these Virtues from Necessity, and the Things themselves, knows them better than Schools and Systems can instruct him; and that the Representations of such genuine Characters bear the Marks of Truth, and far outshine those taken from counterfeit Worth, or fainter Patterns.
Thus your Lordship sees, that the Fortunes, the Manners, and the Language of a People are all linked together, and necessarily influence one another. Men take their Sentiments from their Fortunes; if they are low, it is their constant Concern how to mend them; if they are easy, how to enjoy them: And according to this Bent they turn both their Conduct, and their Conversation; and assume the Language, Air, and Garb peculiar to the Manner of the different Characters. In most of the Greek Cities, Policy and Laws were but just a forming, when Homer came into the World[1]. The first Sketches of them were extremely simple[2]; generally Prohibitions from Violence, or such Regulations of Manners as we should think unnecessary or barbarous. The Tribes were but beginning to live secure within the Walls of their new-fenced Towns, and had as yet
- ↑ They had no well digested Body of Laws, or Plan of a Civil Constitution, before Onomacritus. So Aristotle, Ὀνομακριτοῦ γενομένου πρώτου δείνου περὶ Νομοθεσίαν. Πολιτ. α.
- ↑ Τοὺς γὰρ ἀρχαίους Νόμους λίαν ἁπλοῦς εἶναι καὶ βαρβαρικούς. Ἐσιδηροφοροῦντό γὰρ οἱ Ἕλληνες, καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας ἐωνοῦντο παρ' ἀλλήλων. Ὅσα τε λοιπὰ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐστὶ που Νομίμων, εὐήθη πάμπαν ἐστὶ.
Αριστ. Πολιτ. β.
