of a complete explanation from historical facts, although the precise process by which they were formed cannot be proved by positive testimony, step by step. We know the Latin language, its general use in the countries where the Romance languages subsequently arose, the date and nature of the conquests by the German tribes, the old German language, the time when the Romance languages arose, and the form in which they first appeared. With the assistance of these facts, and of analogous cases of the formation of languages, we can explain the origin of the Romance languages. But where similar historical information does not exist, we cannot explain with equal certainty the origin of other languages, and can only form conjectures, founded on the analogies of words and forms.(7)

The notion that origins are in themselves obscure, and hard to understand, is analogous to the belief, formerly adverted to,(1) that ancient events are, as such, uncertain and indistinct. If an event has been described by competent contemporary witnesses, and the record of it has been preserved, it is as well attested as a recent fact. In like manner, if the origin of anything has been carefully noted, and that record is extant, it is as easy to understand as an account of its destruction.

It follows, therefore, that there is no inherent obscurity or difficulty in the subject of origins, and that, when the primitive state of any institution lies within the historical period, its progress downwards can be traced by means of successive

testimonies.

§ 4 If we take the state of society as it existed in Greece at the time of the Homeric poems, or in Italy at the time of

(17) It is to the influences founded on the affinities of languages that Alex. v. Humboldt alludes in the following passage: "That which we call the beginning of history, is but the record of later generations. It is a privilege of the period at which we live, that by brilliant advances in the general and comparative study of languages, by the more careful search for monuments, and by their more certain interpretation, the historical investigator finds that his scope of vision enlarges daily; and, penetrating through successive strata, a higher antiquity begins to reveal itself to his eyes.'-Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 136: Eng. tr.

(18) Above, ch. vii. § 7, 19.

VOL. II.

EE

the earliest authentic accounts, and if we compare it with the state of society in a European civilized country, at certain intervals of time, we can perceive numerous important changes, which are justly designated improvements, because they have increased the sum of human happiness, and diminished the sum of human misery, and which constitute certain steps in the progress of mankind. These elements of social advancement may be distributed into four great series, in so far as they concern1, politics; 2, religion and ethics; arts; 4, the fine arts and literature. tion, we will show how a progress in traced.

3, science and the useful For the sake of illustraeach of these lines can be

§ 5 If we select the state of society described in the Homeric poems (the best social type in that age) as our point of reference, and compare it with civilized communities at several subsequent periods, we shall discern a progress under each of these heads. Beginning with the political institutions, we find that the Homeric state was presided over by a king, who was possessed of extensive powers and privileges, both in peace and war, and who occasionally convened an assembly of the chief persons; but this assembly had no legal organization, and did not decide by a regular vote. There were no written laws, and no official judges. This state of things may be first compared with the small oligarchies and democracies of the period of the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, when the constitution of a political body, deciding by the vote of a majority, was fully established; when there were written laws and a regular judicature, with a system of taxation, and salaried public officers. Next, it may be compared with the Roman government, extending its empire over the entire civilized world by means of an organized military system, and administering a scientific jurisprudence. We may next descend to the beginning of the seventeenth century, when we find the feudal kingdoms of Western Europe contending with bodies of estates, and the representative system of government in its infancy. Domestic slavery is abolished, and predial servitude is nearly extinct. Lastly, we may take

our own time, when the representative system is fully developed, and many other important political improvements in the administrative and judicial departments (including the abolition of torture in judicial procedure) have been introduced. Since the year 1600, moreover, the action of civilized governments has been facilitated by numerous inventions in the useful arts, affecting its operation in receiving intelligence and transmitting orders, in conducting military and naval warfare, and in overcoming the obstacles of nature. Economical relations likewise, both with foreign and dependent communities, are better understood, and subjected to more wholesome regulations.

§ 6 Taking the second series, we find in the Homeric period a lively polytheism, which sees the perpetual and personal action of the gods in human affairs, and in the phenomena of outward nature. (19) The interferences of the gods are scarcely regarded as miraculous-they are a part of the ordinary course of events, and of the moral and physical government of the world. The gods share the passions and vices of mankind: they are more powerful, but not more benevolent or more disinterested-not less envious or less vindictive-than the fleeting race of mortals. War forms the leading employment of the heroes, and piracy is habitual. Their feelings towards captives are harsh, and the treatment cruel-the fate of a captured city is terrible.(20)

Now this state of things has undergone a great change by the time of the Peloponnesian war. Partly from observation, and partly from the lessons of the philosophers, an idea of a fixed course of nature, both in human affairs and in physical occurrences, has been established; the interferences of the gods are now conceived as extraordinary, and as occasional interruptions

(19) See Price, pref. to Warton, p. 20, for a description of this stage of the human mind. καὶ οἱ κατέλεξεν ἅπαντα

(20) Compare Iliad ix. 587:

κήδε ̓ ὅσ ̓ ἀνθρώποισι πέλει τῶν ἄστυ ἁλώῃ, &c. This is given as a description of the ordinary treatment of a captured town; and it is exemplified in the detailed accounts of the taking of Troy, which were doubtless borrowed from real life.

of a constant natural series. an exceptional state of society; amidst great insecurity, peace is the normal state, to which every community looks as the type of happiness. The customs of war are cruel, but the treatment of a conquered population which is considered severe in the Peloponnesian war, was the ordinary practice in the Homeric

War likewise, though frequent, is

age.

Ethics, likewise, have become a subject of scientific analysis. Men, as moral agents, no longer live exclusively in the world of emotions and feelings-they have penetrated into the world of ideas, and under the guidance of Socrates have begun to ask themselves what is virtue?_what is justice?-what are prudence, temperance, fortitude ?-how ought a house to be governed?-how are children to be educated? From mere traditionary habits, with no other guides than absolute moral dicta, proverbs, and apophthegms, they have risen to speculations about ethical duties.

At the beginning of the Christian era, the empire of the established polytheism over the minds of the cultivated classes— of those who were imbued with the teaching of the predominant philosophic sects, (2) whether Stoic, Epicurean, or even Academic --had been destroyed or greatly enfeebled, and thus an opening was made for the extension from the East of the Christian religion, and its introduction into the Roman empire. Manners, likewise, in the Augustan age, had become more polished. The Roman nation had passed out of the semi-Oriental state of seclusion in which the Greek wife lived-she had the more energetic virtues and vices which belong to new freedom. The Roman family was better organized than the Greek family.(*) It may be added that, during the empire, practical ethics received greater precision and illustration from the systematic development of jurisprudence by the Roman lawyers.

Descending to the year 1600, we see that the religion of the civilized world has undergone a mighty change since the

(21) See Nov. Org. i. 79.

(22) See Dion. Hal. ii. 24-7.

reign of Augustus.

All traces of the ancient heathenism have long been swept away. The Christian religion and Christian church are paramount in Western Europe. Ethics have become subordinate to religion, and are taught almost exclusively by the clergy: the ethical doctrines of the ancient philosophers are now only repeated by historians and learned writers. All the practical teaching is Christian, and it is imbued with the spirit of humanity, mutual charity, forgiveness of injuries, fraternity and equality, which characterizes the Christian ethics, and which distinguishes Christianity in so prominent a manner from the ancient heathen religions. In the latter, the ethical element was both subordinate and defective.

In the middle of the nineteenth century this state of things exists without any fundamental change. But manners are softened, and practical ethics have been improved during the last two centuries. Religious persecution-the forcible diffusion of its distinctive opinions by a predominant church-which was the great deduction in Christianity from the pacific and softening effect of its ethical code, and which during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries filled Europe with bloodshed, proscription, and severe political compression, has been abandoned in the most advanced countries, and mitigated in all. National antipathies have been weakened; a more cosmopolitan feeling prevails : men are less confined, both physically and mentally, within the limits of their own country: there is more communication with foreigners by sea and land; the newspapers and literature of one nation penetrate into neighbouring regions. Benevolent institutions of all kinds have been established: philanthropy has been studied and practised almost with professional zeal. The condition of the working classes-those classes whom the free states of antiquity kept permanently in a servile state-has been carefully scrutinized, and their interests more considered. Extensive measures, intended to improve the health, comforts, physical and moral condition of the people at large, and to cultivate their understanding, have been diligently elaborated, and assisted both by public and private funds. The weak, the help