future women should not be admitted into the assemblies of the people, and that no child should henceforward be permitted to bear the name of the mother but that of the father. That a prince of the name of Cecrops may have arrived at great power and respect among the Athenians, and that he may have framed different regulations respecting institutions both political and civil, there can be no reason for calling in question; but that by his authority the influence of the female sex was at once subverted, and the union of the sexes, which, prior to his time, is said to have been promiscuous and irregular, was at once rendered the conjugal union of one male and one female, are relations of important facts not consistent with the influence of inveterate habits and usages, which are to be abolished, not by the sudden dictates of stern authority, but by a gradual alteration of opinions and manners, which take place among a people from a change of external circumstances, to which they find it agreeable to convenience, prudence, and wisdom, to bend and accommodate themselves. For this change, then, the Athenian people were, in the time of Cecrops, prepared by the circumstances of their situation in society.

"Before Cecrops, if we may believe traditions very generally received in the polished ages, "the people of Attica were, in knowledge and "civilization, below the wildest savages disco"vered in modern times. The most necessary

"arts, and the most indispensable regulations of

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society, were unknown to them. Marriage was "introduced by Cecrops; the culture of corn is "said to have been of later date. But the colo"nies from Egypt, Phoenicia, and Thrace, quickly made the Atticans a new people. At a pe"riod far beyond connected history, we find all "the principal oriental tenets and maxims of society firmly established among them. Mar"riage was a high honour; virginity respectable; infidelity in a wife deeply disgraceful; polygamy unknown, but concubinage for a hus"band as lawful as it was common; bastardy no "stain upon children; divorces little heard of."*

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Whether Cecrops was a native Greek or an Egyptian, is an unsettled point among the learned. We learn from the respectable testimonies of Herodotus and Thucydides, that the Athenians were very early a mixed people. The belief of Gods and the practice of religious ceremonies, were, in the time of Herodotus, so similar both in Egypt and in Greece, that early emigrations of Egyptian colonies into Greece could not be entertained as a matter of doubt by the venerable historians of that country. We learn from them, that Attica was that province of Greece in which the earliest progress was made towards civilization. The situation of Attica was rendered strong by nature; its form was nearly penin

* MITFORD'S History of Greece, ch. i. sect. 3.

*

sular: The security which the natives derived from the natural barriers which it presented against invasion, drew towards it a conflux of inhabitants from other parts of Greece. This state of superior population required industry to support it. The soil being barren and rocky, rendered laborious exertion more necessary; and consequently regulations respecting the security of exclusive property must have taken place very early in that Athenian province of Greece; and marriage, which is an institution strictly connected with exclusive property, must have been very early subjected to definite rules regulating the conduct and ascertaining the condition of the sexes. At what period of time Egyptian or Phoenician colonies first visited Greece, and mixed with the ancient inhabitants, is a fact with regard to which historical record affords no satisfaction. We cannot, however, admit, that before the arrival of such colonies the more ancient inhabitants were inferior in knowledge and civilization to the wildest savages discovered in modern times; on the contrary, we are of opinion, that a portion of the more ancient inhabitants migrated westward in the pastoral state of society, and therefore were acquainted with the usages known commonly to prevail among mankind in that progressive stage of social existence. Among such, the institution

*THUCYD. 1. i. c. 2.

of marriage is found to prevail under different modifications, according to the circumstances of their condition. The union of the sexes may be said to be either an object of mere passion, or of simple convenience, or of passion and convenience united: When it comes to be established as an institution, it is subjected to rules, and receives a name different from the mere congress of irregular passion. This name proves the establishment of a connexion of a more permanent nature, which is calculated to procure the gratification of convenience and passion united. The agri

cultural mode of life seems best adapted to connect most closely parents and children. The children are continually affording aid, and contributing to the support of the family; the interests of parents and children are linked together; attachments gather strength by mutuality of good offices. How far the more ancient inhabitants of Attica were advanced in agricultural knowledge, we will not pretend to offer any conjecture; that, however, they were, before the days of Cecrops, acquainted with the institution of marriage, the Gaelic and Greek languages furnish what we deem satisfactory evidence. The Greek language expresses a married man or husband by two words, γαμετης and ποςις. The first is not Gaelic, and may be supposed to be the word introduced by the Egyptian or Phoenician colonies who mixed with the ancient inhabitants; the other is Gaelic: Pos is to marry; posam, I

marry; posadh, marriage; and posda is married. It is curious to observe, that neither the Latins, the Welsh, nor the Armoricans, have preserved that most ancient word for marriage; it is known only among the Gael of Scotland and Ireland, who never had any communication with the Greeks who might have visited the island of Albion or Britain. Пs in Greek signifies a male or female child; so does paisd in Gaelic bear the same signification.

ROTA. CUNEUS.

THAT all those mechanical arts which are considered among a refined people to be necessary towards rendering life in a tolerable degree comfortable, were known to the Gael, and practised by them in any high degree of perfection before the Romans became acquainted with them in the island of Britain, we will not take upon us to affirm. That, however, they had acquired a considerable degree of knowledge of the most necessary and useful mechanical arts, while they were as yet the only inhabitants of that country which in after times became so illustrious in the annals of history, we think may be admitted, without being subject to the charge of forming a rash