towns reduced to ashes, fovereigns exposed to the most humbling indignities, no respect paid to age nor to fex. The young Adraftus (a), thrown from his car, and lying in the duft, obtained quarter from Menelaus. Agamemnon upbraided his brother for lenity: "Let none from de"ftruction escape, not even the lifping "infant in the mother's arms: all her "fons muft with Ilium fall, and on her "ruins unburied remain." He pierced the fupplicant with his spear; and setting his foot on the body, pulled it out. Hector, having ftripped Patroclus of his arms, drags the flain along, vowing to lop the head from the trunk, and to give the mangled corse a prey to the dogs of Troy. And the feventeenth book of the Iliad is wholly employed in defcribing the conteft about the body between the Greeks and Trojans. Befide the brutality of preventing the last duties from being performed to a deceased friend, it is a low scene, unworthy of heroes. It was equally bruta in Achilles to drag the corse of Hector to the fhips tied to his car. In a fcene be tween Hector and Andromache (a), the treatment of vanquished enemies is pathetically described; fovereigns maffacred, and their bodies left a prey to dogs and vultures; fucking infants dashed against the pavement; ladies of the first rank forced to perform the lowest acts of flavery. Hector doth not diffemble, that if Troy should be conquered, his poor wife would be condemned to draw water like the vilest flave. Hecuba, in Euripides, laments that she was chained like a dog at Agamemnon's gate; and the fame favage manners are described in many other Greek tragedies. Prometheus makes free with the heavenly fire, in order to give life to man. As a punishment for bringing rational creatures into existence, the gods decree, that he be chained to a rock, and abandoned to birds of prey. Vulcan is introduced by Efchylus rattling the chain, nailing one end to a rock, and the other to the breaft-bone of the criminal. Who but an American favage can at prefent behold fuch a fpectacle and not be fhocked? A fcene representing a woman murdered by her children would be hiffed (a) Iliad, book 6. by by every modern audience; and yet that horrid fcene was reprefented with applause in the Electra of Sophocles. Stobaeus reports a faying of Menander, that even the gods cannot infpire a foldier with civility: no wonder that the Greek foldiers were brutes and barbarians, when war was waged, not only against the state, but against every individual. At prefent, humanity prevails among foldiers as among others; because we make war only against a state, not against individuals. The Greeks are the less excufable for their cruelty, as they appear to have been fenfible that humanity is a cardinal virtue. Barbarians are always painted by Homer as cruel; polished nations as tender and compaffionate: "Ye Gods! (he cried) upon what barren coaft, ODYSSEY, book 13. 241. Cruelty is inconfiftent with true heroifm; and, accordingly, very little of the latter is difcoverable in any of Homer's warriors. So much did they retain of the favage character, as, even without blushing, to fly from an enemy fuperior in bo dily ftrength. Diomedes, who makes an illuftrious figure in the fifth book of the Iliad, retires when Hector appears: "" Di"omedes beheld the chief, and shuddered to his inmoft foul." Antilochus, fon of Neftor, having flain Melanippus (a), rushed forward, eager to feize his bright arms. But feeing Hector, he fled like a beast of prey who fhuns the gathering hinds. And the great Hector himself fhamefully turns his back upon the near approach of Achilles : Periphetes, endowed with every virtue, renowned in the race, great in in prudence excelling his fellows, gave glory to Hector, covering the chief "with renown." One would expect a fierce combat between these two bold warriors. Not fo, Periphetes ftumbling, fell to the ground; and Hector was not afhamed to transfix with his fpear the unrefifting hero. war, In the fame tone of character, nothing is more common among Homer's warriors than to infult a vanquished foe. Patroclus, having beat Cebriones to the ground with a huge ftone, derides his fall in the following words: (a) Book 15. VOL. I. " Good Y Y "Good heav'ns! what active feats yon artift fhows, "What skilful divers are our Phrygian foes! "Mark with what eafe they fink into the fand. "Pity that all their practice is by land." The Greeks are reprefented (a) one after another ftabbing the dead body of Hector: "Nor stood an Argive near the chief who inflicted not a wound. Surely now, said ' they, more eafy of accefs is Hector, than "when he launched on the fhips brands "of devouring fire." When fuch were the manners of warriors at the fiege of Troy, it is no surprise to find the heroes on both fides no lefs intent on ftripping the flain than on victory. They are every where reprefented as greedy of spoil. The Jews did not yield to the Greeks in cruelty. It is unneceffary to give inftances, as the hiftorical books of the Old Teftament are in the hands of every one. I fhall felect one inftance for a fpecimen, dreadfully cruel without any juft provocation: "And David gathered all the people แ together, and went to Rabbah, and "fought against it, and took it. And he (a) Book 22. "brought |