not fee any thing can be objected to my affertion beyond a vague doubt, which is no manner of proof; for the former of these works is very far from being come to us entire; and the fecond is known to us only by a few fragments, and these but fhort. • Plutarch's filence, I own, carries with it a more fpecious difficulty; but can it be concluded that he knew nothing of any fuch compofition, from his not having mentioned Nicocles's work? Does not that hiftorian reprefent Phocion exactly in the fame colours as he paints himself in these Converfations. Was it not the most impreffive manner of fetting forth the moral and political fyftem of that great man, to exhibit him as a zealous patriots, and uniformly practifing every virtue in the whole tenour of his life? This Plutarch juftly conceived to be the whole business of an hiftorian. Nicocles's work being already in every body's hands, he might think any particular mention needlefs, or perhaps he had before given an account of it in his Morals; and time having deprived us of a part of thefe, what advantage can be taken ftom Plutarch's filence? I must curforily obferve here, that this filence of writers, which the generality of critics are continually making ufe of as a decifive argument, very feldom amounts to more than a very weak prejudice. Did it prove any thing against Phocion's Conversations, it were beft to close with Pére Hardouin's literary Pyrrhonifm, and make it a matter of doubt, whether moft of the antient writings were really compofed by the authors whose names they bear. But a convictive anfwer to all difficulties which may be brought against me is the eloquence, the fpirit, the energy which runs through Phocion's Converfations. Had thofe literati, who have seen only my tranflation, which I own very inadequate, perufed the original, eafily would they have perceived in it that genius and ftyle which fo advantageously dif tinguished the age of Plato, Thucydides, and Demofthenes from the fucceeding times. I am not ignorant that for feveral centuries afterwards, and even when Greece was become a Roman province, the Greeks ftill spoke their language with great correctness and purity; but with the epocha of the ruin of their liberty, began the decay of their genius; their minds grew relax and nervelefs, without any thing of their former afperity and vigour. They affected elegance in fpeech, but their thoughts had no fire, no fublimity: the ideas of beauty died away, and eloquence being now cultivated by rhetoricians, and not by philofophers, laid afide its former fimplicity to prank itself out with tinfel and tawdry trinkets.' This reafoning of the Abbé Mably, particularly in regard to Plutarch, it must be owned, is not quite fatisfactory; at the fame time it would be too prefumptuous to deny the authenticity of this publication, merely on the filence of antient authors concerning it. It appears at leaft pretty certain, from intrinsic evidence, that it is not of monkish original; nor is there any thing in that evidence derogatory to the opinion of its being actually the work of the ancient to whom it is afcribed. But, however that may be, the fubject of which it treats is of the highest importance to mankind. In these philofophi cal and patriotic converfations, the connexion between morality and politicks is clearly established; the mazes of the human beart are exposed to view, the fources and communica tions of the paffions are inveftigated, and the most rational plan is delineated for the arduous task of legislation. The firit Converfation opens with a general profpect of the fituation of Athens and Greece, at the time when it is fuppofed to have been held after which the speaker proceeds to fhew, that politicks is a science, the principles of which are fixed: that obedience to the laws of nature is, its firft rule: that all the evils of fociety are owing to the extravagance of the paffions; and that it is the province of politicks to reduce them under the government of reason. In the fecond Converfation, Phocion is reprefented as declaiming, that there is no virtue, however obfcure, which does not contribute to the happiness of mankind: that the eftablishment of morality is the principal object of politicks; and that is impoffible for good government to exift without good morals. The The third Converfation treats of the methods which politicks fhould employ to render a people virtuous; what virtues have the greatest influence on government, and the neceflity of religion. Politics, my dear Ariftias,' fays Phocion, if it confiders the virtues, according to their order in dignity and excellence, places at the head of them juftice, prudence, and courage; and harmonifing with morality it fhews. us, that from these three fources flow order, peace, fafety, and in a word every thing that is really defirable to men. great object of politics is to facilitate to us the practice of thofe three virtues. But it is too well acquainted with the activity of our paffions, and the fluggishness of our reason, to expect we fhall be brought to a habit of them, unless by familiarizing us before-hand with other virtues, the exercife and motions of which are more under her command, and excluding from our heart thofe vices which hinder us from being juft, wife, and courageous. • A ftrange A ffrange fort of politician would that legiflator be who fhould think that it is only making laws, and men would obey them of courfe. He may have fettled the rights of every citizen, and laid down fixed bounds for juftice; but this is doing little or nothing: if our paffions are left to act, they will foon have broken down thofe fences; a thousand chimerical pretences will set afide legality. Be the laws ever fo well framed, injuftice, being feconded by cunning and chicanery, and emboldened by impunity, will foon become the general principles. Suppofe a proclamation were made in the marketplace of Sibaris, ordering every citizen to have fuch a ftock of courage, as to dye on the fpot in battle, rather than give ground, and in the administration of the republic to face the dangers to which a magiftrate is fometimes expofed: take my word for it, fuch an ordinance will have no manner of effect. The Sibarites will continue effeminate, and not shake off their beloved gratifications to put on hardinefs and courage. The law might prescribe to us Athenians the most wife policy in our public deliberations, to preferve us from levity and precipitation, and force us maturely to weigh and examine the concerns of our country; yet, fhould we become fo prudent as to conform to the prescription, it would be rather as coinciding with fome of our paffions, than from any concern for the republic. That legiflator who knows not on what virtues justice, prudence, and courage, muft as it were be grafted; or who knows not how to bring men to the love and practice of those virtucs, will find that all his plausible laws will have done no manner of good to fociety. There are in reality, my dearest Ariftias, fome virtues which are bafes and fupports to others: thefe virtues, which I call mothers or auxiliaries, and which take the lead in the political order, are four: temperance, love of labour, love of glory, and refpect for the gods. By temperance, continued Phocion, I mean that virtue which bringing us to be fatisfied with only fuch things as are abfolutely neceffary to our prefervation renders our wants both fewer and cheaper. He who does not study the useful art of being eafy at a small expence will always be uneasy. You know what Socrates used to fay to Euthydemus, that the vo luptuous are of all men the moft fenfelefs: by immerfing themselves in delights they flatten the feelings of pleasure; they have not the fenfe to endure hunger and thirst, and withftand the first inticements of love, and the approaches of fleep; their foolish attention to prevent defire palls every enjoyment. Voluptuoufnefs fells its favours too dear; it requires too many hands, too much time, and too much labour in the com pofition pofition of its vapid happiness, that any fyftem of politics for making a voluptuous people happy muft neceffarily prove abortive. Scarce has voluptuoufnefs begun to enjoy than it is cloyed, and with disdainful caprice it rejects what a little before it had paffionately defired. Our fophifts, as ufual, are quite out in their argumentations on this head, it being the appointment of nature that our wants fhould be the fource of our pleasures; thofe gentlemen will have it that to multiply one would be increafing the other; but they did not consider that voluptuousnefs has neither the judgment nor liberality of nature. The latter with our wants has given us eafy ways to fatisfy every craving; whereas voluptuoufnefs, which tickles, heats, and ftimulates our fancy with hopes and visions, never gives what it promises; it vanishes from us when we think we grasp it, and, fo far from pleasure, leaves us difguft and laffitude. But among us the inconfiftency of fenfualifts is not the queftion; and though paffion, inftead of deceiving them, fhould fully make good its promifes, ftill, my dear Ariftias, is voluptuousness to be excluded from our republic. The conceit of purchafing pleasures with money ever makes it both covetous and profufe; and never were juftice, prudence, and courage feen blended with the vices which prompt to covetousness and prodigality. All the wealth of Perfia would not enrich Demades; nor Europe, Afia, and Africa, fuffice for all the cravings of three fuch voluptuaries as he; how then fhould truth, candour, and integrity be the foul of his difcourfe> Country, juftice, honour, every thing, will he make a fale of to any purchaser. This fenator, being troubled with a bad digeftion, would deliver up the state to him who fhould put into his hands an elixir for restoring the impaired tone of his ftomach; and is it to be expected that fuch a one shall make enquiry whether any citizen be in want of the neceffaries of life? Will you believe that magiftrates thirsting after money and exhaufted with pleasures are the propereft perfons to fuper intend the neceflities of fociety; that they will be vigilant and refolute watchmen, forefee, prevent, or repel any dangers with which the republic may be threatened? No fuch thing is to be dreamed of; it is what the republic itself no longer requires. When once the people's minds are infected by the fruition, or with the defire of fenfual pleafures, it will even like its magiftrates the better for their show and luxury. When once a delicacy in pleafure has annexed to plainness the scandal of poverty, the wants of the citizens become too many for them to be satisfied with their circumstances. Their depraved foul being pregnant with the thefts which their hands have not yet had an opportunity of committing, they will drive a trade with their privileges, and fell their vote to the best bidder. Office and dignity will be accounted only a means for growing more eafily rich by unpunished villanies. The great pofts civil and military will be fought for only with a view of making a fortune, to be fquandered away in parade and revelry. Then is all loft, and only the vain fhadow of a ftate remains. The laws are made a meer laughing-stock; paffions domineer, and were the people ftill capable of any spirit and daringness, the manners would be ferious and fanguinary. • Though on the heart's opening itself to every vice, fenfuality and luxury did not stifle in it the principle of prudence and juftice, though they affected only the body, the republic is no longer to expect from its foftened citizens thofe watchings, labours, and hardships, on which its fafety not feldom depends. Will our youth, fpent with debaucheries and fleeping deep funk in down, and thus called on to repel the fudden affault of an enemy who is scaling the walls, will such as these, think you, fhow any thing of the vigour and intrepidity of the old Athenians, who used to deep on the bare ground with their arms by them, and fcorned fenfual indulgencies? It is not to be thought, fince the love of pleasure has ftriken its roots in us. I have seen, yes, I have seen the very defcendants of the Marathon and Salamis heroes, moving towards the enemy with cowardly difpofitions in their looks. The contagious example of the wealthy has corrupted the very poor, though not partaking of their gratifications. Where is the Athenian who does not murmur at the hardships of war and the rigour of our difcipline, though fo fhamefully relaxed. Nature, throughout all Greece, is in a state of abjection; the present generation faints under those exercises which to our fathers were a fport; our arms weigh us down, and fuch is the pufillanimous degeneracy of cities through luxury, that we are grown afraid of thofe barbarians whom once it was fcarce accounted any glory to defeat.' The fourth Converfation is employed on the love of one's country, and of mankind; and on the virtues neceffary to a republic for preventing the dangers with which it may be threatened by the paffions of its neighbours. The fifth and last Conversation treats of the means which policy fhould make use of for reforming a commonwealth whose manners are corrupted; of the ufe which may be made of the paffions; of the different diftempers of states. Without any partiality for the celebrated antient, to whom the original of this publication is ascribed, it is a work of uncommon merit. It is not only a valuable commentary on the con |