THE WEALTH OE NATIONS.

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the Greek and Roman history bears witness to the supe-riority of the public morals of the Romans. The good tem-per and moderation of contending factions seems to be themost essential circumstance in the public morals of a freepeople. But the factions of the Greeks were almost alwaysviolent and sanguinary; whereas till the time of the Gracchi,no blood had ever been shed in any Roman faction; andfrom the time of the Gracchi, the Roman republic may beconsidered as in reality dissolved. Notwithstanding, there-fore, the very respectable authority of Plato, Aristotle , andPolybius , and notwithstanding the very ingenious reasonsby which Mr. Montesquieu endeavours to support that au-thority, it seems probable that the musical education of theGreeks had no great elfect in mending their morals, since,without any such education, those of the Romans were uponthe whole superior. The respect of those ancient sages forthe institutions of their ancestors had probably disposedthem to find much political wisdom in what was, perhaps,merely an ancient custom, continued, without interruption,from the earliest period of those societies, to the times inwhich they had arrived at a considerable degree of refine-ment. Music and dancing are the great amusements of al-most all barbarous nations, and the great accomplishmentswhich are supposed to lit any man for entertaining his so-ciety. It is so at this day among the negroes on the coastof Africa. It was so among the ancient Celtes , among theancient Scandinavians, and, as we may learn from Homer ,among the ancient Greeks in the times preceding the Tro-jan war. When the Greek tribes had formed themselvesinto little republics, it was natural that the study of thoseaccomplishments should, for a long time, make a part of thepublic and common education of the people.

The masters who instructed the young people either inmusic or military exercises do not seem to have been paid,or even appointed by the state, either in Rome or even inAthens , the Greek republic of whose laws and customs weare the best informed. The state required that every treecitizen should fit himself for defending it in war, and should,upon that account, learn his military exercises. But it lefthim to learn them of such masters as he could find, andit seems to have advanced nothing for this purpose, but apublic field or place of exercise, in which he should practiseand perform them.