living of that people three thousand years ago, as we possess of any modern nation three centuries since.

It has been asserted, and we think proved, by the recent laborers in this fruitful field, that the "type or germ of every architectural order can be found among the colonnades and porticos, which cover the plains of Thebes, or line the banks of the Nile," and, that "not the slightest improvement has been made in the tasteful forms of their household furniture, down to the present day." Rossellini, in his splendid work, has exhibited the chairs, couches, sofas, footstools, tables and cupboards which were in use among them. He shows also all the materials of the workshop-the various operations of cutting and turning-of joining and glueing-of polishing and gilding, in which we have made no improvement. With the same minuteness and accuracy, he has exhibited all the details of the other trades and manufactures of Egypt. He has shown that they were acquainted with natural history, and he has found in their pictures many representations of animals, birds, &c. coloured like life, accompanied with inscriptions showing the names, and in some instances the class to which they belong.

We cannot, perhaps, better exhibit the domestic manners and customs of the Egyptians, than by the description of a convivial party, as given by Sir J. G. Wilkinson.

"A party assembled at the house of a friend, are regaled with the sound of music, and the customary introduction of refreshments, and no attention which the host could show his visitors appears to be neglected on the occasion. The wine has circulated freely, and as they are indulging in amusing converse, a young man, perhaps from inadvertence, perhaps from the effects of intemperance, reclining with his whole weight against a column, in the centre of the apartment, throws it down upon the assembled guests, who are seen, with uplifted hands, endeavoring to protect themselves and escape from its fall." "We are led to infer," he continues," that they were not deficient in the talent of conversation, and the numerous subjects they proposed, are shown to have been examined with great animation. Among these the question of dress was not forgotten, and the patterns or the value of trinkets were discussed with proportionate interest. The maker of an ear-ring, or the shop where it was purchased, were anxiously enquired, each compared the workmanship, the style, and the materials of those she wore,

coveted her neighbour's, or preferred her own; and women of every class vied with each other in the display of jewels of silver and jewels of gold,' in the texture of their 'raiment,' the neatness of their sandals, and the arrangement or beauty of their plaited hair."*

Mr. Wilkinson goes into the Egyptian kitchen, and shows the whole method of preparing every kind of food-the killing, cleaning and dressing of their meat-the mode of preparing, kneading and baking their bread, and the whole process known to us of the culinary art.

It

Such was the progress made by the Egyptians in civilization-such was the first great step "in enlarging, quickening and improving the exterior condition of man." was but a step, however, and their discoveries were nothing but the first elements of civilization. They were remarkable for invention and gerius, but without correct taste or extensive knowledge. They made great progress, surely, in the advancement of society, but without any precise and definite object.

With Cecrops let us pass over to Greece, where civilization next obtained a footing. Over the heroic age of Greece, we will pass hastily. We cannot be easily convinced, that in those early ages, Greece had advanced to a greater refinement, and had cultivated to a greater extent the virtueswhich indicate always a high degree of civilization—than in the subsequent ages of her history. We are too fully persuaded that the Greeks, in the infancy of their society, were not unlike the other people of the earth, with whose early history we are acquainted; and that they too advanced from barbarism by slow and progressive steps; and would rather conclude with a philosophical historian, "that the human mind, wherever it is placed in the same situation, will, in ages the most distant, and in countries the most remote, assume the same form, and be distinguished by the same manners." We will not, however, pass over without notice, two striking events in the early history of the Grecian States, which forcibly arrest the attention, and excite the admiration, for the singular boldness of the conception, and the persevering energy with which they were executed. For scarcely had the barbarous Hellenes received the colonies of their more civilized neighbors, and with them the manners and customs of their invaders, than they seemed *Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, pp. 365–367.

to cast aside the wandering habits and unsettled life which before marked their national character, and they are found undertaking successful foreign conquests-carrying away in the Argonautic expedition, from the distant shores of Colchis, the enchantress Medea, and the mysterious Golden Fleece, and overturning on the banks of the Hellespont the celebrated kingdom of Priam.

In the subsequent and more authentic period of the history of the Grecian States, there were two causes, which assisted in forming the Grecian character, and developing their rich intellectual resources, to which we will briefly advert.

The first is the great number of small States into which Greece was divided, which, by rendering it almost impossible to subject the whole to the will of a single despot, originated the idea of self-government, and the first principles of civil liberty. Greece, if viewed collectively as one state, (and in reference to other states, it should be so regarded,) is no exception to the remark we have made above, that ancient history furnishes no example of two rival communities existing for any long period together, but if taken separately as distinct and independent sovereignties-may be so regarded. Greece was in herself a microcosm-too little to save her from her inevitable destiny-and the emulation and rivalry which gave brilliancy to her glorious career, no doubt accelerated her fate. If n the light of confederated but separate communities we regard the Grecian States, greatly did that generous emulation among them, contribute to the developement of their intellectual and physical resources, their advancement in every kind of mental cultivation, and their progress in arts and arms. Of all the causes which contributed to the rapid advancement of the States of Greece in civilization, this will be found to be the most active and potent. They worked together, like the States of Europe after the fifteenth century, generally without concert, often in opposition and in direct hostility to each other, in the promotion of knowledge, in the perfection of works of art and in the science of government.Every advance made by one state, in improving its condition, was soon followed up by the neighbouring states. If one stopped or lagged behind, the others kept on. So that the general tendency of their society was ever onward.

To this end also, contributed another important element in the progress of Grecian civilization, which we promised

to point out. We allude to the institution of the Olympic Games: a festival which took its origin in a remote antiquity, was continued throughout the palmiest days of Grecian prosperity, and which tended, by bringing together at stated and not distant periods, all that was wise, noble and worthy in all Greece, to smoothen the asperities of their manners, to remind them of their common origin and common language, to heal for a time the wounds which war had occasioned, and by the rewards offered, not only to the victor at the games, but by the distinguished honors paid to the poet, the philosopher, the historian, the statesman, the general, and the artist, and to every one throughout the Grecian States who had contributed to advance the Grecian mind, or add new lustre to the Grecian name-to give a pow. erful incentive to every useful and honourable enterpirse.

The Amphyctionic Council and the Oracle of Delphi, likewise contributed to the same end, but far less in degree. In treating of the civilization of Greece, we will confine our remarks almost entirely to its progress in Athens. It has always seemed to us, that Sparta has excited more attention than its history deserved, not only among the ancients, but in our own times; which must be attributed to the peculiarity of its constitution, and its success for a time as a military state. We have ourselves never had more respect for the institutions of Lycurgus, than we have had taste for his black broth. For no military success, however splendid, can compensate for the want of all intellectual cultivation, and for the sacrifice of all the domestic and social virtues. His was a government formed for a state of war, without any regard to the comfort and happiness of the people, or for their advancement, but in arms. There was a weakness, however, in his system, which, without any other assisting cause, would have produced its dissolution. No where, in all antiquity, can a more oppressive, exclusive and heartless oligarchy be found, than in Sparta; where no middle class served as a check to those above them, and tended to elevate those below them. The Spartans did not repair the losses occasioned by war and other causes, by the admission of the Lacedemonians or any other citizens into their body, and they thus formed an aristocracy more odious and oppressive as it became reduced. For the termination of this singular constitution, we will use the just and forcible remarks of M. Niebuhr, because we can

use no language to convey better our own convictions, and as they strongly illustrate our long formed views on this subject.

"This state of things," observes M. Niebuhr, "did not awaken the conscience of the Spartans; nor were their eyes opened when the greater part of the surrounding country joined their hereditary foes; when they found themselves living scattered about here and there, in their spacious city, amid an alien or hostile population; when they were forced to hire mercenaries for their wars, and to beg for subsidies from foreign princes. Thus their state continued strengthless, despised and arrogant, dragging on an utterly morbid existence for a century after its fall. At last, when not a ray of hope was left, its kings, to whom their country was not a matter of indifference, as it was to the oligarchs, endeavored to save it by a revolution, which transformed those plebeians, so long trampled under foot, into a new Lacedemonian people. In this people the Spartans were merged, having, in fact, already become utterly insignificant—and in their stead the Lacedemonians appeared for a while with the splendour of ancient Sparta. But it was too late-revolution followed upon revolution, without any one condition lasting long enough to be endowed by opinion and custom with the saving power of legitimacy, which every constitution may acquire. The time had long since been let slip, when the Spartans might have secured to their posterity every thing they felt pride in, and far more, for as long a period as the mutability of human things will allow."*

We cannot think the traces of the progress of civilization in the other states, are sufficiently manifest and important to detain longer our attention, and we will, during the remainder of this article on Greece, confine ourselves to Athens.

It was the good fortune of the Athenians to possess a wise legislator like Solon, to revise their laws and to point out their true course to greatness. He did not form a government, for a state of things which ought to exist, but he adapted his laws and regulations admirably to the wants of a people among whom he had lived, and whose wants he had seen and felt. Distinguished above all of his own times, for his unerring knowledge of men and his good common sense,

*Niebuhr's History of Rome, vol. I. pp. 369–370.