He and placed him at their head. The Troglodytes ftrewed flowers in TH longer in a condition to hurt you? Do you define to tyrannize over them? Have a care that, in learning to be tyrants, you do not alfo learn to be 'farves. If you know how to value liberty as you ought, you will not deprive others of it; who, though unjuft, are men like yourselves, and fhould not be oppreffed." This wife remonftrance was not heeded, in the temper the people were then in. The fight of the defolations that had been caused by the late irruption, made them refolve on a violent ievenge. Befides, they were now grown fond of war, and the young men efpecially were eager of a new occafion to fignalize their valour. Greater pow. ers were therefore given to the general; and the event was anfwerable to his promifes; for in a short time he subdued all the nations that had joined in the league against the Troglodytes. The merit of this fuccefs fo endeared him to that grateful people, that, in the heat and riot of their joy, they unanimously chofe him for their king, without prefcribing any bounds to his authority." They were too innocent to suspect any abufe of fuch a generous truft; and thought that, when virtue was on the throne, the most absolute government was the best. LETTER XI. SELIM, TO MIRZA AT ISPAHAN, HE firft act of the new king was to difpofe of the conquered lands. One fhare of them, by general confent, he allotted to himfelf, and the reft he divided among thofe who were companions of his victory. Distinction of rank and inequality of condition were then first, introduced among the Troglodytes : fome grew rich, and immediately comparifon made others poor. From this fingle root fprung up a thousand mifchiefs; pride, envy, avarice, difcontent, deceit, and violence. Unheard-of difonders were committed; nor was any regard paid to the decifions of ancient cuf-. fom, or the dictates of natural justice. Particulars could no longer be allowed to judge of right; it became neceflary to determine it by stated laws. The whole a FROM LONDON. nation applied to the prince to make thofe laws, and take care of their execution. But the prince, unequal alone to fuch a difficult task, was obliged to have recourfe to the oldeft and wifeft of his fubjects for affiftance. He had not yet so forgot himself, by being feated on a new-erected throne, as to imagine that he was become all-fufficient, or that he was placed there to govern by his caprice. It was therefore his greatest care how to fupply his own defects by the counfels of thofe who were most famed for their knowledge and abilities. Thus a fenate was formed, which, with the king, compofed the legislature; and thus the people freely bound themfelves, by confenting to fuch regulations as the king and fenate fhould decree. LETTER LETTER XII. SELIM, TO MIRZA AT ISPAHAN. THE inftitution of laws among the this inevitable ill effect, that they began to think every thing was right which was not legally declared to be a crime. It feemed as if the natural obligations to virtue were deftroyed, by the foreign influence of human authority; and vice was not fhunned as a real evil, but to be thought a forbidden good. grew One Troglodyte faid to himfelf-I have made advantage of the simplicity of my neighbour, to over-reach him in a bargain: he may reproach me perhaps, but he cannot punish me; for the law allows me to rob him with his own confent.' Another was asked by his friend for à fum of money, which he had lent him fome years before. Have you any thing to fhew for it?' anfwered he. A third was implored to remit part of his tenant's rent, because the man, by unavoidable misfortunes, was become very poor. Do not you fee,' replied he, that he has ftill enough to maintain his family? By ftarving them he may find money to pay me, and the law requires him fo to do.' Thus the hearts of the Troglodytes were hardened. But a greater mischief ftill enfued; the laws, in their firft framing, were few and plain, fo that any man could easily understand them, and plead his own caufe without an advocate. Some inconveniences were found to FROM LONDON. flow from this: the rules were too ge the equity of the judge; and many par ticular cafes feemed to remain undeter mined and unprovided for. It was therefore propofed, in the great council of the nation, to fpecify all thofe feveral exceptions; to tie the judges down to certain forms; to explain, correct, add to, and referve, whatic ever might feem capable of any doubtful or different interpretations. While the matter was yet in deliberation, a wife old fenator spoke thus You are endeavouring, O Troglo'dytes! to amend what is defective in your laws; but know that, by multiplying laws, you will certainly multiply defects. Every new explanation will produce a new objection, and at laft the very principles will be loft on which they were originally formed. Mankind may be governed, and well governed, under any laws that are fixed by ancient ufe: befides their being known and understood, they have a fanctity attending them which commands obedience; but every variation, as it difcovers a weakness in ⚫ them, fo it leffens the respect by which alone they can be effectually main 'tained. If fubtleties and distinctions are admitted to conftitute right, they will equally be made ufe of to evade it; and if juftice is turned into a science, injuftice will foon be made a 'trade.' LETTER XIII. SELIM, TO MIRZA AT ISPAHAN. FROM LONDON. As the old man foretold, it came to lence; their opinions were fold at no little pafs. The laws were explained into contradictions, and digefted into confufion. Men could no longer tell what was their right, and what was not. A fet of Troglodytes undertook to find it out for all the rest: but they were far from doing it out of pure benevo price; and, how falfe foever they might prove, in the event of the caufe, the mo ney was never to be returned: nay, the longer the difpute could be protracted, the more the parties concerned were to pay. This point being once well established, caufes that before were dispatched in half manners. They loved God as the author of their happinefs; they feared him as the avenger of injuftice; and they fought to pleafe him by doing good. But their morals being corrupted, their religion could not long continue pure: fuperstition found means to introduce itfelf, and compleated their depravation. Their first king, who had been a conqueror, and a law-giver, died, after a long reign, extremely regretted and revered by his fubjects. His fon fucceeded, not by any claim of hereditary right, but the free election of the people, who loved a family that had done them fo many fervices. As he was fenfible that he owed his crown to their veneration for the me mory of his father, he endeavoured to carry that veneration as high as poffible. He built a tomb for him, which he planted round with laurels, and caufed verfes to be folemnly recited in praife of his atchievements. When he perceived that thefe honours were well received in the opinion of the publick, he thought he might venture to go farther. He got it to be propofed in the fenate, that the dead monarch fhould be deified, after the example of many nations round about them, who had paid the fame compliment to their kings. The fenators were become too good courtiers, not to give into fo agreeable a piece of flattery, efpecially as their own honour was concerned in raifing the character of their founder; and the people, feduced by their gratitude, thought that thofe virtues, which had rendered him the protector and father of his FROM LONDON, fubordinate share of divinity. country, very juftly entitled him to a It is not to be conceived how many evils this alteration produced. Then first the Troglodytes were made to believe that their God was to be gained by rich donations, or that his glory was concerned in the worldly pomp and pow er of his priests. A temple, faid thofe priests, is like a court; you must gain the favour of the minifters, or your petitions will not be received.' As the people remembered that their new deity had once been a king, this doctrine feemed plausible enough, and the priests grew abfolute on the strength of it. They procured for themfeives exceffive wealth, exemptions from all publick burdens, and almost a total independence upon the civil authority. That the comparison between the temple and the court might hold the better, a great number of ce remonies were invented, and a magnificence of drefs was added to them as effential to holiness. The women came warmly into this, and were ftill more zealous than the men in their attachment to the exterior part of devotion. By degrees the invifible God, whom their fathers had worshipped alone, was wholly forgot; and all the vows of the people were paid to the idol, whofe superftitious worship was better adapted to human paffions, and to the gain of the priests. Expiations, luftrations, facrifices, proceffions, and pilgrimages, made up the whole of religion. Thus the piety of the Troglodytes was turned afide from reality to form: and it was no longer a confequence, that a very religious man was a very honeft man. LETTER what was moft agreeable to their god; and declared it differently, as it happened that their paflions or interefts re quired. Buthow flight foever the foun dation was, a difpute of this nature ne their notions, and in their manners, from their idolatry. By the arts of the priest hood, their corruption encreafed every day: and virtue, instead of being af fifted, was overturned by religion felf. It was common for a Troglodyte to fay-ver failed to be warmly carried on. NoI will plunder my neighbour or the body concerned himself about the mo publick: for the anger of our God rals of another; but every man's opi may be appeased by an offering made nions were enquired into with the utmoft out of the spoil.' rigour and woe to thofe who held any that were difliked by the ruling party; for though neither fide could tell the rea fon why they differed, the difference was never to be forgiven. An aged Tro. glodyte endeavoured to put a stop to this pious fury, by reprefenting to them, that their ancestors, who were better men, had no disputes about religion; but ferved their God in the only unity required by him, an unity of affection. All the poor man got by this admonition was, to be called an atheift by all the contending fects; and, after fuffering a thoufand perfecutions, compelled to take refuge in another land. Another quieted his confcience in this manner; I am, indeed, a very great villain, and have injured my benefactor; but I am a conftant attender on all proceffions, and have crawled thrice round the temple upon my knees.' A third confefied to a prieft, that he had defrauded his ward of an eftate. Give half of it to our order,' faid the confeffor, and we will freely endow you with the reft.' But the mifchief did not ftop even here. From fan&tifying trifles, they proceeded to quarrel about them: and the peace of the fociety was difturbed, to know which impertinence should be T LETTER XVI. SELIM, TO MIRZA AT ISPAHAN. HE court had a deeper intereft in the establishment of the idolatrous priesthood among the Troglodytes, than was at first attended to, or foreseen. The very nature of their office particularly attached them to the crown. They were fervants of a deified king: and it was no very great ftretch of their function, to deify the living monarch alfo. Accordingly they preached to all the people, with an extraordinary warmth of zeal, that the family then reigning was divine; that they held the crown, not by the will of the fociety, but by a pre-eminence of nature; that to refift their pleasure, was refifting God; and that every nian, enjoyed his life and eftate by their grace, and at their difpolal. In confequence of thefe doc. FROM LONDON. trines, his facred majefly did just what he thought fit. He was of a martial genius, and had a strong ambition to enlarge his territories. To this end he raifed a mighty army, and fell upon his neighbours without a quarrel. The Troglodytes loft their blood, and fpent their fubftance, to make their prince triumphant in a war which could not poffibly turn to their advantage; for the power and pride of their tyrant in creafed with his fuccefs. His temper, too, became fiercer and more fevere, by being accustomed to flaughter and devaftation; fo that his government grew odious to his fubjects. Yet the dazzling glory of his victories, and the divinity they were taught to find about him, kept them in awe, and fupported his authority. . authority. But Providence would not fuffer him any longer to vex mankind: he perifhed, with a great part of his army, by the united valour of many nations, who had allied themfelves against his encroachments. Content with having punished the aggreffor and author of the war, they immediately UND offered a peace to the Troglodytes, upon condition, that all fhould be restored which had been taken from them in the former wars. That nation, humbled by their defeat, very willingly parted with their conquefts to purchase their repofe. LETTER XVII. SELIM, TO MIRZA AT ISPAHAN. NDER their third king, who fucceeded to his father upon a new notion of hereditary and divine right, the spirit of the government was wholly changed. He was young, and of a temper much addicted to ease and plea fure; yet bred up with high conceits of kingly power, and a royal difiegard to his people's good. There was a mixture of bigotry in his difpofition, which gave the priests a great advantage over him; and as his predeceffor had governed by them, they now g verned by him, Th people, too, in inntation of their prince, foon contracted another character; they began to polish and foften all their manners. The young Troglodytes were fent to travel into Perfia; they came back with new dreffes, newr.fitments, new follics, and new vices. Like a plague imported from a foreign country, laxury spread itself from thefe travellers over all the nation. A thousand wants were created every day, which no ure neither fuggefted nor could fupply. A FROM LONDON. thousand uneafineffes were felt, which were as unnatural as the pleasures that occafioned them. When the minds of the Troglodytes were thus relaxed, their bodies became weak. They now complained that the fummer was too hot, and the winter too cold. They loft the use of their limbs, and were carried about on the fhoulders of their flaves. The women brought their children with more pain, and even thought themselves too delicate to nurse them: they loft their beauty much fooner than before, and vainly fove to repair it by the help of art. Then first phyficians were called in from foreign lands, to contend with a variety of new diftempers, which intemperance produced: they came; and the only advantage was, that those who had learned to live at a great expence, now found the fecret of dying at a greater. Such was the condition of the Tro glodytes, when, by the benefit of a lafting peace, they tafted the fweets of plenty, and grew polite. LETTER XVIII. SELIM, TO MIRZA AT ISPAHAN. FROM LONDON, Tuly in the duties care of fo- pranfture, the virine of their countryHE ancient Troglodytes were too praises of the Divine Being, the beauties ciety, to employ much of their thoughts in fpeculation. They were fkilful in mechanicks and agriculture, the only fciences for which they had any use. Experience taught them the properties of many medicinal herbs, roots, and plants, with which they cured the few ailments that they were fubject to in their ferene and temperate life. At their leisure they amufed themfelves with mufick and poetry, and fung the men, and their own loves. They fhewed a wonderful force of imagination in a great number of fables which they invented, under most of which was con cea'ed fome moral fentiment; but, for hiftory, they contented themfelves with fome fhort accounts of publick tranf actions, drawn from the memory of the oldest men among them, and written without any art; having no party dif putes, no feditions, no plots, no in trigues |