The plague might be wholly averted from thefe countries, or at leaft prevented from fpreading, if lazarettoes were erected, and falutary regulations enforced, as in fome cities in Europe. Smyrna would be affected as little perhaps as Marfeilles, if its police were as well modelled. But this is the wifdom of a fenfible and enlightened people. The Turk will not acknowledge the means as efficacious, or will reject them as unlawful. A bigotted Predeftinarian, he refolves fickness or health, pleasure or pain, with all, even the most trifling incidents of life, into the mighty power and uncontroulable will of the Supreme Being. He views the prudent Frank with infolent difdain, and reproaches him with timidity or irreligion. He triumphs in fuperior courage or confidence, going out or coming in during the plague with a calm indifference, as at other times; like the brute beaft, unconscious of the road which leads to his fecurity or deftraction.'

We have extracted thefe particulars, without entering on the detail of those antiquities which are the main fubject of this publication, and for the fake of which the voyage was undertaken. A fatisfactory account of the refearches and obfervations made by our Travellers, would lead us too far beyond our very confined limits +. We had marked many curious particulars relative to Smyrna, the ruins of Ephefus, and fome other diftinguifhed parts of the work; which, no doubt, would have highly gratified many of our Readers: but we must refer them to the book at large. It is, notwithstanding a few imperfections, a work of confiderable learning; and it abounds with incidents and defcriptions which cannot fail of affording high entertainment, and ufeful information, to almoft every clafs of readers. One reflection of our Author, however, will add but little to the length of this Article; and it merits particular notice. After remarking the extreme attachment of the Ephefians to their great goddefs DIANA, and especially their firm perfuafion and belief of her frequent manifestations of herself to her votaries, in vifions, &c. Dr. C. takes notice of the extreme difficulty which the firft planters of Chriftianity must have met with, in the converfion of that people.-Convinced, fays our Author, as they were, that the felf-manifeftations of their deity were real, they could not eafily be turned to a religion which did not pretend to a fimilar or equal intercourse with its divinity:

--

And this, he adds. is perhaps the true reason, why, in the early ages of christianity, befides the miraculous agency of the spirit in prophetic fits of extafy, a belief of fupernatural interpofition by the Panagia or Virgin Mary, and by faints appearing in daily or nightly

It were, indeed, the lefs neceffary, in this place, as we have given ample fpecimens of these refearches, &c. in our accounts of the Ionian Antiquities, and of the Infcriptions, referred to in the beginning of the prefent Article.

vifions,

vifions, was encouraged and inculcated. It helped by its currency to procure and confirm the credulous votary, to prevent or refute the cavil of the heathen, to exalt the new religion, and to deprive the established of its ideal fuperiority. The fuperftitions derived on the Greek church from this fource, in a remote period, and ftill continuing to flourish in it, would principally impede the progress of any, who fhould endeavour to convert its members to the nakedness of reformed chriftianity. Great is the Panagia would be the general cry; and her felf-manifeftations, like thofe of Diana anciently, would even now be attefted by many a reputable witness. By what arguments fhall a people, filled with affectionate regard for her, and feeling complacency from their conviction of her attention to them and of her power, be prevailed on to accept our rational proteftantifm in exchange for their fancied, but fatisfactory revelations ?'

The foregoing remark feems to be founded in good fenfe, and, perhaps, in fact; but it will probably offend fome good Chriftian readers, who may think it extraordinary that a Proteftant divine fhould afcribe the fuccefs of Christianity, in any measure, to the encouragement given by its promulgers, to a belief of the fupernatural agency of the Virgin Mary, and other faints! The general characteristic idea conceived by us, of the primitive preachers of Chriftianity, is that of their extreme fimplicity, and infuperable regard to truth.-Here we fee the venerable founders of the Afiatic churches, represented as a set of cunning temporizers, deceiving the people by false pretences, and grafting one new fpecies of fuperftition upon the old ftock of another.-But, however we may wish to fee the earlier diffeminators of the true faith cleared from this charge of duplicity, it is certain that the Chriftian churches of Rome and Conftantinople muft for ever remain under that reproach and it is not eafy to determine, precisely, from what period of time we are to date thofe corruptions of Chriftianity which are its bane,-its indelible fcandal,-and the great obftructors of its progrefs.

ART. II. The Inftitutions, Manners, and Cuftoms of the Ancient Nations. Translated from the original French of M. Sabbathier. By Percival Stockdale. 8vo. 2 Vols, 10 s. 6 d. Boards. Becket, 1775.

UR opinion of M. Sabbathier's production was given in

0% our account of the original, as a foreign publication, in

the Appendix to our 44th volume, p. 559, et seq.-To what was there faid, in refpect of the nature and utility of this work, fome particulars may now be added, from the Tranflator's preface:

A particular account,' fays Mr. Stockdale, of the customs and manners of the ancient nations is excellently calculated to facilitate and illuftrate ancient hiftory. The fcattered rays of

antiquity

antiquity are here brought to a fenfible and ftrong focus, The young fcholar will view the men of old in a more advantageous and friking light than that of the cabinet or the field. He will trace the plans of their legiflators; he will mark the spirit of their policy. The toils in which they were caught by their priefts will te fpread before him; he will analyze the myfteries of religious art. He will accompany them to their temples; he will affift at their facrifices; he will be admitted to their fanctuaries with the heralds of their gods. He will be intimately acquainted with their conduct in private as well as public life. He will be a guest at their tables, frugal or luxurious: he will contemplate them in the auguft character of CITIZEN; and in the milder and more affecting relations of hufband and father. He will fee the internal and operative fprings which raised them to power and glory, or depreffed them to fervitude and infamy; which made them licentious and wretched, or virtuous and happy.

The collective fubftance,' he adds, of this work, and its concife form, entitle it, likewife, to the attentive perufal of young ftudents. Two volumes in octavo will make them acquainted with the effential facts of antiquity. By its alphabetical arrangement they may the more eafily direct their refearches principally to the greatest nations, or recur, as they find it neceffary, to thofe of inferior fame. The remarkable epochs of the ancient ftates, which are fixed by our author, and his authorities, to which he refers his readers at the clofe of each of his articles, will point out to them the proper feries of their hiftorical ftudies, and the writers to whom they fhould devote their application. Momentous hints in their literary progrefs, and which they must not expect to receive from their mafters! The liberal, the polite, and accomplished fcholar was never formed by pedagogues; but by a consciousness of his own capacity, and by giving that capacity its full play.'.

Our Tranflator continues- I hope I fhall not be thought hyperbolical in recommending this book, if I add, that it will be of great ufe to the man of regular and complete learning; to him who, from his juvenile years, hath applied a part of every day to the cultivation of his mind. From my refpect to the dignity of fuch a character, I only prefume to offer it to him as a literary common-place book. His mafterly knowledge, and the alphabetical order of the work warrant the appellation. Let me obferve, however, that the contents of a commonplace-book, which is the depofitary of intelligence to the Jearned and the liberal, are moft worthy of remembrance. He must be a very supercilious scholar, or a very conceited pedant, perhaps of capacious, but certainly of dry and abftra&t memory, who defpifes a comprehenfive view of the celebrated nations of antiquity,

antiquity, whofe inftitutions, customs, and manners, are here compendiously and accurately related ;-of the Ægyptians, Carthaginians, Cretans, Perfians, Athenians, and Lacedæmonians.

The inftitutions and customs of the Romans are not included in this work. Their biftory,' fays the Author, in his introduction, is productive of fo many observations on manners, that I propofe to write a feparate treatise on that famous people. Their manners have indeed been the fubject of many able wri ters; but they are like a copious harvest-gleanings of them we may ftill collect.'

Ás to those who, from a want of good education, or of for titude fufficient to encounter the perfevering labour of literature, are readers only for amusement, our Prefacer ftrongly recommends Mr. Sabbathier's collection to their perufal. It will, he obferves, afford them rational amufement, as it re-unites the furprising incidents and characters of romance with the ufeful information of hiftorical truth; and while it gives a lively pleasure to the imagination, enlarges the knowledge of human nature. There is a class of readers who are only converfant with those books which give a frivolous detail of European amours, or exhibit a barbarous glare of Afiatic fplendor. I fhould be happy to perfuade them to correct their vitiated tafte, to aspire to the pleasure of intellectual beings, to refolve to join the utile with the dulce; and to be at once entertained and improved. Both these ends may be attained by the judicious choice, and attentive perusal of travels and history. And here, if they are fond of the marvellous, their fancy will be warmly actuated by many prodigies in the phyfical as well as in the moral world. They will be interested in objects worthy of their admiration; objects less gorgeous, but far more noble and more important to man than the machinery and the genii of an oriental fabulift. For the Talisman of the Eaft, let them be entertained with heroic virtue, which has wrought many miracles. For an enchanted caftle, let them fubftitute a manfion infinitely more auguft and awful, the facred cottage of an old Roman dictator. Let their dwarfs be reprefented by our modern petit-maitres: and they will certainly not be lofers, if they exchange their GIANTS for an ANNIBAL, a TIMOLEON, and an EPAMINONDAS.'.

M. Sabbathier gives the following account of the Authors to whom he has had recourse, in the execution of his plan: From Tacitus, fays he, I have chiefly taken my account of the Germans, and of the Britons. Herodotus has been of ufe to me, in writing of the Babylonians, and of many other nations, especially those of Afric. I owe the greater part of my account of the Indians, of the Egyptians, and of feveral Ethiopian nations, to Diodorus Siculus. From Mr. Rollin's Ancient History I have extracted

many

many curious and interefting paffages, with which the Reader I hope will not be offended, as they make an indifpenfable part of my object. I have availed myself of Mr. Rollin's inquiries, chiefly in my hiftory of the Carthaginians and Perfians. Some differtations of Mr. Bougainville, whofe premature death will be long regretted by the republic of letters, have afforded me much information concerning the agriculture, commerce, and power of the Carthaginians, as well as the religion of the Athenians. Mr. D'Origny's learned Memoirs of Ancient Egypt furnish excellent materials for a hiftory of that country. From them I have extracted my account of the Egyptian religion. The chapter on the Cretans is partly taken from a work, which in the year 1740, gained the prize of the Academy of Belles Lettres. That work treats of the laws of Lacedæmon and of Crete. To the account which I give of the Lacedæmonians I am indebted to Plutarch, and to Mr. De La Nauze of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres.'

As a fpecimen of Mr. Stockdale's tranflation, we shall give an extract from the Author's account of the state of Letters in ancient Gaul :

• We may remark,' fays our Author, with Diodorus Siculus, that the minds of the Gauls were delicate and acute, and happily framed to receive all the sciences. According to Cæfar's account, they were a very ingenious people, and very susceptible of any inftruction. It is evident from the accounts we have of the Druids, the Bards, and the Vates, of whose functions we have already spoken, that philofophy, aftronomy, poetry, and the other arts and fciences were cultivated in Gaul. Nay Clemens Alexandrinus is of opinion, that the Gauls were prior to the Greeks in the knowledge and public profeffion of philofophy. In this point we cannot agree with him. It is probable, on the contrary, that the Gauls owed much of their learning to the inhabitants of Marseilles, who were a Grecian colony. That city was famous for its univerfity, at which the Roman as well as the Gallic youth were educated.

We learn from Strabo, that many cities of Gaul gave falaries to profeffors, who taught in public and in private. He does not name thofe cities; but we have reason to believe that there were as many public fchools as capitals. Narbonne, Arles, Vienna, Toulouse, Autun, Lyons, Nîmes, Treves, Bourdeaux, and many other cities, not to mention those of Cifalpine Gaul, cultivated the fciences, and produced great men. The Emperor Claudius congratulates himself, in Tacitus, on his having fprung from the illuftrious men of Gallia Narbonenfis. Martial boafts that the inhabitants of Vienna were charmed with his poetry; that it was read there by the people of both fexes, and of all ages. It was fuppofed that

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