ted by these great writers. I am indeed much less called upon to
display the worth and usefulness of the law of nations, than to
vindicate myself from presumption in attempting a subject which has been
already handled by so many masters. For the purpose of that vindication
it will be necessary to sketch a very short and slight account (for such
in this place it must unavoidably be) of the progress and present state
of the science, and of that succession of able writers who have
gradually brought it to its present perfection.

We have no Greek or Roman treatise remaining on the law of nations. From
the title of one of the lost works of Aristotle, it appears that he
composed a treatise on the laws of war,[7] which, if we had the good
fortune to possess it, would doubtless have amply satisfied our
curiosity, and would have taught us both the practice of the ancient
nations and the opinions of their moralists, with that depth and
precision which distinguish the other works of that great philosopher.
We can now only imperfectly collect that practice and those opinions
from various passages which are scattered over the writings of
philosophers, historians, poets, and orators. When the time shall arrive
for a more full consideration of the state of the government and manners
of the ancient world, I shall be able, perhaps, to offer satisfactory
reasons why these enlightened nations did not separate from the general
province of ethics that part of morality which regulates the intercourse
of states, and erect it into an independent science. It would require a
long discussion to unfold the various causes which united the modern
nations of Europe into a closer society; which linked them together by
the firmest bands of mutual dependence, and which thus, in process of
time, gave to the law that regulated their intercourse greater
importance, higher improvement, and more binding force. Among these
causes we may enumerate a common extraction, a common religion, similar
manners, institutions, and languages; in earlier ages the authority of
the See of Rome, and the extravagant claims of the imperial crown; in
later times the connexions of trade, the jealousy of power, the
refinement of civilization, the cultivation of science, and, above all,
that general mildness of character and manners which arose from the
combined and progressive influence of chivalry, of commerce, of
learning, and of religion. Nor must we omit the similarity of thos