kings of Phrygia, obtained the fovereignty, fhews us one of thofe events, which, in the earliest times, gave birth to kingly government.

The Phrygians, like all other people, were fome time without any form of government. Weary of the evils to which their domeftic diffenfions daily expofed them, they confulted the oracle, to know what the end of them would be. The answer was, that to elect a king was the only means of putting an end to their miseries.

The Phrygians would know on whom they ought to fix their choice: The oracle ordered them to give the crown to the first person they should meet going in a car to the temple of Jupiter. Scarce had they received this answer, when they met Gordius. They proclaimed him king upon the spot. Gordius, in memory of that event, confecrated to Jupiter the car in which he was when he was raised to the throne. The knot by which the car was yoked, was fo artfully made, that it was not poffible to discover where it began, or where it ended. This is the knot fo well known in antiquity by the name of the Gordian knot. The oracle had declared, that he who could unloofe it fhould have the empire of Afia ".

After Gordius, his fon Midas afcended the throne, 1428 years before Chrift". The hiftory, or rather fable, related of this prince, is too well known for me to dwell upon it. It was Midas who established in Phrygia the ceremonies of public worship, which, ever after his reign, was there paid to the Divinity. He derived from Orpheus the knowledge of these religious offices". History remarks that those fentiments of religion with which he inspired his people, contributed more to strengthen his authority, than the power of his arins ».

* Justin, 1. 11. c. 7.; Arrian. de exped. Alex. 1. 2. p. 86.

Arrian deceives himself in referring to Midas what has been read of Gordius. The greatest number of writers agree to acknowledge Gordius for the first king of Phrygia.

See the memoirs of the academy of inscriptions, t. 9. p. 126.; Eufeb. Chron. 1. 2. p. 86.

Conon apud Phot. narrat. 1. p. 424. ; Justin 1. 11. c. 7.; Ovid. Metam.

1.11. V. 93.

Conon, Juftin. loco cit.

This is all that the history of Afia can fupply us with on the fubject we are at present employed about. The maxims, the political and civil laws of the people of whom we are speaking, are abfolutely unknown to us. We cannot even form any idea of them. Materials are entirely wanting. Yet we must except the Lydians. Herodotus acquaints us that their laws were the fame with thofe of the Greeks 1.

But, if we were to turn our attention to the Hebrew nation, we fhould find materials in abundance to make us amends for the want of them in the other nations of Afia. From their going out of Egypt the Ifraelites began to form themselves into a nation, distinct by their laws, and by their customs, from all the rest of the earth; a nation which fubfifts at this day; and which is still governed by its own particular cuftoms, though difperfed throughout all the countries of the universe.

The political and civil laws of the Hebrews are perfectly known to us; fo well indeed, that it is not worth while to enumerate them. Befides, we ought not to make any comparison between the form of government established by Mofes, and the other fpecies of governments, of which history gives us examples. The Hebrew people had the fingular advantage of having God particularly for their monarch, and for their legislator. It was from God himself that this nation had received its laws. In a word, it was the Supreme Being who condefcended to prefcribe the ceremonies of the worship that he would have paid him by the Ifraelites. We ought therefore to make no comparifon between the laws of this people, laws dictated by wif dom itself, and thofe that could be observed by other nations. The precepts of the decalogue alone, contain more fublime truths, and maxims more effentially promotive of the good of mankind, than all the profane writings of antiquity could afford. The more we meditate on the laws of Mofes, the more we fhall perceive their wisdom, and inspiration; that infallible fign of the Divinity which fails all human works, in which, when we examine criti

9 1. 1. p. 54.

cally,

cally, we always find great defects: befides, the laws of Mofes alone have the ineftimable advantage, never to have undergone any of the revolutions common to all human laws, which have always demanded frequent amendments; fometimes changes; fometimes additions; fometimes the retrenching of superfluities. There has been nothing changed, nothing added, nothing retrenched from the laws of Moses; a fingular example, and so much the more striking, as they have preserved their purity for above 3000 years. If Mofes had not been the minister of God, he could not, what ever genius we may suppose him to have had, from him. self have drawn laws which received all their perfection the inftant of their formation: laws which provided against every thing that could happen in the fucceffion of ages, leaving no neceffity for change, or even for modification. That is what no legiflator has ever done, and what Mofes him. felf could not have done, had he writ fimply as a man, and had he not been infpired by the Supreme Being.

I fhall obferve further, that the alliance made in the defert between God and the Ifraelites, may be looked upon as a model of the forms they used to obferve in contracting these forts of engagements.

Of all the ceremonies anciently used in folemn alliances, the effufion of blood appears to have been the most important, and the moft univerfal. St Paul fays, "For when Mo"ses had spoken every precept to all the people according

to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, "with water, and fcarlet wool, and hyffop, and fprinkled "both the book and all the people, faying, This is the "blood of the teftament which God hath injoined unto "you'.

Profane history affords us as plain a proof of this ancient cuftom, which regarded the fhedding of blood, as the feal of all the covenants they contracted. Herodotus, fpeaking of a treaty of peace concluded between the Medes and the

Voy. Jaquelot. differtation 3. fur l'existence de Dieu, chap. 4. 7. 8. 9.et traité de la verité et de l'infpiration des livres facrés, t. 1. chap. 8. f Heb. chap. 9. ver. 19. Voy. le P. Calmet, loco cit. et t. 2. p. 52. et 223.

Lydians,

Lydians, by Cyaxarus and by Allattes, obferves, that with thefe people, befides the other ceremonies common to them and the Greeks, the contracting parties ufed to make incifions on the arms, and mutually to fuck the blood that ran from them *.

We find, even among the favages, an example of those ancient ceremonies ufed in treaties of peace and alliance. The Spaniards, in 1643, made a treaty of peace with the Indians of Chili; they have preferved the memory of the forms used at the ratification: it is faid, that the Indians killed many fheep, and stained in their blood a branch of the cane-tree, which the deputy of the Caciques put into the hands of the Spanish général, in token of peace and alliance".

As to the manner of ratifying alliances, the custom then was to write two copies of their contracts: the one of the copies they folded up and tied, and fealed it with the seals of the contracting parties: the other was neither folded nor fealed; it remained open, in order that recourfe might be had to it on occafion. The orders that Mofes received from God with regard to the tables of the law, and the manner in which that legiflator executed them, prove the cuftom of having two copies of the contracts they made. The tables of the law which Mofes received on Mount Sinai, was the authentic copy where God had written the conditions of the alliance which he made with his people. God ordered that these two tables fhould be put into the ark. Mofes, at the fame time, taking care to write a duplicate of the fame commandments, placed it at the fide of the ark, that they might confult it, and easily take copies *.

Such like forms muft, without doubt, have been in use, with respect to particular contracts, with all the nations to whom alphabetic writing was then known. We may, by comparing the practice I have juft fpoke of, with those I

↑ L. 2. n. 74.

* Exod. chap. 25. ver. 16.

" voyage de Frizier, p. 73.

y Deut. chap. 31. ver. 26.

* See the commentaries of Father Calmet, and his differtation on the form of ancient books,

VOL. II.

B

bave

have mentioned in the firft part of this work, as having been used originally, perceive the difference which alphabetic writing has introduced, with refpect to the measures taken for the fecurity of acts and contracts, among civilized nations.

IN

CHA P. III.

Of the Egyptians.

N the firft part of this work I have fhewn the origin and the conftitution of government among the Egyptians; but I have entered into no particulars of the reigns and perfons of the monarchs who poffeffed the throne in the ages we were then treating of: but it will not be fo at prefent. The reign of Sefoftris, with whom begins this fecond part of the history of Egypt, is too remarkable an æra not to demand a particular account of a monarch fo famous in antiquity. Of all the kings of Egypt the actions of Sefoftris were the most grand and most memorable: he equally fignalized himself in peace, in, war, and in arts. This prince afcended the throne 1659 years before Chrift.

Sefoftris was born with all the qualities which can form a great monarch. The education he received was most proper to fecond thefe happy difpofitions. They fay, that the King his father caufed to be brought to court all the male infants born in Egypt the fame day with his fon; he gave. to them all, not excepting the young prince, an education perfectly equal and uniform. They were enured to labour and fatigue by all forts of exercises; they gave them nothing to eat till they had previoufly made out a confiderable walk on foot. Such was the education of Sefoftris and all his

I have followed, for the reign of Sefoftris, the chronology of P. Tournemine. See his differtat. ad calcem, Menochii, in fol. Paris, 1719. differt. 5.

d Diod. 1. 1. p. 62.

The Natches, a people of South America, have the fame custom with respect to the heir-apparent. Lettr, edif. t. 23. p. 232.

Diodorus fays, one hundred and eighty ftadia; an incredible number, to take them, as is common, twenty-four ftadia to a league, for then they must