are told that in the Trojan war,' Agamemnon was obliged to consult not only his generals, and other officers, but the soldiers, and the people, in general council, before he could prosecute a contemplated enterprise.' 'It is remarkable,' says Mr. Mitford, that excepting Assyria and Egypt, none of the ancient people who flourished by arts, arms, or policy, were great nations, like those which form the states of modern Europe; but each a small society of men inhabiting one city, and there served by slaves, who made commonly by much the larger portion of the population.' Of the faithfulness of the last feature in this picture of primitive society, we shall have another occasion of expressing our opinion; but in the countries referred to in the early Hebrew history, particularly those visited by the patriarch, the mass of the people appear to have owned lands and various other kinds of property, to an extent implying entire freedom from political despotism. There was evidently a higher degree of equality in civil relations and in the possession of wealth, among the people, than has since existed in the great empires of the world. There was a larger amount of certain kinds of property, particularly of the precious metals, manufactured into various ornaments, wrought into their apparel, and even hung about their horses, camels, and elephants, than is now to be found in any country in Europeor America. The narratives of the conquests of Joshua and his successors, and the various directions of Moses in relation to the furniture and ritual of his tabernacle, will satisfy any one of this, who will attentively examine the books of the Pentateuch, of Joshua, and the Judges.

I have intimated the opinion that science and the arts were originated before monarchies were organized, or oligarchies existed; and that though they were subsequently patronized by certain hierarchies and princes, they have uniformly flourished best under free civil institutions. Among the most distinguished writers who have apparently sought to discountenance this opinion, and to recommend the advantages of monarchy and aristocracy, is William Mitford, Esq., whose History of Greece 1 have already had occasion to quote. Inveterate as he is in his opposition to

democracy and republicanism, but commended to the people of the United States, as his work has been, by our most distinguished literati, as faithful in its data, to the records of antiquity, — I shall in my subsequent remarks rely much on that work, for the facts by which I am supported, in the theory I would sustain.

Among the nations of antiquity with which written history has made us somewhat acquainted, and which became the earliest and most extensively distinguished for science, the arts, commerce and wealth, were the descendants of Canaan, who occupied the territories at the head of the Mediterranean, subsequently designated Phenecia and Palestine. Possessing a country advantage. ously situated for agriculture and trade, they multiplied exceedingly; and were led, by their industry, ingenuity, and adventurous spirit of commerce, to explore the coasts of the Mediterranean; to risk the dangers of the ocean beyond; to search for mines of gold, silver, and other metals; to colonize the islands and shores of Greece and Africa; and to form establishments for manufactures or traffic whithersoever they went. The enterprizing mariners of their two principal cities, Sidon and Tyre, had, long before the invasion of Joshua, passed the pillars of Hercules, established a colony at Cadiz, planted letters in Spain, visited the coasts of Britain, and exchanged with our ancestors of that venerable isle, their stuffs and fabrics, for the tin of Cornwall, and other merchandize. On the incursion of the Hebrews, great numbers were destroyed; others were driven into Egypt, Africa and Greece; and the rest were subjected to bondage, or hemmed into the narrow limits of their shore towns, on a rock-bound coast, and their metropolitan cities of Tyre and Sidon. As an evidence of their literature at the time of this invasion, it is related that they constructed at Tangiers, two monuments of white stone, on which they inscribed in Phenecian characters, We are those Canaanites who have been driven from our home, by the robber Joshua.'-'We are people preserved by flight, from that robber Joshua, the son of Nun, who pursued us.'

These Canaanites and Phenecians, which we have seen thus numerous, wealthy and civilized, had occupied for centuries their

beautiful country, without any other government than what was merely municipal. Each city and its suburbs appear to have been independent of all others; and although its chief magistrate is called by the historians a king'—his power in times of peace would appear to have been little more than that of a 'chairman of the selectmen' in one of our New England towns.

Referring to this country at a later period, and after its inhabitants had been subjected to so many misfortunes, Mr. Mitford represents the cities of Phenecia as still enjoying great riches, prosperity and freedom. He says that Sidon appears to have been the wealthiest mart in the known world;' and that the country with a Constitution of republican character, was governed by its own magistrates, according to its own laws and customs.' 'Not Sidon alone,' continues he, but every Phenecian city appears to have had its own municipal government, in a considerable degree of independency; and all were united under a supreme council, composed apparently of deputies from each.' He subsequently speaks of their internal troubles, and remarks, as he is wont to of all Republics, that in a constitution like that we have observed in Phenecia, party divisions would rarely fail.' He had previously mentioned the warlike and enterprizing spirit of the Greeks, having 'long ago driven the industrious and informed Phenecians from all their ancient establishments in the Grecian seas:' and 'wrested from them the large island of Cyprus.' He further remarks that in maratime skill, and still more in commercial system, in the spirit of commercial adventure, and in those manufactures which formed the principal and most advantageous basis of commerce, the Phenecians stood yet unrivalled. On the coast of Africa, from the deserts bounding the Grecian colonies on the west, they had extended their settlements to the western extremity of the Mediterranean, penetrated into the ocean beyond, and according to some not unsupported accounts, carried their traffic across all the dangers of the Bay of Biscay, to the distant shores of Britain, then the extreme of the known world; and, excepting to these Phenecians, unknown among civilized nations. Wherever the Greeks did not interfere, the Phenecians continued

superior in arms, as in arts, to all maritime people. But confined at home within a narrow territory; pressed on the land, first by the power of the Jewish kingdom, then by the more overbearing weight successively of the African and Persian empires; and on the sea, interrupted by the Grecian spirit of war, and, it must be added, of piracy; they were equally prevented from becoming a great nation, on their own continent, and from assuring their dominion over their distant maritime settlements.'

In another chapter, Mr. Mitford again remarks, 'We have had occasion formerly to observe that Phenecia was divided among Republican Governments, nearly resembling those of Greece; having each a chief, who assumed the title of king, popular powers every where large. From these quotations it would. seem to appear that the Grecian states were not the first whose governments were republican; but that centuries before Greece had become colonized and civilized, the Canaanitish states had enjoyed the benign blessing of free political institutions. From the familiar manner in which science and arts are referred to by the earliest records extant, as already there existing, understood, and in use; unaccompanied by any expressions implying admiration or surprise as of anything novel and unusual, it is apparent that the world is not indebted for their origin to the patronage of the monarchs and princes who at a later period availed themselves of them. Neither letters, arts or science have been traced beyond Phenecia; or, if we find them at Babylon, and other eastern countries, we are unable to retain sight of them to a period so remote as the ages when we have beheld the Canaanites and Phenecians enjoying their advantages, in connexion with entire civil freedom.

But there is another class of ancient remains, Architectural and Sculptural, of stupendous magnitude and transcendent finish, which appears, like those of Egypt, to have been produced by an unknown generation. I refer to the rock-cut temples of India and Hindostan. Mountains of the hardest granite have been cut into at their base, and temples, halls, courts, and every species of apartment, ornamented with beautiful statues, colossal figures, and

mythological representations, surrounded by magnificent obelisks, columns, and pillars, are presented to the eye of the astonished traveller as the production of an age beyond the reach of history.

One of these temples, said to have been the first which attracted the notice of the Europeans, is situated on an island called Elephanta, in the Bay of Bombay. This island is six miles in circumference, and composed of two long hills, with a narrow valley between them. Near the shore, there formerly stood a colossal rock Elephant, from which the island took its present name. After proceeding up the valley, before mentioned, till the two hills unite, the traveller comes to a narrow path which leads to the grand entrance of an immense excavated temple, whose huge, massy columns seem to give support to the whole mountain rising above it. The entrance into this temple, which is entirely hewn out of the rock, is through a spacious front, supported by two pillars and two pilasters, forming three openings, under thick and steep rock, overhung with brush-wood and wild shrubs. The long ranges of columns which appear in perspective on every side of its interior; the flat and solid roof, which seems to be prevented from falling, only by these massy pillars, whose capitols are pressed down and flattened, as if by the superincumbent weight; the gigantic stone figures ranged along the wall, hewn like the temple itself, out of the living rock, exhibit an appearance of indescribable grandeur and sublimity. The whole excavation consists of three principal parts, the great temple in the centre, and two smaller chapels, one on each side of it. These do not come forward to a straight line with the front of the chief temple, and are approached by two narrow passes in the hill on each side of the grand entrance, and at a distance from it. Each of these passes conducts to a distinct front of the grand excavation, exactly like the principal front, - and all three fronts are ornamented with huge pillars and pilasters. The grand entrance faces to the north the sides to the east and west. The roof is supported

by 26 pillars and 16 pilasters, and the whole excavation is about 133 feet square.