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1831.] CLASSICAL LITERATURE.—Muller on the Doric Race.

When twice fifty or an hundred was to be represented, the character was again doubled, but the duplicate was added in an inverse position on the summit of the preceding,[

When five hundred were to be set down, the primary character was once more changed, by placing its angular point upwards, with the addition of a bar beneath, to prevent mistake, if the tablet should be reversed, A

And to record a thousand, or double five hundred, a double character was again used, but the addition was now placed in a lateral situation, AA

All these numeral characters were simple, and easily formed on the rustic ledgers of those to whom the invention is attributed. They have all, however, as well as the single mark denoting a unit, at a period we cannot now trace, been assimilated to Roman letters, some with but little or no variation in form, whilst others have undergone a slight change. For instance, the has been gradually rounded into C, and in consequence considered only as the initial of centum. The A, as it resembled the Greek delta, has been tranformed into a Roman D; and finally the double triangle converted without any considerable alteration into M; from which circumstance it is generally conjectured to have originally been the representative of mille.

The various combinations of the different numeral characters to express every intervening quantity, are sufficiently familiar to every one. AN EAST ANGLIAN.

The History and Antiquities of the Doric
Race, by C. O. Muller, Professor in the
University of Gottingen. Translated from
the German by Henry Tuffnell, Esq. and
Geo. Cornewall Lewis, Esq. Student of
Christ Church. 2 vols. 8vo.

IT was the custom of the ancient nations to effect a military conquest, to reserve to themselves alone the profession of arms, and to consign all the menage (if we may so use the term) and drudgery of providing necessaries for the support of life, to the aborigines or conquered persons, who

423

were reduced to the condition of vassalage or slavery, according to their raelites in Egypt were captives in a respective ranks in society. The Issimilar situation, and when, after the lomon, they became a military nation, conquests of Joshua, David, and So9th chapter of the first book of Kings, they followed the same plan. In the we are told (v. 20—22), that

"All the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,

"Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice to this day.

"But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no boudmen; but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen."

The Dorians were a hardy tribe of fighting adventurers, who pursued the same policy; and in the following exexhibited in Domesday Book : tract we may read the counterpart of the Norman classifications of society

"The Doric customs required exemption from all agricultural or commercial industry; which is expressed in a lively manner in the song of Hybrias the Cretan, that with lance and sword and shield he reaped and dressed his vines, and hence was called (Crete), however, different classes of Lord of the Mnoia.' In this island dependents must have existed. Sosicrates and Dosiadas, both credible authors on the affairs of Crete, speak of three classes, the public bondsmen, (κοινη δουλεια,) called by the Cretans μvola, the slaves of individual citizens αφαμιωται, and the Periæci, υπηκοοι.* Now we know that the Aphamiota received their name from the cultivation of the lands of private individuals they were agricultural bondsmen. (in Cretan apapai), and accordingly Clarota, who were not for this reason These latter are identical with the just quoted; for although they are separately mentioned by the writers generally supposed to have taken their name from the lot cast for prisoners of war, the more natural derivation

*They appear to have been similar to burgesses after the conquest. See ii. 24. our Anglo-Saxon landed subinfeudists and

424

CLASSICAL LITERATURE.-Muller on the Doric Race. [May,

doubtless is from the lots or freehold estates of the citizens, called kanpo, But whichever explanation we adopt, they were bondsmen belonging to the individual citizens, and both the Clarotæ and Aphamiota have therefore been correctly compared with the Helots [the aboriginal slaves or labourers]; and as the latter were entirely distinct from the Laconian Periæci, so were the former from the Cretan, although Aristotle neglects the distinction accurately observed by the Cretan writers. In the second place, the μvola (or μvwa) was by more precise historians distinguished as well from the condition of Periæci, as from that of private bondage, and it was explained to mean a state of public vassalage; whence we may infer that every state in Crete was possessed of public lands, which the Mnotæ cultivated in the same relative situation to the community, in which the Aphamiotæ, who cultivated the allotted estates, stood to the several proprietors. This name, however, is sometimes extended to all forced labourers, as in the song of Hybrias noticed above. Finally, the Periæci formed in Crete, as in Laconia, dependent and tributary communities; their tribute was like the produce of the national lands, partly applied to the public banquets, to which also, according to Dosiades, every slave in Lyctus contributed in addition one Æginetan stater."—ii. 51 seq.

We may therefore conceive that, mutatis mutandis, the Mnotæ nearly answered to our Domesday farmers of the Crown lands; the Aphamiotæ to the subinfeudists under the Norman lords; the Periæci to the citizens and burgesses; and the Helots to the villains, labourers, &c.

Institutions like those of the Dorians can only be permanent under unvarying circumstances. Aristocracy cannot stand against wealth dispersed by trade amongst the community, and hence ensued democracy; from democracy factions, from factions tyrants.

"Before we speak of the form of government which prevailed in the Doric States, it will be necessary to set aside all ideas respecting the origin, essence, and object of a state, viz. that it is an institution for protecting

the persons and property of the individuals contained in it. We shall approach nearer to the ancient notion, if we consider the essence of a state to be, that by a recognition of the same opinions and principles, and the direction of actions to the same ends, the whole body became as it were one moral agent. Such an unity of opinions and actions can only be produced by the ties of some natural affinity, such as a nation, a tribe, or a part of one; although in process of time the meaning of the terms state and nation became more distinct. The more complete the unity of feelings and principles is, the more vigorous will be the common exertions, and the more comprehensive the notion of the state. As this was in general carried to a wider extent among the Greeks than by modern nations, so it was perhaps nowhere so strongly marked as in the Dorian states, whose national views with regard to political institutions were most strongly manifested in the government of Sparta. Here the plurality of the persons composing the state was most completely reduced to unity; and hence the life of a Spartan citizen was chiefly concerned in public affairs. The greatest freedom of the Spartan, as well as of the Greeks in general, was only to be a living member of the state; whereas that which in modern times commonly receives the name of liberty, consists in having the fewest possible claims from the community; or in other words, in dissolving the social union to the greatest degree possible as far as the individual is concerned."-ii. 1, 2.

Our limits will not permit us to give a digest of this transcendent work. For profound learning, philosophical reflection, original thinking, novel illustration, and every property that can confer the highest character upon history, this book has a preeminent distinction; and we will do the author the justice to say, that we do not believe any scholar but himself could have written it. The translation is most ably and satisfactorily executed; and although it is but a reflected light, it preserves, as nearly as possible, the splendour of the original.

1831.]

[ 425 ]

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Life of the Right Rev. Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, B.D. late Lord Bishop of Calcutta. By the Rev. Charles Webb Le Bas, M.A. Professor in the East India College, Hertfordshire, &c. 2 vols. 8vo.

IT is really afflicting to hear of the premature deaths of such excellent men as the one before us and his successors. And, although we do not believe that persons unlike them would act with their reason and wisdom, we think that a better plan would be to send younger clergymen, and ordain natives, who might answer the purpose, though not perhaps quite so well. If even Englishmen who go to India when boys, and become habituated to the climate, are, with rare exceptions, long livers after their return, and are often harassed in the country with liver complaints which never leave them, how is it to be expected that persons in general so advanced in life as Bishops, should not fall speedily into the grave? We by no means think lightly of the noble principle which induces good men to risk martyrdom. We only mean that as that is never an affair of volition, so it is fairly avoidable, if the purpose can be effected without it. If it be rebutted upon us, that if layinen do not fear the risk of their lives in the East, why should the best of our ecclesiastics? Our answer is, that the deaths of the former, under the morals of India, is a smaller loss to the world, and the clergy of our own country do not appear the only efficient persons to be employed. To this remark we annex the following and other passages in this work. The Church Missionary Society sends out numerous ordained Clergymen, not known otherwise, says the Bishop,

"Than as persons sent out to convert the heathen; and yet the conversion of the heathen is with missionaries of almost all classes but a SECONDARY CONCERN.”—(i. 401.)

Under a clause of the charter," they should confine themselves to the instruction of natives, and not preach in English."

Instead of so doing, they usurp the prerogatives of the Clergy established GENT. MAG. May, 1881.

in the place, and direct their atten tion to the English families. (i. 409.) Thus the emigration of missionaries is often only a cover for obtaining ordination in England, and a passage to the country, where by setting up schools for the English children, and doing duty on Sundays in their own houses in English (see p.409), they turn the money advanced by the Church Missionary Society to more personal advantage, than by fulfilling the specific object for which they were sent out. In consequence of these and other such measures, the good Bishop

"Was extremely desirous of being invested with the power to assign small sala+ ries of 2001. or 300l. a year to half-castes, whom he would have ordained to preach to natives in their own language, and who would have been bound to use a translation of the English Liturgy; a plan from which he anticipated the most desirable and blessed effects."-i. 417.

He says too (i. 502), that the object of the schools

"Is to make the boys too wise for the Brahmins, after which we trust, that with God's blessing a purer and a more reasonable faith will find its way."

He further adds, that he wished only four persons capable of preaching to the natives, Portuguese, half-castes, &c. in the language of the country, to be stipended and ordained. For although

"These would not have been precisely missionaries; they would have brought into the communion of our church a large class of stragglers at the several presidencies, from whom the best missionaries might have emanated."-i. 480.

In i. p. 89, we find that the Arminian Christians are eminently qualified for extending the knowledge of Chris tianity throughout the East.

The idea of sending missionaries of all our sects at home, is in se an impediment to the success; for,

"It should never be forgotten, that (next to the suspicion that the Europeans are generally destitute of all real religion) the grand impediment the Gospel has to contend with among idolaters, arises from the multiplicity of shapes under which

426

REVIEW.-Life of Bishop Middleton.

our visible religion presents itself to their notice. Their observation uniformly is, that they should think much better of Christianity, if there were not quite so many different kinds of it."—i. 132.

In the present state of India, preaching to the natives is of little avail. It is well known that in England the catechism is taught, because without it children could not understand what is said and done at church. As to India, there is such a religious apathy, such abject ignorance, imbecility of mind, and even childishness, in the natives, that if they attend to hear a sermon, they do not comprehend it. The following anecdote is extracted from one of the Bishop's letters (i. 74):

"They have seen so little of our religion, that they were puzzled to know in what it consisted. I heard the other day a curious anecdote which goes to the point; some of the lower Europeans here as elsewhere have a trick of whistling,-this is utterly unknown to the Asiatics; and some of them not knowing more than ourselves what it can mean, have gravely asked whether it was not some sort of invocation addressed to the Deity."

Now where there are utterly discordant associations of ideas between a preacher and his hearers, how is it possible to prevent a misconstruction which frustrates the object? The Bishop, therefore, like a sound philosopher, says,

"The best employment of the missionary is in teaching children; and we can hardly teach them any thing which will not bring them a step nearer to Christianity.”—(i. 889.)

And he lays a particular stress upon teaching English to the natives, be

cause

"If this were generally understood through the country, it would, I doubt not, entirely alter the condition of the people; it would give them access to our literature and habits of thinking, and the familiar use of it would tend very much to dissipate the prejudices and the indifference which now stand in the way of conversion. Our language is so unlike every thing oriental, not merely in its structure, but in the ideas to which it is made subservient, in imagery, in metaphor, and in sentiment, that a competent acquaintance with it seems unavoidably to lead the mind of a native into a new train of thought, and a wider field of reflection. We, in learning the languages of the East, acquire only a knowledge of words; but the oriental, in learning our language, extends his knowledge of things."—ii, 22.

[May,

It is evident that people will judge of things which they do not know, by their own opinions concerning them, however absurd they may be, because they cannot possibly associate their ideas with matters of which they are ignoraut, no more than they can interpret words in an unknown language. A farmer's wife, says an old song, heard of the lions in the tower: "I warrant, says Dame, they keep that game For the King of England's eating ;' and Franklin tells us of an Indian chief, who, when he was told by a missionary of the effects of the apple eaten by Eve, gravely observed, that “it should not have been eaten, but have been used for cider."

The Bishop therefore informs us justly, that it is utterly useless to disperse the Bible among the natives without previous preparation by schools and tracts.-i. 154, 348, 478.

These extracts will show that our enthusiastic religionists at home are not competent to business. Moreover, it is utterly useless to transmit so many persons to risk the loss of life through the climate, because the Bishop says,

"Though native teachers by themselves will never effect much, our religion will make little progress in this country without their aid. The native Christian is a necessary link between the European and the pagan these two have little in common: they want some point of contact. The European and native mind seem to be cast in different moulds; if the Hindoo finds it very difficult to argue as we argue, and to view things as we view them, it is scarcely more easy for us to imagine ourselves in his condition, and to enter into the misconceptions and prejudices which obstruct his reception of the truth. The task is much the same as that of a man who in the full maturity of understanding and knowledge, should enIdeavour to divest himself of these, and to think as a child."-ii. 19, 20.

This work of Mr. Le Bas being a funeral eulogium of the late excellent Prelate, and an exposè of his public acts, we have made a correspondent use of it. Memoirs of the Bishop we have before given in a preceding review of another work on the subject. Of profane matters (except vexatious restrictions) we have little. The Bishop saw many of Homer's orientalisms common in India, and he finds in the Parsees assimilations to the ancient Persians, as described by Hero

1831.] dotus.*

REVIEW.-Polynesian Researches.

From the cromlechs, &c. at Malabar, we looked anxiously to the paragraph in vol. i. p. 328, for some relics of Druidism. In the mountaineers of that district, we have some resemblances to our own aboriginal

savages:

"They are a wild, inhospitable, and inaccessible race, who decline all intercourse with Europeans, and to avoid the approach of strangers, retreat to their own hiding places. Some dealings, indeed, they have with their civilized neighbours, but these are carried on wholly by barter; and conducted in a manner which remarkably indicates their distrustful and unsocial habits; they deposit whatever they wish to dispose of in some well-known spot, and then retire; returning afterwards to take away what is left in exchange for it. The prejudice and bigotry of the Brahmins in this region of Malabar, exceeded all that had been heard of in other parts. They approach some of their temples by ways wholly sacred to themselves, separate paths being made for the use of coolies and other profane persons."-i. 328.

Mr. Le Bas has edited this work in a manner which confers upon him high credit.

Polynesian Researches, during a Residence of nearly eight Years in the Society and Sandwich Islands. By William Ellis. 2d Edit. Vol. I.

WHEN Missionaries attend to other things than making comfortable situations for themselves (which Bishop Middleton charges them with), and do not propagate a system of Christianity, which, says Captain Kotzebue, is a libel on its founder,-when they are under the controul of men of business

and common sense, their books may convey very useful suggestions for statesmen, philosophers, and mercantile men. Nay, the work before us goes further. It shows how we may get rid of certain dangers, as easily as Jack the Giant-killer.

"I was once," says Mr. Ellis, "in a boat, on a voyage to Borabora, when a ravenous shark approaching us, seized the blade of one of the oars, and on being shaken from it, darted at the keel of the boat, which he attempted to bite. While he was thus employed, the native whose oar he had seized, leaning over the side of the boat, grasped him by the tail, succeeded in lifting him out of the water, and with the help of his companions dragged him alive into the boat, where he

*Herod. ii. 189, 190.

4.27

began to flounder and strike his tail with rage and violence. Mr. Tyerman and myself were climbing up on the seats out of his way, but the natives giving him two or three blows on the nose with a small wooden

mallet, quieted him, and then cut off his head."-p. 168.

Now if a man can get rid of a shark in this easy way, he may soon rise from a blockhead to a conjuror, in other difficulties alarming to Europeans; and it is certain that savages do teach us manual skill, and most ingenious contrivances.

This book is full of information in this and all respects, both useful and gratifying. We shall notice some curious illustrations of ancient his

tory, as more in our own way. It for instance, that the Misappears, sionaries owe their personal safety, and much also of their success, to the superstition of the natives, which we presume the former find too convenient to remove, and therefore temporize accordingly, for which we by no means blame them.

"The sorcerers have always declared that they could not prevail with the white men, because such were under the keeping of a more powerful being than the spirits they could engage against them, and therefore were secure."—p. 368.

It is clear, therefore, that under a system of amity and discretion, Europeans may, as Captain Kotzebue recommends, easily establish mercantile intercourse, and propagate the arts of civilization. But we shall notice another curious circumstance; a temple similar to those of Egypt; and we have no doubt, as there are professional sorcerers here, that Moses found safety under the anger of Pharaoh, from the same superstition (a presumed sacredness of person) as now protects the Missionaries and Europeans.

"The national temples consisted of a number of distinct maracs, altars, and sacred dormitories, appropriated to the chief pagan divinities, and included in one large stone enclosure of considerable extent. Several of the distinct temples contained smaller inner courts, within which the gods were kept. The form of the interior or area of their temples was frequently that of a square or a parallelogram, the sides of which extended forty or fifty feet. The sides of this space were enclosed by a high stone wall; the front was protected by a low fence; opposite, a solid pyramidal structure was raised, in front of which the images were kept, and the altars fixed."-p. 340.

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