Philofophical Differtations on the Greeks. Tranflated from the French of M. de Pauw. 2 Vols. 8vo.

Faulder. 1793.

125. Boards.

M. De Pauw's Ellays on the Americans, the Egyptians,

and the Greeks, are well known. We have often met this author in our progrefs, and have found him lively but inaccurate; pleasant but fanciful; more calculated to entertain than inftruct. The prefent work, when firft published in 1787, fell into our hands; but it seemed neither fufficiently interesting nor important to claim our attention, while urged, within our contracted limits, to notice various, truly valuable works. The period of the original publication, and the cha‐ racter of the author, will not even at this time allow of any very extenfive detail.-Yet the prefent is the best of M. de Pauw's labours; lefs deformed by his fancies, lefs warped by fystem, lefs delufive from admiration or diflike. The picture of Greece is by no means flattering: it is homely, but a faithful likeness, and the author fees often with clearness through the fplendid rays, with which antiquarian fuperftition has illuminated the hiftory of Greece.-The tranflation we can fay, is executed with great fidelity, and even with that polished elegance beft adapted to the subject, which requires not ad ventitious ornament, but admits not of negligence or hate. As we cannot with propriety at this time examine the work at length, we fhall select fuch extracts as will give the best idea of the Greeks according to M. Pauw's reprefentation.

The country of which we have received fuch flattering accounts in different works, deserved not always great commen dation.

However fubje&t the generality of Greece may have been to fhocks of earthquakes, yet during upwards of two thousand years they have produced no vifible alteration in the form of Attica: its figure is ftill that of a triangle with two fides bordered by the fea, and a base united with the continent.

This fpace did not exceed two hundred and fifty fquare miles; and confifted entirely of rugged mountains, interfected by profound vallies, where the rivers formed cascades, or rolled along with fuch rapidity that they could not be navigated. Their waters, always troubled, were tinged with various fubftances leaft capable of refifting the violence of their courfes, and many of them swelled by the fudden thaw of fnow defcended in torrents from the cliffs at the re turn of fpring; but diminifling with the caufe, were fcarcely to be traced during the heat of fummer.'

The fouthern part of Attica moft evidently difcovers the confequences of fuch a revolution; and its actual ftate is perfectly con

formable

formable with the observations communicated by Plato. The whole coaft prefents only one group of projecting rocks; and their prodigious mafs has been capable of refifting thofe billows, which still, during the tempefts, break against them with a hoarfe and dreadful noife; while all the promontory of Sunium whitens with the foam of an irritated ocean. Nothing is feen around but those vaft beds of fand and gravel, called by the Athenians the Phellean plains, and deftined to eternal fterility.

This country prefented itself to navigators under an afpect equally hideous and melancholy; but towards the north of Attica the foil became infinitely richer in vegetation, better clothed with verdure, and particularly adapted for the vine and the olive. Even the fummits of the most elevated mountains, fuch as Parnes and Brileffus, were crowned with ever-green oaks, with cypreffes, and particularly with thofe pyramidal firs, which ftill embellish the landfcapes on the higher parts of Greece. But as the Athenians from time immemorial had poffeffed both filver and copper mines, that branch of industry, carried to excefs, confumed fo much fuel, that' they were compelled, for the conftruction of their fleets, to depend on the forefts of Thrace and Macedonia. An excessive scarcity of wood was afterwards experienced there; and a fimilar calamity awaits every nation at once engaged, like the Athenians, in refining metals, and in navigation.

As Attica abounded in faline fources and bitter plants, it was more favourable for rearing goats than any other domestic animals. At one time, indeed, the fourth part of the inhabitants existed solely by their flocks; and, in the days of Solon, they were more numer ous than labourers. Agriculture did not at firft extend beyond those vallies which were well watered; but industry afterwards, excited by neceffity, converted the very fides of the mountains into plantations and gardens. Bulwarks of mafonry were constructed there to preferve the foil from the ravages of the torrents; and the activity of vegetation was promoted by frequent artificial fhowers. This painful kind of labour gave occupation to multitudes of mercenaries, as well as flaves; and it was in this manner that Cleanthes earned his bread with more greatnefs and dignity than Diogenes, who begged, or Ariftippus, who feafted with tyrants.

The foil of Attica, from its light and porous nature, abforbed the humidity, and had not confiftence enough to produce any kind of grain in plenty, except barley. On this account, the Athenians were under the conftant neceffity of purchasing their food from ftrangers, and often at the hands of their very enemies.'

It was not in Athens that the luxury and the taste of the Athenians was difplayed. A democratic government destroys, every mark of fuperiority; and, even at Rome, the palace of Auguftus was the houfe only of the fenator Hortenfius.

On entering the city, fays Dicearchus, no perfon would imagine himself at Athens: the streets, he adds, are strikingly irregular, the town is generally badly provided with water; and although fome houses appear more convenient than others, yet all of them are wretched. Only, when arrived at the theatre, continues he, and on discovering the grand temple of Minerva, that incertitude begins to vanish, which was produced by the exceffive disproportion between the real state of things, and the fplendour of their reputa

sion.

• The enlightened and impartial Greek, who makes this acknowledgement, was the disciple of Ariftotle, and wrote fome years after the death of Alexander. His teftimony should remove therefore the prejudices of those pretenders to learning, who still imagine ferioufly, that no town in the universe ever equalled Athens in beauty.

It has been already remarked, that the conftitution of a popular government oppofed invincible obftacles to the pomp of the Athenians, by preventing them from raifing palaces in the capital. During the profperous days of the republic, fays Demofthenes, the houfes of Themiftocles, and Ariftides, undiftinguished by the fmalleft appearance of fuperiority, bore a perfect refemblance to thofe of their neighbours.

• The nobility of Attica conceived naturally an averfion to inhabit fuch a city; and chofe to domineer in fome folitary spot, or in the smallest village, rather than be confounded with what they called an imperious populace, whofe glory confifted in repreffing all other pride but its own.'

As to the real extent of Athens, it is certain that the ramparts, fixty ftadia, or nearly seven miles in circumference, exceeded much what would have been neceffary, had the nation, in time of war, poffeffed any other place of refuge. On fuch diftreffing occafions, inhabitants from the country, who had no dwellings, conftructed in the openeft places a number of huts, refembling in figure the hives of bees. Ariftophanes, who had feen thefe miferable fheds during the Peloponnefian war, compares them to thofe earthen urns, called cafks, which were in ufe among the Greeks. All thefe circumstances took place previous to the days of Diogenes the cynic, whofe hiftory, written without judgment, has been read without reflection.

• Exclufive of thofe dwellings, erected for the moment, all the houfes in Athens did not exceed ten thousand; and thus the total number of inhabitants may be determined at fifty thoufand, including both flaves and ftrangers. It would be abfurd to imagine a more numerous population, where the dimenfions of the buildings were fo inconfiderable, and their value in general fo trifling, that the fmalleft lodging in any of the great towns of Europe could not be purchased on the fame terms, In perufing the Greek orators, who

had

had fuch frequent opportunities of appraifing eftates and inheritances, it appears that the value of a houfe in Athens was generally about half an attic talent, or ninety pounds flerling. Numbers of them however could not be fold even for that fum, as may be judged from what Dicearchus has recorded of their mean appearance.'

• No kind of public edifices were more common at this port, than thofe galleries furrounded with colonnades, called in their lan-guage Stoa, and named by us Porticos. Never did the imagination of ancient architects fuggeft any form more pleating to the eyes of the Greeks, who often lavished the most expensive decorations on thofe favourite buildings, which were deftined to various purposes. There the Athenians walked, difplayed their merchandiz, kept schools, recited verfes, and adminiftered juftice. This paffion for porticos prevailed even in the fmalleft towns, and became more ruinous, as fuch gratifications did not admit of a previous calculation; for no architect could determine the exact value of rare productions, either in painting or fculpture.

It is now univerfally allowed, that the beautiful effect of these colonnades must have been greatly diminished by the shade of fo many trees planted by the Greeks in the very centre of their towns. From this defire of preferving at least the image of a country life, Athens was encumbered with plane-trees; and the fhade of the olive concealed the monuments of Megara from the view of travellers. At Chalcis in Eubea, this extravagance prevailed fo far, that every winding was lined by a foreft, which fpread itfelf over the public places, and involved the streets in continual darkness.

It is now an eafy matter, even for the illiterate reader, to form a very accurate idea of the interior of a Greek town, where four things were indifpenfable, a theatre, a temple, a portico, and a The houses of the inhabitants, barely large enough for grove. helter, appeared to be only an acceffary part; and the fcarcity of fuel in Greece would not admit of communicating a neceflary degree of heat to fpacious apartments.'

-The internal parts of the houfes did not difplay more luxury than the external. Few houfes were furnished at a greater expence than 1000 drachmæ, about thirty pounds fterling. It is a remark of fome ingenuity, though not wholly new, that the riches of Greece were not greatly augmented by the spoils of the Perfians, for thefe were depofited in the temples, but by the commerce with Tyre, which after the decline of the Per fian power was opened exclufively to the Grecians, until, in works of ingenuity, they excelled their former competitors. But the country feats were the fcenes of the Grecian fplendour, where, fecluded from the citizens, who boafted of their equality, the higher claffes could enjoy every luxury, which

art

art or commerce could furnish. Luxuries, which conftantly extended their power, and at laft impoverished the nation. The latter part of the first volume, on the commerce and finances of the Athenians, is particularly valuable.

As we have stated in our former quotations, fome parts in which M. de Pauw feemed to excell, we fhall alfo notice a few of his mistakes, his fuperficial views, his fancies, and his prejudices. One of thefe is attributing the force of the vocal fibres of the inhabitants of Arcadia, to the humidity of the foil which produced the reeds; one of the idleft fancies that ever mifled a philofopher; and a fuppofition fo improbable, that even Montefquieu, the great defender of a fimilar fyftem, would have blushed at it. This, though the most glaring, is not the only error of this kind.

The private reader of the infamous Frederick, may be fufpected of no great partiality for any religious fyftem. M. Pauw fuffers, however, his prejudices to be too confpicuous, and his obfervations, on the religion of Greece, are too puerile to deferve refutation. To fuppofe the oracle at Dodona, to have arifen from the efculent acorn, is a fancy which would have degraded a much meaner author.

One of the most learned critics of this century, who has endeavoured to trace the origin of the Greeks, fuppofes that they once inhabited the region between the Cafpian and Black Sea, in defcending from the prodigious heights of Afia. Thefe emigrants advanced afterwards to the weft, and fixed themfelves first in Chaonia and Thefprotia, around the mount Tmarus, fince famous for the oracle of Dodona. In thofe parts the different hords, deftitute of all ideas relative to arts or agriculture, were forced to depend for fubfiftence on the chace, or on the produce of the oak and beech. The fpecies of acorn, which Virgil, by way of excellence, calls glandem chaoniam, ftill expofed for fale among the fruits and pot-herbs of the Spanish markets. In Pliny's time, it was introduced at the deferts of the Spaniards, who are now the only glandivorous nation in Europe.

This explains clearly the religious refpe&t profeffed by the ancient Greeks for certain trees, to them really prophetic in all the force of the term. When their branches were thinly garnished with fruits, it was eafy to predict an unfortunate winter, and a long famine with all its concomitant miferics, where no refources could be drawn from agriculture. Even alimentary feeds could not always have been procured for the purpofes of tillage; and it is probable that gonts were not then domefticated, any more than the indigenous buffaloes of Thefprotia, Macedonia, Theffaly, and fome other countries of Greece.

• The reafon, why the oracle of Dodona originated from a veneration for the oak and beech, can no longer appear problematical in C. R. N. ARR. (XI.) May, 1794.

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