not less blamable, since their direct tendency is to convert judges into arbiters, and thereby to arm them with an arbitrary power of decision, which can never be expedient to the parties, unless it be specially granted, and voluntarily entrusted. In matters submitted to arbitration, communication of sentiment and discussion of opinion are not only allowed, but required. In courts of justice most legislators have strictly prohibited both; commanding each judge simply to condemn, or simply to acquit, as his own reason directs. By the innovations of Hippodamos, legal proceedings would be involved in inextricable confusion. The defendant might be ordered by one judge to pay twenty minæ, by another more, and by a third less; each might differ from every other, and all from the plaintiff. The sentence would be thus split into such a multitude of parts, as it would be difficult to collect, and impossible to unite; and all these difficulties would be created and encountered, in order to obviate an imaginary inconvenience; for it is false that the judge is perjured, who simply acquits a party sued for twenty minæ, although he may believe that he really owes half that sum. The judge would, on the contrary, be perjured if he did not acquit him; and in all similar cases, the fault lies not in the law or in the judge, but in the libel and in the plaintiff, whose cause is not correctly stated, and whose action is not fairly brought."1

12 I have here made use of the able, but somewhat paraphrastic, and not always faithful translation of Dr. Gillies, ii. 6.

Notices of several other imaginary commonwealths have been preserved, chiefly by Aristotle; as that, for example, of Phaleas of Chalcedon, in which the principal object was the equalization of property; but the most extraordinary Utopia of which we discover any trace among ancient writers, is the one briefly described in an obscure fragment of Theopompos of Chios. This writer, whose diligence and ability as an historian entitled him to the praise of Athenæus and Dionysius of Halicarnassos, collected in the course of his reading a number of extraordinary relations, which he published under the title of Θαυμασία. In this work, as Servius, in his Commentary on the Sixth book of the Eneid, observes, the singular romance I am about to notice was originally found. But the Collection itself has long since perished, and this fragment is all, I believe, now left by which to judge of its nature and value.

Theopompos, says the sophist, to whom we are indebted for the story, has preserved a certain dialogue, which once took place between Seilenos and Midas, king of Phrygia. This Seilenos, as is well known, was the son of a nymph, inferior in condition to the gods, but endued with immortality, and by nature superior to mankind. He conversed familiarly with Midas upon many subjects, and, among other things, informed him that Europe, Asia, and Libya, are but so many islands com

Gottling, who, like Dr. Gillies himself, loves to alter the arrangement of the text, calls it chapter v. Bekker preserves the divisions of the received editions.

pletely surrounded by the ocean; but that, beyond the limits of the known world, there was a continent of prodigious magnitude, which gave birth to animals of vast bulk, and to men of double the ordinary stature. These Brobdignagians, not content with exceeding us so much in size, had likewise obtained from nature the privilege of living twice as long; a circumstance which they skilfully turned to account, erecting numerous spacious cities governed by laws and institutions peculiar to themselves, and the very opposite of ours. Among these polities were two in everything the reverse of each other. One of the strongholds was called Machimos, or the "Place of War;" the other Eusebes, or the " Holy City." The inhabitants of the latter, who passed their days in peace, abounded exceedingly in wealth, and enjoyed whatever the earth brings forth, without ox or plough, without sowing or husbandry. Sickness, too, came not near their dwellings, and their healthful career was crowned in all its course with smiles and delights. Justice they practised without contention or strife, so that even the gods did not from time to time disdain to mingle with them.

The inhabitants of Machimos, on the other hand, were of all men the most martial; and living constantly under arms, vexed the neighbouring nations with unceasing wars, and acquired the empire over numerous states. The number of citizens scarcely fell short of two millions, few of whom ever came to a peaceful end, but fell in battle, overwhelmed with stones, or beaten to death

D

with clubs, for to steel they were invulnerable. Gold was so plentiful in their country, that it was regarded of less value than iron amongst us. These warlike people were said to have crossed the Atlantic in remote antiquity, for the purpose of making war on our part of the world; and, effecting a landing with an army surpassing twofold that of the Medes, to have marched northward as far as the country of the Hyperboreans. Finding, however, upon inquiry, that these were considered the most flourishing nation in Europe, the Machimians conceived too profound a contempt for the whole race to think of pushing their conquests any further.

Another race described by Seilenos were still more extraordinary. These were the Meropes, who inhabited a portion of the Great Continent, where they possessed many large and beautiful cities. Towards the extreme limits of their empire was a place called Anoston, which, both in name and characteristics, strongly resembled "that untravelled country, from whose bourne no traveller returns." Into this deep valley man descended as into a chasm. No sunshine or pure light sparkled there, neither did total darkness prevail, but the whole atmosphere was filled with a murky haze, impregnated with a ruddy glow. Through this dismal region two rivers lapsed along, the one of Pleasure, the other of Grief; and on their margins grew trees, in size equalling a lofty plaintain. Those which sprang up along the river of Grief, produced a fruit of peculiar properties; and if any one tasted of it, he forthwith burst into floods of tears,

which overflowed perpetually, until death came to his relief. On the contrary, the fruit of those trees which were watered by the river of Pleasure carried Elysium in their taste. For, whosoever ate of it, forgot at once all his former desires, and every object he had previously loved :—

"The tree of knowledge has been plucked, all's known ;"

the hues of youth came again over his cheeks-he travelled backward along the whole track of life— tasted of boyhood's delights a second time-then crept, an infant, into the cradle-and lastly, sought, as all do, that narrow house, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."

"13

Both König and Perizonius conjecture, with much probability, that Theopompos has embodied, in the above fanciful narration, a portion of the strange reports current in the ancient world respecting America. Plato, it is well known, had gathered similar intimations of the existence of that great continent; of an invasion of Europe by its inhabitants; and sundry other particulars, fabulous or mixed with fable. However this may be there can, I think, exist no doubt that some obscure and imperfect knowledge of America had found its way to the old world; and as little can we call in question the fact, that in remote antiquity, civilized and powerful nations flourished in the kingdoms of Mexico and Peru, who, in those magnificent ruins recently disinterred, have left irrefragable

13 Elian. Hist. Var. iii. 18.