How far this change is to be lamented, may be matter of much dispute. The human species was reduced to such a degree of debasement by the pressure of Roman despotism, that we can hardly be sorry at any means, however violent, which removed or lightened the load. But we cannot help lamenting, at the same time, that this revolution was the work of na- tions so little enlightened by science, or polished by civilization; for the Roman laws, though somewhat corrupted, were yet, in general, the best that human wisdom had framed; and the Roman arts and literature, though much declined, were still superior to any thing found among rude nations, or which those who spurned them, produced for many ages.

The contempt of the Barbarians for the Roman improvements, is not wholly, however, to be ascribed to their ignorance, nor the suddenness of the revolution, to their desolating fury. The manners of the conquered must come in for a share. Had not the Romans been in the lowest state of national degeneracy, they might surely have civilized their conquerors. Had they retained any of the virtues of men among them, they might have continued under the government of their own laws. Many of the northern leaders were men of great abilities; and several of them were acquainted both with the policy and literature of the Romans; but they were justly afraid of the contagious influence of the Roman example, and therefore avoided every thing allied to that name, whether hurtful or otherwise.

They erected a cottage in the neighborhood of a palace, breaking down the stately building, and burying in its ruins the finest works of human invention; they ate out of vessels of wood, and made the vanquished be served in vessels of silver; they hunted the boar on the voluptuous parterre, the trim garden, and extensive pleasure ground, where effeminacy was wont to saunter, or indolence to loll; they pastured their herds, where they might have raised a luxurious harvest.

They prohibited their children the knowl edge of literature, and of all the elegant arts; because they not unplausibly, though somewhat falsely, concluded from the dastardliness of the Romans, that learning tends to enervate the mind, and that he, who had trembled under the rod of a pedagogue, will never dare to meet a sword with an undaunted eye.

Upon the same principle, they rejected the Roman jurisprudence. It reserved nothing to the vengeance of man. They therefore not unphilosophically thought, it must rob a man of his active powers; nor could they conceive how the person injured could be satisfied, but by pouring out his fury upon the author of the injustice. Hence all those judicial combats, and private wars, which, for many ages, desolated Europe.

CHAP. IV.

Of Mahomet.

THE character of Mahomet forms a very singular phenomenon in the history of mankind. He was a native of Mecca, a city of that division of Arabia, which, for the luxuriancy of its soil, and happy temperature of its climate, has ever been esteemed the loveliest and sweetest region in the world, and is distinguished by the epithet of Happy.

He was born in the sixth century, in the reign of Justinian XI. Emperor of Constantinople. Though descended of mean parentage, illiterate, and poor, Mahomet was endowed with a subtle genius, like those of the same country, and possessed a degree of enterprize and ambition, peculiar to himself, and much beyond his condition. He had been employed in the early part of his life, by his uncle Abuteleb, as a factor, and had occasion in this capacity, to travel into Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. He was afterwards taken into the service of a rich merchant, upon whose death he married his widow, Cadiga, and, by her means, came to the possession of great wealth, and of a numerous family.

During his peregrinations into Egypt and the east, he had observed the vast variety of sects in religion, whose hatred against each other was strong and inveterate, while at the same time, there were many particulars, in which the greater part of them were agreed. He carefully laid

hold of these particulars, by means of which, and by addressing himself to the love of power, riches, and pleasure, passions universal among them, he expected to raise a new system of religion, more general than any which had hitherto been established. In this design he was assisted by a Sergian monk, whose libertine disposition had made him forsake his cloister and profession, and engage in the service of Cadiga, with whom he remained as a domestic, when Mahomet was taken to her bed. This monk was perfectly qualified by his learning for supplying the defects, which his master for want of a liberal education, labored under, and which in all probabil. ity, must have obstructed the execution of his design. It was necessary, however, that the religion they proposed to establish should have a divine sanction; and for this purpose, Mahomet turned a calamity with which he was afflicted, to his advantage. He was often subject to fits of the epilepsy, a disease which those whom it afflicts are desirous to conceal. Mahomet gave out, therefore, that these fits were trances, into which he was miraculously thrown by God Almighty, during which he was instructed in his will, which he was commanded to publish to the world. By this strange story, and by leading a retired, abstemious, and austere life, he easily acquired a character for superior sanctity among his acquaintance and neighbors.

CHAP. V.

Of the Doctrines taught by Mahomet.

WHEN Mahomet thought himself sufficiently fortified by the numbers, and the enthusiasm of his followers, he boldly declared himself a prophet sent by God into the world, not only to teach his will, but to compel mankind to obey it. As we have already mentioned, he did not lay the foundation of his system so narrow, as only to comprehend the natives of his own country. His mind, though rude and enthusiastic, was enlarged by travelling into distant lands, whose manners and religion he had made a peculiar study. He proposed that the system he established should extend over all the neighboring nations, to whose doctrines and prejudices he had taken care to adapt it.

Many of the inhabitants of the eastern countries were at this time much addicted to the opinions of Arius, who denied that Jesus Christ was co-equal with God the Father, as is declared in the Athanasian creed.

Egypt and Arabia were filled with Jews, who had fled into these corners of the world, from the persecution of the emperor Adrian, who threatened the total extinction of that people.

The other inhabitants of these countries were Pagans. These, however, had little attachment to their decayed and derided idolatry; and, like men whose religious principle is weak, had given themselves over to pleasure and sensuality,