Miscellanea. The second part in four essays / by Sir William Temple ...

ESSAY III. Of Heroick Virtue. (Book 3)

AMONG all the Endowments of Nature, or Improvements of Art, wherein Men have excelled and distinguished themselves most in the World, there are two only, that have had the honour of being called Divine, and of giving that Esteem or Appella∣tion to such as possessed them in very eminent Degrees, which are, Heroick Virtue, and Poetry: For Prophecy can∣not be esteemed any Excellency of Na∣ture or of Art, but whereever it is true, is an immediate Gift of God, and be∣stowed according to His Pleasure, and upon Subjects of the meanest capacity, upon Women or Children, or even things inanimate, as the Stones placed in the High-Priest's Breast-Plate, among the

Jews, which was a sacred Oracle among them.

I will leave Poetry to an Essay by it self, and dedicate this only to that an∣tiquated Shrine of Heroick Virtue, which however forgotten, or unknown in later Ages, must yet be allowed, to have produced in the World, the ad∣vantages most valued among Men, and which most distinguish their Under∣standings and their Lives, from the rest of their fellow Creatures.

Though it be easier to describe Hero∣ick Virtue, by the Effects and Examples, than by Causes or Definitions, yet it may be said to arise, from some great and na∣tive Excellency of Temper or Genius transcending the common race of Man∣kind, in Wisdom, Goodness and Forti∣tude. These ingredients advantaged by Birth, improved by Education, and as∣sisted by Fortune, seem to make that no∣ble composition, which gives such a lustre to those who have possest it, as made them appear to common eyes, some∣thing more than Mortals, and to have been born of some mixture, between Divine and Humane Race; To have been honoured and obeyed in their Lives, and after their Deaths bewailed and adored.

The greatness of their Wisdom ap∣peared in the Excellency of their In∣ventions; And these by the Goodness of their Nature, were turned and exer∣cised upon such Subjects, as were of ge∣neral good to Mankind in the common uses of life, or to their own Countries in the Institutions of such Laws, Orders or Governments, as were of most ease, safety and advantage to Civil Society. Their Valour was imployed, in defend∣ing their own Countries from the vio∣lence of ill Men at home, or Enemies abroad, in reducing their barbarous Neighbours to the same forms and or∣ders of Civil Lives and Institutions; or in relieving others, from the Cruelties and Oppressions of Tyranny and Vio∣lence. These are all comprehended, in three Verses of Virgil, describing the blessed Seats in Elysium, and those that enjoyed them.

Hic manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi, Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per ar∣tes, Quique sui memores alios fecere meren∣do.

Here such, as for their Country wounds receiv'd, Or who by Arts invented, Life improv'd, Or by deserving made themselves remem∣bred.

And indeed, the Character of He∣roick Virtue seems to be in short, The deserving well of Mankind. Where this is chief in design, and great in success, the pretence to a Hero lies very fair, and can never be allowed without it.

I have said, that this Excellency of Genius must be native, because it can never grow to any great heigth, if it be only acquired or affected; but it must be ennobled by Birth, to give it more Lustre, Esteem and Authority; it must be cultivated by Education and Instruction, to improve its growth, and direct its end and application; and it must be assisted by Fortune, to preserve it to maturity; because the noblest Spirit or Genius in the World, if it falls, though never so bravely, in its first enterprises, cannot deserve enough of Mankind, to pretend to so great a reward as the esteem of Heroick Virtue. And yet perhaps, many a person has dyed in the first battle or adventure he atchieved,

and lies buried in silence and oblivion, who had he out-lived as many dangers as Alexander did, might have shined as bright in Honour and Fame. Now since so many Stars go to the making up of this Constellation, 'tis no won∣der it has so seldom appeared in the World; nor that when it does, it is received and followed with so much gazing, and so much veneration.

Among the simpler Ages or Genera∣tions of Men, in several Countries, Those who were the first Inventers of Arts ge∣nerally received and applauded, as most necessary or useful to human life, were honoured alive, and after death worship∣ped as Gods. And so were those who had been the first Authors of any good, and well instituted Civil Government in any Country, by which, the native In∣habitants were reduced from savage and brutish lives, to the safety and conveni∣ence of Societies, the enjoyment of Property, the observance of Orders, and the obedience of Laws, which were followed by Security, Plenty, Civility, Riches, Industry and all kinds of Arts. The evident advantages and common benefits of these sorts of Institutions, made People generally inclined at home

to obey such Governors, the Neigh∣bour Nations to esteem them, and thereby, willingly enter into their Pro∣tection, or easily yield to the force of their Arms and Prowess. Thus Con∣quests began to be made in the World, and upon the same designs, of reducing Barbarous Nations unto Civil and well Regulated Constitutions and Govern∣ments, and of subduing those by force to obey them, who refused to accept willingly the advantages of Life or con∣dition, that were thereby offered them. Such Persons of old, who excelling in those Vertues, were attended by these fortunes, and made great and famous Conquests, and left them under good Constitutions of Laws and Govern∣ments; Or who instituted excellent and lasting orders and frames of any Poli∣tical State, in what compass soever of Country, or under what Names soever of Civil Government, were obeyed as Princes or Law-givers in their own times, and were called in after Ages, by the name of Heroes.

From these sources, I believe may be deduced all or most of the Theology or Idolatry, of all the ancient Pagan Countries, within the compass of the

Four great Empires, so much renowned in Story, and perhaps of some others, as great in their Constitutions, and as ex∣tended in their Conquests, though not so much celebrated or observed by Learned Men.

From all I can gather, upon the Sur∣veys of ancient Story, I am apt to con∣clude, that Saturn was a King of Crete, and expelled that Kingdom by his Son. That Jupiter having driven out his Fa∣ther from Crete, conquered Greece, or at least the Peloponesus; and having a∣mong those Inhabitants, introduced the use of Agriculture, of Property and Civility, and established a just and re∣gular Kingdom, was by them adored as chief of their Gods.

Ante Jovem nulli subigerunt arva co∣loni.

That His Brothers, Sisters, Sons, and Daughters, were worshipped likewise, for the inventions of things chiefly use∣ful, necessary, or agreeable to Humane Life. So Neptune, for the art or im∣provement of Navigation; Vulcan, for that of Forging Brass and Iron; Mi∣nerva, of Spinning; Apollo, of Musick

and Poetry; Mercury, of Manual Arts and Merchandise; Bacchus, for the invention of Wine; and Ceres of Corn.

I do not find any traces left, by which a probable conjecture may be made of the Age, wherein this race of Saturn flourished in the World, nor conse∣quently, what length of time they were adored; for as to Bacehus and Hercules, it is generally agreed, that there were more than one or two of those Names, in very different times, and perhaps Countries, as Greece and Egypt, and that the last, who was Son of Alcmena, and one of the Argonauts, was very modern, in respect of the other more ancient, who was contemporary with the race of Jupiter. But the Story of that Bac∣ehus and Hercules, who are said to have Conquered India, is grown too obscure, by the dark shades of so great Antiqui∣ty, or disguised by the mask of Fables, and Fiction of Poets.

The same divine Honours were ren∣dered by the Aegyptians to Osyris, in whose Temple was inscribed on a Pil∣lar, that he had gone through all Coun∣tries, and every where taught Men all that he found necessary for the com∣mon

good of Mankind, By the Assy∣rians, to Belus, the Founder of that Kingdom, and great Inventor or Im∣prover of Astronomy, among the Chal∣daeans, By the Original Latins or He∣truscans, to Janus, who introduced A∣griculture into Italy; and these Three were worshipped as Gods, by those ancient and Learned Nations.

Ninus and Sesostris, were renowned for their mighty Conquests, and e∣steemed the two great Heroes of Assy∣ria and of Egypt; the first, having ex∣tended his Victories, to the River Indus, and the other, those of the Aegyptians, over Asia, as far as Pontus. The time of Ninus is controverted among Histo∣rians, being by some placed, Thirteen, by others, Eight Hundred Years before Sardanapalus: But that of Sesostris, is in my opinion, much harder to be af∣firmed. For I do not see, how their o∣pinion can be allowed, who make him to be Sesack, that took Jerusalem in the time of Rehoboam, since no more is said in Scripture, of the progress of that Expedition: Nor is the time of it men∣tioned in the Graecian Story, though some Records are there found, of all that passed after the Trojan War, and

with distinction enough. But the most ancient among them, speak of the Reign of Sesostris, and His mighty Conquests, as very ancient then, and agree the Kingdom of Choleos, to have descended from a Colony there Established by this famous King, as a Monument how far Northward his Victories had extended. Now this Kingdom flourished in the time of the Argonauts, and excelled in those Arts of Magiek and Enchantments, which they were thought to have brought with them out of Egypt; so as I think the Story of this King must be reckoned as almost covered with the Ruins of Time.

The two next Heroes that enter the Scene, are the Theban Hercules, and The∣seus, both renowned among the Greeks, for freeing their Country from Fierce Wild Beasts, or from fiercer and wilder Men that infested them; from Rob∣bers and Spoilers, or from cruel and Lawless Tyrants. Theseus was besides honoured as Founder of the more Civil State or Kingdom of Athens, which Ci∣ty first began to flourish and grow great by his Institutions, though His Father had been King of the Scattered Villa∣ges or Inhabitants of Attica.

In the same Age, flourished Minos King of Crete, reputed to be Son of Jupiter, who by the force and number of his Fleets, became Lord of the Ae∣gaean Islands, and most of the Coasts of Greece, and was renowned as a Heroe, for the justness of his Laws, and the greatness of his Reign.

For the Heroes, in the time of the Trojan Wars, so much celebrated in those two charming Poems, which from them were called Heroical, though 'tis easy to take their Characters from those admirable Pictures drawn of them by Homer and Virgil, yet 'tis hard to find them in the Relations of any Authen∣tick Story. That which may be obser∣ved, is, that all the Conduct and Cou∣rage of Hector, were imployed in the defence of His Country and his Father against a Foreign Invasion: The valour of Achilles was exercised in the common cause, wherein his whole Nation were engaged upon the fatal Revenge of the Rape of Helen, though he had been as∣sured by certain Prophecies, that he should dye before the Walls of Troy; and Aeneas, having imployed His utmost Prowess in defence of his Country, sa∣ved his Father and the Trojan Gods, ga∣thered

up the Remainders of his Rui∣ned Country, sailed to Italy, and there Founded a Kingdom, which gave rise to the Greatest Empire of the World.

About Two Hundred and Fifty Years after these, Lycurgus instituted the Spar∣tan State, upon Laws and Orders so dif∣ferent from those usual in those Times and Countries, that more than Humane Authority seemed necessary to establish them; and the Pythian Priestess told him, she did not know whether she should call Him a God or a Man. And indeed no Civil or Politick Constitu∣tions have been more celebrated than His, by the best Authors of ancient Sto∣ry and Times.

The next Heroes we meet with upon Record, were Romulus and Numa, of which the first, Founded the Roman City and State, and the other, Polished the Civil and Religious Orders of both in such a degree, that the Original In∣stitutions of these two Lawgivers con∣tinued as long as that Glorious State.

The next Heroe that came upon the Stage, was Cyrus, who freed His Coun∣try from their Servitude to the Medes, erected the Persian Empire upon the

ruins of the Assyrian; adorned it with excellent Constitutions and Laws, and extended it Westward, by the Con∣quest of all the Lesser Asia and Lydia, to the very Coasts of the Aegean Sea. Whether the Picture of Cyrus drawn by Xenophon, be after the life, or only imagi∣nary, we may find in it the truest Cha∣racter that can be given of Heroick Virtue: And 'tis certain, His Memory was always sacred among the Persians, though not prosecuted by Divine Ho∣nours, because that Nation adored one Supream God, without any Representa∣tion or Idol; and in the next place the Sun, to whom alone they offered Sa∣crifices.

Alexander, was the next, renowned in Story, having founded the Grecian Monarchy, by the entire Conquest of the Persian, and extended it, by the ad∣dition of Greece and Macedon. But he attained not the esteem or appellation of an Heroe, though He affected and courted it by His Mother's Stories of His Birth, and by the Flatteries of the Priest and Oracle of Jupiter Ammon. His pretence was justly excluded, by His Intemperance in Wine, in Anger, and in Lust, and more yet by His Cruelties and

His Pride; for true Honour has some∣thing in it so humorous, as to follow commonly those, who avoid or neg∣lect it, rather than those, who seek and pursue it. Besides, He instituted no or∣ders or frame of Government, in the Kingdoms either of Macedon or Persia; but rather corrupted and disordered those He found: And seems to have owed the success of His Enterprises, to the Councels and Conduct of His Fa∣thers old Officers, after whose disgrace and fall, immediately succeeded that of his Fortune and his Life. Yet he must be allowed, to have much contributed to his own Glory and Fame, by a great native Genius and unlimited Bounty, and by the greatest boldness of Enter∣prise, scorn of Danger, and fearlesness of Death that could be in any Mortal Man. He was a Prodigy of Valour and of Fortune, but whether his Vir∣tues or his Faults were greatest, is hard to be decided.

Caesar, who is commonly esteemed to have been Founder of the Roman Em∣pire, seems to have possessed very emi∣nently all the Qualities, both native and acquired, that enter into the Com∣position of an Heroe, but failed of the

Attribute or Honour, because He over∣threw the Laws of his own Country, and Orders of his State, and raised his greatness by the Conquest of his Fellow Citizens, more than of their Enemies; and after he came to the Empire, lived not to perfect the frame of such a Go∣vernment, or atchieve such Conquests as he seems to have had in design.

These Four great Monarchies, with the smaller Kingdoms, Principalities and States, that were swallowed up by their Conquests and Extent, make the Sub∣ject of what is called Antient Story, and are so excellently related by the many Greek and Latin Authors, still ex∣tant and in common vogue, so com∣mented, enlarged, reduced into order of time and place, by many more of the Modern Writers, that they are known to all Men, who profess to study or en∣tertain themselves with Reading. The Orders and Institutions of these several Governments, their progress and dura∣tion, their successes or decays, their e∣vents and revolutions, make the com∣mon Theams of Schools and Colledges, the Study of Learned, and the Conver∣sation of Idle Men, the Arguments of Histories, Poems and Romances. From

the Actions and Fortunes of these Princes and Law-givers, are drawn the common Examples of Virtue and Ho∣nour, the Reproaches of Vice, which are illustrated by the Felicities or Mis∣fortunes that attend them. From the Events and Revolutions of these Go∣vernments, are drawn the usual Instru∣ctions of Princes and Statesmen, and the Discourses and Reflections of the great∣est Wits and Writers upon the Politicks. From the Orders and Institutions, the Laws and Customs of these Empires and States, the Sages of Law and of Justice, in all Countries, endeavour to deduce the very common Laws of Nature and of Nations, as well as the particular Civil or Municipal of Kingdoms and Pro∣vinces. From these they draw their Arguments and Presidents in all Disputes concerning the pretended Excellencies or Defaults of the several sorts of Go∣vernments that are extolled or decried, accused or defended. Concerning the Rights of War and Peace, of Invasion and Defence between Sovereign Princes, as well as of Authority and Obedience, of Prerogative and Liberty, in Civil Contentions.

Yet the Stage of all these Empires and Revolutions, of all these Heroick Acti∣ons, and these famous Constitutions, (how great or how wise soever any of them are esteemed) is but a limited compass of Earth, that leaves out many vast Regions of the World, the which, though accounted barbarous, and little taken notice of in Story, or by any celebrated Authors, yet have a right to come in for their Voice, in agreeing upon the Laws of Nature and Nations (for ought I know) as well as the rest, that have arrogated it wholly to them∣selves; and besides, in my Opinion, there are some of them, that upon en∣quiry, will be found to have equalled or exceeded all the others, in the wis∣dom of their Constitutions, the extent of their Conquests, and the duration of their Empires or States.

The famous Scene of the four great Monarchies, was that midland part of the World, which was bounded on the East by the River Indus, and on the West by the Atlantick Ocean; on the North by the River Oxus, the Caspian and the Euxine Seas, and the Danube; on the South by the Mountain Atlas, Aethio∣pia, Arabia, and from thence to the

Mouth of Indus, by the Southern O∣cean.

'Tis true, that Semiramis and Alex∣ander are said to have conquered India; but the first seems only to have subdu∣ed some parts of it that lie upon the Borders of that River; and Alexander's Atchievements there, seem rather like a Journey than a Conquest; and though He pierced through the Country, from Indus to Ganges, yet He left even undis∣covered, the greatest parts of that mighty Region, which, by the Ancients was reported, to contain an hundred and eighteen great and populous Nations, and which, for ought I know, were ne∣ver conquer'd but by the Tartars.

I reckon neither Scythia nor Arabia for parts of that ancient Scene of Action and Story; for tho Cyrus and Darius entred the first, yet they soon left it, one with loss of His Honour, and the other of his Life. And for Arabia, I nei∣ther find it was ever conquered, or in∣deed well discovered or surveyed, nor much more known, than by the Com∣merce of their Spices and Perfumes. I mean that part of it, which is called Arabia Foelix, and is environed on three sides by the Sea; for the Northern

Skirts, that joyn to Syria, have entred into the Conquests or Commerce of the four great Empires; but that which seems to have secured the other, is the stony and sandy Desarts, through which no Armies can pass for want of Water.

Now if we consider the Map of the World, as it lies at present before us, since the discoveries made by the Na∣vigations of these three last Centuries, we shall easily find what vast Regions there are, which have been left out of that ancient Scene on all sides: And tho passing for barbarous, they have not been esteemed worth the Pens of any good Authors, and are known on∣ly by common and poor Relations of Traders, Seamen, or Travellers; yet by all I have read, I am inclined to be∣lieve that some of these out-lying Parts of the World, however unknown by the Ancients, and overlookt by the modern Learned, may yet have afford∣ed as much matter of Action and Speculation, as the other Scene so much celebrated in Story. I mean not only in their vast Extent, and va∣riety of Soiles and Clymats, with their natural Productions, but even in the excellent Constitutions of Laws and

Customs, the wise and lasting Founda∣tions of States and Empires, and the mighty Flights of Conquests that have risen from such Orders and Instituti∣ons.

Now because the first Scene is such a beaten Road, and this so little known or traced, I am content to take a short Survey of four great Scheams of Go∣vernment or Empire, that have sprung and grown to mighty heights, lived very long, and flourished much in these remote (and as we will have it, more ignoble) Regions of the World: Whereof one is at the farthest degree of our Eastern Longitude, being the Kingdom of China; The next is at the farthest Western, which is that of Peru; The third is the utmost of our Nor∣thern Latitude, which is Scythia or Tar∣tary; And the fourth is Arabia, which lies very far upon the Southern.

For that vast Continent of Africa, that extends between Mount Atlas and the Southern Ocean; Tho it be found to swarm in People, to abound in Gold, to contain many great Kingdoms, and infinite smaller Principalities, to be pierced by those two famous Rivers of the Nile and the Niger, to produce a

Race of Men that seem hardly of the same Species with the rest of Mankind; Yet I can not find any Traces of that Heroick Virtue, that may entitle them to any share in this Essay. For what∣ever remains in Story of Atlas, or His Kingdom of old, is so obscured with Age or Fables, that it may go along with those of the Atlantick Islands, tho I know not whether these themselves were by Solon or Plato intended for Fables or no, or for Relations they had met with among the Egyptian Priests, and which perhaps were by them otherwise esteemed.

SECT. II.

THE Great and Ancient King∣dom of China is bounded to the East and South by the Ocean, to the North by a Stone Wall of twelve Hun∣dred Miles long, raised against the In∣vasion of the Tartars; and to the West, by vast and unpassible Mountains or Desarts, which the Labour or Curiosity of no mortal Man has been ever yet known to have pierced thro or given any account of. When Alexander would have passed the River Ganges, He was told by the Indians, that nothing be∣yond it was inhabited, and that all was either impassible Marishes, lying be∣tween great Rivers, or sandy Desarts, or steep Mountains, full only of Wild Beasts, but wholly destitute of Mankind. So as Ganges was esteemed by Ancients the Bound of the Eastern World: Since the use of the Compass, and extent of Navigation, it is found that there are several populous Kingdoms lie between

Ganges and the Desarts or Mountains that divide them from China, as Pegu, Siam, Cirote, and others, lie in this space, coasting along the Borders of Great Rivers Northwards, which are said to run about the length of Indus and Gan∣ges, and all of them to rise from one mighty Lake in the Mountains of Tar∣tary. But from none of these Kingdoms is known any other way of Passage or Commerce into China, than by Sea.

From Indostan or the Mogul's Coun∣try, there is none other usual; and such as travel from thence by Land, are for∣ced to go many Degrees Northward be∣fore they turn to the East, to pass many Savage Kingdoms or Countries of the Tartars, to travel through vast sandy Desarts, and other prodigious high and steep Mountains, where no Carriage or Beast is able to pass, but only Men on foot, and over one Mountain particular∣ly, esteemed the highest in the World, where the Air is so thin, that Men can∣not travel over it without danger of their Lives, and never in Summer with∣out being poysoned by the Scent of cer∣tain Herbs that grow upon it, which is mortal when they are in Flower. After eight or nine Months Journey from the

Mogul's Court, several Persons have travelled this Way, till they came to the Wall that defends or divides China from Tartary, and so to the Imperial City of Peking, situate in the Northern parts of this mighty Region, which the Chinese call a World by it self, and e∣steem themselves the only reasonable and civilized People, having no Neigh∣bours on three sides, and to the North only the Tartars, whom they esteem but another sort of wild or bruitish Men; and therefore they say in common Pro∣verb, That the Chineses only see with two Eyes, and all other Men but with one.

By this Situation, and by a Custom or Law very ancient among them, of suffering no Stranger to come into their Country, or if they do, not permitting Him to go out, or return any more to His own, this vast Continent continued very long and wholly unknown to the rest of the World, and for as much as I can find, was first discovered to us by Paulus Venetus, who about four hundred years ago made a Voyage from Venice, thro' Armenia, Persia, and several parts of Tartary, to that which He names the Kingdom of Cataya, and to the famous City of Cambalu, (as he calls them) and

after seventeen years residence of His Father and Himself, in that Court of the great Cham, returned to Venice, and left the World a large Account of this Voyage.

Since His time, and within two or three hundred years several Missionary Friers and Jesuits have upon Devotion or Command of their Superiors, pierced with infinite pains and dangers thro' these vast and savage Regions, some from the Mogul's Country, some thro' Armenia and Persia, and arrived at Pe∣king, which I make no question, (by comparing all their several Accounts and Relations) is the same famous City that is called Cambalu by Paulus Venetus, seated in the Northern Provinces of China, which is by Him called Cataya. The reason of this difference in Names, was that when Paulus Venetus was there, the Cham of East Tartary, called Cataya, had possessed Himself by Conquest, of several Northern Provinces of China, as well as that of Peking, where He made His Residence, and which was like the rest of His Empire, called Ca∣taya, and the chief City Cambalu, by a Tartar Name. After some time all these Provinces were again recovered by the

Chineses from the Tartars, and returned to their old Chinese Appellations; and the King of China, who then expelled the Tartars, fixed the Seat of His Em∣pire at Peking, (which had been for∣merly at Nanking and at Quinsay) that the Force of His Armies lying therea∣bouts, might be ready to defend that Frontier against the furious Invasions of the Tartars, whereof they had several times felt the rage and danger.

After this recovery, China continued in Peace, and prosperous, under their own Emperors, till about the year 1616, when the Tartars again invaded them, and after a long and bloody War, of above thirty years, in the end made themselves absolute Masters of the whole Kingdom, and so it has ever since continued.

This Region, commonly known by the name of China, extends about eigh∣teen hundred Miles, or thirty Degrees of Northern and Southern Latitude. It is not esteemed so much of Longitude, but this is more uncertain, the Journey thro' the whole Country from East to West having not, that I find, been ever performed by any European; and the accounts taken only from report of

the Natives. Nor is it easily agreed, where, the habitable parts of China de∣termine Westward, since some Authors say, they end in Mountains, stored on∣ly with wild Beasts and wild Men, that have neither Laws nor Language, nor other commerce with the Chineses, than by descents sometimes made upon them, for Rapines or for Rapes; And other Authors say, There are such inaccessible Mountains even in the midst of China, so as the first accounts, may have left out great Countries beyond these Moun∣tains, which they took for the utmost Border of this Kingdom.

Whatever length it has, which by none is esteemed less, than twelve or thirteen hundred miles; It must be al∣lowed, to be the greatest, richest and most populous Kingdom, now known in the World, and will perhaps be found to owe its Riches, Force, Civility and Felicity, to the admirable constitution of it's Government more than any o∣ther.

This Empire consists of fifteen seve∣ral Kingdoms, which at least have been so of old, tho now governed as Pro∣vinces, by their several Vice-roys, who yet live in Greatness, Splendor, and

Riches, equal to great and Sovereign Kings. In the whole Kingdom, are one hundred and forty five capital Cities, of mighty extent and magnificent Buil∣ding, and one thousand three hundred twenty and one lesser Cities, but all walled round; The number of Villages is infinite, and no Country in the known World so full of Inhabitants, nor so im∣proved by Agriculture, by infinite growth of numerous Commodities, by Canals of incredible length, conjuncti∣ons of Rivers, convenience of Ways, for the transportation of all sorts of Goods and Commodities from one Pro∣vince to another, so as no Country has so great trade, tho till very lately, they never had any but among themselves, and what there is now foreign among them, is not driven by the Chineses go∣ing out of their Country to manage it, but only by their permission of the Por∣tugueses and Dutch, to come and trade in some skirts of their Southern Pro∣vinces.

For Testimonies of their Greatness, I shall only add what is agreed of their famous Wall, and of their City Peking. The Stone-wall which divides the Nor∣thern parts of China from Tartary, is

reckoned by some, twelve, by others, nine hundred miles long, running over Rocks and Hills, through Marishes and Deserts, and making way for Rivers by mighty Arches; It is forty five foot high, and twenty foot thick at the bottom, divided at certain spaces by great Towers. It was built above two thousand years ago, but with such ad∣mirable Architecture, that where some Gaps have not been broken down by the Tartars upon their Irruptions, the rest is still as intire, as when it was first built. The King that raised this Wall, appointed a Million of Soldiers, who were listed and paid, for the defence of it against the Tartars, and took their turns by certain numbers, at certain times, for the guard of this Frontier.

The Imperial City of Peking is no∣thing so large as several other Cities of China (whereof Nanking is esteemed the greatest) but is a regular Four-Square; the Wall of each side is six Miles in length. In each of these sides are three Gates, and on each side of each Gate are great Palaces or Forts for the Guards belonging to them, which are a thousand Men to each Gate. The Streets run quite cross, with a

thro View and Passage from each Gate to that which is over against it in the opposite side, and these Streets are ranged full of stately Houses.

The Palace of the Emperor is three Miles in Compass, consisting of three Courts, one within the other, whereof the last (where the Emperor lodges) is four hundred paces square. The o∣ther two are filled with His Domesticks, Officers and Guards, to the number of sixteen thousand Persons. Without these Courts, are large and delicious Gardens, many artificial Rocks and Hills, Streams of Rivers drawn into se∣veral Canals faced with square Stone, and the whole atchieved with such ad∣mirable Invention, Cost and Workman∣ship, that nothing ancient or modern seems to come near it; and all served with such Magnificence, order and Splendour, that the Audience of a Fo∣reign Ambassadour at Peking, seems a sight as Great and Noble, as one of the Triumphs at Rome.

As other Nations are usually distin∣guished into Noble and Plebeian, so that of China may be distinguish'd into Learned and Illiterate. The last makes up the Body or Mass of the People who

are govern'd; the first comprehends all the Magistrates that govern, and those who may in time or course suc∣ceed them in the Magistracy; for no other than the Learned are ever em∣ployed in the Government, nor any in the greatest Charges, that are not of those Ranks or Degrees of Learning, that make them termed Sages, or Phi∣losophers, or Doctors among them.

But to comprehend what this Go∣vernment of China is, and what the Per∣sons employed in it, there will be a ne∣cessity of knowing what their Learning is, and how it makes them fit for Go∣vernment, very contrary to what ours in Europe is observed to do, and the reason of such different effects from the same Cause.

The two great Heroes of the Chinese Nation were Fohu and Confuchu, whose Memories have always continued a∣mong them Sacred and Adored. Fohu lived about four thousand years ago, and was the first Founder of their Kingdom, the progress whereof has ever since continued upon their Re∣cords so clear, that they are esteemed by the Missionary Jesuits unquestionable and infallible. For after the Death of

every King, the Successor appoints cer∣tain Persons to write the Memorable Actions of His Predecessors Reign, and of these, an Epitome is afterwards drawn, and entred into their Registers. Fohu first reduced them from the com∣mon Original Lives of Mankind, intro∣duced Agriculture, Wedlock, distin∣ction of Sexes by different Habits, Laws and Orders of Government; He invented Characters, and left several short Tables or Writings of Astrono∣my, or Observations of the Heavens, of Morality, of Physick, and Political Government. The Characters He used seem to have been parly strait Lines of different Lengths, and distinguish'd by different points; and partly Hierogly∣phicks, and these in time were follow∣ed by Characters, of which each ex∣pressed one word.

In these several ways, were for many Centuries, composed many Books, a∣mong the Chineses, in many sorts of Learning, especially Natural and Moral Philosophy, Astronomy, Astrology, Physick and Agriculture.

Something above two thousand years ago, lived Confuchu, the most learned, wise and vertuous of all the Chineses, and for

whom, both the King and Magistrates, in His own age, and all of them, in the Ages since, seem to have had the greatest De∣ference, that has any where been rendred to any Mortal Man. He writ many Tracts, and in them digested all the Learning of the Ancients even from the first Writing or Tables of Fohu, at least, all that He thought necessary or useful to Mankind, in their personal, civil or political Capa∣cities, which were then received and since prosecuted, with so great Esteem and Veneration, that none has questioned whatever He writ, but admitted it, as the truest and best Rules of Opinion and Life, so that 'tis enough in all Argu∣ment, That Confuchu has said it.

Some time after, lived a King, who to raise a new Period of Time, from His own Name and Reign, endeavoured to abolish the Memory of all that had passed before Him, and caused all Books to be burnt, except those of Physick and Agriculture. Out of this ruin to Learning, escaped, either by chance, or some private Industry, the Epitomes or Registers of the several suc∣cessions of their Kings since Fohu, and the works of Confuchu, or at least a part of them, which have lately in France,

been printed in the Latin Tongue, with a learned Preface, by some of the Mis∣sionary Jesuits, under the Title of the Works of Confutius.

After the death of this Tyrannous and Ambitious King, These Writings came abroad, and being the only Re∣mainders of the Ancient Chinese Learn∣ing, were received with general Ap∣plause, or rather Veneration; Four Learned Men having long addicted themselves to the Study of these Books, writ four several Tracts or Comments upon them; and one of the succeeding Kings made a Law, that no other Learn∣ing should be taught, studied or exer∣cised but what was extracted out of these five Books; and so Learning has ever since continued in China, wholly confined to the Writings of these five Men, or rather to those of their Prince of Philosophers, the great and renowned Confutius.

The Sum of His Writings, seems to be a Body or Digestion of Ethicks, that is, of all Moral Vertues, either Per∣sonal, Oeconomical, Civil or Political, and framed for the Institution and Con∣duct of Mens Lives, their Families, and their Governments, but chiefly of the

last; the bent of His thoughts and rea∣sonings, running up and down this Scale, that no People can be happy but under good Governments, and no Govern∣ments happy but over good Men; and that for the Felicity of Mankind, all Men in a Nation, from the Prince to the meanest Peasant, should endea∣vour to be good and wise and vertu∣ous as far as His own Thoughts, the Precepts of others, or the Laws of His Country, can instruct Him.

The chief Principle He seems to lay down for a Foundation, and builds up∣on, is, That every Man ought to study and endeavour the improving and per∣fecting of His own Natural Reason, to the greatest height He is capable, so as He may never (or as seldom as can be) err and swerve from the Law of Na∣ture, in the course and conduct of His Life: That this being not to be done, without much thought, enquiry and dilgence, makes Study and Philosophy necessary, which teaches Men what is good, and what is bad, either in its own Nature or for theirs, and conse∣quently what is to be done and what to be avoided, by every Man is His several Station or Capacity. That in

this perfection of Natural Reason, con∣sists the perfection of Body and Mind, and the utmost or supream Happiness of Mankind. That the means and rules to attain this perfection, are chiefly not to will or desire any thing but what is consonant to this Natural Reason, nor any thing that is not agreeable to the good and happiness of other men, as well as our own. To this end is pre∣scribed, the constant course and practice of the several Vertues, known and a∣greed so generally in the World, among which, Courtesy or Civility, and Gra∣titude, are Cardinal with them. In short, the whole scope of all Confutius has writ, seems aimed only, at teach∣ing Men to live well, and to govern well, how Parents, Masters and Ma∣gistrates should rule, and how Children, Servants and Subjects should obey.

All this, with the many particular Rules and Instructions, for either per∣sonal, oeconomical, or political Wisdom and Vertue is discoursed by Him, with great Compass of Knowledge, Excel∣lence of Sense, Reach of Wit, and il∣lustrated with Elegance of Stile, and Aptness of Similitudes and Examples, as may be easily conceived by any, that

can allow for the lameness and shortness of Translations out of Language and Manners of writing, infinitely differing from ours So as the Man appears to have been of a very extraordinary Genius, of mighty Learning, admirable Vertue, excellent Nature, a true Patriot of His Country, and Lover of Mankind.

This is the Learning of the Chineses, and all other sorts are either disused or ignoble among them; all that which we call Scholastick or Polemick, is un∣known or unpractised, and serves, I fear, among us, for little more, than to raise Doubts and Disputes, Heats and Feuds, Animosities and Factions, in all Controversies of Religion or Govern∣ment. Even Astrology and Physick and Chymistry, are but ignoble Studies, tho there are many among them that excel in all these; and the Astrologers are much in vogue among the Vulgar, as well as their Predictions; The Chymists, apply themselves chiefly, to the search of the universal Medicine, for health and length of Life, pretending to make Men Im∣mortal, if they can find it out: The Phy∣sicians excel, in the knowledge of the pulse, and of all simple Medicines, and go little further, but in the first, are so

skilful, as they pretend not only to tell by it, how many hours or days a sick Man can last, but how many years, a Man in perfect seeming health may live, in case of no accident or violence. And by Sim∣ples, they pretend to relieve all Disea∣ses that Nature will allow to be cured. They never let blood, but say, if the Pot boils too fast, there is no need of lading out any of the water, but only of taking away the fire from under it, and so they allay all heats of the blood, by abstinence, diet and cooling herbs.

But all this Learning is ignoble and Mechanical among them, and the Con∣futian only essential and incorporate to their Government, into which none enters, without having first passed thro the several Degrees. To attain it, is first necessary the knowledg of their Letters or Characters, and to this must be applied at least ten or twelve years study and diligence, and twenty, for great perfection in it: For by all I can gather out of so many Authors, as have written of China, they have no Letters at all, but only so many Characters, expressing so many Words: These, are said by some, to be sixty, by others eighty, and by others sixscore thousand;

and upon the whole, their writing seems to me to be like that of Short-hand a∣mong us, in case, there were a different Character invented, for every word in our Language; Their Writing, is nei∣ther from the left hand to right like the European, nor from right to left like the Asiatick Languages, but from top to bottom of the paper in one strait line, and then beginning again at the top till the side be full.

The Learning of China therefore con∣sists first in the Knowledge of their Language, and next, in the Learning, Study and Practice of the Writings of Confutius, and His four great Disciples; and as every Man grows more perfect in both these, so He is more esteemed and advanced; nor is it enough to have read Confutius, unless it be discovered by retaining the principal parts of Him in their memories, and the practice of Him in their lives.

The Learned among them are pro∣moted by three Degrees; The first may resemble that of Sophisters in our Col∣leges after two or three years stand∣ing, and this Degree is conferred by publick Examiners appointed for that purpose, who go thro the chief Cities

of each Province once a year, and up∣on scrutiny, admit such of the Candi∣dates as they approve, to this Degree, register their Names, and give them a Badge belonging to this first form of the Learned.

The second Degree, is promoted with more form, and performed once in three years, in a great College built for that purpose in the chief City of each Kingdom; By several Examiners appointed by the King, and strict en∣quiries and questions both of Language and Learning, and much Critick upon the several Writings, produced by the several Pretenders, and submitted to the Examiners. This Degree, may re∣semble that of Masters of Arts in our Colleges, and is conferred with a new Badge belonging to it.

The third Degree may be compared to that of Doctors among us in any of our Sciences, and is never conferred, but in the Imperial City of Peking with great Forms and Solemnities, after much examining, and deliberation of the Persons appointed for that purpose, and of this Degree there are never to be above three hundred at a time in the whole Empire, besides such as are actu∣ally

in the Magistracy or Government; Who are all chosen out of the Persons that have commenced or attained this degree of Learning. Upon the taking each Degree, they repair to a Temple of Confutius, which is erected in each City, and adjoyns to the Colleges; and there they perform the Worship and Ceremonies appointed in honour of His Memory, as the great Prince or Hero of the Learned.

Of these Persons, all their Councils and all their Magistracies are compo∣sed; out of these are chosen all their Chief Officers and Mandarines, both Civil and Military. With these the Emperors and Viceroys of Provinces and Generals of Armies advise, upon all great occasions; and their Learning and Virtue make them esteemed more able for the execution and discharge of all publick Employments, than the longest Practice and Experience in o∣ther Countries; and when they come into Armies, they are found braver and more generous, in exposing their Lives upon all great occasions, than the bold∣est Soldiers of their Troops.

Now for the Government, it is ab∣solute Monarchy, there being no other

Laws in China but the King's Orders and Commands; and it is likewise He∣reditary, still descending to the next of Blood.

But all Orders and Commands of the King proceed thro' His Counsels, and are made upon the Recommendation or Petition of the Council proper and appointed for that Affair; so that all matters are debated, determined, and concluded by the several Councils; and then upon their Advices or Requests made to the King, they are ratify'd and signed by Him, and so pass into Laws.

All great Offices of State are like∣wise conferred by the King, upon the same Recommendations or Petitions of His several Councils; so that none are preferred by the Humour of the Prince Himself, nor by favour of any Minister, by Flattery or Corruption, but by force or appearance of Merit, of Learn∣ing, and of Vertue, which observed by the several Councils, gain their Recom∣mendations or Petitions to the King.

The chief Officers are either those of State residing constantly at Court, and by whom, the whole Empire is govern∣ed; Or the Provincial Officers, Vice∣roys, and Magistrates or Mandarines;

For the first, there are in the Imperial City at Peking six several Councils, or as some Authors affirm, one great Council, that divides it self into six smaller but distinct Branches. Some dif∣ference is also made by Writers, con∣cerning the nature or the business, of these Councils. But that which seems most generally agreed, is, That the first of these six is a Council of State, by whom all Officers through the whole Kingdom are chosen according to their Learning and Merit. The Second is, the Council of Treasury, which has in∣spection into the whole Revenue, and the Receits and Payments that are made in or out of it. The third takes care of the Temples, Offerings, Feasts and Ceremonies belonging to them, as like∣wise of Learning, and the Schools or Colleges designed for it. The Fourth is the Council of War, which disposes of all Military Offices and Honours, and all matters of War and Peace, that is, by the King's Command issued upon their representations. The fifth takes care of all the Royal or Publick Buildings, and of their Fleets. And the sixth is a Coun∣cil or Court of Justice or Judicature, in all Causes both Civil and Criminal.

Each of these Councils has a Presi∣dent and two Assistants or chief Secre∣taries, whereof one sits at His Right, and the other on his Left Hand, who digest and register the Debates and Orders of the Council. And besides these, there are in each Council Ten Counsellors.

By these Councils the whole Empire of China is govern'd thro all the several Kingdoms that compose it; and they have in each Province particular Offi∣cers, Intendants and Notaries, from whom they receive constant Accounts, and to whom they send constant In∣structions concerning all Passages or Af∣fairs of moment in any of the several Provinces of the Kingdom.

There are, besides these six, several smaller Councils, as one for the Affairs of the King's Women, for his Houshold, and His Domestique Chancery or Ju∣stice. But above all, is the Council of the Colaos or chief Ministers, who are seldom above five or six in number, but Persons of the most consummate Prudence and Experience, who after having passed, with great Applause, thro' the other Councils or Govern∣ments of Provinces, are at last advanced

to this supream Dignity, and serve as a Privy Council, or rather a Junto, sit∣ting with the Emperor Himself, which is allowed to none of the others. To these are presented, all the Results or Requests of the other Councils, and being by their advice approved, they are, by the Emperor signed and ratified, and so dispatched.

These are always attended, by some of the chiefest and most renowned Phi∣losophers or Sages of the Kingdom, who attend the Emperor, and serve Him in receiving all Petitions, and give their opinions upon them to the Em∣peror or the Colaos, as also upon any matters of great moment and difficulty, when they are consulted: And these are chosen out of two Assemblies re∣siding at Peking, and consisting of sixty Men each, but all choice Persons, whose Wisdom and Vertue, are generally known and applauded. They are im∣ployed in all matters of Learning, and giving necessary Orders therein, keep∣ing all the publick Writings and order∣ing and digesting them, registring all Laws and Orders of State, and out of these are appointed, by each succeed∣ing King, some persons to relate and

register the Times and Actions of His Predecessor. They are, at their leisure much given to Poetry, in which, they compile the Praises of Vertuous Men and Actions, Satyrs against Vice, In∣scriptions for Monuments and triumphal Arches, and such like Compositions. And lastly out of these (as they grow in Esteem and Fame of Wisdom and Vertue) are chosen and advanced by Degrees, the Officers of State, and Counsellors in the several Councils, and none ever arrives to be a Colao, that has not been of one of these two As∣semblies.

Each particular Kingdom of the Em∣pire, has the same Councils, or some very like them for the Government of that particular Province; but there is besides in each, a Surintendant, sent more immediately from Court, to in∣spect the course of Affairs; A Censor of Justice and Manners, without whose ap∣proval, no capital Sentences are to be executed; And a third Officer, im∣ployed by the Empress, in the nature of an Almoner, whose business is only that of Charity, and Relief of the Poor and distressed, and setting free Prisoners upon small Debts or Offences; There

is besides, in each Province, a parti∣cular Council, to take care of Learn∣ing, and to appoint Rules and Exami∣ners for the several Degrees thereof.

It were endless to enumerate, all the excellent Orders of this State, which seem contrived by a reach of Sense and Wisdom, beyond what we meet with, in any other Government of the World; but by some few the rest may be judged.

Each Prince of the Royal Blood has a Revenue assigned Him, and a City where he is bound to reside, and never to stir out of it, without the Emperor's leave. All Degrees of People are di∣stinguisht by their Habit, and the seve∣ral Officers by several Badges upon them; And the Colour worn by the Emperor, which is Yellow, is never used by any other person whatsoever. Every House has a Board over the Door, wherein is written, the Number, Sex and Quality of the Persons living in it, and to a certain number of Houses, one is appointed to inspect the rest, and take care that this be exactly done. None is admitted to bear Office in any Province, where He was born, unless it be Military, which is grounded, up∣on

the belief, that in matters of Justice Men will be partial to their Friends, but in those of War, Men will fight best for their own Country. None ever con∣tinues in any Office above three years, unless upon a new Election; and none put out for miscarriage in His Office, is again admitted to any Imployment. The two great hinges of all Govern∣ments, Reward and Punishment, are no where turned with greater care, nor exercised with more Bounty and Seve∣rity. Their Justice is rigorous upon all Offences against the Law, but none more exemplary, than upon corruption in Judges. Besides this, Inquisition is made into their ignorance and weak∣ness, and even into carelesness and rashness in their Sentences; and as the first is punished with Death, so these are, with Dismission and Disgrace. The Rewards of Honor (besides those of advancement) are conferred, by Pa∣tents from the Emperor, expressing Merits and granting Priviledges, by Pillars of Marble with elegant and ho∣norary Inscriptions: And to merit ex∣traordinary towards the Prince and Country, even by erecting Temples, offering Incense, and appointing Priests,

for the service of them. Agriculture is encouraged by so many special privi∣ledges from the Crown, and the Com∣mon Laws or Customs of the Country, that whatever Wars happen, the Til∣lers of the Ground are untouched, as if they were sacred, like Priests in o∣ther places; so as no Country in the World, was ever known to be so culti∣vated, as the whole Kingdom of China. Honor and Respect, is no where paid to Nobility or Riches so much, as it is here to Vertue and Learning, which are equally regarded, both by the Prince and the People: And the ad∣vancement to Office of persons only for excelling in those Qualities, prevents the Cankers of Envy and Faction, that corrupt and destroy so many other Go∣vernments. Every one seeking Pre∣ferment here only by Merit, attributes to it that of other Men. Tho the King be the most absolute in the World, since there are no other Laws in China but what He makes; yet all Matters, being first digested and represented by His Councils, the Humors and Passions of the Prince, enter not into the forms or conduct of the Government, but His personal favours to Men or Women, are

distributed in the Preferments of His Houshold, or out of the vast Revenue that is particularly applyed to it, for support of the greatest Expence and Magnificence, that appears in any Pa∣lace of the World. So that it may truly be said, that no King is better served and obeyed, more honoured or rather adored; and no People better govern'd, nor with greater Ease and Felicity.

Upon these Foundations and Institu∣tions, by such Methods and Orders, the Kingdom of China seems to be framed and policed with the utmost Force and Reach of Human Wisdom, Reason and Contrivance, and in Practice, to excel the very Speculations of other Men, and all those imaginary Scheams of the European Wits, the Institutions of Xe∣nophon, the Republick of Plato, the Utopias or Oceanas of our Modern Writers. And this will perhaps be al∣lowed by any that considers the Vast∣ness, the Opulence, the Populousness of this Region, with the Ease and Facility wherewith 'tis govern'd, and the length of time this Government has run. The last, is three times longer than that of the Assyrian Monarchy, which was thir∣teen

hundred years, and the longest Period of any Government, we meet with in Story. The numbers of Peo∣ple and of their Forces, the Treasures and Revenues of the Crown, as well as Wealth and Plenty of the Subjects, the Magnificence of their publick Buil∣dings and Works, would be incredible, if they were not confirmed by the con∣curring Testimonies of Paulus Venetus, Martinius Kercherus, with several other relations, in Italian, Portuguese and Dutch, either by Missionary Friers, or Persons imploy'd thither upon Trade or Em∣bassies upon that occasion; Yet the whole Government is represented, as a thing managed with as much Facility, Order and Quiet, as a common Family, tho some Writers affirm the number of People in China, before the last Tartar Wars, to have been above two hundred Millions. Indeed the Canals cut thro the Country, or made by Conjunctions of Rivers, are so infinite, and of such lengths, and so perpetually filled with Boats and Vessels of all kinds, that one Writer believes, there are near as many People in these, and the Ships wherewith their Havens are filled, who live upon the Water, as those upon the Land.

'Tis true, that as Physicians say, the highest Degree of Health in a Body, subjects it to the greatest danger and violence of some Disease; so the per∣fection of this Government or Constitu∣tion, has had the same Effect, joyned with the accident of their Situation, upon such a Neighbour as the Tartars. For these, by the hardness and pover∣ty of their Country and their Lives, are the boldest and the fiercest People in the World, and the most enterprising, On t'other side, the Excellence of the Chinese Wit and Government, renders them, by great Ease, Plenty and Luxury, in time effeminate, and thereby exposes them to frequent Attempts and Invasi∣ons of their savage Neighbours. Three several times, upon their Records, the Tartars have conquered great parts of the Kingdom of China, and after long establishments there, have been expelled. Till (as we said before) about the year 1650. they atchieved the com∣pleat and entire Conquest of the whole Empire after a bloody War of above thirty years. But the Force of this Constitution and Government, appears in no circumstance or light, so great as in this, that it has waded safe thro so

great Tempests and Inundations, as six changes of Race among their Kings by Civil Wars, and four Conquests by fo∣reign and barbarous Forces. For under the present Tartar Kings, the Govern∣ment continues still the same, and in the Hands of the Chinese learned; and all the change that appears to have been made, by such a Storm or Revolution has been only, that a Tartar Race sits in the Throne instead of a Chinese; and the Cities and strong places are garri∣son'd by Tartar Souldiers, who fall by degrees, into the Manners, Customs and Language of the Chineses. So great a Respect or rather Veneration is paid to this wise and admirable Constitution, even by its Enemies and Invaders, that both Civil Usurpers and Foreign Con∣querors, vie with Emulation, who shall make greatest Court, and give most support to it, finding no other means, to secure their own Safety and Ease, by the Obedience of the People, than the Establishment and Preservation of their ancient Constitutions and Govern∣ment.

The great Idea, which may be con∣ceived, of the Chinese Wisdom and Knowledge, as well as their Wit, In∣genuity

and Civility, by all we either read or see of them, is apt to be lessen∣ed, by their gross and sottish Idola∣try; but this it self, is only among the vulgar or illiterate, who worship after their manner, whatever Idols belong to each City, or Village or Family, and the Temples and Priests belonging to them, are in usual request among the common People and the Women. But the Learned adore the Spirit of the World, which they hold to be Eternal, and this without Temples, Idols or Priests. And the Emperor only is al∣lowed to sacrifice at certain times, by Himself or His Officers, at two Temples in the two Imperial Cities of Peking and Nanking, one dedicated to Heaven and t'other to the Earth.

This I mention to shew, how the fur∣thest East and West, may be found to agree in Notions of Divinity, as well as in Excellence of Civil or Politick Constitutions, by passing at one leap from these of China to those of Peru.

SECT. III.

'TIS known enough, that about the year 1484; Alonso Sanchez, Master of a Spanish Vessel that usually traded from those Coasts to the Canaries and Madara's, was in His Passage be∣tween these Islands, surprised with a furious Storm at East, so violent, that He was forced to let His Ship drive be∣fore it without any Sail, and so black, that within twenty eight days He could not take the height of the Sun. That He was at length, cast upon a Shore, but whether Island or Continent, He could not tell, but full of savage Peo∣ple. That after infinite Toyls, Dan∣gers and miseries of Hunger and Sick∣ness, He made at length, one of the Tercera Islands, with only five Men left, of seventeen He carried out, and meeting there with the famous Co∣lumbo, made Him such Relations and so pertinent Accounts of His Voyage, as gave occasion for the discovery of

America, or the West-Indies, by this Man so renowned in our Modern Story.

Whatever Predictions, have been since found out or applyed, towards the Discovery of this New World, or Stories told of a certain Prince in Wales, having run the same Fortune, or of the ancient Carthaginians, I do not find, by all I have read upon this Subject, any reason to believe, that any Mortals, from Europe or Africa, had ever traced these unknown Paths of that Western Ocean, or left the least Footsteps of having discovered those Countries, be∣fore Alonso Sanchez and his Crew. Up∣on the arrival of the Spaniards there with Columbus, they found Nature as naked as the Inhabitants; in most parts no thought of business, further than the most natural Pleasures or Necessities of Life; Nations divided by natural bounds of Rivers, Rocks or Mountains or difference of Language; Quarrels among them, only for Hunger or Lust; the Command in Wars, given to the strongest or the bravest, and in Peace, taken up or exercised by the boldest among them; and their Lives com∣monly spent in the most innocent en∣tertainments, of Hunting, Fishing,

Feasting, or in the most careless lei∣sure.

There were among them many Prin∣cipalities, that seemed to have grown up, from the original of Paternal Do∣minion, and some Communities with Orders and Laws; but the two great Dominions, were those of Mexico and Peru, which had arrived to such extent of Territory, Power and Riches, that amazed those, who had been enough ac∣quainted with the Greatness and Splen∣dor of the European Kingdoms. And I never met with any Story, so enter∣taining, as the Relations of the seve∣ral learned Spanish Jesuits and others, concerning these Countries and People, in their native Innocence and Simpli∣city. Mexico was so vast an Empire, that it was well represented, by the common answer of the Indians, all a∣long that Coast to the Spaniards, when they came to any part, and asked the People whether they were under Mon∣tezuma, Quien noes esclavo de Montezu∣ma? or, Who is not a Slave of Monte∣zuma? as if they thought, the whole World was so. They might truly call it Slave, for no Dominion was ever so absolute, so tyrannous, and so cruel, as

His. Among other Tributes imposed on the People, one was of Men, to be sacrificed every year, to an ugly de∣formed Idol, in the great Temple of Mexico. Such numbers as the King pleased of poor Victims, were laid upon such extents of Cities or Villages, or Numbers of Inhabitants, and there chosen by lot, to satisfy such bloody and inhuman Taxes. These were often influenced by the Priests, who when they saw Men grow negligent, either in respect to themselves, or devotion to their Idols, would send to tell the King, that the Gods were hungry, and thereupon, the common Tribute was raised; so as that year, the Spaniards landed and invaded Mexico, there had been above thirty thousand Men sacri∣ficed to this cruel Superstition. And this was said, to have given great occasion, for the easie Conquests of the Spani∣ards, by the willing Revolts and Sub∣missions of the Natives, to any new Dominion.

The same was observed to happen in Peru, by the general hatred and aver∣sion of the People in that Empire to Atahualpa, who being a Bastard of the Yncas Family, had first, by Practices and

Subtilty, and afterwards by Cruelty and Violence, raised Himself to the Throne of Peru, and cut off with mer∣ciless Cruelty, all the Masculine Race of the true Royal Blood, that were at Man's estate or near it, after that Line had lasted pure and sacred, and reigned with unspeakable Felicity, both to themselves and their Subjects, for above eight hundred years.

This Kingdom is said to have extended near seven hundred Leagues in length, from North to South, and about an hun∣dred and twenty in breadth; 'Tis bounded on the West, by the Paci∣fick Ocean; on the East, by Mountains impassible for Men or Beasts, and as some write even Birds themselves, the height being such, as makes their Tops always covered with Snow, even in that warm Region. On the North, 'tis bounded with a great River, and on the South with another, which separates it from the Province of Chili, that reaches to the Magellan Straits.

The Kingdom of Peru, deduced its original, from their great Heroes, Man∣go Copac and His Wife and Sister Coya Mama, who are said, to have first ap∣peared in that Country, near a mighty

Lake, which is still sacred with them upon this occasion.

Before this time, the People of these Countries are reported to have lived like the Beasts among them, without any Traces of Orders, Laws or Reli∣gion, without other Food than from the Trees or the Herbs, or what Game they could catch, without further Provision than for present Hunger, without any Cloathing or Houses, but dwelt in Rocks or Caves or Trees, to be secure from Wild Beasts, or in Tops of Hills, if they were in fear of fierce Neighbours. When Mango Gopac and His Sister, came first into these naked Lands, as they were persons of excellent Shape and Beauty, so they were adorned with such cloaths as continued afterwards the usual habit of the Ynca's, by which Name they called themselves. They told the Peo∣ple who came first about them, that they were the Son and Daughter of the Sun, and that their Father, taking pity of the miserable Conditions of Mankind, had sent them down to reclaim them, from those bestial Lives, and to instruct them, how to live happily and safely, by observing such Laws, Customs and Orders as their Father the Sun, had

commanded these his Children to teach them. The great Rule they first taught was, That every Man should live ac∣cording to Reason, and consequently, neither say nor do any thing to others, that they were not willing others should say or do to them, because it was against all common Reason, to make one Law for our selves, and another for other People. And this was the great Princi∣ple of all their Morality. In the next place, that they should Worship the Sun, who took Care of the whole World, gave Life to all Creatures, and made the Plants grow, and the Herbs fit for Food to Maintain them; and was so careful and so good, as to spare no Pains of his own, but to go round the World every day, to inspect and provide for all that was upon it, and had sent these his two Children down on purpose, for the Good and Happiness of Mankind, and to rule them with the same Care and Goodness that he did the World. After this, they taught them the Arts most necessary for Life, as Mango-Capac, to sow Mayz (or the Common Indian Grain) at certain Seasons, to preserve it against others, to build Houses against Inclemencies of the Air, and Danger of

Wild-beasts, to distinguish themselves by Wedlock into several Families, to cloath themselves, so as to cover at least the shame of Nakedness, to tame, and nourish such Creatures, as might be of common use and sustenance. Coya Mama taught the Women to Spin and Weave, both Cotton, and certain coarse Wools of some Beasts amongst them.

With these Instructions and Inventions they were so much believed in all they said, and adored for what they did and taught of common utility, that they were followed by great numbers of Peo∣ple, observ'd and obey'd like Sons of the Sun, sent down from Heaven to in∣struct and to govern them. Mango-Ca∣pac had in his Hand a rod of Gold about two Foot long, and five Inches round. He said, that his Father the Sun had gi∣ven it him, and bid him when he tra∣velled Northward from the Lake, he should every time he rested, strike this Wand down into the ground, and where at the first stroke it should go down to the very top, he should there build a Temple to the Sun, and fix the Seat of his Government.

This fell out to be in the Vale of Cozco, where he founded that City, which was head of this great Kingdom of Peru.

Here he divided his Company into two Colonies or Plantations, and called one the high Casco, and t'other the low, and began here to be a Law giver to these People. In each of these were at first a Thousand Families, which he caused all to be Registred, with the numbers in each. This he did by Strings of several Colours, and Knots of seve∣ral Kinds and Colours upon them, by which, both accounts were kept of things and times, and as much expressed of their minds, as was necessary in a Government, were neither Letters nor Money, nor consequently Disputes or Avarice, with their consequences, ever entred.

He instituted Decurions thro' both these Colonies, that is, one over every Ten Families, another over Fifty, a third over a hundred, a fourth over five Hundred, and a fifth over a Thousand; and to this last, they gave the name of a Curaca or Governour. Every Decu∣rion was a Censor, a Patron, and a Judge or Arbiter in small Controversies among

those under his charge. They took care that every one cloathed themselves, laboured, and lived according to the orders given them by the Ynea's, from their Father the Sun; among which one was, That none who could work should be idle, more than to rest after labour; and that none who could not work, by Age, Sickness, or Invalidity should want, but be maintain'd by the others pains. These were so much observed, that in the whole Empire of Peru, and during the long race of the Ynca Kings, no Beggar was ever known, and no Woman ever so much as went to see a Neighbour, but with their Work in their hands, which they followed all the time the Visit lasted. Upon this, I remember a strain of refin'd Civility among them, which was, that when any Woman went to see another of equal or ordinary Birth, she worked at her own Work in the others House, but if she made a Visit to any of the Palla's (which was the name by which they called all the Women of the true Royal Blood, as Ynca's was that of the Men) then they immediately desired the Palla to give them a piece of her own Work, and the Visit passed in working for her.

Idleness, sentenced by the Decurions, was punished by so many stripes in pub∣lick, and the disgrace was more sensible than the pain. Every Colony had one supreme Judge, to whom the lower De∣curions remitted great and difficult cases, or to whom (in such case) the Criminals appealed. But every Decurion that con∣cealed any Crime of those under his Charge, above a day and a night, be∣came guilty of it, and lyable to the same punishment. There were Laws or Orders likewise against Theft, Muti∣lations, Murthers, Disobedience to Of∣ficers, and Adulterers, (for every Man was to have one lawful Wife, but had the Liberty of keeping other Women, as he could). The Punishment of all Crimes, was either Corporal Pains, or Death, but commonly the last, upon these two reasons which they gave; first, That all Crimes whether great or small, were of the same nature, and deserved the same punishment, if they were com∣mitted against the Divine Commands, which were sent them down from the Sun: Next, that to punish any Man in his Possessions or Charges, and leave him alive and in strength and liberty, was to leave an ill Man more incensed,

or necessitated to commit new Crimes. On t'other side, they never forfeited the Charge or Possessions of a Son for his Fathers Offences, but the Judges only remonstrated to him the guilt and pu∣nishment of them for his warning or example. These Orders had so great force and effect, that many times a whole year passed without the execution of one Criminal.

There is no doubt, but that which contributed much to this great order in the State, was the disuse of other pos∣sessions than what were necessary to Life, and the eminent Vertue of their first great Hero or Legislator, which seemed to have been entayled upon their whole Race in the course of their Reign: So as in the whole length of it 'tis reported among them, that no true Ynca was ever found guilty or punished for any Crime. Thus particular quali∣ties have been observed in old Rome, to be constant in the same Families for se∣veral hundred years, as Goodness, Cle∣mency, Love of the People in that of the Valerij, Haughtiness, Pride, Cruel∣ty, and Hatred of the People in that of the Appij, which may come from the force of Blood, of Education, or Ex∣ample.

'Tis certain, no Government was ever established and continued by greater Examples of Vertue and Seve∣rity, nor any ever gave greater Testi∣monies, than the Ynca's, of an excellent Institution, by the Progresses and Suc∣cesses, both in the propagation and ex∣tent of Empire, in force and plenty, in greatness and Magnificence of all publick Works, as Temples, Palaces, High-ways, Bridges, and in all Provi∣sions necessary to common ease, safety, and utility of human Life; so as seve∣ral of the Jesuits, and particularly Aco∣sta, are either so just or so presuming, as to prefer the Civil Constitutions of Man∣go-Copac before those of Lycurgus, Nu∣ma, Solon, or any other Law-givers, so celebrated in the more known parts of the World.

To every Colony was assigned such a Compass of Land, whereof one part was appropriated to the Sun, a second to the Widows, Orphans, Poor, Old or Maimed; a third to the peculiar Maintenance of every Family, accord∣ing to their Number; and a fourth to the Ynca. In this order the whole was Tilled, and the Harvest or Product, laid up in several Granaries; out of which

it was distributed by Officers to that purpose, according to the several uses for which it was designed, and new Seed issued out at the Season for the new Tillage.

Every Decurion, besides the Office of a Censor and Judge, had that likewise of a Patron or Sollicitor, for Relief of the Necessities or Wants of those under his Charge. They were bound to give in to the Publick Registers, an Account of all that were Born, and of all that dyed under their Charge. None was suffered to leave the Colony or People he was born in without Leave, nor to change the Habit commonly used in it, (by some Parts or Marks whereof those of each Province were distinguished.) None to Marry out of it, no more than the Ynca's out of their own Blood.

The Ynca that Reigned was called Capa Ynca, which the Spaniards interpret Solo Sennor, or Only Lord. He ever Married the first of his Female Kindred, either Sister, Niece, or Cousin, to pre∣serve the Line the purest they could. Once in two years he assembled all the unmarried Ynca's, Men above Twenty, and Women above Sixteen years old, and there in publick Married all such as

he thought fit, by giving each of their Hand one to another. The same was done among the Vulgar, by the Curaca of each People.

Every Family at their Time of Meals, eat with their Doors open, so that all might see their Temperance and Or∣der.

By these, and other such Laws and Institutions, Mango-Copac first settled his Government or Kingdom in the Colo∣nies of Cozco, which were in time mul∣tiplyed into many others, by the wil∣ling Consluence and Recourse of many several People round about him, allu∣red by the Divine Authority of his Orders, by the Sweetness and Clemen∣cy of his Reign, and by the Felicity of all that lived under it; and indeed, the whole Government of this Race of the Ynca's, was rather like that of a ten∣der Father over his Children, or a just, careful, and well-natur'd Guardian over Pupils, than of a Lord or Command∣er over Slaves or Subjects. By which they came to be so honored or adored, that it was like Sacriledge for any com∣mon Person so much as to touch the Ynca without his Leave; which was gi∣ven as a Grace to those who served him

well, or to new Subjects that submit∣ted to him.

After the Extent of his Kingdom into great Compasses of Territory round Cozco, by voluntary Submission of the People, as to some Evangelical rather than Legal Doctrines or Institutions; Mango-Copac assembled all his Curaca's, and told them, that his Father the Sun had commanded him to extend his In∣stitutions and Orders as far as he was able, for the Good and Happiness of Mankind; and for that purpose, with Armed Troops to go to those remoter Parts that had not yet received them, and to reduce them to their Observance. That the Sun had commanded him to hurt or offend none that would submit to him, and thereby accept of the Good and Happiness that was offered him by such Divine Bounty, but to distress on∣ly such as refused, without killing any that did not assayl them, and then to do it justly in their own Defence.

For this Design, he formed and as∣sembled Troops of Men, Armed both with Offensive, and chiefly with De∣fensive Weapons. He cast them into the Order of Decurions, in the same manner as he had done Families; To

every Ten Men was one Officer, ano∣ther to Fifty, and another to One Hun∣dred, a Fourth to Five Hundred, and a Fifth to a Thousand. There was a Sixth over Five Thousand, and a Se∣venth as a General, over Ten Thou∣sand; of which number his first Army was composed.

With this and other such Armies, he reduced many new Territories under his Empire, declaring to every People he approached, the same things he had done first to those who came about him near the great Lake, and offering them the benefit of the Arts he had taught, the Orders he had instituted, the Pro∣tection he had given his Subjects, and the Felicity they enjoyed under it. Those who submitted were received in∣to the same Rights and Enjoyments with the rest of his Subjects. Those who re∣fused were distressed, and pursued by his Forces till they were necessitated to accept of his Offers and Conditions. He used no Offensive Weapons against any till they attacqued them, and then Defensive only at first, till the danger and slaughter of his Men grew other∣wise unavoidable; Then he suffered his Forces to fall upon them, and kill with∣out

Mercy, and not to spare even those that yielded themselves, after having so long and obstinately resisted. Those who submitted after the first Threats or Distresses, or Bloodless Opposition, he received into Grace, suffered them to touch his Sacred Person, made great and common Feasts for them and his own Soldiers together for several days, and then incorporated them into the Body of his Empire, and gave to each of them Cloathes to Wear, and Corn to Sow.

By these ways, and such Heroick Vertues, and by the length of his Reign, he so far extended his Dominions, as to divide them into four Provinces, over each whereof he appointed an Ynca to be a Viceroy (having many Sons grown fit to Command) and in each of them established three Supream Councils, the first of Justice, the second of War, and the third of the Revenue, of which an Ynca was likewise President, which con∣tinued ever after.

At the end of a long and adored Reign, Mango-Copac fell into the last Period of his Life; upon the approach whereof, he called together all his Chil∣dren and Grand-children, with his eld∣est

Son, to whom he left his Kingdom: And told them, that for his own part he was going to repose himself with his Father the Sun from whom he came; that he advised and charged them all, to go on in the paths of Reason and Virtue which he had taught them, till they followed him the same Journey; that by this course only, they would prove themselves to be true Sons of the Sun, and be as such honored and esteem∣ed. He gave the same Charge more especially, and more earnestly to the Ynca his Successor, and commanded him to govern his People according to his Example, and the Precepts he had received from the Sun; and to do it always with Justice, Mercy, Piety, Cle∣mency, and Care of the Poor; and when he the Prince should go in time to Rest with his Father the Sun, that he should give the same Instructions and Exhortations to his Successor. And this Form was accordingly used in all the Successions of the Race of the Ynca's which lasted eight hundred years with the same Orders, and the greatest Fe∣licity that could be of any State.

I Will say nothing of the greatness, magnificence and riches of their Build∣ings, Palaces, or Temples, especially those of the Sun; of the Splendour of their Court, their Triumphs after Victo∣ries, their Huntings and Feasts, their Military Exercises and Honours. But as testimonies of their Grandeur, men∣tion only two of their High-Ways, whereof one was Five Hundred Leagues, plain and levelled through Mountains, Rocks, and Valleys, so that a Carriage might drive through that whole length without difficulty. Another very long and large, paved all with cut or squared Stone, fenced with low Walls on each side, and set with Trees, whose Branches gave Shade, and the Fruits Food, to all that passed.

I shall end this Survey of their Go∣vernment, with one Remarque upon their Religion, which is, that tho' the Vulgar Worshipped only the Sun, yet the Amautas, who were their Sages or Philosophers, taught, that the Sun was only the great Minister of Pachacamac, whom they adored in the first place, and to whom a great and sumptuous Temple was Dedicated. This word is interpreted by the Spaniards, Animador

del Mundo, or, He that animates or en∣livens the World, and seems to be yet a more refin'd Notion of the Deity, than that of the Chineses, who adored the Spirit and Soul of the World. By this principle of their Religion, as all the others of their Government and Policy, it must, I think, be allowed, that Human Nature is the same in these remote, as well as the other more known and celebrated parts of the World. That the different Governments of it are framed and cultivated, by as great reaches and strength of Reason and of Wisdom, as any of ours, and some of their Frames less subject to be shaken by the Passions, Factions, and other Cor∣ruptions, to which those in the middle Scene of Europe and Asia, have been so often and so much exposed. That the same Causes produce every where the fame Effects, and that the same Honours and Obedience, are in all places but Consequences or Tributes paid to the same Heroick Vertue, or Transcendent Genius, in what parts soever, or under what Clymates of the World it fortunes to appear.

SECT. IV.

THE Third Survey I proposed to make in this Essay upon Heroick Vertue, was that of the Northern Re∣gion, which lies without the Bounds of the Euxin and Caspian Seas, the Ri∣ver Oxus to the East, and the Danube to the West, which by the Greeks and Romans, was called all by one general Name of Scythia, and little known to any Princes or Subjects of the four great Monarchies, otherwise than by the de∣feats or disgraces received in their Ex∣peditions against these fierce Inhabitants of those barren Countries: Such was the fatal Overthrow of Cyrus and his Army, by the Eastern Scythians, and the shame∣ful Flight of Darius from the Western.

This vast Region which extends from the North-East Ocean, that bounds Ca∣taya and China to the North-West, that washes the Coasts of Norway, Jutland, and some Northern Parts of Germany, tho' comprised by the Ancients under

the common name of Scythia was distin∣guished into the Asiatick and the Euro∣pean, which were divided by the River Tanais, and the Mountains out of which it rises. Those numerous Nations may be called the Eastern Scythians, who ly on that side of the Tanais, or at least the Volga, and those the Western that lye on this. Among the first, the Massagetae were the most known or talkt of by the ancient Writers; and among the last, the Getae and the Sarmatae. The first is now comprehended under the general name of great Tartary, and the second under those of the lesser Tartary, Muscovy, Poland, Sueden, and Denmark; the two last styling themselves Kings of the Goths and Vandals.

How far this vast Territory is inhabi∣ted Northward by any Race of Man∣kind, I think none pretends to know, nor from how remote Corners of those Frozen Mountains, some of those fierce Nations first crept out, whose Force and Arms have been so known and felt, by all the rest of what was of Old called the Habitable World.

Whether it be that the course of Con∣quest has run generally from the North to the South, as from the harder upon

the softer, or from the poorer upon the richer Nations, because Men commonly Attacque with greater. fierceness and courage than they Defend, being in one spirited by desire, and in the other usually damped by Fear; I cannot tell, but certain it is, how Celebrated soever the four great Monarchies have been, by the Writings of so many famous Au∣thors, who have Eternized their Fame, and thereby their own; yet there is no part of the World that was ever Subject to Assyrian, Persian, Greek, or Roman Empires (except perhaps some little Islands) that has not been Ravaged and Conquered by some of those Northern Nations, whom they reckoned and de∣spised as Barbarous: Nor where new Empires, Kingdoms, Principalities, or Governments, have not been by them erected upon the ruins of the Old, which may justly Mortifie the Pride of Man∣kind, the Depths of their Reasonings, the Reach of their Politicks, the Wis∣dom of their Laws, and Force of their Discipline, and may be allowed for a great and undisputed Triumph of Na∣ture over Art.

'Tis agreed in Story, that the Scythi∣ans Conquered the Medes, during the

period of that Race in the Assyrian Em∣pire, and were Masters of Asia for fif∣teen years, till they returned home up∣on Domestick Occasions. That Cyrus was beaten and slain by their Fu∣ry and Revenge, under the leading of a Woman, whose Wit and Conduct made a great Figure in Ancient Story; That the Romans were defeated by the Parthians, who were of the Scythian Race.

But the great Hero of the Eastern Scythians or Tartars, I esteem to have been Tamerlane; and whether he was Son of a Shepherd or a King, to have been the greatest Conqueror that was ever in the World, at least that appears upon any present Records of Story. His Atchievments were great upon Chi∣na, where he subdued many Provinces, and forced their King to such Conditi∣ons of a Peace, as he was content to impose. He made War against the Mus∣covites with the same success, and partly by force, partly by consent, gained a passage through their Territories for that vast Army, which he led against Baja∣zet (then the Terror of the World) He conquered this proud Turk and his whole Empire, as far as the Hellespont,

which he crossed, and made a Visit to the poor Greek Emperor at Constantinople, who had sent to make Allyance with him upon his first Invasion of Bajazet, at whose Mercy this Prince then almost lay, with the small remainders of the Grecian Empire. Nothing was greater or more Heroical in this Victorious Ta∣merlane, than the Faith and Honour wherewith he observed this Allyance with the Greeks: For having been re∣ceived at Constantinople, with all the Submissions that could be made him, having viewed and admired the Great∣ness and Structure of that Noble City, and said, it was fit to make the Seat for the Empire of the World; and having the offer of it freely made him by the Greeks to possess it for his own, yet af∣ter many Honours exchanged between these two Princes, he left this City in the freedom, and the Greek Emperor in the Possessions he found them, went back into Asia, and in his return Con∣quered Syria, Persia, and India, where the great Moguls have ever since boasted to be the Race of Tamerlane. After all these Conquests he went home, and passed the rest of his Age in his own Native Kingdom, and dyed a fair and

natural Death, which was a strain of Felicity as well as Greatness, beyond any of the Conquerors of the Four Re∣nowned Monarchies of the World. He was without question, a Great and He∣roick Genius, of great Justice, exact Discipline, generous Bounty, and much Piety, adoring one God, though he was neither Christian, Jew, nor Maho∣metan, and deserved a nobler Character than could be allowed by modern Wri∣ters, to any Person of a Nation so un∣like themselves.

The Turks were another Race of these Eastern Scythians, their Original Coun∣try being placed by some upon the North-East, by others upon the North-West-Coast of the Caspian Sea, and per∣haps both may have contributed to fur∣nish such numbers as have over-run so great a part of Asia, Europe, and Africa. But I shall have occasion to say more of them and their Conquests in the next Section.

That part of Scythia that lyes between the two Rivers of the Volga and Borist∣henes, whereof the one runs into the Caspian, and t'other into the Euxine Sea, was the Seat of the Getae, whom Herodotus mentions, as then known by

the name of Getae Immortales, because they believed that when they dyed, they should go to Zamolxis, and enjoy a new Life in another World, at least such of them as lived according to his Orders and Institutions, who had been a great Prince or Law-Giver among them. From this Name of Getae came that of Gothae, and this part of Scythia, in its whole Northern extent, I take to have been the vast Hive out of which issued so many mighty Swarms of Bar∣barous Nations, who under the several Names of Goths, Vandals, Alans, Lom∣bards, Huns, Bulgars, Francs, Saxons, and many others, broke in at several times and places upon the several Pro∣vinces of the Roman Empire, like so many Tempests, tore in pieces the whole Fabrick of that Government, framed many new ones in its Room, changed the Inhabitants, Language, Customs, Laws, the usual Names of Places and of Men, and even the very Face of Nature where they came, and Planted new Na∣tions and Dominions in their Room. Thus Italy, after many Spoils and Inva∣sions of the Goths and Vandals, came to be possessed by the Lombards, Pannonia by the Huns, Thracia by the Bulgars,

the Southern parts of Spain or Andaluzia by the Vandals, the East or Catalonia, by the Catti and Alani; the rest of that Continent by the Goths. Gaul was sub∣dued by the Francs, and Britain by the Saxons; both which Nations are thought to have come anciently from the more Northern Regions, and seated themselves in those parts of Germany, that were afterwards called by their Names, from whence they proceeded in time to make their later Conquests. The Scutes who Conquered Scotland and Ireland, and possessed them under the Names of Al∣bin Scutes, and Irin Scutes, I guess to have come from Norway, and to have retained more of the ancient Scythians (before the Goths came into those parts) both in their Language and Habit, as that of Mantles, and in the Custom of removing from one part to another, ac∣cording to the Seasons or Conveniences of Pasture. The Normans that came into France, I take likewise to be a later Race from Norway, but after the Go∣thick Orders and Institutions had gained more Footing in that Province.

The Writers of those Times content themselves to lay the Disgraces and Ruins of their Countries, upon the num∣bers

and fierceness of these Savage Na∣tions that invaded them, or upon their own dis-unions and disorders, that made way for so easie Conquests: But I can∣not believe, that the strange Successes and Victorious Progresses of these Nor∣thern Conquerors, should have been the Effect only of Tumultuary Arms and Numbers, or that Governments erected by them, and which have lasted so long in Europe, should have been framed by unreasonable or unthinking Men. 'Tis more likely, that there was among them some Force of Order, some Reach of Conduct, as well as some Principle of Courage above the common Strain; that so strange Adventures could not be atchieved, but by some enchanted Knights.

That which first gave me this thought, was the Reflection upon those Verses in Lucan.

—Populus quos despicit Arctos Faelices errore suo, quos ille timorum Maximus haud urget lethi metus, inde ruendi In ferrum mens prona viris, animi{que} capaces Mortis, & ignavum rediturae parcere vitae.

By this passage it appears, that six∣teen hundred years ago those Northern People were distinguish'd from all o∣thers, by a fearlesness of Death, groun∣ded upon the belief of another Life, which made them despise the care of pre∣serving this.

Whether such an Opinion were first infused amongst them by Zamolxis, and propagated by Odin amongst his Fol∣lowers, or by Him invented, I will not conjecture; it may have been either one or t'other, since the Goths He led into the North-West parts of Europe, are agreed to have come from the Getae, who are placed near the River Tanais. For those vast Scythian Regions were divided into infinite several Nations, separated by the common natural Bounds of Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, Woods or Marshes. Each of these Coun∣tries, was like a mighty Hive, which by the vigour of Propagation, and health of Clymat, growing too full of People, threw out some new Swarms at certain periods of time that took Wing, and sought out some new abode, expelling or subduing the old Inhabitants, and seating themselves in their rooms, if they liked the conditions of place and com∣modities

of Life they met with; if not, go∣ing on till they found some other more agreeable to their present Humours or Dispositions. Sometimes the expelled Nations took heart, and when they fled from one Country, invaded another, and revenged the Injuries of some cruel Neighbours, upon others that were weaker but more innocent, and so like Waves, thrust on one the other, for mighty length of Space or Countries. Sometimes the Conquerors augmented their Numbers and Forces with the strongest and most adventurous of those Nations they first invaded, by their vo∣luntary Accession into the Shares or Hopes of their future Fortunes, and so went on to further Conquests.

The usual Manner of these Expediti∣ons, was, That when a Country grew too full of People for the growth of it to supply, they assembled together all that were fit to bear Arms, and divi∣ded themselves into two Bands, where∣of one stayed at home, to inhabit and defend their own, and t'other went to seek new Adventures, and possess some other they could gain by Force of Arms; and this was done sometimes by Lot, and sometimes by Agreement be∣tween

the two Divisions. That Band or Colony that went abroad chose their Leader, among those in most Repute and Esteem for Wisdom or for Courage, and these were their Commanders or Generals in War; and if they lived and succeeded, were the first Princes of those Countries they Conquer'd and chose for the Seat of their New Colony or King∣dom.

It seems a∣greed by the curious Enqui∣rers into the Antiquities of the Runick Language and Learning, that Odin or Woden or Goden (ac∣cording to the different Nor∣thern Dialects) was the first and great He∣ro of the West∣ern Scythians. That he led a mighty swarm of the Getes un∣der * 1.1

the name of Goths, from the Asiatick Scythia into the farthest North-West Parts of Eu∣rope: That he seated and spred his King∣dom round the whole Bal∣tick Sea, and over all the Islands in it, and extended it West-ward to the Ocean, and South∣ward to the Elve, (which was anciently esteemed the Bound be∣tween the Scy∣thians and the Germans.) That this vast Coun∣try was in the ancient Go∣thick

term cal∣led Biarmia, and is by some Authors term∣ed, Officina Gentium, having furnished all those Swarms of Goths, Vandals, Saxons, An∣gles, Jutes, Danes, Normans, which so often infested, and at length subdued all the Western Provinces of Europe. Some write, that he extended his Con∣quests even as far as Franconia it self; but all agree, that this Odin was the first Inventor of, or at least the first En∣graver of the Runick Letters or Chara∣cters, sometimes so famous, and at last so infamous in the World, by the vul∣gar Opinion and Imputation of all sorts of Charms, Enchantments, or Witch∣crafts to the Use and Force of those strange Characters. That He instituted many excellent Orders and Laws, made the distinction of Seasons, the divisions of Time, was an Invincible Warrier, a wise Law-giver, loved and obeyed du∣ring Life, by his Subjects; and after his Death adored as one of their three chief Gods, amongst which he was the God of War, Thor of Thunder and Tempests, Frea of Pleasure, by

whose Names, for an eternal Memory, three days of the Week are called.

I will not enter into His Story, nor that of His Succession, or the infinite and famous Revolutions it produced in the World, nor into the more curious search of the time of His Expedition, which must have been very Ancient, and is thereby left doubted and undetermi∣ned: But if it be true, that He was In∣ventor of the Runick Characters, some Writers of that Language will make Him older than Evander, by affirming their Runick Letters to have been more Antient than the Latin, which were first brought into Italy in His time. For my own part, I should guess, by all I have perused of those Antiquities, that this Expedition may have been made two thousand years ago or thereabouts. So much is true, that the Runes were for long periods of time in use, upon materials more lasting than any others imployed to that purpose; for instead of Leaves or Barks, or Wax or Parchments, these were engraven upon Stone or Planks of Oaks, upon Artificial Obelisks or Pillars, and even upon Natural Rocks, in great Numbers and Extent of Lines. But more of this Runick Subject will occur upon

that of Poetry; and I shall only ob∣serve, among the Constitutions of these Northern People, three Principles of a strain very extraordinary, and perhaps peculiar to themselves, and which ex∣tend very far into the Fortunes and Conquests of their Arms, and into the force and duration of their Kingdoms. The first of these is a Principle of Re∣ligion or Superstition, the next of Learning, and the last of Policy or Ci∣vil Government.

Whether the first were deduced from that of Zamolxis, among the Getes sty∣led of old Immortals, or introduced by Odin among the Western Goths, 'tis cer∣tain, that an Opinion was fixed and ge∣neral among them, That Death was but the entrance into another Life; that all men who lived lazy and unactive Lives, and died natural Deaths, by Sickness or by Age, went into vast Caves under ground, all dark and miry, full of noy∣som Creatures usual in such places, and there for ever grovelled in endless stench and misery. On the contrary, all who gave themselves to warlike Actions and Enterprises, to the Conquest of their Neighbours, and Slaughter of Ene∣mies, and died in Battel, or of Violent

Deaths upon bold Adventures or Reso∣lutions, they went immediately to the vast Hall or Palace of Odin, their God of War, who Eternally kept open House for all such Guests, where they were entertained at infinite Tables, in perpe∣tual Feasts and Mirth, Carowsing every Man in Bowls made of the Sculls of their Enemies they had slain, according to which numbers every one in these Mansions of Pleasure was the most Ho∣noured and the best entertained.

How this Opinion was printed in the Minds of these fierce Mortals, and what effect it had upon their Thoughts and Passions, concerning Life and Death, as it is touched Elegantly in those Verses of Lucan before recited, so it is lively represented in the twenty fifth and twenty ninth Stanza of that Song or Epicedium of Regner Ladbrog, one of their famous Kings, which He composed in the Runick Language, about eight hundred years ago, after He was mor∣tally stung by a Serpent, and before the Venom seized upon His Vitals. The whole Sonnet is recited by Olaus Wor∣mius in his Literatura Runica (who has very much deserved from the Common∣wealth of Learning) and is very well

worth reading, by any that love Poe∣try; and to consider the several stamps of that Coyn, according to several Ages and Climates. But that which is extra∣ordinary in it, is, that such an alacrity or pleasure in dying, was never expres∣sed in any other Writing, nor imagined among any other People. The Two Stanzaes are thus translated into Latin by Olaus.

Stanza XXV.

Pugnavimus ensi us, Hoc ridere me facit semper Quod Balderi Patris Scamna Parata scio in aula, Bibemus Cerevisiam Ex concavis crateribus craniorum, Non gemit vir fortis contra mortem Magnifici in Odini domibus, Non venio desperabundus Verbis ad Othini aulam.

Stanza XXIX.

Fert animus finire, Invitant me Dysae Quas ex Odini aula Othinus mihi misit Laetus cerevisiam cum Asis In summa sede bibam Vitae elapsae sunt horae, Ridens Moriar.

I am deceived, if in this Sonnet, and a following Ode of Scallogrim, (which was likewise made by Him after He was condemned to die, and deserved his Par∣don for a Reward) there be not a vein truly Poetical, and in its kind Pinda∣rick, taking it with the allowance of the different Climats, Fashions, Opini∣ons, and Languages of such distant Countries.

I will not trouble my self with more passages out of these Runick Poems, concerning this Superstitious Principle, which is so perfectly represented in these, with the possession it had taken of the Noblest Souls among them; for such this Lodbrog appears to have been, by His perpetual Wars and Victories in those Northern Continents, and in Eng∣land, Scotland, and Ireland. But I will add a Testimony of it, which was given me at Nimeguen, by Count Oxenstern the first of the Suedish Ambassadors in that Assembly. In discourse upon this Subject, and confirmation of this Opini∣on having been general among the Goths of those Countries; He told me, there was still in Sueden a place which was a memorial of it, and was called

Odinshall. That it was a great Bay in the Sea, encompassed on three sides with steep and ragged Rocks; that in the Time of the Gothick Paganism, men that were either sick of Diseases they esteemed mortal or incurable, or else grown invalid with Age, and thereby past all military Action, and fearing to dye meanly and basely (as they esteem∣ed it) in their Beds, they usually cau∣sed themselves to be brought to the nearest part of these Rocks, and from thence threw themselves down into the Sea, hoping by the boldness of such a violent Death, to renew the Pretence of Admission into the Hall of Odin, which they had lost, by failing to dye in Combat and by Arms.

What effect such a Principle (suck'd in with instruction and education, and well believed) must have upon the Passions and Actions of a People naturally strong and brave, is easie to conceive, and how far it went, beyond all the strains of the boldest and firmest Philosophy; for this reached no farther than Con∣stancy in Death, or Indifferency in the Opinion of that or of Life; but the other infused a Scorn of Life, and a de∣sire of Death; nay, fear and aversion

even for a natural Death, with pursuit and longing for a violent one (contra∣ry to the general Opinions of all other Nations) so as they took Delight in War and Dangers, as others did in Hunting or such active Sports, and fought as much for the hopes of Death as of Victory, and found as much plea∣sure in the supposed Advantages and Consequences of one, as in the real En∣joyments of the other. This made them perpetually in New Motions or De∣signs, fearless and fierce, in the Execu∣tion of them, and never caring in Bat∣tle to preserve their Lives, longer than to increase the Slaughter of their Ene∣mies, and thereby their own Renown here, and Felicity hereafter. For my part, when I consider the force of this Principle, I wonder not at the effects of it, their numerous Conquests, nor im∣mensity of Countries they subdued, nor that such strange Adventures should have been finished by such enchanted Men. But when Christianity introduced among them, gave an end to these De∣lusions, the restless humour of perpetual Wars and Action was likewise allay'd, and they turned their Thoughts to the establishment of their several Kingdoms,

in the Provinces they had subdued and chosen for their Seats, and applyed themselves to the Orders and Consti∣tutions of their Civil or Political Go∣vernments.

Their Principle of Learning, was, That all they had among them was ap∣plyed to the Knowledge and Distinction of Seasons, by the course of the Stars, and to the prognosticks of Weather, or else to the Praises of Vertue, which con∣sisted among them only, in Justice to their own Nation, and Valour against their Enemies; and the rest was employ∣ed in displaying the brave and heroick Exploits of their Princes and Leaders, and the Prowess and Conquests of their Nation: All their Writings were com∣posed in Verse, which were called Runes or Viises, and from thence the Term of Wise came: And these Poets or Writers being esteemed the Sages among them, were as such, always em∣ployed in the attendance upon their Princes, both in Courts and Camps, be∣ing used to advise in their Conduct, and to Record their Actions, and Celebrate their Praises and Triumphs. The Traces of these Customs have been seen within the Compass of this very Age, both in

Hungary and Ireland, where, at their Feasts it was usual, to have these kind of Poets entertain the Company with their rude Songs, or Panegyricks of their Ancestors bold Exploits, among which, the Number of Men that any of them had slain with their own hands, was the chief ingredient in their praises. By these, they rewarded the Prowess of the old Men among them, and infla∣med the Courage of the young, to e∣qual the boldness and atchievements of those that had travelled before them in these paths of Glory.

The Principle of Politick or Civil Government in these Northern Nations, seems derived from that which was Mi∣litary among them. When a new Swarm was upon the Wing, they chose a Leader or General for the Expedition, and at the same time the chief Officers to command the several Divisions of their Troops; these were a Council of War to the General, with whom they advised, in the whole progress of their Enterprise, but upon great occasions, as a Pitch Battle, any military exploit of great difficulty and danger, the choice of a Country to fix their Seat, or the conditions of Peace that were proposed,

they Assembled their whole Troops, and Consulted with all the Souldiers or People they commanded. This Tacitus observes, to have been in use, among the German Princes in His time, to con∣sult of smaller Affairs with the chief Of∣ficers, but de Majoribus omnes.

If a Leader of these Colonies suc∣ceeded in his Attempts, and conquer'd a new Country, where by common con∣sent they thought fit to reside, He grew a Prince of that Country while He lived, and when He dyed, another was chosen to succeed him by a general Election. The Lands of the subdued Territory were divided into greater and smaller Shares, besides that reser∣ved to the Prince and Government. The great, were given to the chief Of∣ficers of the Army, who had best de∣served, and were most esteemed; the smaller, to the common or private Soul∣diers. The Natives conquered, were wholly dispoyled of their Lands, and reckoned but as Slaves by the Conque∣rors, and so used for labour and servile Offices, and those of the conquering Nation were the Freemen. The great Sharers, as chief Officers, continued to be the Council of the Prince in Matters

of State, as they had been before in matters of War. But in the great Af∣fair, and of common concernment, all that had the smaller Shares in Land, were assembled and advised with. The first great Shares were in process of time called Baronies; and the Small, Fees.

I know very well how much Critick has been imployed, by the most Learn∣ed, as Erasmus and Selden, as well as many others, about the two Words Baro and Feudum, and how much Pains have been taken, to deduce them from the Latin, Greek, and even the Aegyptian Tongues; but I find no reason, after all they have said, to make any doubt of their having been both Original of the Gothick or Northern Language; or of Baro, being a Term of Dignity, of Command, or of Honour among them; and Feudum, of a Souldiers Share of Land. I find the first used above eight hundred years ago, in the Verses men∣tioned of King Lodbrog, when one of his Exploits was, to have Conquered eight Barons. And though Fees or Feuda were in use under later Roman Empe∣rors, yet they were deprived from the Gothiek Customs, after so great numbers of those Nations were introduced into

the Roman Armies, and employed up∣on the Decline of that Empire, against other more barbarous Invasions. For of all the Northern Nations, the Goths were esteemed the most civil, orderly, and vertuous, and are for such com∣mended by St. Austin and Salvian, who makes their Conquests, to have been given them by the Justice of God, as a Reward of their Vertue, and a punish∣ment upon the Roman Provinces for the Viciousness and Corruptions of their Lives and Governments.

From the Divisions, Forms and Institu∣tions already deduc'd, will naturally arise and plainly appear the Frame and Con∣stitution of the Gothick Government, which was peculiar to them, and diffe∣rent from all before, known or ob∣served in Story, but so universal among these Northern Nations, that it was un∣der the Names of King, or Prince or Duke and His Estates, established in all parts of Europe, from the North-east of Poland and Hungary, to the South-west of Spain and Portugal, though these vast Countries had been subdued by so many several Expeditions of these Nor∣thern Nations, at such diverse times, and under so different Appellations. And

it seems to have been invented or in∣stituted by the Sages of the Goths, as a Government of Freemen, which was the Spirit or Character of the North-West Nations, distinguishing them from those of the South and the East, and gave the Name to the Francs among them.

I need say nothing of this Constituti∣on, which is so well known in our Island, and was anciently the same with ours in France and Spain, as well as Germany and Sueden, where it still con∣tinues, consisting of a King or Prince, who is Sovereign both in Peace and War, of an Assembly of Barons (as they were originally called) whom He uses as his Council, and another of the Commons, who are the Representa∣tive of all that are possessed of Free-Lands, whom the Prince assembles and consults with, upon the occasions or af∣fairs, of the greatest and common con∣cern to the Nation. I am apt to think that the Possession of Land, was the O∣riginal Right of Election or Represen∣tative among the Commons, and that Cities and Boroughs were entitled to it, as they were possess'd of certain Tracts of Land, that belonged or were an∣nexed to them. And so it is still in

Friezland, the Seat from whence our Gothick or Saxon Ancestors came into these Islands. For the ancient Seat of the Gothick Kingdom, was of small or no Trade; nor England in their Time. Their Humours and Lives were turned wholly to Arms, and long after the Nor∣man Conquest, all the Trade of Eng∣land was driven by Jews, Lombards, or Milaners, so as the right of Boroughs seems not to have arisen from Regards of Trade, but of Land, and were places where so many Freemen inhabited to∣gether, and had such a Proportion of Land belonging to them. However it be, this Constitution has been celebra∣ted, as framed with great Wisdom and Equity, and as the truest and justest Temper that has been ever found out between Dominion and Liberty; and it seems to be a strain of what Heraclitus said, was the only Skill or Knowledge of any Value in the Politicks, which was the Secret of Governing All by All.

This seems to have been intended by these Gothick Constitutions, and by the Election and Representation of All that possessed Lands; for since a Country is composed of the Land it contains, they esteemed a Nation to be so, of such as

were the Possessors of it. And what Prince soever can hit of this great Se∣cret, needs know no more, for his own Safety and Happiness, or that of the People He governs. For no State or Government can ever be much troubled or endangered by any private Factions, which is grounded upon the general consent and satisfaction of the Subjects, unless it be wholly subdued by the force of Armies; and then the standing Ar∣mies have the Place of Subjects, and the Government depends upon the con∣tented or discontented Humours of the Souldiers in general, which has more sudden and fatal consequences upon the Revolutions of State than those of Subjects in unarmed Governments. So the Roman, Aegyptian, and Turkish Empires, appear to have always turn∣ed upon the Arbitrary Wills, and Wild Humours of the Praetorian Bands, the Mamalukes, and the Janizaries. And so I pass from the Scythian Conquests and Gothick Constitutions to those of the Arabians or Mahumetans in the World.

SECT. V.

THE last Survey I proposed, of the Four out-lying (or if the Learned so please to call them, Bar∣barous) Empires, was that of the Ara∣bians, which was indeed of a very dif∣ferent Nature from all the rest, being built upon Foundations, wholly Enthu∣siastick, and thereby very unaccounta∣ble to common Reason, and in many Points contrary even to Human Nature; yet few others have made greater Con∣quests or more sudden Growths, than this Arabian or Saracen Empire; but having been of later Date, and the course of it engaged in perpetual Wars with the Christian Princes, either of the East or West, of the Greek or the La∣tin Churches, both the Original and Progress of it, have been easily ob∣served, and are more vulgarly known, having been the Subject of many Mo∣dern Writers, and several well-digested Histories or Relations, and therefore I

shall give but a very Summary Account of both.

About the year 600, or near it, lived Mahomet, a Man of mean Parentage and Condition, illiterate, but of great Spi∣rit and subtil Wit, like those of the Climate or Country where He was born or bred, which was that part of Arabia called the Happy, esteemed the loveliest and sweetest Region of the World, and like those blessed Seats so finely painted by the Poet,

Quas ne{que} concutiunt venti, ne{que} nubila nimbis Aspergunt, ne{que} nix acri concreta pruina Cana cadens violat, semper{que} innubilus aether Contegit, & late diffuso lumine ridet.

He was Servant to a rich Merchant of this Country, and after his Masters Death, having Married his Widow, came to be possessed of great Wealth, and of a numerous Family: Among o∣thers, he had entertained in it a Sergian Monk, or at least called by that Name, whose vicious and libertine Dispositions of Life, had made him leave his Inclo∣sure and Profession, but otherwise a Man of great Learning. Mahomet was

subject to Fits of an Epilepsie or Falling-Sickness, and either by the Customs of that Clymat, or the necessity of that Disease, very temperate and abstaining from Wine, but in the rest voluptuous and dissolute. He was ashamed of his Disease, and to disguise it from his Wife and Family, pretended his Fits were Trances, into which he was cast at cer∣tain times by God Almighty, and in them instructed in his Will, and His true Worship and Laws, by which he would be served; and that He was command∣ed to publish them to the World, to teach them and see them obey'd.

About this Age all the Christian Pro∣vinces of the East were over-run with Arianism, which however refined or disguised by its learned Professors and Advocates, either denyed or under∣mined the Divinity of Christ, and al∣lowed only His Prophetical Office. The Countries of Arabia and Aegypt, were filled with great numbers of the scat∣tered Jews, who upon the last Destru∣ction of their Country in Adrian's time, had fled into these Provinces to avoid the Ruin and even Extinction, which was threatned their Nation by that Em∣peror, who after all the Desolations He

made in Judea, transported what He could of their remaining Numbers into Spain. The rest of Arabia and Aegypt, was inhabited by Gentiles, who had little Sense left of their de∣cayed, and derided Idolatry, and had turned their Thoughts and Lives to Luxury and Pleasure, and to the de∣sires and acquisition of Riches; in order to those ends, Mahomet, to humour and comply with these three sorts of Men, and by the assistance of the Monk his only Confident, framed a Scheam of Religion he thought likely to take in, or at least not to shock the common O∣pinions and dispositions of them all, and yet most agreeable to his own Temper and Designs.

He professed one God Creator of the World, and who govern'd all things in it. That God had in ancient times sent Moses His first and great Prophet, to give His Laws to Mankind, but that they were neither received by the Gen∣tiles, nor obeyed by the Jews them∣selves, to whom he was more peculiarly sent. That this was the occasion of the Misfortunes and Captivities that so often befel them. That in the later Ages He had sent Christ, who was the Second

Prophet, and greater than Moses, to preach His Laws and Observation of them, in greater Purity, but to do it with Gentleness, Patience & Humility, which had found no better reception or success among Men than Moses had done. That for this Reason God had now sent his lást and greatest Prophet, Mahomet, to publish his Laws and Commands with more Power, to subdue those to them by Force and Violence, who should not willingly receive them, and for this end to establish a Kingdom upon Earth that should propagate this Divine Law and Worship, throughout the World: That as God had designed utter Ruin and Destruction to all that refused them, so to those that professed and obeyed them, He had given the Spoils and Pos∣sessions of His and their Enemies, as a Reward in this Life, and had provided a Paradice hereafter, with all sensual en∣joyments, especially of beautiful Wo∣men new created for that purpose; but with more Transcendent Degrees of Pleasure and Felicity to those that should dye in the pursuit and propaga∣tion of them, thro' the rest of the World, which should in time submit or be subdued under them. These, with

with the severe Prohibition of drinking Wine, and the Principle of Predestinati∣on, were the first and chief Doctrines and Institutions of Mahomet, and which were received with great Applause, and much Confluence of Arians, Jews and Gen∣tiles in those Parts; some contributing to the rise of his Kingdom by the Be∣lief of his Divine Mission and Authority; many, by finding their chief Principles or Religious Opinions, contained or allowed in them; but most by their Voluptuousness and Luxury, their Pas∣sions of Avarice, Ambition and Re∣venge being thereby complyed with. After his Fits or Trances, he writ the many several Parts or Chapters of His Alchoran, as newly inspired and dictated from Heaven, and left in them, that which to us, and in its Translations, looks like a wild Fanatick Rhapsody of his Visions or Dreams, or rather of His Fantastical Imaginations and Inventions, but has ever passed among all his Fol∣lowers, as a Book Sacred and Divine; which shews the strange difference of Conceptions among Men.

To be short, this Contagion was so violent, that it spread from Arabia into Aegypt and Syria, and his Power in∣creased

with such a sudden Growth as well as his Doctrine, that he lived to see them overspread both those Countries, and a great part of Persia; the Decline of the Old Roman Empire, making easie way for the powerful ascent of this new Comet, that appeared with such won∣der and terrour in the World, and with a flaming Sword made way where-ever it came, or laid all desolate that oppo∣sed it.

Mahomet left two Branches of his Race, or Succession, which was in both esteem∣ed Divine among his Mussulmans or Fol∣lowers; the one was continued in the Caliphs of Persia; and to'ther of Aegypt and Arabia. Both these, under the com∣mon Appellation of Saracens, made mighty and wonderful Progress, the one to the East, and th'other to the West.

The Roman Empire, or rather the remainders of it, seated at Constantinople, and afterwards called the Greek, was for some times past most cruelly in∣fested, and in many parts shaken to pieces, by the Invasions or Incursions of many barbarous Northern Nations, and thereby disabled from any vigorous op∣position

to this new and formidable E∣nemy. Besides, the Divisions among Christians made way for their Con∣quests, and the great increase of Pro∣selytes to this new Religion. The Arians persecuted in the Eastern Provinces by some of the Greek Emperors (of the same Faith with the Western or Roman Church) made easie turns to the Ma∣humetan Doctrines, that professed Christ to have been so Great and so Divine a Prophet, which was all in a manner that they themselves allowed Him. The cruel Persecutions of other Grecian Princes against those Christians, that would not admit the use of Images, made great Numbers of them go over to the Saracens, who abhorred that Worship as much as themselves. The Jews were allured by the profession of Unity in the Godhead, which they pretended not to find in the Christian Faith, and by the great Honor that was paid by the Saracens to Moses, as a Prophet and a Law giver sent immediately from God into the World. The Pagans met with an Opinion of the old Gentilism, in that of Predestination, which was the Stoick Principle, and that whereinto unhappy Men commonly fell, and sought

for Refuge in the uncertain Conditions or Events of Life, under Tyrannical and Cruel Governments. So as some Roman Authors observe, that the Reigns of Ti∣berius, Caligula and Nero made more Stoicks in Rome, than the Precepts of Zeno, Chrysippus, and Cleanthes.

The great Extent and Power of the Persian Branch or Empire, continued long among the Saracens, but was over-run at length by the Turks first, and then by the Tartars under Tamerlane, whose Race continued there till the time of Ishmael, from whom the present Sophies are de∣rived. This Ishmael was an Enthusiast, or at least a Pretender to new Revela∣tions in the Mahometan Religion. He professed to Reform both their Doc∣trines and their Manners, and taught, That Haly alone of Mahomet's Follow∣ers, ought to be owned and believed as His True Successor, which made the Persians ever since esteem the Turks for Hereticks, as the Turks do them. He gained so many Followers by his new and refined Principles, or Professions of Devotion, that he made himself King of Persia, by the same way that the Xeriffs came to be Kings of Morocco and Fez about Charles the Fifth's time, and

Cromwel to be Protector of England, and Oran Zeb to be great Mogul in our Age, which were the four great Dominions of the Fanatick Strain.

The Arabian Branch of the Saracen Empire, after a long and mighty growth in Aeygpt and Arabia, seems to have been at its Height under the great Almanzor, who was the illustrious and renowned Heroe of this Race, and must be allowed to have as much excelled, and as eminently, in Learning, Vertue, Piety, and Native Goodness, as in Pow∣er, in Valour, and in Empire: Yet this was extended from Arabia through Ae∣gypt, and all the Northern Tracts of Africa, as far as the Western Ocean, and over all the considerable Provinces of Spain. For it was in his Time, and by his Victorious Ensigns, that the Go∣thick Kingdom in Spain was Conquered, and the Race of those Famous Princes ended in Rodrigo. All that Country was reduced under the Saracen Empire, (except the Mountains of Leon and Ovi∣edo) and were afterwards divided into several Moorish Kingdoms, whereof some lasted to the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Nay, the Saracen Forces, after the Conquest of Spain, invaded

the Southern parts of France, and pro∣ceeded with the same success as far as Tours, till they were beaten and expelled by Charles Martel, who by those exploits raised his Renown so high, as to give him the Ambition, of leaving the Kingdom of France to his own Line, in Pepin and Charlemain, by the desposition and extinction of the first Race, which had lasted from Phara∣mond.

I do not remember ever to have read a greater and a nobler Character of any Prince, than of this Great Almanzor, in some Spanish Authors or Translators of his Story out of the Arabian Tongue, wherein the Learning then remaining in the World flourish'd most; and that of ancient Greece, as it had been translated into their Language, so it seems to have been, by the Acuteness and Excellency of those more Southern Wits, in some parts very much improved.

This Kingdom continued Great, un∣der the Caliphs of Aegypt, who dege∣nerating from the Example and Vertues of Almanzor, came to be hated of their Subjects, and to secure themselves from them, by a mighty Guard of Circassian Slaves. These were bought young

from the Country now called Mengrelia, between the Euxine and Caspian Seas, the ancient Seat of the Amazons, and which has, in past and present times, been observed to produce the bravest Bodies of Men, and most beautiful of Women, in all the Eastern Regions. These Slaves were called Mamalues when they came into Aegypt, and were brought up with care, and in all Exer∣cises and Discipline, that might render them the most martial Troops or Bands of Soldiers that could any where be composed, and so they proved. The commander of this mighty band or guard of Mamulucks, was called their Sultan, who was absolute over them, as the General of an Army is in time of War. They served for some time to support the Government of the Caliphs, and enslave the Aegyptians, till one of the Sultans finding his own Power, and the general disesteem wherein the Caliph was fallen, by the effeminate Softness or Luxury of his Life, deposed him first, then slew him, and took upon Himself the Government of Aegypt, under the name of Sultan, and reigned by the sole Force and Support of his Mamalue Troops, which were continually increa∣sed

by the Merchandise and Transpor∣tation of Circassian Slaves. This Go∣vernment lasted, with great Terror in Aegypt, between two and three hun∣dred Years, during which time the new Sultans were elected, upon the Death or Deposing of the Old, by the Choice of the Mamalucs, and always out of their own Bands. The Sons of the Deceased Sultans enjoyed the Estates and Riches left by their Fathers; but by the Con∣stitutions of the Government no Son of a Sultan was ever either to succeed, or even to be elected Sultan: So that in this, cont••••ry to all others ever known in the World, to be born of a Prince, was a certain and unalterable Exclusion from the Kingdom: and none was ever to be chosen Sultan, that had not been actually sold for a Slave, brought from Circassia, and trained up a private Soul∣dier in the Mamaluc Bands. Yet of so base Metal were formed several Men, who made mighty Figures in their Age, and no Nation made so brave a resi∣stance against the growing Empire of the Turks, as these Mamalues did un∣der their Sultans, till they were con∣quered by Selim, after a long War, which looked in Story like the Combat

of some fierce Tyger with a Savage Boar, while the Country that is wasted by them are Lookers on, and little con∣cerned, under whose Dominion and Cruelty they fall.

It is not well agreed amongst Au∣thors, whether the Turks were first call∣ed into Asia by the Greek or the Persian Emperors; but 'tis by all, that falling down in great Numbers, they revolted from the Assistance of their Friends, set up for themselves, embraced he Ma∣hometan Religion, and improved the Principles of that Sect; by new Orders and Inventions (cast wholly for Con∣quest and extent of Empire) they fra∣med a Kingdom, which under the Otto∣man Race subdued both the Greek Em∣pire, and that of the Arabians, and rooted it self in all those vast Dominions as it continues to this day, with the Ad∣dition of many other Provinces to their Kingdom, but yet many more to the Mahumetan Belief. So this Empire of the Turks, like a fresh Graft upon one Branch of a vigorous Stock, cover∣ed wholly that upon which it was graft∣ed, and out-grew in time the other which was natural, as the Persian Branch.

The chief Principles upon which this

fierce Government was founded and raised to such a height, were first those of Mahomet, already deduced, which by their sensual Paradice and Predestinati∣on, were great incentives of Courage and of Enterprize, joyned to the Spoils of the Conquered, both in their Lands, their Goods, and their Liberties, which were all seized at the pleasure of the Conqueror.

A second was, a Belief infused of Di∣vine Designation of the Ottoman Line to reign among them for extent of their Territories, and Propagation of their Faith. This made him esteemed, at least by Adoption, as a Successor of Mahomet, and both a Sovereign Law∣giver in Civil (and with the assistance of his Mufti) a Supreme Judge in all Religious Matters. And this Principle was so far improved among these Peo∣ple, that they held Obedience to be given in all things to the Will of their Ottoman Prince as to the Will of God, by whom they thought him designed; and that they were bound not only to obey his Commands with any hazard of their Lives against Enemies, but even by laying down their own, when ever he commanded, and with the same resig∣nation,

that is by others thought due to the Decrees of Destiny, or the Will and Pleasure of Almighty God. This gives such an abandoned Submission to all the frequent and cruel Executions among them by the Emperors Command, tho' upon the meer Turns of his own Hu∣mour, the Suggestions of the Ministers, or the Flatteries and Revenges of those Women he most trusteth, or loveth best.

A third was, the Division of all Lands in conquered Countries, into Ti∣mariots, or Souldiers Shares, besides what was reserved and appropriated to the Emperor; and these Shares being only at pleasure or for Life, leave him the sole Lord of all Lands in his Domini∣on, which by the common supposition of Power following Land, must by con∣sequence leave him the most absolute of any Sovereign in the World.

A fourth, the Allowance of no Ho∣nors nor Charges, no more than Lands to be hereditary, but all to depend up∣on the Will of the Princes. This ap∣plies every man's Ambition and Avarice to court his present Humour, serve his present Designs, and obey his Com∣mands, of how different Nature soever

they are, and how frequently changed.

A Fifth was, the Suppression, and in a manner, extinction, of all Learning among the Subjects of their whole Em∣pire, at least the natural Turks and Ja∣nizaries, in whom the strength of it consists. This Ignorance makes way for the most blind Obedience, which is often shaken by Disputes concerning Religion and Government, Liberty and Dominion, and other Arguments, of that or some such nature.

A Sixth was, the Institution of that famous Order of the Janizaries, than which a greater strain of true and deep Politick, will hardly be observed in any Constitution. This consisted in the arbitrary choice of such Christian Chil∣dren, throughout their Dominions, as were esteemed most fit for the Emperors peculiar Service; and the choice was made, by the shews or promises of the greatest growth or strength of Body, vi∣gor of Constitution, and boldness of Cou∣rage. These were taken into the Empe∣rors Care, and trained up in certain Col∣ledges or Chambers, as they are called, and by Officers for that purpose, who endeavoured to improve all they could the advantages of Nature, by those of

Education and of Discipline. They were all diligently instructed in the Mahome∣tan Religion, and in the Veneration of the Ottoman Race. Such of them as proved weak of Body, slothful, or pu∣silanimous, were turned to labour in Gardens, Buildings, or Drudgeries of the Palace; but all that were fit for Military Service, were at a certain Age entred into the Body of Janizaries, who were the Emperors Guards.

By this means the number of Chri∣stians was continually lessened through∣out the Empire, and weakened by the loss of such, as were like to prove the bravest and strongest of their Races. That of Mussulmans was increased in the same Proportions, and a mighty Body of Chosen Men kept up perpetu∣ally in Discipline and Pay, who esteem∣ed themselves not only as Subjects or Slaves, but even Pupils and Domestick Servants of the Grand Seigniors Person and Family.

A seventh was, The great Tempe∣rance introduced into the general Cu∣stoms of the Turks, but more particu∣larly of the Janizaries, by the severe Defence and Abstinence of Wine; and by the Provision of one only sort of

Food for their Armies, which was Rice. Of this Grain, as every Man is able to carry upon occasion enough for several days, so the quantitg provided for every Expedition is but according to the number, with no distinction for the quality of Men; so that upon a March, or in a Camp, a Colonel has no more allowed him than a private Souldier. Nor are any, but General Officers, en∣cumbred with Train or Baggage, which gives them mighty Advantages in their German Wars, among whom every Of∣ficer has a Family in proportion to his, Command during the Campania, as well as in his Quarters; and the very Souldiers used to carry their Wives with them in∣to the Field; whereas a Turkish Army consists only of fighting Men.

The last I shall mention, is the speedi∣ness as well as severity of their Justice, both Civil and Military, which tho' of∣ten, subject thereby to Mistakes, and deplored by the Complaints and Cala∣mities of innocent persons, yet it is maintained upon this Principle fixt a∣mong them, That 'tis better two inno∣cent Men should dye, than one guilty live. And this indeed agrees with the whole Cast or Frame of their Empire,

which seems to have been in all points the fiercest, as that of the Ynca's was the gentlest, that of China the wisest, and that of the Goths the bravest in the World.

The growth and progress of this Turkish Empire, under the Ottoman Race, was so sudden and so violent, the two or three first Centuries, that it raised fear and wonder throughout the World, but seems at a stand for these last hundred years, having made no Conquest, since that of Hungary, ex∣cept the remainder of Candia, after a very long War so bravely maintained by the small Venetian State, against so mighty Powers. The reason of this may be drawn, not only from the Pe∣riods of Empire, that like natural Bo∣dies, grow for a certain time, and to a certain size, which they are not to ex∣ceed, but from some other causes, both within and without, which seem ob∣vious enough.

The first, a neglect in the observance of some of these Orders, which were essential to the Constitutions of their Government. For after the Conquest of Cyprus, and the example of Selim's Intemperance, in those and other Wines,

That Custom and Humour prevailed a∣gainst their Laws of Abstinence, in that point so severely enjoyned by Mahomet, and so long observed among all his Fol∣lowers. And tho' the Turks and Janizaries endeavoured to avoid the Scandal and Punishment by drinking in private, yet they felt the effects in their Bodies, and in their Humours, whereof the last needs no inflaming among such hot Tem∣pers, and their Bodies are weakened by this Intemperance, joyned to their a∣bandoned Luxury in point of Women.

Besides, the Institution of Janizaries has been much altered, by the Corrup∣tion of Officers, who have long suffered the Christians to buy off that Tribute of their Children, and the Turks to purchase the preferment of theirs into that Order for Mony; by which means the choice of this Militia is not made from the strongest and most warlike Bo∣dies of Men, but from the Purses of the Parents or Friends.

These two Distempers have pro∣duced another much greater and more fatal than both, which is the mutinous Humour of this Body of Janiz••ries, who finding their own Strength, began

to make what Changes they pleased in the State, till having been long flush'd with the Blood of the Basha's and Vi∣siers, they made bold at last with that of their Princes themselves, and having deposed and strangled Ibrahim, they set up his Son, the present Emperor, then a Child. But the Distemper ended not there, they fell into new Factions, changed and murthered several Visiers, and divided into so powerful Parties, and with so fierce Contentions, that the Bassa of Aleppo, with an Army of an Hundred Thousand Men, set up for himself (tho' under pretence of a coun∣terfeit Son of Morat) and caused such a Convulsion of this mighty State, that the Ottoman Race had ended, if this bold Adventurer had not upon Confidence in the Faith of a Treaty, been surprized and strangled by order of old Cuperly, then newly come to be Grand Visier, and absolute in the Government. This Man entring the Ministry, at fourscore years old, cruel by Nature, and hardned by Age, to allay the Heat of Blood in that distemper'd Body of the Janizaries, and the other Troops, cut off near Forty Thousand of them in three years

time, by private, suddain, and violent Executions, without Form of Laws or Tryals, or hearing any sorts of Pleas or Defences. His Son, succeeding in the place of Grand Visier, found the Empire so dispirited, by his Fathers Cruelty, and the Militia remaining so spited and distemper'd, breathing new Commotions and Revenges, that he di∣verted the Humour by an easie War up∣on the Venetians, Transilvanians, or the re∣mainders of Hungary, till by Temper and Conduct he had closed the Wounds which his Father had left bleeding, and restored the Strength of the Ottoman Empire to that Degree, that the suc∣ceeding Visier invaded Germany, though against the Faith of Treaties, or of a Truce not expired, and at last besieged Vienna, which is a Story too fresh, and too known to be told here.

Another Reason has been, the neglect of their Marine Affairs, or of their for∣mer Greatness at Sea; so as for many years they hardly pretend to any Suc∣cesses on that Element, but commonly say, That God has given the Earth to the Mussulmans, and the Sea to the Chri∣stians.

The last I shall observe, is the ex∣cessive use of Opium, with which they seek to repair the want of Wine, and to divert their Melancholly Reflections, up∣on the ill Condition of their Fortunes and Lives, ever uncertain, and depen∣ding upon the Will or Caprice of the Grand Seigniors, or of the Grand Vi∣siers Humor and Commands; but the effect of this Opium is very transitory; and tho' it allays for the present all Me∣lancholly Fumes and Thoughts, yet when the Operation is past, they return again, which makes the use of it so often re∣peated; and nothing more dispirits and enervates both the Body and the Mind of those that frequently use it.

The external Reason of the Stand made this last Century, in the Growth of the Turkish Empire, seems to have been, their having before extended it, till they came to such strong Bars as were not to be broken. For they were grown to border upon the Persian Em∣pire to the East, upon the Tartars to the North, upon the Aethiopians to the South, and upon the German Empire to the West, and turned their prospect this way, as the easiest and most plau∣sible,

being against a Christian State.

Now this Empire of Germany, con∣sisting of such large Territories, such Numbers and Bodies of Warlike Men, when united in any common Cause or Quarrel, seems as strongly constituted for Defence, as the Turkish is for Inva∣sion or Conquest. For being composed of many Civil and Moderate Govern∣ments, under Legal Princes or Free States, the Subjects are all fond of their Liberties and Laws, and abhor the falling under any Foreign or Arbitrary Dominions, and in such a common Cause seem to be invincible. On the contrary, the Turkish Territories being all enslaved, and thereby in a manner desolated, have no Force but that of their standing Armies, and their People in general care not either for the pro∣gress of their Victories abroad, nor even for the Defence of their own Countries, since they are sure to lose nothing, but may hope reasonably to gain by any Change of Master, or of Government, which makes that Em∣pire the worse constituted that can be for Defence, upon any great Misfor∣tune to their Armies.

The Effect of these two different Constitutions had been seen and felt (in all probability) to the wonder of the whole World, in these late Revo∣lutions, if the Divine Decrees had not crossed all Human Appearances. For the Grand Visier might certainly have taken Vienna, before the Confederate Princes could have united for its Relief, if the Opinion of vast Treasures (there assembled for shelter from all the adja∣cent parts) had not given him a passi∣onate desire to take the Town by Composition rather than by Storm, which must have left all its Wealth a Prey to the Soldiers, and not to the General.

If the Turks had possessed this Bul∣wark of Christendom, I do not con∣ceive what could have hindered them from being Masters immediately of Austria, and all its depending Provinces; nor in another year of all Italy, or of the Southern Provinces of Germany, as they should have chosen to carry on their Invasion, or of both, in two or three years time; and how fatal this might have been to the rest of Chri∣stendom, or how it might have enlarged

the Turkish Dominions, is easie to con∣jecture.

On th' other side, after the De∣feat of the Grand Visiers Army, his Death, and that of so many brave Basha's and other Captains, by the usual Humour and Faction of that bloody Court: After such Slaughters of the Janizaries, in so many Encounters, and such an universal Discouragement of their Troops, that could no where withstand the German Arms and Bravery; if upon the taking of Bel∣grade, the Emperor had been at the Head of the Forces then in his Service, united under one great Commander, and without dependance upon the se∣veral Princes by whom they were rai∣sed, I do not see what could have hin∣dred them from conquering all before them, in that open Country of Bulga∣ria and Romania, nor from taking Con∣stantinople it self, upon the course of an easie War, in such a Decline of the Turkish Empire, with so weak and di∣spirited Troops as those that remain∣ed, a Treasure so exhausted, a Court so divided, and such a general Conster∣nation as appear'd in that great and

multuous City, upon these Occasi∣ons.

But God Almighty had not decreed any so great Revolution, either for the Ruin or Advantage of Christendom, and seems to have left both Empires at a Bay, and not likely to make any great Enterprizes on either side, but rather to fall into the Designs of a Peace, which may probably leave Hungary to the Possession as well as Right of the House of Austria, and the Turks in a condition of giving no great Fears or Dangers, in our Age, to the rest of Christendom.

Although the Mahumetan Empires were not raised like others, upon the Foundations, or by the Force of Heroic Vertue, but rather by the Practices of a subtile Man, upon the Simplicity of credulous People; yet the Growth of them has been influenced by several Princes, in whom some Beams at least of that Sun have shined, such as Al∣manzor, Saladine, Ottoman, and Soly∣man the Great. And because I have named the most Heroick Persons of that Sect, it will be but Justice to No∣bler

Nations, to mention at the same time, those who appear to have shined the brightest in their several Ages or Countries, the Lustre of whose Ver∣tues, as well as Greatness, has been sul∣lied with the fewest noted Blemishes or Defaults, and who for deserving well of their own Countries by their Actions, and of Mankind by their Examples, have eternized their Memories in the true Records of Fame, which is ever just to the Dead, how partial soever it may be to the Living, from the forced Applauses of Power, or fulsom Adula∣tions of servile Men.

Such as these were among the ancient Grecians, Epimanondas, Pericles, and Agesilaus. Of the Old Roman State, the first Scipio, Marcellus, and Paulus Aemilius. Of the Roman Emperors, Augustus, Trajan, and Marcus Antoninus. Among the Goths, Alaric and Theoderic. Of the Western Emperors, Charlemain, Frederic Barbarossa, and Charles the Fifth. Of the French Nation Phara∣mond, Charles Martel, and Henry the Fourth, who began three of their No∣blest Races. Of the ••uedes, Gustavus Adolphus. And of our own, Richard

the First, the Black Prince, and Harry the Fifth. To these I may add seven Famous Captains, or smaller Princes, whose Exploits and Vertues may justly allow them to be ranked with so great Kings and Emperors. Aetius and Bel∣lisarius, the two last Great Command∣ers of the Roman Armies, after the Di∣vision and Decay of that Mighty State, who set up the last Trophies, and made the bravest Defences against the Numbers and Fury of those Barba∣rous Nations, that invaded, and after their time tore in pieces that whole Em∣pire. George Castriot, commonly call'd Scanderbeg, Prince of Epire, and Huni∣ades Viceroy of Hungaria, who were two most Victorious Captains, and ex∣cellent Men, the true Champions of Christendom whilest they lived, and Terror of the Turks; who with small Forces held at a Bay, for so many years, all the Powers of the Ottoman Empire. Ferdinand Gonzalvo, that Noble Spa∣niard, worthily Surnamed the Great Captain, who by his sole Prowess and Conduct, Conquered a Crown for his Master, which he might have worn for himself, if his Ambition had been equal

to his Courage and Vertues. William Prince of Orange, who restored the Belgick Liberties, and was the Founder of their State, esteemed generally the best and wisest Commander of his Age, and who at the sudden point of his Death, as well as in the course of his Life, gave such Testimonies of his be∣ing a true Lover of the People and Country he Govern'd. Alexander Far∣nese, Prince of Parma, who by his Wis∣dom, Courage and Justice, recovered Ten of the Seventeen Provinces, that were in a manner lost to the Crown of Spain; made two famous Expeditions for relief of his Confederates into the Heart of France, and seemed to revive the ancient Roman Vertue and Disci∣pline in the World, and to bring the noble Genius of Italy to appear once more upon the Stage.

Who-ever has a mind to trace the Paths of Heroick Vertue, which lead to the Temple of True Honour and Fame, need seek them no further, than in the Stories and Examples of those Illustrious Persons here Assembled. And so I leave this Crown of never∣fading

Lawrel, in full View of such great and noble Spirits, as shall de∣serve it, in this or in succeeding Ages. Let them win it and wear it.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Excerpta ex Edda.

  Hic Odinus Fatidicus erat, ut & ejus Conjux, unde nomen suum in Septentrione prae cunctis Regibus maxime celebratum iri praevidit. Hàc motus causà ex Turcia iter molitus erat, adjuncto sibi magno numero militum Juvenum & Se∣niorum utrius{que} sexus. Quascun{que} terras peragrarunt, divinis effere∣bantur encomiis, Diis quam homi∣nibus similiores ab universis judi∣cati, nec prius substiterunt quàm terram ingressi essent quae nunc Saxonia appellatur, ubi per multos annos Odinus vixit, istam{que} Regi∣onem late possedit, quam cum di∣stribuisset inter Filios, ita ut Vag∣deggo Orientalem Saxoniam, Beg∣dego West phaliam, Siggo Franco∣niam determinavit; ipse in aliam migravit regionem, quae tunc Re∣idgotolandia dicibatur, & quic∣quid ibi placuit sibi vindicavit. Huic terrae praefecit filium Skiol∣dam ex quo Freidlefus genitus est cujus posteri Skioldungar, five Skioldiades nominantur, a qua stirpe Daniae Reges descenderunt, ista Reidgotolandia, nunc Jutlan∣dia appellatur.

  Ex Snorrone.

  Odinus Heros in Asgordia pro∣pe Tanaim, Sacrorum Gentilium Summus antistes, duodecim Sena∣tores qui caeteris pietate & sapi∣entia praestarent Religioni curan∣dae & Juri dicundo praefecit. Hic magnanimus & fortis bellator in∣numera regna ditiones{que} suam re∣degit in Potestatem. Manus du∣cum suorum vertici imponens eos consecrabat, qui in pugnam euntes nomen Odini nuncupabant. Othi∣nus fratribus suis Regnum Asgar diae commisit, ipse in Russiam profectus & inde in Saxoniam, eam sibi subjugavit, & filiis in re∣gendum commisit. Inauditi gene∣ris miracula variis exercuit prae∣stigiis, Magisterium publicum Ma∣giae praecipiendae instituit: In va∣rias formarum species se transmu∣tare noverat, tantâ eloquii dulce∣dine audientes demulcere poterat ut dictis ejus nullam non fidem adhiberent. Carminibus inter lo∣quendum crebrò prolatis miram Sermoni Gratiam conciliabat: Tantâ ludificandorum oculorum peritià callebat, ut saepe corpus suum velut spiritu suppresso humi prosterneret, Evigilans se longin∣quas oras peragrasse, & quid ibi rerum gereretur comperisse asse∣verabat. Ad summum Runis suis & incantationibus incredibilia pa∣trando tam clarum sibi nomen peperit ut sapientiae & potentiae suae & Asianorum per omnes brevi nationes sit debitum, quò evenit ut Sueci alii{que} populi Boreales Odino, Sacrificia dependerent. Post obitum multis apparuit, multis victoriam contulit, alios in Walhalde, id est, aulam Plu∣tonis invitavit.