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Minos, who, by Plato's account, had committed his laws to writing; without fpeaking of a law of Thefeus, writ on a column of stone, which remained even to the time of Demofthenes; it is certain, that Solon caused his laws to be written; and Solon is prior by almost a century to Zaleucus, legiflator of the Locrians. Yet I do not be lieve, that, at the time we are now fpeaking of, any people of Greece, except the Cretans, had a body of laws com piled and reduced to writing.

ARTICLE IX.

Of the laws of Crete.

I Had at first resolved not to speak of the Cretans. These islanders never joined with the other people of Greece; fixed in their ifle, they scarce ever took part in the general affairs, and were not influenced by any event which did interest all the Greeks. Yet we ought to look upon the Cretans, as making a part of the Greek nation, fince they fpoke the fame language . Befides, the laws of Crete of themselves merit our attention; they were a model for thofe which Lycurgus afterwards gave to the Lacedæmohians. It is therefore proper to speak of them, that we may remark the conformity there was between the laws of Crete and thofe of Sparta.

Of all the people of Greece, the Cretans were looked upon as the first who had written laws. They were the work of Minos the Firft . The high reputation of thefe laws, made this prince be ranked with the greatest legiflators of antiquity.

The laws of Minos were founded on two principal mo

"In Minoe, p. 568. E.

y See part 3. book 1. c 3. art. 1.

* In Neaeram, p. 873. C. .

2 Except in the war of Troy, they feem never to have concerned them felves in the affairs of Greece. See Herod. 1. 7. n. 167. & 170. 171.

a That was the Doric dialect.

Plat. in Min. p. 568. E.; Solinus, c. 11. p. 29.; Ifidor. orig. 1. 14. c. 6,
See mem. de l'academ. des infcript. t. 3. mem. p. 49.

tives, to form his fubjects for war, and to promote an union' of hearts. If Minos fucceeded in the firft of thefe objects, we shall fee, that, with regard to the fecond, the event did not answer, his expectations. With a view to establish a perfect union among his fubjects, Minos laboured to make the most exact equality among them. For this purpose he ordained, that all the children fhould be fed and brought up together. Their life was auftere and fober. They were accustomed to be content with a little, to bear heat, cold, and to march over rugged and steep places. They were always clothed like foldiers, in a plain cloth, the fame in winter as in fummer. They were accustomed to have little combats with each other, to bear courageoutly the strokes they received; and, to conclude, says Strabo, even to their very diverfions, all favoured of war, they even danced with arms in their hands.

To unite their minds ftill more, and to bind them more intimately, Minos would have all the citizens eat together at the fame tables. They were fed at the expense of the ftate it was paid out of the public treasury. The young men eat on the ground, and waited on each other. They likewife waited on the men ". As in the army, the foldiers are obliged to eat all together, the intention of Minos, in establishing these public repafts, was to form his fubjects in their infancy to military difcipline. This is the only good that could fpring from this cuftom. The inftitution of public meals did not fucceed to maintain union and concord among the Cretans; we know that they were continually at war with each other. They never agreed, but when they went to beat off a common enemy *. I

a Strabo, 1. 10. p. 735. &c.

• Ibid. This dance was greatly celebrated in antiquity under the name of Pyrrhic.

f Arift. polit. 1. 7. c. 10.; • Arift. ibid. and 1. 2. c. 10. Strabo, p. 739.

Strabo, 1. 10. p. 736.

p. 332. E.; Strabo, 1. 10. p. 736.
i Arift. polit. 1. 2. c. 10. p. 333.

* Plut. t. 2. p. 490. B. It was from this conduct of the Cretans, according to Plutarch, that the proverbial expreffion came, fo well known in Greece, to fyncretife. They have fince called fyncretistes, those who undertook to reconcile the different fects. This word is often used by divines, but aways in a bad fenfe.

make

make not the leaft hesitation to afcribe these inteftine divifions of the Cretans to the diftinction of profeffions, which had place in Crete as well as in Egypt1.

We cannot fufficiently praise the attention Minos had with refpect to magiftrates and aged perfons. He not only required that they should have for them the respect and regard which were their due; but further, left they should fail, he forbade, in cafe they fhould remark any defects in them, to take notice of them before the young men ". He also used all the precautions which human prudence could suggest, to infpire the youth with the greatest refpect and attachment for the maxims and customs of the state. The youth were not allowed to call in doubt, nor even to put in difpute the wifdom or utility of the rules by which they were inftructed. This was what Plato found moft admirable in the laws of Minos ".

In order to infpire the Cretans with a most profound veneration for his ordinances, Minos often retired into a cave, where he boasted of having familiar conversations with Jupiter. But indeed he was neither the firft, nor the only one of the ancient legiflators, who thought they ought to be authorised by fome divinity to make their laws be respected. Mneves, one of the moft renowned and most ancient legiflators of Egypt, attributed his to Hermes, otherwife called Mercury ». Lycurgus took care to avail himself of the fuffrage of Apollo, before he began the reformation of Sparta. Zaleucus, legiflator of the Locrians, faid he was inspired by Minerva. Zathrauftes, among the Arimafpes, declared that he had his ordinances from a genius adored by these people . Zamolxis boasted to the Getes his intimate communications with the goddess Vefta. Numa amufed the Romans with his conversations with the nymph 2 Arift. polit. 1.7. c. 10. See upon this article part 3. book. 1. c. 2.

Plato de leg. 1. 1. p. 775.

n Ibid.

• Hom. Odyff 1. 19. v. 179.; Plato in Minoe, p. 568.; Horat. carm. 1. 1. od. 28.; Diod. 1. 1. p. 105.; Strabo, l. 16. p. 1105.; Val. Max. I. 1. c. 2. p. 37. ; Plut. in Numa, p. 62. D.

P Diod. 1. 1. p. 105.

• Ibid. loco cit.; Strabo, 1. 16. p. 1105.; Plut. f. 2. p. 543. A.; Val. Max. 1. 1. c. 2. p. 38.

Diod. 1. 1. p. 105.; Val. Max. 1. 1. c 2. p. 38.; Plut. in Numa, p. 62. D.

Diod. loco cit.

VOL. II.

Ibid.; Strabo, 1. 16. p. 1106.

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Egeria. We might quote many more examples. Thefe facts, just to mention them, invincibly demonftrate that the primordial tradition of the exiftence of God was never loft, fince, in all the known world, this belief was established time immemorial, and that fo deeply, that the first legislators would avail themselves of it, to give to their laws a reputation more than human *.

The grand defect of Minos, in his political inftitutions, a defect into which Lycurgus fell after him, was not to have regarded any thing but war. This was the only end which the Cretan legiflator feems to have proposed ». We have feen that it was folely by this motive that he was di rected in the education of the youth. By a consequence of the fame motive, the Cretans did not cultivate their lands themselves. Slaves known in antiquity by the name of Pe riccians, were charged with this bufinefs. They were ob liged every year to pay a certain fum to their mafters, from which were firft levied the fums neceffary for the exigences of the ftafe •.

If the laws of Minos were good to make the Cretans excellent foldiers, they do not appear to have been equally proper to regulate their manners and their fentiments. Each citizen was obliged to marry but with what aftonishment fhall we not look on a legiflator who could approve of a means fo infamous as that which the Cretans made ufe of, left they fhould have too many children? Whether in Crete the fertility or extent of the lands did not answer to the number of inhabitants, or that their bodies were more robuft, or the women were more fruitful, Minos authorised, by his laws, a paffion which nature difavows, and permitted an excefs which modesty never mentions but with horror <.

" Plut. in Numa. p. 62. D.; Dion. Halic. 1. 2. p. 122.; Val. Max. 1. 1. c. 2. See Diod. I. 1. p. 105.; Strabo, 1. 16. p. í 105. 1106.; Plut. in Numma, p. 62.; Dion. Halicarn, 1. 2. p. 122. and the tract of opinion, t. 4. p. 513.

y Plato, de leg. l. 1. p. 769. &c.

z Arift. polit. 1. 2. c. 1o.; Strabo, 1. 12. p. 817.; Plut. in Lacon. p. 239. ; Athen. 1 6. p. 263. & 264.

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Arift. 1. 2.c. 10. p. 333. ;' Strabo, 1. 10. p. 739. & 740. Athen.l. 13. p. 672.; See alfo the manner in which they punished adultery in Crete. Elian var. hift. 1·12.6.12

BOOK

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I

Of Arts and Manufactures.

Have endeavoured in the first part of this work to give

an idea of the origin and difcovery of the arts, I fhould have liked to have been able to have followed them from age to age, and fixed the degree of perfection, to which they were carried in each century. The deficiency of monuments has not permitted me to execute this project. We fee only through the obfcurity which furrounds the hiftory of the people of Afia and that of the Egyptians, that these people knew very early many arts, and that their first progrefs was very rapid. We really find, a few ages after the deluge, the Egyptians, and fome countries of Afia, in poffeffion of many of the fciences which are the portion of policed people. The relation which I am going to make of the works executed by thefe nations, in the times which at prefent fix our attention, will be fufficient to convince us.

With refpect to the Greeks, their knowledge in the arts was then very different from those of the people of Afia and the Egyptians. They were only, at the time we fpeak of at prefent, in their firft elements. Greece languished many ages in ignorance and barbarity.

I

SECTION I.

Of the State of Arts in Afia and Egypt.

Have thought fit to put in one and the fame fection, what I have to fay in this fecond part of the state of arts in Afia and Egypt. The people of thefe countries feem to have advanced almoft equally in the career of human knowledge. Their taite appears to have been almost the fame; I will not therefore make feparate articles for Afia and Egypt.

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