ple regarded them only as a pleasant means of securing a good meal.* The festivals and ceremonies of religion were observed for amusement and pleasure. They did more to corrupt, than to preserve the morals of the people.

A new era, in fact, was opening upon the world; but what it was to be could scarcely be foretold, by reference to the existing state of things. For idolatry was replaced by scepticism, and scepticism resulted in anarchy and crime. Atheism, in its practical forms, was stealing into the halls of legislation, the cabinet of kings, and the closets of philosophers, and with it the most hideous crimes. "Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." Abominable usages and vices which we rarely name in this age of the world, polluted every pagan country, not as unfrequent and startling enormities, but as common every-day occurrences. Indeed, this taint always pervaded these countries, especially Greece and Egypt, and to some extent Rome; for even Plato and Cicero, in their pages, refer familiarly, and by way of illustration, to one of the most detestable of these vices. Free themselves from sensual indulgence, they speak of it, in such easy terms, as would indicate its extensive prevalence. But now vices of this kind

*In his Athen. Republica, c. 2.

+ See, in the Phædrus, the illustrations of love in its various forms. It is well known that both the Epicureans and Stoics allowed and

had increased to an amazing extent.

Occasion

ally checked by civil penalties, as in the case of the Bacchanals at Rome, they. broke out again with fresh energy. Every where, also, slavery, in a form vastly worse than any thing in modern times, pervaded the Roman empire, and entailed upon all concerned the most fatal vices. Life was cheap, chastity still cheaper; and a man, especially a patrician, might maim or murder his slaves with impunity. Amid much exterior refinement, the greatest brutality of manners prevailed. Justice was sacrificed, in the terrible struggle of contending politicians, and the republic, so long the boast and glory of Rome, ignominiously fell. The most astounding debaucheries were mingled with the most terrible cruelties.

Egypt, never distinguished for its morals, and Syria under wretched misgovernment, were sunk in vénality and crime.* Greece was effeminate

defended raidepaoría, as well as incest, reckoning these flagitious crimes among things (ádiá popa,) indifferent. The classical reader will remember Virgil's Corydon amabat Alexin, as well as Horace's numerous allusions to the same thing. Plutarch tells us that even Solon practised this monstrous crime. Diogenes Laertius says the same of the Stoic Zeno.

*We learn from Rosellini, Wilkinson, Bunsen, and others, who have made Egyptian history a special study, that the Egyptians, while eminently skilled in many of the arts of life, were coarse and disgusting in their habits. Their very monuments furnish indisputable evidence of their sensuality and cruelty. Their feasts end in "bestial excesses," on the part of both sexes. Gentlemen are

and powerless, hungering, as of old, after pleas ure, but without the redeeming force and elegance of former times. The great Roman heart, which swayed the world, grew gross and languid, under the dominion of cruelty and lust. The dream of heroic virtue and freedom had passed away. Despotism, unprincipled and capricious, ruled the nations. The morals even of those called sages, with few exceptions, were rank and bestial. The condition of the hungry masses, in the Roman empire, grew more and more intolerable. What may be termed the higher philosophy, not yet entirely abandoned by thoughtful men, here and there shone, like a vessel on fire amid the fury and darkness of a tempestuous night. At the best, it never reached the masses; and hence the doctrine of God and of the immortality of the soul, which lingered in books, and in the belief of a few lofty souls, left like rocks amid the tide of corruption, exerted upon the community no conceivable influence. Nay, this higher philosophy, at the time of which we are speaking, was itself becoming sceptical and lewd. The reign of Epicureanism was all but complete. A few philosophical spirits, like Cicero in Rome, or Philo in Alexandria, admired Plato,

carried home in a state of insensibility, and even ladies give token of their preceding intemperance. All know how licentious was the worship of Isis.

and caught something of his generous spirit. Remains of the Chaldean Magi, descendants of those associated with Daniel, devoted themselves to devout contemplation. But the majority, even of thinkers, throughout the bounds of the civilized world, including Rome and Greece, portions of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, were the followers of a sensual or sceptical materialism. The better portion were Academics, whose distinguishing feature, at this time, was a spirit of universal doubt. While rejecting the grosser materialism, and in some cases living a virtuous life, they held themselves aloof from all fixed opinions on the higher metaphysics.* The superior orders of society were distinguished only by an intenser corruption. Their motto was, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Even their females had often to be put to death secretly for their crimes. The old Lucretian chastity was lost. Once distinguished for their purity of manners, the gentler sex were corrupted by the coarse and sensual indulgences, which, with foreign religions, and abounding luxury, had

*We learn from Sallust, in Catilina, c. 57, p. 309, that Julius Cæsar made no scruple in denying before the people that man had any thing to hope or fear after death; and even Cato, the stoic philosopher, in this applauded his noble philosophical spirit. Cicero informs us (De Inventione, lib. i. c. 29,) that the majority of the philosophers of his day were considered the enemies of the gods and religion.

infected Rome. Divorce and consequent licentiousness of manners were excessively prevalent, especially among the higher classes. Cato the Censor made desperate, but vain efforts to restore the ancient simplicity of manners, and check the progress of national demoralization. The senate, once the pride of Rome, on account of its stern integrity, was tainted with crime. Rome, indeed, even in her palmiest days, was relentless and cruel. But the gladiatorial exhibitions, of which even delicate females were passionately fond, grew more and more bloody. Whole hecatombs of men were sacrificed, under the eyes of pleasure-loving crowds. The young patrician beauty, languishing on purple couches, "by a sign of her jewelled finger," condemned the poor gladiator to die, to amuse herself with the sight of his expiring agonies. The banquets of the wealthy were seenes of debauchery. As the luxurious Egyptians placed a real skeleton at their feasts, to whet the appetites of the guests, and deepen the pleasure of the passing hour, so the Greek and Roman epicures, on festive days, placed upon their tables, at their orgies, fit emblem of intellectual and moral despair, the skeleton of ivory or silver, as a memento of the rapidity of life, and the duty of "quick and unlimited enjoyment." So much was despair the fashion of the times, that even Stoicism, the only