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It
must be confessed, that a sensible reader cannot, without
astonishment,
see
persons among the ancients in the highest repute for wisdom and
knowledge;
generals who were the least liable to be influenced by popular
opinions,
and most sensible how necessary it is to take advantage of
auspicious
moments; the wisest councils of princes perfectly well skilled
in
the arts of government; the most august assemblies of grave
senators;
in
a word, the most powerful and most learned nations in all ages; to
see,
I
say, all these so unaccountably weak, as to make to depend on
these
trifling
practices and absurd observances, the decision of the greatest
affairs,
such as the declaring of war, the giving battle, or pursuing a
victory,
deliberations that were of the utmost importance, and on which
the
fate and welfare of kingdoms frequently depended.
But,
at the same time, we must be so just as to own, that their
manners,
customs,
and laws, would not permit men, in these ages, to dispense with
the
observation of these practices: that education, hereditary
tradition
transmitted
from immemorial time, the universal belief and consent of
different
nations, the precepts, and even examples of philosophers; that
all
these, I say, made the practices in question appear venerable in
their
eyes:
and that these ceremonies, how absurd soever they may appear to
us,
and
are really so in themselves, constituted part of the religion and
public
worship of the ancients.
This
religion was false, and this worship mistaken; yet the principle
of
it
was laudable, and founded in nature; the stream was corrupted, but
the
fountain
was pure. Man, assisted only by his own light, sees nothing
beyond
the present moment. Futurity is to him an abyss invisible to the
most
keen, the most piercing sagacity, and exhibits nothing on which
he
may
with certainty fix his views, or form his resolutions. He is
equally
feeble
and impotent with regard to the execution of his designs. He is
sensible,
that he is dependent entirely on a Supreme Power, that disposes
all
events with absolute authority, and which, in spite of his utmost
efforts,
and of the wisdom of the best concerted schemes, by raising only
the
smallest obstacles and slightest disappointments, renders it
impossible
for him to execute his measures.
This
obscurity and weakness oblige him to have recourse to a superior
knowledge
and power: he is forced, both by his immediate wants, and the
strong
desire he has to succeed in all his undertakings, to address that
Being
who he is sensible has reserved to himself alone the knowledge of
futurity,
and the power of disposing it as he sees fitting. He accordingly
directs
prayers, makes vows, and offers sacrifices, to prevail, if
possible,
with the Deity, to reveal himself, either in dreams, in oracles,
or
other signs which may manifest his will; fully convinced that
nothing
can
happen but by the divine appointment; and that it is a man’s
greatest
interest
to know this supreme will, in order to conform his actions to it.
This
religious principle of dependence on, and veneration of, the
Supreme
Being,
is natural to man: it is imprinted deep in his heart; he is
reminded
of it, by the inward sense of his extreme indigence, and by all
the
objects which surround him; and it may be affirmed, that this
perpetual
recourse to the Deity, is one of the principal foundations of
religion
and the strongest band by which man is united to his Creator.
Those
who were so happy as to know the true God, and were chosen to be
his
peculiar
people, never failed to address him in all their wants and
doubts,
in order to obtain his succour, and to know his will. He
accordingly
vouchsafed to reveal himself to them; to conduct them by
apparitions,
dreams, oracles, and prophecies; and to protect them by
miracles
of the most astonishing kind.
But
those who were so blind as to substitute falsehood in the place
of
truth,
directed themselves, for the like aid, to fictitious and
deceitful
deities,
who were not able to answer their expectations, nor recompense
the
homage that mortals paid them, any otherwise than by error and
illusion,
and a fraudulent imitation of the conduct of the true God.
Hence
arose the vain observation of dreams, which, from a superstitious
credulity,
they mistook for salutary warnings from Heaven; those obscure
and
equivocal answers of oracles, beneath whose veil the spirits of
darkness
concealed their ignorance; and, by a studied ambiguity, reserved
to
themselves an evasion or subterfuge, whatever might be the event.
To
this
are owing the prognostics with regard to futurity, which men
fancied
they
should find in the entrails of beasts, in the flight and singing
of
birds,
in the aspect of the planets, in fortuitous accidents, and in the
caprice
of chance; those dreadful prodigies that filled a whole nation
with
terror, and which, it was believed, nothing could expiate but
mournful
ceremonies, and even sometimes the effusion of human blood: in
fine,
those black inventions of magic, those delusions, enchantments,
sorceries,
invocations of ghosts, and many other kinds of divination.
All
I have here related was a received usage, observed by the heathen
nations
in general; and this usage was founded on the principles of that
religion
of which I have given a short account. We have a signal proof of
this
in that passage of the Cyropædia,(48) where Cambyses, the father
of
Cyrus,
gives that young prince such noble instructions; instructions
admirably
well adapted to form the great captain, and great king. He
exhorts
him, above all things, to pay the highest reverence to the gods;
and
not to undertake any enterprise, whether important or
inconsiderable,
without
first calling upon and consulting them; he enjoins him to honour
the
priests and augurs, as being their ministers and the interpreters
of
their
will, but yet not to trust or abandon himself so implicitly and
blindly
to them, as not, by his own application, to learn every thing
relating
to the science of divination, of auguries and auspices. The
reason
which he gives for the subordination and dependence in which
kings
ought
to live with regard to the gods, and the benefit derived from
consulting
them in all things, is this: How clear-sighted soever mankind
may
be in the ordinary course of affairs, their views are always very
narrow
and bounded with regard to futurity; whereas the Deity, at a
single
glance,
takes in all ages and events. “As the gods,” says Cambyses to his
son,
“are eternal, they know equally all things, past, present, and to
come.
With regard to the mortals who address them, they give salutary
counsels
to those whom they are pleased to favour, that they may not be
ignorant
of what things they ought, or ought not, to undertake. If it is
observed,
that the deities do not give the like counsels to all men; we
are
not to wonder at it, since no necessity obliges them to attend to
the
welfare
of those persons on whom they do not vouchsafe to confer their
favour.”
Such
was the doctrine of the most learned and most enlightened
nations,
with
respect to the different kinds of divination; and it is no wonder
that
the authors who wrote the history of those nations, thought it
incumbent
on them to give an exact detail of such particulars as
constituted
part of their religion and worship, and was frequently in a
manner
the soul of their deliberations, and the standard of their
conduct.
I
therefore was of opinion, for the same reason, that it would not
be
proper
for me to omit entirely, in the ensuing history, what relates to
this
subject, though I have however retrenched a great part of it.
Archbishop
Usher is my usual guide in chronology. In the history of the
Carthaginians
I commonly set down four æras: The year from the creation of
the
world, which, for brevity’s sake, I mark thus, A.M.; those of the
foundation
of Carthage and Rome; and lastly, the year before the birth of
our
Saviour, which I suppose to be the 4004th year of the world; wherein
I
follow
Usher and others, though they suppose it to be four years
earlier.
We
shall now proceed to give the reader the proper preliminary
information
concerning
this Work, according to the order in which it is executed.
To
know in what manner the states and kingdoms were founded, that
have
divided
the universe; the steps whereby they rose to that pitch of
grandeur
related in history; by what ties families and cities were united,
in
order to constitute one body or society, and to live together under
the
same
laws and a common authority; it will be necessary to trace things
back,
in a manner, to the infancy of the world, and to those ages in
which
mankind,
being dispersed into different regions, (after the confusion of
tongues,)
began to people the earth.
In
these early ages every father was the supreme head of his family;
the
arbiter
and judge of whatever contests and divisions might arise within
it;
the natural legislator over his little society; the defender and
protector
of those, who, by their birth, education, and weakness, were
under
his protection and safeguard, and whose interests paternal
tenderness
rendered equally dear to him as his own.
But
although these masters enjoyed an independent authority, they made
a
mild
and paternal use of it. So far from being jealous of their power,
they
neither governed with haughtiness, nor decided with tyranny. As
they
were
obliged by necessity to associate their family in their domestic
labours,
they also summoned them together, and asked their opinion in
matters
of importance. In this manner all affairs were transacted in
concert,
and for the common good.
The
laws which paternal vigilance established in this little domestic
senate,
being dictated with no other view than to promote the general
welfare;
concerted with such children as were come to years of maturity,
and
accepted by the inferiors with a full and free consent; were
religiously
kept and preserved in families as an hereditary polity, to
which
they owed their peace and security.
But
different motives gave rise to different laws. One man, overjoyed
at
the
birth of a first-born son, resolved to distinguish him from his
future
children,
by bestowing on him a more considerable share of his
possessions,
and giving him a greater authority in his family. Another,
more
attentive to the interest of a beloved wife, or darling daughter
whom
he
wanted to settle in the world, thought it incumbent on him to
secure
their
rights and increase their advantages. The solitary and cheerless
state
to which a wife would be reduced in case she should become a
widow,
affected
more intimately another man, and made him provide beforehand, for
the
subsistence and comfort of a woman who formed his felicity. From
these
different
views, and others of the like nature, arose the different
customs
of nations, as well as their rights, which are infinitely
various.
In
proportion as every family increased, by the birth of children,
and
their
marrying into other families, they extended their little domain,
and
formed,
by insensible degrees, towns and cities.
These
societies growing, in process of time, very numerous; and the
families
being divided into various branches, each of which had its head,
whose
different interests and characters might interrupt the general
tranquillity;
it was necessary to intrust one person with the government
of
the whole, in order to unite all these chiefs or heads under a
single
authority,
and to maintain the public peace by an uniform administration.
The
idea which men still retained of the paternal government, and the
happy
effects they had experienced from it, prompted them to choose
from
among
their wisest and most virtuous men, him in whom they had observed
the
tenderest and most fatherly disposition. Neither ambition nor
cabal
had
the least share in this choice; probity alone, and the reputation
of
virtue
and equity, decided on these occasions, and gave the preference
to
the
most worthy.(49)
To
heighten the lustre of their newly-acquired dignity, and enable
them
the
better to put the laws in execution, as well as to devote
themselves
entirely
to the public good; to defend the state against the invasions of
their
neighbours, and the factions of discontented citizens; the title
of
king
was bestowed upon them, a throne was erected, and a sceptre put
into
their
hands; homage was paid them, officers were assigned, and guards
appointed
for the security of their persons; tributes were granted; they
were
invested with full powers to administer justice, and for this
purpose
were
armed with a sword, in order to restrain injustice, and punish
crimes.
At
first, every city had its particular king, who being more solicitous
to
preserve
his dominion than to enlarge it, confined his ambition within the
limits
of his native country.(50) But the almost unavoidable feuds which
break
out between neighbours; jealousy against a more powerful king; a
turbulent
and restless spirit; a martial disposition, or thirst of
aggrandizement;
or the display of abilities; gave rise to wars, which
frequently
ended in the entire subjection of the vanquished, whose cities
were
possessed by the victor, and increased insensibly his dominions.
Thus,
a first victory paving the way to a second, and making a prince
more
powerful
and enterprising, several cities and provinces were united under
one
monarch, and formed kingdoms of a greater or less extent, according
to
the
degree of ardour with which the victor had pushed his
conquests.(51)
But
among these princes were found some, whose ambition being too vast
to
confine
itself within a single kingdom, broke over all bounds, and spread
universally
like a torrent, or the ocean; swallowed up kingdoms and
nations;
and fancied that glory consisted in depriving princes of their
dominions,
who had not done them the least injury; in carrying fire and
sword
into the most remote countries, and in leaving every where bloody
traces
of their progress! Such was the origin of those famous empires
which
included a great part of the world.
Princes
made a various use of victory, according to the diversity of
their
dispositions
or interests. Some, considering themselves as absolute
masters
of the conquered, and imagining they were sufficiently indulged
in
sparing
their lives, bereaved them, as well as their children, of their
possessions,
their country, and their liberty; subjected them to a most
severe
captivity; employed them in those arts which are necessary for
the
support
of life, in the lowest and most servile offices of the house, in
the
painful toils of the field; and frequently forced them, by the
most
inhuman
treatment, to dig in mines, and ransack the bowels of the earth,
merely
to satiate their avarice; and hence mankind were divided into
freemen
and slaves, masters and bondmen.
Others
introduced the custom of transporting whole nations into new
countries,
where they settled them, and gave them lands to cultivate.
Other
princes again, of more gentle dispositions, contented themselves
with
only obliging the vanquished nations to purchase their liberties,
and
the
enjoyment of their laws and privileges by annual tributes laid on
them
for
that purpose; and sometimes they would suffer kings to sit
peaceably
on
their thrones, upon condition of their paying them some kind of
homage.
But
such of these monarchs as were the wisest and ablest politicians,
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