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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

tention lias taken place. The superiority of character in theRomans over that of the Greeks, so much remarked byPolybius and Dionysius of Halicarnassus , was probably moreowing to the better constitution of their courts of justice,than to any of the circumstances to which those authors as-cribe it. The Romans are said to have been particularlydistinguished for their superior respect to an oath. But thepeople who were accustomed to make oath only before somediligent and well-informed court of justice would naturallybe much more attentive to what they swore, than they whowere accustomed to do the same thing before mobbish anddisorderly assemblies.

The abilities, both civil and military, of the Greeks andRomans, will readily be allowed to have been, at least, equalto those of any modern nation. Our prejudice is perhapsrather to overrate them. But except in what related to mi-litary exercises, the state seems to have been at no pains toform those great abilities; for I cannot be induced to believe,that the musical education of the Greeks could be of muchconsequence in forming them. Masters, however, had beenfound, it seems, for instructing the better sort of peopleamong those nations in every art and science in which thecircumstances of their society rendered it necessary or con-venient for them to be instructed. The demand for suchinstruction produced, what it always produces, the talent forgiving it; and the emulation which an unrestrained compe-tition never fails to excite, appears to have brought thattalent to a very high degree of perfection. In the attentionwhich the ancient philosophers excited, in the empire whichthey acquired over the opinions and principles of their audi-tors, in the faculty which they possessed of giving a certaintone and character to the conduct and conversation of thoseauditors; they appear to have been much superior to anymodern teachers. In modern times, the diligence of publicteachers is more or less corrupted by the circumstanceswhich render them more or less independent of their successand reputation in their particular professions. Their salariestoo put the private teacher, who would pretend to come intocompetition with them, in the same state with a merchantwho attempts to trade without a bounty, in competition withthose who trade with a considerable one. If he sells hisgoods at nearly the same price, he cannot have the sameprofit, and poverty and beggary at least, if not bankruptcy