and the Roman people were not ashamed to confer the command of their armies, and intrust the safety of the state to those illustrious husbandmen whoin they had taken from the plough, and obliged to quit the care of their lands, to assume that of the state.

[d] Scipio Africanus, after he had conquered Hannibal, broke up the ground himself, according to the custom of his predecessors, planted and grafted his trees, and did all country business. Every body knows how much the elder Cato, surnamed the Cen-. sor, applied himself to agriculture, about which he has even left behind him some directions. [e] Tully in his beautiful oration in favour of Roscius, is extremely severe against the accuser of his client, for departing from the manners of the ancients, and urging against Roscius his retirement into the country as an evident proof of his father's hatred for him; since by the same principle he might have reflected upon the honour and probity of Attilius, whom the Roman embassadors found actually in the field employed in sowing his lands. "Our ancestors, says he, had a 66 very different way of thinking; and by such a con"duct raised the republic from a weak and low con"dition, to so powerful and flourishing a state. They "carefully cultivated their own lands, without co"veting those of their neighbours, through mean and "insatiable avarice; and by that means enriched the "republic, and enlarged the Roman empire with such a number of lands, cities and nations."

[d] In hoc angulo ille Carthaginis horror Scipio, abluebat corpus laboribus rusticis fessum : exercebat enim opere se terramque (ut mos fuit priscis) ipse subigebat. Senec. epist. 86.

nem turpissimum atque inhonestissimum judicares. At hercule majores nostri longè aliter & de illo & de cæteris talibus viris existimabant. Itaque ex minimâ tenuissimâque republicâ maximam & flo rentissimam nobis reliquerunt. Suos enim agros studiosè colebant, non alienos cupidè appetebant: quibus rebus & agris, & urbibus, & nationibus, rempublicam, atque hoc imperium & populi R. nomen auxerunt. Cic. Orat. pro. S. Rosc. Amer. n. 50.

[e] Næ tu, Eruci, accusator esses ridiculus, si illis temporibus natus esses, cum ab aratro arcessebantur qui consules fierent. Etenim, qui præesse agro colendo flagitium putes, profectò illum Attilium, quem suâ manu spargentem semen, qui missi erant, convenerunt, homiE 2

But

But this love of labour and a country life did not only contribute to the conquests and grandeur of the Roman empire; it also served to support for so many ages those noble sentiments, that generosity and disinterestedness, which rendered the Roman name still more illustrious than all their most famous victories. For it must be owned, [f] there is a very near relation between this innocent country life, and wisdom, of which it is in a manner the sister; [g] it may justly be looked upon as an excellent school of simplicity, frugality, justice, and all the moral virtues.

Numa, brought up in this school, inspired not only his own subjects, but the neighbouring cities, with the same taste and sentiments, as Plutarch observes in the beautiful description he has left us of his reign. For the Romans were not the only people that were calmed and civilized by the justice and pacific disposition of this excellent king, but all the cities round about, in which, as if a gentle gale had breathed upon them from Rome, there might be discerned an admirable change of manners, and, instead of an eager passion for war, a fervent desire of living in peace, of cultivating their lands, of educating their children in tranquillity, and serving the gods in quiet. Nothing was to be seen throughout the country, but entertainments, diversions, sacrifices, festivals, and rejoicings at one another's houses, without any apprehension of umbrage, as if the wisdom of Numa had been a rich source, from whence virtue and justice had flowed into the minds of the different people, and diffused into their hearts the same tranquillity that reigned in his.

In short, during the whole reign of Numa there was not the least appearance of war, or disposition to revolt; and the ambition of reigning never led any person to conspire against him. But, whether the respect for his eminent virtue,

[f] Res rustica, sine dubitatione, proxima & quasi consanguinea sapientiæ est. Colum. de Re Rust. 1. 1.

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or the fear of the Deity

[g] Vita rustica parsimoniæ, diligentiæ, justitiæ magistra est. Orat. pro. Rosc. Amer, n. 75.

which

For

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 example of that great truth, which [h] Plato ventured to pronounce long since, when, speaking of government. 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. 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 hiin, and lead a happy and unblameable 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 inclination, 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 excellent rules he observed in his government, and the beautiful description that Plutarch gives of the wonderful effects of his reign, founded upon justice and the love of peace. This character is great, and almost 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.

[h] Lib. 5. de Rep.

[2] Atque ille quidem princeps ingenii & doctrinæ Plato, tum denique fore beatas respublicas putavit, si, aut docti & sapientes homines eas regere coepissent; aut, qui

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regerent, omne suum studium in doctrinâ & sapientiâ collocassent. Hanc conjunctionem videlicet potestatis & sapientiæ saluti censuit civitatibus esse posse. Cic. epist. 1. ad Quint. Fratr. 1. 1.

THE

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 religion, and a faithful perseverance in beginning every thing with it, and referring every thing to it. Romulus had already expressed a very high regard for religion, as Plutarch observes; but Numa carried it much farther, and applied himself to give it, more lustre and majesty. He prescribed the particular rules

of

of it, set down at large all its exercises and rites, added the utmost solemnity to its ceremonies, and made the festivals as agreeable and attractive as possible. By these new spectacles of religion, and this frequent commerce with things sacred, which seemed 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. [] 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,

66

[7] Δι' αὐτῆς τῆς κατὰ τὸν ὅρκον - πίσεως τηρῶσι τὸ καθῆκον. Polyb. lib. 6.

[] Deorum assidua insidens cura, cùm interesse rebus humanis cœleste Numen videretur, eâ pietate omnium pectora imbuerat, ut fides ac jusjurandum proximè legum ac pœnarum metum civitatem rege

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rent. Et cum ipsi se homines in regis, velut unici exempli, mores formarent: tum finitimi etiam popul”, qui antè, castra, non urbem positam in medio ad solicitandam omnium pacem crediderant, in eam verecundiam adducti sunt, ut civitatem totam in cultum versam Deorum violari ducerent nefas. Liv. 1. 1. n. 21.

"and