being destroyed by each other? Can any man be insensible of the brevity of life; and can he who knows it, think life too long? Is it possible to suppose, that mankind came into the world, merely to propagate misery, and to harass and destroy one another?-Neither can the inhabitants of Boetica comprehend, how those, who, by subjugating great empires, obtain the name of conquerors, came to be so much the object of admiration.— To place happiness in the government of others, say they, is madness, since to govern well is a painful task; but a desire to govern others against their will, is madness in a still greater degree; a wise man cannot, without violence to himself, submit to take upon him the government of a willing people, whom the gods have committed to his charge, or who apply to him for guidance and protection; to govern people against their will, is to become miserable, for the false honor of holding others in slavery. A conqueror is one whom the gods, provoked by the wickedness of mankind, send, in their wrath, upon the earth, to ravage kingdoms: to spread round them in a vast circle, terror, misery, and despair; to destroy the brave, and enslave the free bas not he, who is ambitious of glory, sufficient opportunities of acquiring it, by managing with wisdom what the gods have entrusted to his care? can it be imagined, that praise is merited only by arrogance and injustice, by usurpation and tyranny? War should never be thought of, but in the defence of liberty; happy is he, who not being the slave of another, is free from the frantic ambition of making another a slave to him! These conquerors, who are represented as encircled with glory, resemble rivers that have overflowed their banks, which appear majestic, indeed, but which desolate the countries they ought to fertilize."

After Adoam had given this description of Boetica, Telemachus, who had listened to it with great delight, asked him several questions, which would not have been suggested by common curiosity. "Do the inhabitants of Boetica," said he, "drink wine?"-"They are so far from drinking wine," said Adoam, "that they make none; not because they are without grapes, for no country in the world produces them in geater plenty or perfection; but they content themselves with eating them as they do other fruit, and are afraid of wine as the corrupter of mankind :-Wine, they say, is a species of poison, which produces madness: which does not kill men, indeed, but degrades them into brutes. Men may preserve their health, and their vigour, without wine; but with wine, not their health only, but their virtue is in danger."

Telemachus then inquired, what laws were established in Boetica, relating to marriage. "No man," said Adoam, "is allowed to have more than one wife; and every man is obliged to keep his wife as long as she lives in this country a man's reputation depends as much upon his fidelity to his wife, as a woman's reputation, in other countries, depends upon her fidelity to her husband. No people ever practised so scrupulous a decorum, or were so jealous of their chastity. Their women are beautiful, and have that sweet and tender sensibility, which is more than beauty; but they borrow no advantages from art; there is all the simplicity of nature, both in their manners, and their dress; and they take their share of the labour of the day. Their marriages are peaceable, fruitful, and undefiled: the husband and wife seem to be two bodies animated by one soul; the husband manages affairs without, and the wife within; she provides for his refreshment at his return, and seems to live only to

:

please him; she gains his confidence and as she charms him yet more by her virtue than her beauty, their happiness is such as death only can destroy. From this temperance, sobriety, and simplicity of manners, they derive longevity and health; and it is common to see among them, men of an hundred, or an hundred and twenty years old, who have all the cheerfulness and vigour that make life desirable."

"But how," said Telemachus, "do they escape the calamities of war? are they never invaded by other nations?""Nature," says Adoam, "has separated them. from other nations, by the sea, on one side, and by mountains almost inaccessible on the other; besides, their virtue has impressed foreign powers with reverence and awe. When any contest arises among the neighbouring states, they frequently make a common deposit of the territory in question, in the hands of the Boeticans, and appoint them arbitrators of the dispute. As these wise people are guilty of no violence, they are never mistrusted; and they laugh when they hear of kings who disagree about the boundaries of their country:-Are they afraid, said they, that the earth should not have room for its inhabitants? there will always be much more land than can be cultivated; and while any remains unappropriated by cultivation, we should think it folly to defend even our own against those who would invade it. These people are, indeed, wholly free from pride, fraud, and ambition; they do no injury, they violate no compact, they covet no territory; their neighbours, therefore, having nothing to fear from them, nor any hope of making themselves feared by them, give them no disturbance. They would sooner abandon their country, or die upon the spot, than submit to a state of slavery; so that the same qualities that render them in

capable of subjugating others, render it almost impossible for others to subjugate them. For these reasons, there is always a profound peace between them and their neighbours."

were as

Adoam proceeded to give an account of the traffic which the Phoenecians carried on in Boetica: "The inhabitants of that happy country," said he, tonished, when they first saw the waves bring strangers from a distant region to their coast: they received us, however, with great benevolence; and gave us part of whatever they had, without asking or expecting a return. They suffered us to establish a colony on the island of Gadira, and offered us whatever should remain of their wool, after their own necessities were supplied; sending us, at the same time, a considerable quantity of it as a present; for they have great pleasure in bestowing their superfluities upon strangers.

"As to their mines, they made no use of them; and therefore, without reluctance, left them entirely to us. Men, they thought, were not over-wise, who, with so much labour, searched the bowels of the earth, for that which could give no true happiness, nor satisfy any natural want. They admonished us not to dig in the earth too deep: Content yourselves,' said they, 'with ploughing it, and it will yield you real benefits in return; it will yield those things to which gold and silver owe all their value; for gold and silver are valuable only as a means of procuring the necessaries of life.'

"We frequently offered to teach them navigation, and carry some of their youth with us to Phoenicia; but they never would consent that their children should live as we do. If our children were to go with you,' said they,' their wants would soon be as numerous as yours; the nameless variety of things which you have made

necessary, would become necessary to them; they would be restless till these artificial wants were supplied; and they would renounce their virtue, by the practice of dishonest arts to supply them; they would soon resemble a man of good limbs, and a sound constitution, who having, by long inactivity, forgot how to walk, is under the necessity of being carried like a cripple.' As to navigation, they admire it as a curious art, but they believe it to be pernicious: 'If these people,' say they, 'have the necessaries of life in their own country, what do they seek in ours? Will not those things which satisfy the wants of nature, satisfy their wants? Surely, they that defy the tempest, to gratify avarice or luxury, deserve shipwreck.'

Telemachus listened to this discourse of Adoam with unspeakable delight; and rejoiced that there was yet a people in the world, who, by a perfect conformity to the law of nature, were so wise and so happy: "How different," said he, "are the manners of this nation from those which, in nations that have obtained the highest reputation for wisdom, are tainted throughout with vanity and ambition! To us the follies that have depraved us are so habitual, that we can scarcely believe this simplicity, though it is, indeed, the simplicity of nature, can be real: we consider the manners of these people as a splendid fiction, and they ought to regard ours as a preposterous dream."

Socialism, or families uniting together, and having property in common, is a system which has been brought before the British and French public, in different forms for the last twenty years; and has been made the subject of books, and lectures by several philanthropists. The above extract from Telemachus, proves that Fenelon was a socialist. It is, indeed, Christianity in its purest