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he led back his army by another rout than that he had taken, and subdued all the coun, tries he found in his way.

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He returned to Babylon feared and respected, not as a conqueror, but as a god. But that formidable empire which he had conquered lasted no longer than his life, which was very short. At thirty-three years of age, in the midst of the greatest designs that man had ever conceived, and with the brighest hopes of a prosperous success, he died, without having had leisure properly to settle his affairs, leaving an imbecile brother, and children, who were minors, and incapable of sustaining so great a weight. But what proved most fatal to his house and empire was, that he left captains whom he had taught to breathe nothing but ambition and war. He foresaw to what excesses they would go when once he was out of the world; in order to keep them in check, and for fear of their disappointing his intention, he neither dared name his successor, nor the guardian of his children. He foretold only, that his friends would celebrate his funeral with bloody battles, and he expired in the flower of his age, full of the sad images of the confusion that would ensue upon his death.

In fact, you have seen the division of his empire, and the dreadful ruin of his house. Macedon, his ancient kingdom, enjoyed by his ancestors for so many ages, was invaded on all sides as a vacant succession; and after being long the prey of the strongest, went at last to another family. Thus that great

conqueror, the most renowned and most illustrious that ever was in the world, was the last king of his race. Had he remained peaceably in Macedon, the greatness of his empire would not have tempted his captains, and he might have left to his children the kingdom of his fathers. But his having been too powerful was the cause of the destruction of all that belonged to him; and such was the glorious fruit of so many conquests!

His death was the sole cause of this extraordinary revolution. For we must say, to his honour, that if ever man was capable of maintaining so vast an empire, newly conquered, it was doubtless Alexander, seeing he had no less conduct than courage. We should not therefore impute to his faults, though he was guilty of some very great ones, the fall of his family, but to mortality alone: if it may not be said, that a man of his humour, whose ambition made him constantly enterprising, would never have found leisure to settle things.

Be this as it will, we see, from this example, that (beside the faults, which men might correct, that is those they commit through passion or ignorance) there is one irremediable failing inseparably annexed to human designs, and that is, mortality. By this, every thing may fall in a moment; which forces us to confess, that as the most inherent vice, if I may so speak, and the one most inseparable from human things, is their own frailty, he who knows how to preserve and confirm a state, has attained to a

higher pitch of wisdom, than he who knows how to conquer, and to win battles.

It is needless for me minutely to recount to you, what occasioned the fall of the kingdoms formed out of the wreck of Alexander's empire, namely, those of Syria, Macedon, and Egypt. The common cause of their ruin was, that they were forced to yield to a greater power, which was the Roman. Were we however to consider the last state of those monarchies, we should easily find the immediate causes of their fall; and should see, among other things, that the most powerful of them all, namely that of Syria, after being shaken by the effeminacy and luxury of the nation, received at last the mortal stroke from the division of its princes.

VI. The Roman Empire.

WE are at length come to that great empire, which swallowed up all the empires of the universe, whence have sprung the greatest kingdoms of the world we dwell in, whose laws we still revere, and with which we ought consequently to be better acquainted than with all other empires. You are sensible, Sir, that I speak of the Roman empire. You have seen the long and memorable history of it in its whole series. But in order perfectly to understand the causes of the exaltation of Rome, and those of the great changes that have happened in its state, be pleased to consider attentively,

along with the manners of the Romans, the times, on which depend all the motions of that vast empire.

Of all the nations of the world, the most bold and daring, but withal the most regular in its counsels, the most constant in its maxims, the most deliberate, the most laborious, and, in fine, the most patient, was the Roman people.

From all this was formed the best soldiery, and a policy the most provident, most steady, and best pursued that ever existed.

The first principle of a Roman was the love of liberty, and of his country. The one of these made him love the other; for by loving liberty, he loved also his country, as a mother which brought him up in sentiments equally generous and free.

Under the name of liberty, the Romans figured to themselves, with the Greeks, a state where no one was subject to any thing but the law, and where the law was more powerful than men.

Moreover, although Rome was born under a regal government, she enjoyed, even under her kings, a liberty scarcely consistent with a regular monarchy. For besides that the kings were elective, and that the election was made by the whole people, it belonged also to the people assembled, to ratify the laws, and to decree peace or war. There were even some particular cases, wherein the kings gave up the sovereign judgment to the people; as witness

Tullus Hostilius, who daring neither to condemn nor acquit Horatius, loaded at once with honour for having conquered the Curiatii, and with shame for having killed his sister, caused him to be judged by the people. So that the kings had properly no more than the command of the armies, and the power of calling lawful assemblies, of proposing matters there, of maintaining the laws, and of executing the public de

crees.

When Servius Tullius formed the design, which you have seen, of reducing Rome to a commonwealth, he increased the love of liberty in a people already so free; and hence you may judge how jealous the Romans were of it, when they had tasted it pure under their consuls.

It still shocks us to see in history the dreadful firmness of the consul Brutus, when he caused his two sons to be put to death before his eyes, for having suffered themselves to be drawn into the secret practices the Tarquins were carrying on at Rome, to recover their dominion there. How strongly must the people be confirmed in the love of liberty, upon seeing that inflexible consul sacrifice his own family to it? We need no longer wonder if they despised at Rome the efforts of the neighbouring nations, who attempted to restore the banished Tarquins. In vain did king Porsenna take them into his protection. The Romans, almost starved, made him know, by their stedfastness, that they

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