time to consult of smaller Affairs with the chief Officers but de Majoribus omnes If a Leader of these Colonies succeeded in his Attempts and conquer'd a new Country where by common consent 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 reserved to the Prince and Government The great were given to the chief Officers of the Army who had best deserved and were most esteemed the smaller to the common or private Souldiers The Natives conquered were wholly dispoyled of their Lands and reckoned but as Slaves by the Conquerors 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 Affair 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 Learned 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 mentioned 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 Emperors yet they were deprived from the Gothiek Customs after so great numbers of those Nations were introduced into the Roman Armies and employed upon 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 commended 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 punishment upon the Roman Provinces for the Viciousness and Corruptions of their Lives and Governments From the Divisions Forms and Institutions already deduc'd will naturally arise and plainly appear the Frame and Constitution of the Gothick Government which was peculiar to them and different from all before known or observed in Story but so universal among these Northern Nations that it was under 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 Northern Nations at such diverse times and under so different Appellations And it seems to have been invented or instituted 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 Constitution 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 continues 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 Representative of all that are possessed of Free-Lands whom the Prince assembles and consults with upon the occasions or affairs of the greatest and common concern to the Nation I am apt to think that the Possession of Land was the Original Right of Election or Representative 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 annexed 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 Norman Conquest all the Trade of England 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 together and had such a Proportion of Land belonging to them However it be this Constitution has been celebrated 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 Secret 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 Armies have the Place of Subjects and the Government depends upon the contented 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 turned 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 Barbarous Empires was that of the Arabians which was indeed of a very different Nature from all the rest being built upon Foundations wholly Enthusiastick and thereby very unaccountable to common Reason and in many Points contrary even to Human Nature yet few others have made greater Conquests 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
any fair Records For these are agreed by the Missionary Jesuits to extend so far above Four Thousand Years and with such Appearance of clear and undeniable Testimonies that those Religious Men themselves rather than question their Truth by finding them contrary to the vulgar Chronology of the Scripture are content to have Recourse to that of the Septuagint and thereby to salve the Appearances in those Records of the Chineses Now though we have been deprived the Knowledge of what Course Learning may have held and to what heights it may have soared in that vast Region and during so great Antiquity of Time by reason of the Savage Ambition of one of their Kings who desirous to begin the Period of History from his own Reign ordered all Books to be burnt except those of Physick and Agriculture so that what we have remaining besides of that wise and ancient Nation is but what was either by chance or by private Industry rescued out of that publick Calamity among which were a Copy of the Records and Successions of the Crown yet it is observable and agreed that as the Opinions of the Learned among them are at present so they were anciently divided into two Sects whereof one held the Transmigration of Souls and the other the Eternity of Matter comparing the World to a great Mass of Metal out of which some Parts are continually made up into a thousand various Figures and after certain Periods melted down again into the same Mass. That there were many Volumes written of old in Natural Philosophy among them That near the Age of Socrates lived their Great and Renowned Confutius who began the same Design of reclaiming Men from the useless and endless Speculations of Nature to those of Morality But with this Difference that the Bent of the Grecian seemed to be chiefly upon the Happyness of private Men or Families but that of the Chinese upon the good Temperament and Felicity of such Kingdoms or Governments as that was and is known to have continued for several Thousands of Years and may be properly called a Government of Learned Men since no other are admitted into Charges of the State For my own Part I am much inclined to believe that in these Remote Regions not only Pythagoras learn't the first Principles both of his Natural and Moral Philosophy but that those of Democritus who Travelled into Aegypt Caldaea and India and whose Doctrins were after improved by Epicurus might have been derived from the same Fountains and that long before them both Lycurgus who likewise Travelled into India brought from thence also the Chief Principles of his Laws and Politicks so much Renowned in the World For whoever observes the Account already given of the Ancient Indian and Chinese Learning and Opinions will easily find among them the Seeds of all these Grecian Productions and Institutions As the Transmigration of Souls and the four Cardinal Vertues The long Silence enjoyned his Scholars and Propagation of their Doctrins by Tradition rather than Letters and Abstinence from all Meats that had Animal Life introduced by Pythagoras The Eternity of Matter with perpetual changes of Form the Indolence of Body and Tranquility of Mind by Epicurus And among those of Lycurgus the Care of Education from the Birth of Children the Austere Temperance of Diet the patient endurance of Toil and Pain the neglect or contempt of Life the use of Gold and Silver only in their Temples the Defence of Commerce with Strangers and several others by him established among the Spartans seem all to be wholly Indian and different from any Race or Vein of Thought and Imagination that have ever appeared in Greece either in that Age or any since It may look like a Paradox to deduce Learning from Regions accounted commonly so barbarous and rude And 't is true the generality of People were always so in those Eastern Countries and their lives wholly turned to Agriculture to Mechanicks or to Trades But this does not hinder particular Races or Successions of Men the design of whose thought and time was turned wholly to Learning and Knowledge from having been what they are represented and what they deserve to be esteemed since among the Gauls the Goths and the Peruvians themselves there have been such Races of Men under the Names of Druids Bards Amautas Runers and other barbarous Appellations Besides I know no Circumstances like to contribute more to the advancement of Knowledge and Learning among Men than exact Temperance in their Races great pureness of Air and equality of Clymate long Tranquility of Empire or Government And all these we may justly allow to those Eastern Regions more than any others we are acquainted with at least till the Conquests made by the Tartars upon both India and China in the later Centuries However it may be as Pardonable to derive some parts of Learning from thence as to go so far for the Game of Chess which some Curious and Learned Men have deduced from India into Europe by Two several Roads that is by Persia into Greece and by Arabia into Africk and Spain Thus much I thought might be allowed me to say for the giving some Idea of what those Sages or Learned Men were or may have been who were Ancients to those that are Ancients to us Now to observe what these have been is more easie and obvious The most ancient Grecians that we are at all acquainted with after Lycurgus who was certainly a great Philosopher as well as Law-giver were the Seven Sages Tho' the Court of Croesus is said to have been much resorted to by the Sophists of Greece in the happy beginnings of his Reign And some of these Seven seem to have brought most of the Sciences out of Aegypt and Phoenicia into Greece particularly those of Astronomy Astrology Geometry and Arithmetick These were soon followed by Pythagoras who seems to have introduced Natural and Moral Philosophy and by several of his Followers both in Greece and Italy But of all these there remains nothing in Writing now among us so that Hyppocrates Plato and Xenophon are the first Philosophers whose Works have escaped the Injuries of Time But that we may not conclude the first Writers we have of the Grecians were the first Learned or Wise among them We shall find upon enquiry that the more ancient Sages of Greece appear by the Characters remaining of them to have been much the greater Men. They were generally Princes or Law-givers of their Countries or at least offered and invited to be so either of their own or of others that desired them to frame or reform their several Institutions of Civil Government They were commonly excellent Poets and great Physicians they were so learned in Natural Philosophy that they foretold not only Eclipses in the Heavens but Earthquakes at Land and Storms at Sea great Drowths and great Plagues much Plenty or much Scarcity of certain sorts of Fruits or Grain not to mention the Magical Powers attributed to
this be not enough whoever would be satisfied need go no further than the Siege of Syracuse and that mighty Defence made against the Roman Power more by the wonderful Science and Arts of Archimedes and almost Magical Force of his Engines than by all the Strength of the City or Number and Bravery of the Inhabitants The greatest Invention that I know of in later Ages has been that of the Load-Stone and consequently the greatest Improvement has been made in the Art of Navigation yet there must be allowed to have been something stupendious in the Numbers and in the Built of their Ships and Gallies of old and the Skill of Pilots from the Observation of the Stars in the more serene Climates may be judged by the Navigations so celebrated in Story of the Tyrians and Carthaginians not to mention other Nations However 't is to this we owe the Discovery and Commerce of so many vast Countries which were very little if at all known to the Antients and the experimental Proof of this Terrestrial Globe which was before only Speculation but has since been surrounded by the Fortune and Boldness of several Navigators From this great though fortuitous Invention and the Consequence thereof it must be allowed that Geography is mightily advanced in these latter Ages The Vast Continents of China the East and West Indies the long Extent and Coasts of Africa with the numberless Islands belonging to them have been hereby introduced into our Acquaintance and our Maps and great Increases of Wealth and Luxury but none of Knowledge brought among us further than the Extent and Scituation of Country the Customs and Manners of so many original Nations which we call Barbarous and I am sure have treated them as if we hardly esteemed them to be a Part of Mankind I do not doubt but many Great and more Noble Uses would have been made of such Conquests or Discoveries if they had fallen to the share of the Greeks and Romans in those Ages when Knowledge and Fame were in as great Request as endless Gains and Wealth are among us now and how much greater Discoveries might have been made by such Spirits as theirs is hard to guess I am sure ours though great yet look very imperfect as to what the Face of this Terrestrial Globe would probably appear if they had been pursued as far as we might justly have expected from the Progresses of Navigation since the Use of the Compass which seems to have been long at a stand How little has been performed of what has been so often and so confidently promised of a North-West Passage to the East of Tartary and North of China How little do we know of the Lands on that side of the Magellan Straits that lye towards the South Pole which may be vast Islands or Continents for ought any can yet aver though that Passage was so long since found out Whether Japan be Island or Continent with some Parts of Tartary on the North side is not certainly agreed The Lands of Yedso upon the North-East Continent have been no more than Coasted and whether they may not joyn to the Northern Continent of America is by some doubted But the Defect or Negligence seems yet to have been greater towards the South where we know little beyond Thirty Five Degrees and that only by the Necessity of doubling the Cape of Good Hope in our East-India Voiages yet a Continent has been long since found out within Fifteen Degrees to South and about the Length of Java which is Marqued by the Name of New Holland in the Maps and to what Extent none knows either to the South the East or the West yet the Learned have been of Opinion That there must be a Ballance of Earth on that side of the Line in some Proportion to what there is on the other and that it cannot be all Sea from Thirty Degrees to the South-Pole since we have found Land to above Sixty Five Degrees towards the North. But our Navigators that way have been confined to the Roads of Trade and our Discoveries bounded by what we can manage to a certain Degree of Gain And I have heard it said among the Dutch that their East-India-Company have long since forbidden and under the greatest Penalties any further Attempts of discovering that Continent having already more Trade in those Parts than they can turn to Account and fearing some more Populous Nation of Europe might make great Establishments of Trade in some of those unknown Regions which might ruin or impair what they have already in the Indies Thus we are lame still in Geography it self which we might have ex-expected to run up to so much greater Perfection by the Use of the Compass and it seems to have been little advanced these last Hundred Years So far have we been from improving upon those Advantages we have received from the Knowledge of the Ancients that since the late Restoration of Learning and Arts among us our first Flights seem to have been the highest and a sudden Damp to have fallen upon our Wings which has hindered us from rising above certain Heights The Arts of Painting and Statuary began to revive with Learning in Europe and make a great but short Flight so for as these last Hundred Years we have not had One Master in either of them who deserved a Rank with those that flourished in that short Period after they began among us It were too great a Mortification to think That the same Fate has happened to us even in our Modern Learning as if the Growth of that as well as of Natural Bodies had some short Periods beyond which it could not reach and after which it must begin to decay It falls in one Country or one Age and rises again in others but never beyond a certain Pitch One man or one Country at a certain Time runs a great Length in some certain Kinds of Knowledge but lose as much Ground in others that were perhaps as useful and as valuable There is a certain Degree of Capacity in the greatest Vessel and when 't is full if you pour in still it must run out some way or other and the more it runs out on one side the less runs out at the other So the greatest Memory after a certain Degree as it learns or retains more of some Things or Words loses and forgets as much of others The largest and deepest Reach of Thought the more it pursues some certain Subjects the more it neglects others Besides few Men or none excel in all Faculties of Mind A great Memory may fail of Invention both may want Judgment to Digest or Apply what they Remember or Invent. Great Courage may want Caution great Prudence may want Vigour yet all are necessary to make a great Commander But how can a Man hope to excel in all qualities when some are produced by the heat others by the coldness of Brain and Temper The abilities of Man must fall short on one