uprightness. That is not the man then of whom I speak; but it is he who stands, amidst all the swaying interests, and perilous exigences of trade, firm, calm, disinterested, and upright. It is the man who can see another man's interests just as well as his own. It is the man whose mind his own advantage does not blind nor cloud for an instant; who could sit a judge upon a question between himself and his neighbour, just as safely as the purest magistrate upon the bench of justice. Ah! how much richer than ermine-how far nobler than the train of magisterial authority-how more awful than the guarded bench of majesty, is that simple, magnanimous, and majestic truth! Yes, it is the man who is true-true to himself, his neighbour, and his God-true to the right-true to his conscience -and who feels that the slightest suggestion of that conscience is more to him than the chance of acquiring a hundred estates." This is no fancy-portrait, no ideal character: thank God, the writer has the privilege of knowing many such among our merchants, manufacturers, and traders; and it is for this reason that he can view with satisfaction the commercial prosperity of Britain, without fearing for his country the fate of Tyre and Carthage. 83 CHAPTER V. GRECIAN CIVILIZATION. No fact in the history of civilization is more striking, and none more difficult to be completely explained, than the immense superiority of Europe over the other quarters of the globe. In the multitude, variety, and beauty of their natural productions, Asia and Africa far surpass Europe; and the spontaneous harvests of America, though not so rich as the others, are still without a rival between the Uralian chain and the Atlantic. groves of native spices; no natural orchards laden with rich fruit; no fields of self-sown maize; no uncultivated aromatic herbs, are produced in our division of the earth: MAN is the nobler growth our realms supply, No In every thing which man invents, shapes, or fashions; in the exertions of the mind, and in the cunning of the hand, Europe is, and, since the earliest age of positive history, has been, as far beyond Asia, as it is below that region in natural fertility and beauty. Domestic life in Europe is based on the sanctity of marriage, and on the union of two persons. Nowhere in ancient or modern Europe has prostitution been legalized, or polygamy been sanctioned by positive law. Even among the Turks, an Asiatic horde who have only encamped in Europe," the contact with the original nations has greatly weakened those elements of barbarism, and imposed restrictions, which, to the mass of the people, act as a prohibition. Slavery existed in Europe as it does in Asia; but from the remotest ages Europeans have been found who protested against its injustice, and in European codes of law it has been tolerated rather than sanctioned. We may find in Asia, and even in Africa, some traces of efforts made to frame constitutions, and establish jural relations between the government, society, and individuals; but in Europe alone did the germ of political freedom unfold itself, strike its roots deep, and extend its branches wide. To Asia we are indebted for the rudiments of mechanical art; perhaps also for the suggestions of the higher inventions-the art of printing, the use of gunpowder, and the mariner's compass; but the development of these arts, the perfecting of these inventions, belong exclusively to Europeans. Compare the best spindles and looms of the Hindoos with the machinery of a Manchester mill; contrast a Chinese Gazette with the Times* or the Morning Chronicle; and observe the difference between a Chinese junk and a steam-packet, or a British man-of-war. In the fine arts, in literature, in science, and in philosophy, the superiority of Europe is still more decisive: no one ever dreamed of comparing * While writing this sentence the author has got from the news-agent the singular phenomenon of a quadruple Times. Size is not the only wonder: the variety of talent displayed in the articles, the immense mass of information accumulated and digested, the extraordinary skill, combined with the exquisite simplicity of the arrangement, render this production almost a miracle of art and intellect. It is, however, perplexing to receive as a daily paper what would seemingly take a week to read. Asiatic statuary with the sculpture of Chantrey or Canova; the Hindoo epics with the works of Homer or Milton; or the speculations of Eastern sages with the writings of Locke and Bacon. Europe derived the elements of civilization from the East, but now the most consoling prospect for humanity is, that Asia will abandon its ancient systems, and receive the civilization of Europe. It is obvious that this superiority is the result, not of natural advantages, not of physical force, but of intelligence alone. The question then arises-What caused this great intellectual superiority? and to this it is not easy to give a satisfactory answer. The fact itself is so extensive and so complicated, that its causes are likely to be many and various. One cause, however, seems too prominent to be omitted-it is, that when Nature denied to Europe a soil rich in spontaneous productions, she gave fields that invited to tillage, and rewarded the labours of cultivation. Greece was undoubtedly the first European country in which civilization acquired such strength as to form a system. The early traditions of the Greeks unanimously ascribe the introduction of the first elements of improvement to Asiatic colonies; and though these traditions have been impugned by modern scepticisms, they are too consistent with each other, and with the best authenticated facts of history, to be rejected for the sake of conjecture and hypothesis. The Greeks assert that they derived the use of letters from the Phoenician Cadmus, and the names of these letters attest their eastern origin. They tell us that the institution of marriage was introduced by the Egyptian Cecrops; and Pelops of Lydia, effected such a revolution in the Apian land, as to give his name to the entire peninsula. But anterior to these, there was an immigration of even greater importance, the remembrance of which is vaguely preserved in mythology-a colony from some unknown region taught the art of agriculture. The Eleusinian mysteries, unquestionably derived from the oldest forms of the Grecian religion, shew what great importance was justly attributed to the introduction of the Cerealia. It is remarkable that the same tradition which described the goddess Ceres as the inventor of tillage, also represented her as the author of law; thus Ovid: First Ceres taught the labouring hind to plough It is not necessary to inquire whether Ceres was a mere personification, or a deified individual;† the legend shews that the unvarying tradition of the Greeks connected the origin of civil society with the first cultivation of corn, and further that they attributed both to an external source. We have seen in a former chapter that the Egyptians held agriculture in the highest honour; and if any credit can be given to the authority of Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus, Isis was worshipped in * Garth's Translation, Book v. The name is most probably derived from the Hebrew word Geresh, which, in the Semitic languages, signifies "an ear of corn." |