OF PROFANE HISTORY.

which protected him, disarmed guilt; or, that heaven
by a singular favour took a pleasure in preserving that
happy reign from every attempt that might sully the
glory or disturb the joy of it, his was a proof and ex-
ample of that great truth, which [h] Plato ventured
to pronounce long since, when, speaking of govern-
ment. He says, [i] Cities and men will never be free
from evils, till by the peculiar favour of the gods,
supreme power and philosophy uniting in the same
person, render virtue victorious over vice. For
the wise prince is not only happy, but makes those
happy also who hear the words he utters. He has
scarce ever occasion to make use of force or menaces
to reduce his subjects, who, having so illustrious a
model of virtue continually before their eyes in the life
of their prince, are naturally inclined to imitate him,
and lead a happy and unblamable life with him,
which is the best effect of a wise government; as on
the other side, the most solid glory of a prince, is to
be able to inspire his subjects with so noble an incli-
nation, and to lead them to a life of such perfection;
which no body ever knew better how to do than
Numa.

I have thought myself obliged to expatiate a little
upon the reasons of Numa for refusing the crown; the
motives which induced him to accept of it; the ex-
cellent rules he observed in his government, and the
beautiful description that Plutarch gives of the won-
derful effects of his reign, founded upon justice and
the love of peace. This character is great, and al-
most singular in history; and I think it the duty of a
master to give his scholars a just sense of the passages,
which abound with such fine sentiments, and are so
proper at the same time to form both the heart and
the understanding.

[b] Lib. 5. de Rep.

Atque ille quidem princeps ingenii & doctrinæ Plato, tum denique fore beatas respublicas puta

regerent, omne suum studium in
doctrinâ & sapientia collocassent.
Hanc conjunctionem videlicet potes.
tatis & sapientiæ saluti censuit ci-

69

THE SIXTH CHARACTER.

Wise Laws.

Numa understood from the beginning of his reign, that justice, which is the foundation of empires and all society, was still more necessary to a people nurtured in the exercise of arms, accustomed to subsist upon rapine, and to live without discipline and government. To soften the ferocity of their temper, and reduce so many different characters to an uniformity, he established wise laws, and recommended the observation of them by his moderation and mildness, by setting an example of the greatest virtues, and an unalterable love for equity as well towards foreigners as citizens. By this conduct he inspired his subjects with so great a regard for justice, that he quite changed the face of the city. And so great was the zeal for observing such useful and sacred laws, and perpetuating the spirit of them, that we have constantly seen at Rome, even down to the latest emperors, a continual tradition of the knowledge of their laws, a kind of school of wise legislators and famous lawyers, who forming their decisions upon the purest light of reason, and the surest maxims of natural equity, have composed that body of law and the rights of mankind, which has become the admiration of all the world, and been adopted, or at least imitated by all civilized nations, who have extracted from them the best part of their laws.

THE SEVENTH CHARACTER.

Religion.

The seventh character is a great respect for reli gion, and a faithful perseverance in beginning ever thing with it, and referring every thing to it. Romu fus had already expressed a very high regard for reli gion, as Plutarch observes; but Numa carried much farther, and applied himself to give it mor lustre and maiesty He prescribed the particular rule

to render the Deity present in all places, he brought them to a more gentle disposition, made them more tractable and humane, and insensibly changed their propensity to violence and war, into a love of justice and a desire of peace, which are the best fruits of it. This habit of introducing religion into all their actions, influenced the people with so profound and constant a veneration for the divinity, that from that time, and in all after-ages, they never created magistrates, declared war, gave battle, undertook any thing. in public or private, made no marriages, funerals, or journeys, without some act of religion, The care they took to build a temple to faith, and to make her respected as the sacred guardian of promises and engagements, and the inexorable avenger of the breach of them, kept the people so exactly to their words, that the obligation of an oath was never held more inviolable by any nation whatsoever.

Polybius and Livy give the Romans a glorious character in this respect. [k] Polybius says, that when once they had taken an oath, they kept it inviolably, without standing in need of any security, witnesses, or written contracts; whereas all these precautions were ineffectual among the Greeks. [7] The other observes, "that the different and continual exercises of religion, established by Numa, which gave the Divinity so constant a share in all human actions,

[*] Δι αὐτῆς τῆς κατὰ τὸν ὅρκον risews Tnpẽoi rò xalйnov. Polyb. b. 6.

[] Deorum assidua insidenscura, ùm interesse rebus humanis cœeste Numen videretur, eâ pietate mnium pectora imbuerat, ut fides c jusjurandum proximè legum ac œnarum metum civitatem rege

rent. Et cum ipsi se homines in regis, velut unici exempli, mores formárent: tum finitimi etiam populi, qui antè, castra, nonurbem positam in medio ad solicitandam omnium pacem crediderant, in eam verecun-* diam adducti sunt, ut civitatem totam in cultum versam Deorum viofari ducerent nefas. Liv.l. 1. n. 21.

σε

and possessed the citizens with such a sense of religion, that a word or an oath had no less weight

and authority at Rome than the fear of the laws, "and punishment. Nor did the Romans only assume "the character and peaceable disposition of Numa, "in forming themselves upon the example of their "king, as by a perfect model; but the neighbouring "nations, who before had looked upon Rome less as

a city than a camp, designed to disturb the peace of "all other people, conceived so high a veneration "for the prince and his subjects, that they would "have thought it criminal, and in a manner sacrilegious, to have attacked a city so entirely devoted "to the worship and service of the gods.'

In my entrance upon the Roman history, I thought it necessary to give first some idea of this famous people, whose principal characters, which rendered them so illustrious, and raised them to so great a superiority above all other people, are so happily united in Romulus and Numa, the two founders of their empire. We hereby see, of what consequence the first impressions are, not only with regard to pri-vate persons, but to whole nations; for it is evident that these eminent virtues, which prevailed in the infancy of Rome, and were continually improving and increasing in after-ages, were the occasion of her conquests, and gained her the empire of the world For, as [m] Dionysius Halicarnasseus judiciously obseryes, it is an immutable law, and founded in na ture itself, that whoever are superior in merit, be come so likewise in power and authority; and tha the people who excel most in virtue and fortitude sooner or later will have the command over thos who have less.

[πι] Φύσεως γὰρ δὴ νόμος ἅπασι' χειν δεὶ τῶν ἡτόνων τὰς κρείττονα moiròs, or ¿dels áraλús xpór ap- Dion, Hal. lib. 1. Ant. Rom.

THE epocha of the expulsion of the kings, and the establishment of the liberty of Rome, is too considerable to be slightly passed over. This memorable event is the basis of the most famous republic that ever was; it is the source of its prosperity, and of every thing great and wonderful admired in it. From thence the Roman people farther contracted two singular branches of their character; the one, an irreconcileable abhorrence of regal power, and whatever bore the least appearance of it; and the other, a violent passion for their liberty, of which they were at all times extremely jealous, almost to an excess. The reciprocal moderation observed by the senate and people, is a third circumstance which well deserves our observation.

CHARACTER THE FIRST.

Hatred of the royal Dignity.

Several circumstances and motives concurred to occasion and confirm the implacable hatred they bore to regal power.

1. The discontent and aversion which the people of Rome had long conceived, against the violence and tyrannical government of the Tarquins, at last broke out upon occasion of the injury offered to Lucretia, and the fatal manner in which she revenged the prince's crime upon herself, by killing herself with her own hands.

2. These dispositions were considerably improved by the astonishing resolution of Brutus the consul, who caused his own sons to be beheaded in his presence, for having entered into a conspiracy to restore the kings. The blood of two sons, spilt by their own

father to the dread and astonishment of all that heheld