can; that is, one
connected with the Greeks, and the other with some ancient Italian
tribe. We have seen that this fact is the basis of all their
traditions, that it is confirmed by the structure of their language,
and, we may add, that it is further proved by their political
institutions. In all the Latin cities, as well as Rome, we find the
people divided into an aristocracy and democracy, or, as they are more
properly called, Patricians and Plebeians. The experience of all ages
warrants the inference, which may be best stated in the words of Dr.
Faber: "In the progress of the human mind there is an invariable
tendency not to introduce into an undisturbed community a palpable
difference between lords and serfs, instead of a legal equality of
rights; but to abolish such difference by enfranchising the serfs.
Hence, from the universal experience of history, we may be sure that
whenever this distinction is found to exist, the society must be
composed of two races differing from each other in point of origin."

The traditions respecting the origin of Rome are innumerable; some
historians assert that its founder was a Greek; others, AEneas and his
Trojans; and others give the honour to the Tyrrhenians: all, however,
agree, that the first inhabitants were a Latin colony from Alba. Even
those who adopted the most current story, which is followed by Dr.
Goldsmith, believed that the city existed before the time of Rom'ulus,
and that he was called the founder from being the first who gave it
strength and stability. It seems probable that several villages might
have been formed at an early age on the different hills, which were
afterwards included in the circuit of Rome; and that the first of them
which obtained a decided superiority, the village on the Palatine
hill, finally absorbed the rest, and gave its name to "the eternal
city".

There seems to be some uncertainty whether Romulus gave his name
to the city, or derived his own from it; the latter is asserted by
several historians, but those who ascribe to the city a Grecian
origin, with some show of probability assert that Romus (another form
of Romulus) and Roma are both derived from the Greek [Greek: rome],
_strength_. The city, we are assured, had another name, which the
priests were forbidden to divulge; but what that was, it is now
impossible to discover.

We have thus traced the history of the Latins down to the period when
Rome was founded, or at least when it bec