People seldom stand still, but are either polishing or spoiling. In Nations, where for many Years no considerable Changes of Fortune happen, the various Rises and Falls in their moral Character are the less observed: But when by an Invasion and Conquest the Face of things is wholly changed; or when the original Planters of a Country, from a State of Ignorance and Barbarity, advance by Policy and Order, to Wealth and Power, it is then, that the Steps of the Progression become observable: We can see every thing on the growing Hand, and the very Soul and Genius of the People rising to higher Attempts, and a more liberal Manner.
From the Accounts left us of the State of ancient Greece, by the most accurate of their Historians[1], we may perceive three Periods in their Affairs. The first, from the dark Ages, of which they had little or no Knowledge[2], to the time of the Trojan War. The second, from the taking of Troy, to the Persian Invasion under Xerxes. The third, from that time, to the loss of their Liberty, first by the Macedonians, and then by the Romans. Greece was peopled in the First; she grew, and the Constitution was settled in the Second; she enjoyed it in the Third, and was in all her Glory. From the two
