is called a priest, the Chaldee translator renders the word by , prince. On his appointment as first minister of the king, Joseph was probably admitted into the sacerdotal tribe. Among the Jews, previous to the time of David, the high-priests were generally considered as the rulers of the people, under God as the supreme monarch of Israel; and the Levites appear to have exercised an inferior authority in the provincial towns. There are also instances in after times wherein the king's ministers, those who were "at his hand," are called priests. 2 Sam. viii. 18; xx. 23; 1 Kings iv. 2; 1 Chron. xviii. 17. The priestly office was hereditary after the time of Aaron. Even in countries where other offices were not hereditary, there appears to have been something like caste among those who occupied this position in the state; and in all countries where caste existed, it was the most notable among the sages and priests. The high priests of Hephaestos professed to have registers that proved their dignity to have been transmitted through 341 generations, and they had colossal statues of this number of individuals.* The priests among the Chaldaeans, the great masters of astronomical science, received their privileges by birthright. In many families of seers among the Greeks, a knowledge of the future was considered to be hereditary. And even in our own times, especially among less cultivated tribes, such gifts as second sight are supposed to be transmitted from father to child. In the ancient legends of the Budhists, in which Brahmans are frequently introduced, they are represented as being prime ministers, privy councillors, philosophers, soothsayers, conjurors, astrologers, fortune-tellers, physicians, and ascetics. It was acknowledged by Gótama that in some ages the Brahmans are superior to the Kshatriyas; and if a supreme Budha then appears, he is born of the brahmanical caste. It is said in the Janawansa, "The Brahmans applied themselves to study, and became priests; or they assumed *Herod. ii. 82. The priests of Egypt resembled, in many respects, the character given of the ancient Brahmans, inasmuch as they were judges, physicians, and astrologers. the office of preceptors; and some of them maintained themselves by the offering of sacrifices and oblations, by the practice of medicine, or the consulting of the planets. They were thus the professors of the various branches of science said to have been revealed by the chief Brahma, from whom all the sciences are supposed to be derived, such as astrology, magic, astronomy, &c." In the Dasa-brahma-játaka, Gótama is represented as relating the history of a certain noble, Widhúra, who in a former age informed Korawya, king of the city of Indupat, in Kuru, that there were ten kinds of Brahmans. "1. There are Brahmans," said he, "who tie up a quantity of medicines in a bundle, and put them in a bag, and go from place to place, proclaiming, "This medicine is good for such a disease, and this for another. They also carry about with them different kinds of oils, and proclaim, If this be poured into the nose it is good for such a disease, and this for another. They also profess to drive out devils by mantras. 2. There are others who leave the regular ordinances of Brahminism; and because they have no other mode of obtaining a livelihood, they go to the palaces of kings and the mansions of the nobility, where they play upon cymbals and sing songs for the amusement of the great. At times they only employ others to perform the same services. 3. There are others who take some kind of vessel, with which they approach the courts of kings; they then say, I must have such or such a gift, or I will not depart hence; they thus force from the kings whatever they desire. There are others who go about from door to door to beg, appearing like a tree that has been burnt in the field cleared for cultivation; with long hair, dirty teeth, immense nails, heads covered with dust, and filthy bodies. 5. There are others who go about as merchants, to sell different kinds of fruits, honey, &c. 6. There are others who practise agriculture, rear cattle, poultry, and slaves; who give much wealth as the portion of their daughters, and receive much when their sons are married. 7. There are others who tell the nekatas, or lucky hours; kill animals, and sell their flesh; and follow 4. other practices of a similar kind. 8. There are others who carry about different kinds of bowls and other utensils to sell; they also remain near places to which persons are accustomed to resort for trade, and obtain from them five hundred or a thousand pieces of money, for escorting them through wild places; thus they gain their livelihood after the manner of men who break into houses to steal. 9. There are others who live like the savages of the wilderness, killing and eating the flesh of hares, guanas, deer, and things that live in the water, as tortoises, &c. 10. There are others who profess to be released from evil desire, and to be ready to release others also. On account of their wish to gain abundance, they recommend to kings to present the sacrifice called yága; and if a king can be found willing, they place him upon a golden couch, and anoint his head with holy water, saying, that this will take away the consequences of his sins; then the couch, and the carpet upon which he has sat, his robes and ornaments, all fall to the share of the Brahmans who have conducted the ceremony." These are the words of an adversary, or they would lead us to conclude that the ancient Brahmans were something like the Gipsies of Spain and other countries in our days. By the Budhists, the Vaisyas are regarded as merchants; and even by the Brahmans, who derive the name from a word which signifies "to enter" (as fields, &c.), they are called "the agricultural and mercantile tribe." This would intimate that the distinction was not made until the social polity had been in existence some time, and become compacted; for although there must have been commerce, in the shape of barter, during the earliest ages, a considerable period would elapse before the merchant had gained sufficient wealth to cause his occupation to be looked upon as respectable. In the time of Gótama Budha the merchants are represented as being a very influential class. They traded to great distances in caravans,* and had to exercise much dis *The remark of Heeren (Hist. Res. Asiatic Nations, ii. 279) is not correct, that "the conveyance of merchandise by means of a caravan, as in cretion and brave many dangers, by which they acquired a strength of mind that caused them to be looked upon with respect, and gained them the third rank in the order of castes. It is under the character of a wanderer that the ancient merchant is generally represented; he has not only to superintend the sale of his wares, but to accompany them in their transit. Thus in Hebrew, the name of the merchant is derived from a root that signifies "to go about, to wander;" in Greek, from év Topos, transitus; and our own word merchant has a similar signification in the Gothic mergan, " to spread." In India, it is not alone the man who trades to foreign countries that has to wander, as much of the retail trade is carried on by persons who pass from village to village, like the bag-men or hawkers of our own land. By the Singhalese the third caste is generally regarded as being exclusively mercantile, whilst the cultivators form the first class of the Sudras. It is said in one of their legends that the first merchant was called Wessama, who, having discovered the properties of certain medical productions, afterwards disposed of them for gain. It is the more usual course for the cultivators of the soil to be regarded as forming the noblest class of the people, next to those who hold rank as hereditary princes; they are the eupatrids; they form the timocracy; and it is from them the rulers of the state are chosen; as delegates of the king, when the government is monarchical, or as temporary chiefs, when it is an aristocracy. The circumstances of those who reside in the country, whether as proprietors or as labourers, are favourable to the maintenance of respectability of character, as they are exposed to fewer temptations than the merchant, who has necessarily to live in the midst of the luxuries that produce vice. The higher classes among the Greeks were averse to any profession except arms, agriculture, and musical exercises; and the Spartans carried their disdain of all manual occupations so far as to leave even other countries of the East, continued always foreign to the practice of India." agriculture to the Helots.* The philosophers themselves were not exempt from these prejudices; they supposed that as mechanical arts rendered the body languid, whereby the mind loses its energy, the man who exercises them is unable to fulfil the duties required of him in a free state. "The ancients," says Niebuhr, "with one mind esteemed agriculture to be the proper business of the freeman, as well as the school of the soldier. Cato says, the countryman has the fewest evil thoughts. In him the whole stock of the nation is preserved; it changes in cities where foreign merchants and tradesmen are wont to settle, even as those who are natives remove whithersoever they are lured by gain. In every country where slavery prevails the freedman seeks his maintenance by occupations of this kind, in which he not unfrequently grows wealthy; thus among the ancients, as in after times, such trades were mostly in the hands of this class, and were therefore thought disreputable to a citizen; hence the opinion, that the admitting the artisans to full civic rights is hazardous, and would transform the character of a nation." It therefore appears to be contrary to the analogy presented in other nations, when we see the tribe of merchants in India holding so high a rank ;† but it is to be accounted for by the peculiar circumstances of the country, the products of which were carried to the most distant parts of the world, causing its people to become rich, and placing those who were the means of the acquirement of this wealth in the position of princes. We may also learn from the same fact than an * The Thracian chiefs also held it disgraceful to cultivate the earth; war and robbery were with them the only paths to honour. On the other hand, the earlier Romans were eminently an agricultural people. "Traffic and money-lending are satyántrita; even by them, when he is deeply distressed, may the Brahman support life."-Manu. Inst. iv. 6. But to the Persians, buying and selling appeared to be a mean practice, as they thought it impossible to carry it on without falsehood and cheating; and when Cyrus heard that the Lacedæmonians had a regular market at Sparta, he expressed great contempt for the nation.-Herod. i. 153. When the Lydians revolted against Cyrus, he was advised by Croesus to enforce upon them the wearing of effeminate clothing, the practice of music, and shopkeeping, as by this means they would become women instead of men.-Ib. i. 155. Kleon, the tanner, the Hyperbolus, the lamp-maker, are greatly derided by Aristophanes for presuming to engage in politics. |