:

himself dishonoured, if he find he has taken a virgin for his wife and De Guys relates, that Mitylenian women think themselves disgraced, unless strangers relieve them from the reproach of virginity. This is a custom of ancient date. But in Rome, virgins were so sacred, that their execution was prohibited. The daughter of Sejanus, although condemned, could not, in consequence, legally be executed.' Her enemies were resolved, however, to obviate the difficulty: before she was strangled, therefore, she was ravished by the hangman.

XV.

2

In Venice, fathers and mothers once publicly sold their daughters to prostitution; and their friends and neighbours frequently congratulated them on a good sale. It is curious, says Misson, to see a mother deliver up her daughter for a sum of money; and swear solemnly, by her God, and upon her salvation, that she cannot sell her for less.

The religion of Zoroaster permitted marriages between brothers and sisters: the Tartars were even allowed to marry their own daughters; and incest is, even in the present day, allowed by the laws of Spain and Portugal, after the ancient manner of Egypt, provided it is committed by a prince. As to the Spanish and Portuguese princes, they are a

Tacit. Annal., lib. v. cap. 9.

2 Misson, vol. i. p. 267, Ed. 1714. 3 Philo, de Specialibus Legibus, quæ pertinent ad precepta Decalogi, p. 778.

4 Hist. Tartary, part iii. p. 236.

5 Vide Code de Incestis et inutilibus Nuptiis, leg. viii.

disgrace to mankind for such a practice: and the sovereigns and princes of Europe ought to avoid contaminating the purity of their blood by an union with such families, as they would shun the embrace of an ourang-outang. It is a crime, not to be tolerated in a christian land!

Solinus' relates, that the kings of the Western Islands of Caledonia had no property of their own, but might make free use of their people's: neither had they any wives; but they had free access to those of their subjects. This law was enacted for the purpose of taking from them all power, as well as all inclination, for aggrandizing themselves, at the expense of the state.

Ovid2 alludes to nations, where fathers married their daughters, and mothers their sons. The Guebres of the East permitted unions between brothers and sisters; and Strabo gives a horrible picture of similar enormities among the African tribes. The Jews3 married their brothers' widows; a custom which still prevails in Caubul.*

Pausanias says, the Greeks forbade second marriages: and among the Thurians,5 he, who introduced a mother-in-law to his children, excluded himself from all participation in the public counsels. In India, some nations even slept with their wives in public.

1 C. xxxv. The right of concubinage prevailed in Scotland, till the time of Malcolm III. Selden.

2 Met. x. fab. ix. v. 35.

4 Elphinstone, p. 179, 4to.

3 Law of Moses, Luke xx., 2, 8, 9.

5 Diodorus Sic., lib. xii. Sextus Empiricus, lib. i., c. 14.

The Spartans, the Romans,' and the Tapurians2 not unfrequently lent theirs to their friends: and many islanders, even in the present day, visit European ships, merely for the purpose of making a tender of their bosom companions. To refuse them is always a subject of mortification to the visitors; and sometimes even a signal for revenge. The Laplanders,3 also, offer their wives to strangers, and esteem the acceptance of them an honour.

Though the custom of lending wives prevailed at Rome; wives enjoyed no privileges, emanating from themselves. During the consulship, husbands might kill their wives, if taken in adultery, The Julian law, enacted by Augustus, and confirmed by Domitian,5 commuted it into the loss of dower; and gave the punishment into the hands of the wife's father: but a woman, thus detected, in the time of the emperors, was condemned to prostitution, in the public streets, with whomsoever should please to disgrace himself with her, in that odious manner. This law was abolished by Theodosius. Bachelors were fined for living single; and rendered incapable of receiving legacies or inheritances, except from relatives.

In Malabar, if a man is accused of receiving a favor from a lady of rank, superior to himself, he is

1 Tertullian, in Apolog., c. 39.

2 Strabo, lib. vii.

3 Clarke, Scandinavia, p. 390. 4to.

4 Suet. in Vit. Aug. c. 34.

5. Juvenal, sat. ii. v. 30.

6 Kaims, Socrates. Eccl. Hist. lib. v. c. 18.

7 Dion. Halic. lib. xxxvii. 8 Lipsius Excursiones ad Tacit., ann. lib. iii.

: 2 Dillon's Voy., p. 97, &c. **

bound hand and foot; carried before the prince; put to death; and the nearest of the lady's relations has the privilege of killing all his friends, for three days, in that part of the country, where the crime was committed.

These instances,-drawn from the practises of every climate,-sufficiently disprove the argument of Mon

tesquieu.

CHAPTER IV.

WHEN Du Bos says, that the most sublime geniuses are not born great, but only capable of becoming such'; and when he says, that want debases the mind; and that genius, reduced through misery to write, loses one half of its vigour; it is impossible not to acknowledge the propriety of his observations. But when he proceeds to assert, that genius is principally the result, as it were, of climate, we must proceed to facts.? Nor can we implicity give faith to the assertion of Tacitus, that the times, which have produced emi1 Vol. ii., ch. viii.

I am

2 Vol. ii., ch. ix. I can forgive the Abbé all things but two. disgusted with him, for giving countenance and currency to Boileau's senseless clinquant, when applied to Tasso (vol. i. ch. xxxv.); and still more offended with his envy of English literature: since, in an express dissertation on tragedy, he has not once mentioned Shakespeare. And, yet, as if to mark the insult more strongly, he speaks of Otway's Venice Preserved; an English translation of Molière's Comedies; Phillip's Distressed Mother; Rochester's Valentinian; and Wycherley's Plain Dealer. He could, also, quote a detached sentiment of Addison, where he accuses English tragedy of having better style than sentiment.

nent men, have also produced men, capable of estimating their merits. For eminent men have been produced in many ages, that possessed no power of forming adequate estimates of their value: and their reward has, therefore, arisen out of the applause and admiration of posterity. In fact, there is not one evil, that does not arise out of the inability of men to estimate real benefits.

Sir John Chardin seems to have given the tone to the opinions of Du Bos. "The temperature of hot climates," says he," enervates the mind as well as the body; and dissipates that fire of imagination, so necessary for invention. People are incapable, in those climates, of such long watchings and strong applications, as are requisite for the productions of the liberal and mechanic arts." But though this hypothesis, in my opinion, is destitute of data and solidity, there is, assuredly, great truth, great ingenuity, and great beauty, in many of the arguments, adduced to its support.

But let us speak of results. Has not poetry been cultivated on the burning shores of Hindostan; in Java; in China; in Persia; in Arabia; in Palestine ; in Greece; in Italy; in Germany; in France; in Great Britain; and in Iceland? Thus we see, that poetry has been successfully cultivated in every species of soil; and in every degree of latitude. That the poetry of one country is not suited to the readers of another is only a confirmation of the opinion, that

Description of Persia, ch. vii.