Alas! what a multitude of others does a fingle crime draw after it? Agamemnon returning at the head of the Greeks from the fiege of Troy, had not time to enjoy in peace the glory he had acquired: Such is the fate of almost all conquerors. All the perfons you fee there were formidable in war; but they were not amiable and virtuous. Accordingly they are admitted only into the second manfion of the Elyfian fields.

As for thefe, they reigned with juftice, they loved their fubjects, and are the favourites of the Gods. While Achilles and Agamemnon, who were fo prone to diffention and war, do ftill even here retain their pains and natural failings, while they vainly regret the lofs of their lives, and are grieved at their being now but empty and impotent shadows; thefe righteous princes, being purified by the divine light, on which they feed, have nothing more to wish for the completion of their happinefs. They view the anxious cares of mortals with pity; and the greatest affairs which difquiet the ambitious, appear to them like the fports of children. Their fouls are replenished with truth and virtue, which they draw at the fountain head. They have nothing more to fuffer from themselves or others, no more defires, no more wants, no more fears. All is at an end as to them, except their felicity, which cannot end.

Take notice, my fon, of old king Inachus, who founded the kingdom of Argos. What fweetnefs! What majefty in his old age! Flowers fpring beneath his fteps. His eafy gait resembles the flight of a bird. He holds an ivory lyre in his hand, and fings in an eternal tranfport the marvellous works of the Gods. His heart and mouth breathe an exqu.fite perfume. The harmony of his voice and lyre would ravish both Gods and men. Thus is he rewarded for loving the people whom he affembled within his new walls, and whofe legiflator he was.

On the other fide, thou mayeft fee among thofe myrtles, Cecrops the Egyptian, who was the first king of Athens, a city facred to the Goddefs of wifdom, whofe name it bears, Cecrops bringing ufeful

lawa

Cécrops, apportant des loix utiles de l'Egypte, qui a été pour la Grece la fource des lettres & des bonnes mœurs, adoucit les naturels farouches des bourgs de l'Attique, & les unit par les liens de la fociété. Il fut jufte, humain, compatiffant: il laiffa les peuples dans l'abondance, & fa famille dans la médiocrité; ne vou lant point que fes enfans euffent l'autorité après lui, parce qu'il jugeoit que d'autres en étoient plus dignes. Il faut que je te montre auffi dans cette petite val→ lée Ericthon, qui inventa l'ufage de l'argent pour la monnoie. Il le fit en vue de faciliter le commerce entre les ifles de la Grece; mais il prévit l'inconvé nient attaché à cette invention. Appliquez-vous, difoit-il à tous ces peuples, à multiplier chez vous les richeffes naturelles, qui font les véritables: cultivez la terre, pour avoir une grande abondance de bled, de vin, d'huile & de fruits. Ayez des troupeaux innombrables qui vous nourriffent de leur lait, & qui Vous couvrent de leur laine. Par-là vous vous mettrez en état de ne craindre jamais la pauvreté. Plus vous aurez d'enfans, plus vous ferez riches, pourvu que vous les rendiez laborieux; car la terre eft inépuifable, & elle augmente fa fécondité, à proportion du nombre de fes habitans qui ont foin de la cultiver ; elle les paie tous libéralement de leurs peines, au lieu qu'elle fe rend avare & ingrate pour ceux qui la cultivent négligemment. Attachez-vous donc principalement aux véritables richeffes, qui fatisfont aux vrais befoins des hommes. Pour l'argent monnoyé, il ne faut en faire aucun cas, qu'autant qu'il eft néceffaire, ou pour les guerres inévitables qu'on a à foutenir au dehors, où pour le commerce des marchandifes néceffaires qui manquent dans votre pays. Encore feroit-il à fouhaiter qu'on laiffât tomber le commerce, à l'égard de toutes les chofes qui ne fervent qu'à entretenir le luxe, la vanité & la molleffe.

Je

Le fage Ericthon difoit fouvent : Je crains bien, mes enfans, de vous avoir fait un préfent funefte, en vous donnant l'invention de la monnoie. prévois qu'elle excitera l'avarice, l'ambition, le fafte; qu'elle entretiendra une infinité d'arts pernicieux qui

laws from Egypt, which was the fource of letters and morality, to Greece, foftened the favage nature of the Attic towns, and united them in the bands of fociety. He was juft, humane, compaffionate; he left his fubjects in affluence, and his own family in moderate circumstances, being unwilling that his power should defcend to his children because he thought that others were more worthy of it.

In that little valley I must likewife shew you Ericthon, who invented the art of making money of filver. He did it with a view of facilitating commerce between the islands of Greece; but he forefaw the inconveniencies which would attend this invention. Apply yourselves, faid he to the people, to multiply the riches of nature among you, which are the true riches Manure the earth, that you may have plenty of corn, wine, oil and fruits; take care to have innumerable flocks and herds, which may feed you with their milk and cloath you with their wool, and you will thereby place yourfelves in circumftances of never being afraid of poverty. The more children you have, the richer you will be, provided you inure them to labour; for the earth is inexhaustible, and increafes her fertility in proportion to the number of inhabitants that cultivate her with care; she liberally rewards all fuch for their toils, whereas she is fparing and ungrateful to thofe who cultivate her in a negli gent manner Confine yourfelves therefore chiefly to the true riches which fuffice the wants of man. As for money, it must be esteemed only as it is neceffary either in the wars which we are inevitably forced to maintain abroad, or for the trading in fome neceffary commodities which are wanting in our own country g And it is accordingly to be wished, that men would ceafe to trade in all things which ferve only to maintain extravagance, pomp and luxury.

The fage Ericthon would often fay, I greatly fear, my children, that I have made you a fatal prefent in communicating to you the invention of money. I foresee that it will excite avarice, ambition, pomp; that it will cherish an infinite number of pernicious

arts

ne vont qu'à amollir & qu'à corrompre les mœurs; qu'elle vous dégoûtera de l'heureufe fimplicité, qui fait tout le repos & toute la fureté de la vie; qu'enfin elle vous fera méprifer l'agriculture, qui eft le fondement de la vie humaine, & la fource de tous les vrais biens mais les Dieux me font témoins que j'ai eu le cœur pur, en vous donnant cette invention utile en elle-même. Enfin, quand Ericthon apperçut que l'argent corrompoit les peuples, comme il l'avoit prévu, il fe retira de douleur fur une montagne fauvage, où il vécut pauvre & éloigné des hommes jufques à une extrême vieilleffe, fans vouloir fe mêler du gouverne◄ ment des villes.

Peu de temps après lui, on vit paroître dans la Grece le fameux Triptoleme, à qui Cérès avoit enfeigné l'art de cultiver les terres, & de les couvrir tous les ans d'une moisson dorée. Ce n'eft pas que les hommes ne connaffent déjà le bled, & la maniere de le multiplier en le femant; mais ils ignoroient la perfection du labourage; & Triptoleme, envoyé par Cérès, vint, la charrue en main, offrir les dons de la Déeffe à tous les peuples qui auroient affez de courage pour vaincre leur pareffe naturelle, & pour s'adonner à un travail affidu. Bientôt Triptoleme apprit aux Grecs à fendre la terre, & à la fertilifer, en déchirant fon fein. Bientôt les moiffonneurs ardens & infatigables firent tomber, fous leurs faucilles tranchantes, tous les jaunes épis qui couvroient les campagnes. Les peuples même, fauvages & farouches, qui couroient épars ça & là dans les forêts d'Epire & d'Etolie, pour fe nourrir de glands, adoucirent leurs mœurs, & fe foumirent à des loix, quand ils eurent appris à faire croître des moiffons, & à fe nourrir de pain. Triptoleme fit fentir aux Grecs le plaifir qu'il y a de ne devoir fes richeffes qu'à fon travail, & à trouver dans fon champ tout ce qu'il faut pour rendre la vie commode & heureufe. Cette abondance fi fimple & fi innocente, qui eft attachée à l'agriculture les fit fouvenir des fages confeils d'Ericthon; ils mépriferent l'argent & toutes les richeffes artificielles qui ne font richeffes, que par l'imagination des hom

mes

arts, which tend only to the foftening and to the corruption of manners; that it will give you a disgust of the happy fimplicity in which all the repofe and all the fecurity of life confifts; that it will in short make you defpife agriculture, which is the foundation of the life of man, and the fource of all real bleffings: But the Gods are witnesses to the integrity of my heart, in imparting this invention to you, which is in itself useful. At last when Ericthon perceived that money corrupted the people as he had foreseen, he retired through grief to a favage mountain, where he lived poor and fequeftered from mankind to an extreme old age, and would not concern himself in the government of cities.

A little while after him the famous Triptolemus appeared in Greece whom Ceres taught the art of tilling the earth, and of covering it every year with a golden harvelt. Not that men before him were ftrangers to corn or to the manner of multiplying it by fowing but they were not perfect in the art of tillage, till Triptolemus, fent by Ceres, came with a plough in his hand, to offer the Goddefs's gifts to all who should have refolution enough to conquer their natural floth, and addict themfelves to conftant labour. Quickly did Triptolemus teach the Greeks to furrow the earth, and to make her fruitful by rending her bofom; quickly did the ardent and indefatigable reapers caufe the yellow ears which covered the fields, to fall beneath their sharp-edged fickles. Even wild and favage people, who wandered up and down the woods of Epirus and Etolia, in quest of acorns for their food, foftened their manners, and became fubject to laws, when they had learnt how to make the harvests rife, and to live on bread. Triptolemus made the Greeks relish the pleasure of owing their riches only to their labour, and of finding in one's own field all that is neceffary to render life eafy and happy. This fimple this innocent plenty, which is infeparable from agriculture, made them recollect the wife counfels of Fricthon; they contemned money and all artificial riches, which are riches.

only