits a fair trial. And yet, for that crime are reserved the most exquifite torments. In England, the punishment is, to cut up the criminal alive, to tear out his heart, to dash it about his ears, and to throw it into the flames. The fame punishment continues in form, not in reality: the heart indeed is torn out, but not till the criminal is ftrangled. Even the virulence of religious zeal is confiderably abated. Savonarola was condemned to the flames as an impious impoftor; but he was first privately ftrangled. The fine arts, which humanize mankind, were in Italy at that time accelerating toward perfection. The famous Latimer was in England condemned to be burnt for herefy: but bags of gunpowder were put under his arms, that he might be burnt with the leaft pain. Even Knox, a violent Scots reformer, acknowledges, that Wifhart was ftrangled before he was thrown into the flames for herefy. So bitter was the late perfecution against the Jefuits, that not only were their perfons profcribed, but in many places their books, not even excepting books upon mathematics, and other abftract fubjects. That perfecution refembled, in many particulars, the perfecution against the knights-templars: fifty nine of the latter were burnt alive: the former were really lefs innocent; and yet fuch humanity prevails at prefent, that not a drop of Jefuit blood has been fhed. A bankrupt in Scotland, if he has not suffered by unavoidable misfortune, is by law condemned to wear a party-coloured garment. That law is not now put in execution, unlefs where a bankrupt deferves to be ftigmatized for his culpable mifconduct

Whether the following late inftance of barbarity does not equal any of those above mentioned, I leave to my readers. No traveller who vifited. Petersburgh during the reign of the Emprefs Elizabeth can be ignorant of Madam Lapouchin, the great ornament of that court. Her intimacy with a foreign ambaffador having brought