courage, and placed him at their head. He led them on with fo much spirit and good conduct, that he foon forced the enemy to retire, and recovered all the Spoil.

The Troglodytes ftrewed flowers in his way; and, to reward the fervice he had done them, prefented him with the moft beautiful of the virgins he had delivered from captivity. But, animated by his fortune, and unwilling to part with his command, he advised them to make thenfelves amends for the loffes they had fuftained, by carrying the war into the enemy's country; which, he faid, would not be able to refift their victorious arms. Defirous to punish thofe wicked men, they very gladly came into his propofal. But an old Troglodyte, ftanding up in the affembly, endeavoured to perfuade them to gentler councils. The goodness of God,' faid he, O my countrymen! has given us ftrength to repulfe our enemies, and they have paid very dearly for molesting us. What more do you defire from your victory than peace and fecurity to yourselves, repentance and 'fhame to your invaders? It is propofed to invade them in your turn, and you are told it will be easy to fubdue them. But to what end would you fubdue them, when they are no.

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longer in a condition to hurt you? Do you defire to tyrannize over them? Have a care that, in learning to be tyrants, you do not also learn to be 'flaves. If you know how to value liberty as you ought, you will not deprive others of it, who, though unjust, are men like yourselves, and thould not be oppreffed.'

This wife remonstrance was not heeded, in the temper the people was then in. The fight of the defolations that had been caufed by the late irruption, made them refolve on a violent revenge. Befides, they were now grown fond of war, and the young men efpecially were eager of a new occafion to fignalize their valour. Greater powers were therefore given to the general; and the event was anfwerable to his promifes, for in a fhort 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 preferibing any bounds to his authority. They were too innocent to suspect any abufe of fuch a generous truit; and thought that, when virtue was on the throne, the most abfolute government was the best.

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HE firft a&t of the new king was to difpofe of the conquered lands. One thare of them, by general confent, he allotted to himself, and the reft he divided among thofe who were companions of his victory. Diftinction of rank and inequality of condition were then firit introduced among the Troglodytes: fome grew rich, and immediately compariton made others poor. this fingle root fprung up a thoufand mifchiers; pride, envy, avarice, difcontent, deceit, and violence. Unheard-of diforders were committed; nor was any regard paid to the decifions of ancient cuftom, or the dictates of natural justice. Particulars could no longer be allowed to judge of right; it became neceflary to determine it by ftated laws. The whole

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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 oldelt and wifeft of his fubjects for aflittance. He had not yet fo forgot himself, by being feated on-a new-crected throne, as to imagine that hễ 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 those 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

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HE inftitution of laws among the Troglodytes was attended with 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 destroyed, by the foreign influence of human authority; and vice was not fhunned as a real evil, but grew to be thought a forbidden good.

One Troglodyte faid to himself- I have made advantage of the fimplicity 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 a 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 ensued; the laws, in their firit 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

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flow from this: the rules were too general and loofe; too much was left to the equity of the judge; and many particular cafes feemed to remain undetermined 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, whatloever might feem capable of any doubtful or different interpretations. While the matter was yet in deliberation, a wife old fenator fpoke thus.

You are endeavouring, O Troglodytes, 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 last 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 fantity attending them which com'mands obedience; but every variation, as it difcovers a weakness in them, fo it leffens the refpect by which alone they can be effectually maintained. 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 feience,, injustice will foon be made a trade.'

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the expence. But there was one particular, more ftrange than all the reft. It was very seldom that a man could read a word of the parchment by which he held his eftate; and they made their wills in a language which neither they nor their heirs could understand.

Such were the refinements of the Troglodytes, when they had quitted the fimplicity of nature; and fo bewildered were they in the labyrinth of their own laying out.

HE religion of the Troglodytes had been hitherto as fimple as their manners. They loved God as the author of their happiness; they feared him as the avenger of injuftice; and they fought to please him by doing good. But their morals being corrupted, their religion could not long continue pure: fuperftition found means to introduce itself, 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 erown to their veneration for the memory 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 verses to be folemnly recited in praise 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 proposed 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, especially as their own honour was concerned in raising 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

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country, very juftly entitled him to a fubordinate share of divinity.

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 power of his priests. A temple, faid thofe priefts," 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 plaufible enough, and the priests grew abfolute on the ftrength of it. They procured for themselves exceffive wealth, exemptions from all publick burdens, and almoft a total independence upon the civil authority. That the comparison between the temple and the court might hold the better, a great number of ceremonies were invented, and a magnificence of drefs was added to them as effential to holiness. The women came warmly into this, and were still 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, whose fuperftitious 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 picty 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

'N my laft letter I told thee how much

their notions, and in their manners, from their idolatry. By the arts of the priesthood, their corruption encreased every day: and virtue, instead of being af fifted, was overturned by religion itself. It was common for a Troglodyte to fay I will plunder my neighbour or the publick: for the anger of our God may be appeafed by an offering made out of the fpoil.'

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 confeffed to a priest, that he had defrauded his ward of an estate. • Give half of it to our order,' faid the confeffor, and we will freely endow you with the rest.'

But the mifchief did not ftop even here. From fanctifying trifles, they proceeded to quarrel about them: and the peace of the fociety was disturbed, to know which impertinence should be

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what was moft agreeable to their god; and declared it differently, as it happen ed that their paffions or interefts requir ed. But how flight foever the foundation was, a difpute of this nature never failed to be warmly carried on. body concerned himself about the morals of another; but every man's opinions were enquired into with the utmost rigour: and woe to thofe who held any that were disliked by the ruling party; for though neither fide could tell the reafon why they differed, the difference was never to be forgiven, An aged Troglodyte 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 affec tion. All the poor man got by this admonition was, to be called an atheist by all the contending fects; and, after fuffering a thoufand perfecutions, compelled to take refuge in another land.

priesthood among the Troglodytes, than was at first attended to, or forefeen. 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 stretch 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 man enjoyed his life and eftate by their grace, and at their difpofal. In confequence of thefe doc

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trines, his facred majesty did juft what he thought fit. He was of a martial genius, and had a ftrong ambition to enlarge his territories. To this end he raised 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 increafed 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 gloryof 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 perished, 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

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offered a peace to the Troglodytes, upon condition, that all fhould be rettored which had been taken from them in the former wars. That nation, humbled by their defeat, very willingly parted with their conquests to purchase their repofe.

TNDER 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 eafe and pleafure; yet bred up with high conceits of kingly power, and a royal disregard to his people's good. There was a mixture of bigotry in his difpofition, which gave the pricfts a great advantage over him; and as his predeceffor had governed by them, they now governed by him. The people, too, in imitation of their prince, foon contracted another character; they began to polish and soften all their manners. The young Troglodytes were fent to travel into Perfia; they came back with new dreffes, new refinements, new follies, and new vices. Like a plague imported from a foreign country, luxury fpread itself from these travellers over all the nation. A thousand wants were created every day, which nature neither fuggetted nor could fupply. A thoufand un

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eafineffes were felt, which were as unnatu ral as the pleafures that occafioned them. When the minds of the Troglodytes were thus relaxed, their bodies became weak. They now complained that the funmer was too hot, and the winter too cold. They loft the use of their limbs, and were carried about on the shoulders of their flaves. The women brought their children with more pain, and even thought themselves too delicate to nurfe them: they loft their beauty much fooner than before, and vainly itrove to repair it by the help of art. Then first phyficians were called in from foreign lands, to contend with a variety of new distempers, which intemperance produ ced: they caine; and the only advantage was, that thofe who had learned to live at a great expence, now found the fecret of dying at a greater.

Such was the condition of the Troglodytes, when, by the benefit of a lasting peace, they tafted the fweets of plenty, and grew polite.

HE ancient Troglodytes were too buty in the duties and cares of fociety, to employ much of their thoughts in fpeculatin. 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 subject to in their rene and temperate life.

At their leisure they amufed themselves with mufick and poetry, and fung the

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praifes of the Divine Being, the beauties of nature, the virtues of their country. men, and their own loves. They fhewed a wonderful force of imagination in great number of fables which they invented, under most of which was concealed fome moral fentiment; but for history, they contented themselves with fome thort accounts of publick tran actions, drawn from the memory of the oldeft men among them, and writte without any art; having no party dif putes, no feditions, no plots, no in

trigues