"their hands, either in the public administration or "in foreign legations, from the least violation of * their trust, or honour. And whereas, in other places, it is rare to find a man, who can keep his "hands clean, or forbear plundering his Country; "in Rome it is as rare to take any one offending in " this kind. That every thing which exists is subject to mutation and decay, we need not be told; "the unalterable nature of things sufficiently informs

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us of this truth. But there being two ways,

whereby every kind of Policy is ruined and dis“ solved ; the one from WITHOUT, and the other * from WITHIN ; that destruction, which cometh "from without, cannot be constantly avoided by any “ human provision : but then, there are known and "efficacious remedies for those evils which arise from within *.

Polybius

* Μεγίσην δὲ μοι δοκεῖ διαφορὰν ἔχειν τὸ Ῥωμαίων πολίτευμα πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον, ἐν τῇ περὶ θεῶν διαλήψει, Καί μοι δοκεῖ τὸ παρὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις ὀνειδιζόμενον, τᾶτο συνέχειν τὰ Ῥωμαίων πράγματα· λέγω δὲ τὴν δεισιδαιμονίαν· ἐπὶ τοσᾶτον γὰρ ἐκεῖραγώδηκαι καὶ παρεισῆκαι τέτο το μέρος παρ' αὐτοῖς εἴς τε τὲς κατ' ἰδίαν βίες καὶ τὰ κοινὰ τῆς πόλεως, ὥσε μὴ καταλιπεῖν ὑπερβολήν· ὃ καὶ δόξειεν ἂν πολλοῖς εἶναι θαυμάσιον· ἐμοί γε μὴν δοκᾶσι το πλήθος χάριν τέτο πεποιηκέναι. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἦν σοφῶν ἀνδρῶν πολίτευμα συνα γαγεῖν, ἴσως ἐδὲν ἦν ἀναγκαῖς ὁ τοῦτ© τρόπ©· ἐπεὶ δὲ πᾶν πλῆθος ἔτι ἐλαφρὰν καὶ πλῆρες ἐπιθυμιῶν παρανόμων, ὀργῆς ἀλόγε, θυμε βιαίς, λείπειαι τοῖς ἀδήλοις φόβοις, καὶ τῇ τοιαύτῃ τραγωδίᾳ τὰ πλήθη συνέχειν. Διόπερ οι παλαιοί δοκεσί μοι τὰς περὶ θεῶν ευνοίας, καὶ τὰς περὶ τῶν ἐν ᾅδε διαλήψεις ἐκ εἰκῇ καὶ ὡς ἔτυχεν εἰς

Polybius says literally, There are two ways by which a State is brought to dissolution, from without and from within: that from without is uncertain and little known; that from within is known and certain. By which words he must mean what I make him to say, as appears by what he immediately subjoins, where he shews how the power of the Great, when degenerated into tyranny, may be checked by the People: whose opposition to power produces, as it happens to be well or ill managed, either the best or worst form of government, a Democracy or Ochlocracy.

This long passage deserves our attention, and for many reasons. Polybius was a Greek, and, as all good men are, a tender lover of his Country, whose

ancient

τὰ πλήθη παρεισαγαγεῖν· πολὺ δὲ μᾶλλον οἱ νῦν εἰκῆ καὶ ἀλόγως ἐκβάλλειν αὐτά. Τοιγαρέν χωρὶς τῶν ἄλλων, οἱ τὰ κοινὰ χειρίζοντες, παρὰ μὲν τοῖς "Ελλησιν, ἐὰν τάλαντον μόνον πιςευθῶσιν, ἀντιγραφεῖς ἔχονίες δέκα, καὶ σφραγίδας, τοσαύτας, καὶ μάρτυρας διπλασίες, ἢ δύνανται τηρεῖν τὴν αίσιν· παρὰ δὲ Ῥωμαίοις οἱ καλά τε τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς πρεσβείας πολύ τι πλήθΘ χρημάτων χειρίζοντες δι αὐτῆς τῆς κατὰ τὸν ὅρκον πίσεως, τηρᾶσι τὸ καθῆκον. Καὶ παρὰ μὲν τοῖς ἄλλοις σπάνιόν ἐσιν εὑρεῖν ἀπεχόμενον ἄνδρα τῶν δημοσίων, και καθαρεύολα περὶ ταῦτα· παρὰ δὲ τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις σπάνιόν ἐσι τὸ λαβεῖν τινα πεφωραμένον ἐπὶ τοιαύτη πράξει. Ὅτι μὲν ἔν πᾶσι τοῖς ἔσιν ὑπὸχείται φθορὰ καὶ μεταβολὴ, σχεδὸν ἐ προσδεῖ λόγο ἱκανὴ γὰρ ἡ τῆς φύσεως ἀνάγκη παρατῆσαι τὴν τοιαύτην πίσιν δυοῖν δὲ τρόπων ὅντων καθ' ὃς φθείρεσθαι πέφυκε πᾶν γένΘ πολιτείας, τὸ μὲν ἔξωθεν, τῇ δὲ ἐν αὐτοῖς φυομένε τὸ μὲν ἐκτὸς ἄσαλον ἔχειν συμβαίνει τὴν θεωρίαν· τὰ δ ̓ ἐξ αὐτῶν τελαγμένην. Ε Polyb. Historiarum, lib. vi. c. 54, 55.

ancient glory and virtue were then fast on the decline, and the Roman mounting to its meridian. The melancholy reflexions, arising from this view of things, were always uppermost in his thoughts : so that speaking here of the great influence which Religion had on the minds of the Romans, he could not forbear giving his countrymen a lesson, and instructing them in what hè esteemed the principal cause of their approaching ruin; namely, a certain libertinism, which had spread amongst the PEOPLE OF CONDITION, who, ashamed of the simplicity of their Ancestors, and despising the ignorance of the People, affected a superior penetration, which brought them to regard, and preposterously to teach others to regard, the restraints of religion as illusory and unmanly. This he confirms by shewing the strong influence religion hath on the morals of men. But to understand what follows, of the two ways by which a state comes to ruin, from without and from within, which seems to be brought in a little abruptly, we must suppose, that those, to whom the historian addresses himself, had objected, That it was not a want of piety amongst themselves, but the force of the Roman arms without, which had broken the power of Greece; and that this disaster they were patiently to submit to, because all empires have their stated periods. Let us suppose this, and the political reflexion on the fall of States will have a high propriety, and close connection with what preceded. It is to this effect: "I agree with you, says Polybius,

B 4

bius, that evils, coming suddenly on a State from without, cannot be easily warded; but then, those arising from within, as they are commonly foreseen, have their remedies at hand. Now I take our misfortunes to have proceeded from these: for had not a neglect of religion depraved the manners of the Greeks, Rome had wanted both pretence and inclination to invade us, and Greece would have continued able to support its own sovereignty: therefore your trite aphorism of the mutability of human things is here altogether misapplied."

But had this great man lived only one age later, he would have found large occasion of addressing this very admonition to the Romans themselves; when the same libertine spirit foreran and contributed to the destruction of their Republic; and religion had so lost its hold of those, whom, in the time of Polybius, it so entirely possessed, that Cæsar could dare, in full senate, with a degree of licence unexampled in Antiquity, to declare, that the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments was all a groundless notion. This was a dreadful prognostic of their approaching ruin.

If this great politician then may deserve credit, it would be worth while for our People of condition to look about them, and compute their gains by such a conduct: those of them I mean, if any such there be, who profess to love their Country, and yet as publicly despise the Religion of it. One of

them,

them, who did both in an eminent degree, and who would substitute a TASTE, instead of a future state, for the government of the world, thus expresseth himself: "Even conscience, I fear, such as is owing to religious discipline, will make but

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a slight figure, where this TASTE is set amiss. "Amongst the vulgar perhaps it may do wonders: "a devil and a hell may prevail, where a jail and a gallows are thought insufficient. But such is the nature of the liberal, polished, and refined part " of mankind; so far are they from the mere simplicity of babes and sucklings, that, instead of "applying the notion of a future reward or punish

ment to their immediate behaviour in society, they

are apt much rather, through the whole course "of their lives, to shew evidently that they look on "the pious narrations to be indeed no better than "children's tales and the amusement of the mere " vulgar *."

I will not now ask, Where was the religion, but where was the civil prudence of this great patriot ? For if it be indeed true, as he confesses, that amongst the vulgar a devil and a hell may prevail, where a jail and a gallows are thought insufficient; why would this lover of his country take off so necessary a restraint on the manners of the multitude? If he says he would not, I ask, why then hath he publicly ridiculed it? Or was it

* Characteristics, vol. iii. p. 177. edit. 3.

indeed