The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777), 4 vols. - Vol. 3 Grandeur and Declension of the Roman Empire; A Dialogue; Persian Letters

Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

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THE COMPLETE WORKS OF M. DEMONTESQUIEU.

VOL. III.

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF M. DEMONTESQUIEU.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.

IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOLUME THE THIRD.

LONDON:

Printed for T. EVANS, in the Strand; AND W. DAVIS, in Piccadilly.

M DCC LXXVII.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CAUSES OF THE GRANDEUR ANDDECLENSION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAP. I.: The Infancy of Rome. The Wars it sustained.

WE are not to form to ourselves an idea of the city of Rome, inits infancy, from the cities which exist at this time, except we have in viewthose of the Crim Tartars, built for the stowing and securing of plunder,cattle, fruits, and other produce of the country. The ancient names of thechief places in Rome, are all relative to this use.

The city was even without streets, unless we will give this name to thecontinuation of roads which center in it. The houses were straggling, builtafter an irregular manner, and very small; for the inhabitants being alwayseither at their work, or in the public square, were very seldom at home.

But the greatness of Rome soon appeared in its public edifices. Works which [*] have raised, and still raise the greatest idea of its power, wereformed under its kings. They began already to lay the foundation of that citywhich was to be eternal.

Romulus, and his successors, were engaged in almost perpetual wars withtheir neighbours, to encrease the number of their citizens, their women, andtheir territories. They used to return to the city, loaded with the spoils ofconquered nations; and these spoils, which consisted of wheatsheaves andflocks, used to fill them with the greatest joy. Such is the origin oftriumphs, to which that city afterwards chiefly owed its grandeur.

The strength of the Romans was greatly encreased by their union with theSabines, a stubborn, warlike people, resembling the Lacedmonians, fromwhom they sprung. Romulus [*] copied the form of their shields, which were large, and used them everafterwards instead of the small buckler of Argos: And it is to be observed,that the circumstance which chiefly raised the Romans to the sovereignty of theworld, was, their laying aside their own customs as soon as they met withbetter among the people they conquered; and it is well known that they foughtsuccessively against all nations.

It was a maxim then among the republics of Italy, that treaties made withone king were not obligatory towards his successor. This was a sort of law ofnations among them. Thus every thing which had been submitted to by one king ofRome, they thought themselves disengaged from under another, and warscontinually begot wars.

The reign of Numa, being long and pacific, was very well adapted to leavethe Romans in their humble condition; and had their territory in that age beenless confined, and their power greater, it is probable their fortune would havebeen fixed for ever.

One cause of the prosperity of Rome was, that all her kings were great men.No other history presentsus with an uninterrupted succession of such statesmenand such captains.

In the infancy of societies, the leading men in the republic form theconstitution; afterwards, the constitution forms the leading men in therepublic.

Tarquin took upon him the government, without being elected by the senate [*] , or the people. His power became hereditary: he rendered it absolute.These two revolutions were soon followed by a third.

Sextus, the son of Tarquin, by violating the chastity of Lucretia, took sucha step as has seldom failed to drive tyrants from the cities over which theypresided; for when once a people are made strongly sensible, by the commissionof so enormous a crime, of the slavery to which they are reduced, theyimmediately form a desperate resolution.

A people may suffer, without murmuring, the imposing of new tributes, sincethey are not certain but that some advantage may accrue to themselves from thedisposal of the monies so levied; but when an insult is put upon them, they areaffected with their misfortune only; and this they aggravate, by fixing to itthe idea of all the calamities which can possibly happen.

It must however be confessed, that the death of Lucretia did no more thanoccasion, accidentally, the revolution which happened; for a haughty,enterprizing, bold people, confined within walls, must necessarily either shakeoff the yoke, or soften the asperity of their manners.

From the situation of things at that time, this was the result, either thatRome should change the form of its government, or continue for ever a small,poor monarchy.

Modern history furnishes us with a very remarkable example of what happenedat that time in Rome; for as men have been sensible of the same passions in allages, the occasions which give rise to great revolutions are various, but thecauses are for ever the same.

As Henry VII. of England increased the power of the commons, merely tohumble the nobility; so Servius Tullius enlarged the privileges of the people,in order to depress the senate: but the people growing afterwards bolder,ruined each of the monarchies under which they lived.

No flattering colours have been employed in the picture which is left us ofTarquin; his name has not escaped any of the orators who declaimed againsttyranny: but his conduct, before his calamities, which it is evident heforesaw, his gentleness and humanity towards the conquered, his beneficence tothe soldiers, the arts by which he engaged such numbers to endeavour at hispreservation, the edifices he raised for the public use, his courage in thefield, the constancy and patience with which he bore his misfortunes, a twentyyears war he either carried on, or caused to be carried on against the Romans,though deprived of his kingdom, and very poor; these things, and the resourcesperpetually found, prove manifestly, that he was no contemptible person.

The rank or place which posterity bestows, is subject, as all others are, tothe whim and caprice of fortune. Woe to the reputation of that monarch who isoppressed by a party which after becomes the prevailing one; or who hasendeavoured to destroy a prepossession that survives him.

The Romans, after having banished their kings, appointed consuls annually; acircumstance which contributed to raise them to so exalted a pitch. In thelives of all princes there are certain periods of ambition, and these areafterwards succeeded by other passions, and even by indolence; but thecommonwealthbeing governed by magistrates who were changed everyyear, and who endeavoured to signalize themselves in their employment, in theview of obtaining new ones, ambition had not a moment to lose. Hence it wasthat these magistrates were ever persuading the senate to stir up the people towar, and pointed our to them new enemies every day.

This body (the senate) was inclined enough to do this of their own accord;for, being quite tired of the complaints and demands of the people, theyendeavoured to remove the occasion of their disquiet, and to employ them inforeign wars.

Now the common people were generally pleased with war, because a method hadbeen found to make it beneficial to them, by the judicious distribution thatwas made of the spoils.

Rome being a city in which neither trade nor arts flourished, the severalindividuals had no other way of enriching themselves but by rapine.

An order and discipline was therefore established in the way and manner ofpillaging, [*] and this was pretty near the same with that now practised among theinhabitants of Lesser Tartary.

The plunder was laid together, and afterwards distributed among thesoldiers; not even the minutest article was lost, because every man, before heset out, swore not to embezzle any thing; besides that the Romans were, of allnations, the most religious observers of oaths, these being considered as thesinews of their military discipline.

In fine, those citizens who staid at home, shared also in the fruits of thevictory; for part of the conquered lands was confiscated, and this wassubdivided into two portions, one of which was sold for the benefit of thepublic, and the other divided, by the commonwealth, among such citizens as werebut in poor circumstances,upon condition of their paying a smallacknowledgment.

As the consuls had no other way of obtaining the honour of a triumph, thanby a conquest or a victory, this made them rush into field with unparalleledimpetuosity; they marched directly to the enemy, when force immediately decidedthe contest.

Rome was therefore engaged in an eternal, and ever obstinate war: Now, anation that is always [*] at war, and that too from the very frame and essence of its government,must necessarily be destroyed, or subdue all other nations; for, these beingsometimes at war, and at other times in peace, could never be so able to invadeothers, nor so well prepared to defend themselves.

By this means the Romans attained a perfect knowledge in the military arts:In transient wars most of the examples are lost; peace suggests differentideas, and we forget not only our faults, but even our virtues.

Another consequence of the maxim of waging perpetual war, was, that theRomans never concluded a peace but when they were victorious; and indeed, towhat purpose would it be to make an ignominious peace with one nation, andafterwards go and invade another?

In this view, their pretensions rose always in proportion to their defeat;by this they surprized the conqueror, and said themselves under a greaternecessity of conquering.

Being for ever obnoxious to the most severe vengeance, perseverance andvalour became necessary virtues: and these could not be distinguished amongthem from self-love, from the love of ones family, of onescountry, and whatever is dearest among men.

The same had happened to Italy, which besel America in late ages; thenatives of the former, quite helpless and dispersed up and down, havingresigned their habitations to new comers, it was afterwards peopled by threedifferents nations, the Tuscans [*] , the Gauls, and the Greeks. The Gauls had no manner of relation oraffinity either with the Greeks or Tuscans; the latter formed a society whichhad its pecular language, customs and morals; and the Grecian colonies, whodescended from different nations that were often at variance, had prettyseparate interests.

The world in that age was not like the world in ours: voyages, conquest,trassick, the establishment of mighty states, the invention of post-offices, ofthe sea compass, and of printing; these, with a certain general polity, havemade correspondence much easier, and give rise among us to an art called by thename of politics: every man sees at one glance whatever is transacted in thewhole universe; and if a people discover but ever so little ambition, all thenations round them are immediately terrified.

The people of Italy had none of those engines which were employed in sieges: and further, asthe soldiers were not allowed any stipend, there was no possibility of keepingthem long before a town or fortress Hence it was, that few of their wars weredecisive; these fought from no other motive, but merely to plunder theenemys camp or his lands; after which, both the conqueror and theconquered marched back to their respective cities. This circumstance gave riseto the strong resistance which the people of Italy made, and at the same timeto the inflexible resolutionthe Romans formed to subdue them, this favoured thelatter with victories, which no way depraved their morals, and left them intheir original poverty.

Had the Romans made a rapid conquest of the neighbouring cities, they wouldhave been in a declining condition at the arrival of Pyrrhus, of the Gauls, andof Hannibal; and, by a fate common to most governments in the world, they wouldhave made too quick a transition from poverty to riches, and from riches todepravity.

But Rome, for ever struggling, and ever meeting with obstacles, made othernations tremble at its power, and at the same time was unable to extend it; andexercised in a very narrow compass of ground, a train of virtues that were toprove of the most fatal consequence to the universe.

All the people of Italy were not equally warlike: those who inhabited theeastern part, as the Tarentines and the Capuans, all the cities of Campania,and of Grcia Major, were quite immersed in indolence and in pleasures:but the Latins, the Hernici, the Sabines, the qui, and the Volscianswere passionately fond of war: these nations lay round Rome; the resistancethey made to that city was incredible, and they surpassed them in stubbornessand inflexibility.

The Latin cities sprung from Alban colonies, which were founded [*] by Latinus Sylvius: besides their common extraction with the Romans,there were several rites and ceremonies common to both; and Servius Tullius had engaged them to build a temple at Rome, to serve at the center of unionof the two nations. Losing a battle near the lake of Regillus, they weresubjected to an alliance, and forced to associate in the wars which the Romans waged.

It was manifestly seen, during the short time that the tyranny of thedecemvirs lasted, how much the aggrandizing of Rome depended on its liberty.The government seemed to have lost the [*] soul which animated even to the minutest part of it.

There remained at that time but two sorts of people in the city, those whosubmitted to slavery, and those who, for their own private interest,endeavoured to enslave the rest. The senators withdrew from Rome as from aforeign city; and the neighbouring nations did not meet with the leastresistance from any quarter.

The senate having found means to give the soldiers a regular stipend, thesiege of Veii was undertaken, which lasted ten years. But now a new art, and anew system of war, were seen to arise among the Romans: their successes weremore signal and conspicuous; they made a better advantage of their victories;their conquests were greater they sent our more colonies; in fine, the takingof Veii proved a kind of revolution.

But all this did not lessen their toils: if, on one side, they attacked withgreater vigour the Tuscans, the qui, and the Volscians; for this veryreason they were abandoned by the Latins and the Hernici their allies, who werearmed after the same manner, and observed the same discipline with themselves;this engaged the Tuscans to form new alliances; and prompted the Samnites, themost martial people of all Italy, to involve them in a furious war.

After the soldiers received pay, the senate no longer distributed to themthe lands of the conquered people, upon whom other conditions were now imposed;they were obliged, for instance, to pay the army a certain quota for a time,and to send supplies of cloaths and corn.

The taking of Rome by the Gauls, did no way lessen its strength; almost thewhole army, which was dispersed rather than overcome, withdrew to Veii; thepeople sheltered themselves in the adjacent cities; and the burning of Rome wasno more than the setting fire to a few cottages of shepherds.

CHAP. II.: Of the Science of War, as practisedby the Romans.

AS the Romans devoted themselves entirely to war, and considered it as theonly science, they therefore bent all their thoughts, and the genius with whichthey were informed to the improvement of it doubtless a god, says [*] Vegetius, inspired them with the idea of the legion.

They judged that it would be necessary to arm the soldiers who composed thelegion with weapons whether offensive or defensive, of a stronger and heavier kind than those of any other nation.

But as some things must be done in war, which a heavy body is not able toexecute, the Romans would have the legion include within itself a band of lightforces, which might issue from it in order to provoke the enemy to battle, ordraw back into it in case of necessity; they also would have this legionstrengthened with cavalry, with archers, and slingers, to pursue those whofled, and compleat the victory; that it should be defended by military enginesof every kind, which it drew after it; that every this body shouldentrench itself, and be, as Vegetius [*] observes, a kind of strong hold.

But that the Roman soldiers might be able to carry heavier arms than othermen, it was necessary they should become more than men; and this they became byperpetual labour, which increased their vigour, and by exercises that gave theman activity, which is no more than a just distribution of the strength we areinvigorated with.

It is observed in this age, that the immoderate labour which soldiers are obliged to undergo, destroys ourarmies; and yet it was by incredible labour that the Romans preservedthemselves. The reason I take to be this; their toils were continual anduninterrupted, whereas our soldiers are ever shifting from the extremes oflabour to the extremes of idleness, than which nothing can possibly be moredestructive.

I must here take notice of what authors relate concerning the training up of the Roman soldiery. They wereinured to the military pace, that is, to walk twenty miles, and sometimes fourand twenty, in five hours. During these marches, they carried burthens ofthreescore pounds weight; they habituated themselves to running and leaping,armed cap-a-pee; in their exercises they made use of swords, javelins and arrows, double theweight of common weapons; and these exercises were carried on withoutintermission.

The camp was not the only military school; there being, in Rome, a place inwhich the citizens used toperform exercises, (it was the Campus Martius:) aftertheir fatigues [*] they plunged into the Tiber, to accustom themselves to swimming, andcleanse away the dust and sweat.

We have no very just idea of bodily exercise: the man who assiduouslyapplies himself to it, appears to us rather in a contemplible light, inasmuchas the far greater part of his exercises have for their object nothing morethan self-gratification: whereas, among the ancients, every exercise, even downto that of dancing, made a part of the art military.

With us moderns a deep knowledge in the use of warlike weapons is becomeridiculous; for since the custom of single combats was introduced, fencing hasbeen regarded as the sciences of quarrelsome fellows or cowards.

Those who criticise Homer for inspiring his heroes with strength, dexterityand agility of body, should hold Sallust ridiculous, who celebrates Pompey for running, leaping, or carrying a burthen as well as any man of histime.

Whenever the Romans thought themselves exposed to any danger, or weredesirous of repairing some loss, it was a constant practice among them toinvigotate and give new life to their military discipline. Are they engaged ina war with the Latins, a people no less martial than themselves? Manliusreflects upon the best methods of strengthening the command in the field, andputs to death his own son, for conquering without his orders. Are they defeatedbefore Numantia? Scipio milianus immediately removes the severalblandishments, which had enervated them. Have the Roman legions passed underthe yoke at Numedia? Metellus wipes away their ignominy, the instant he hasobliged them to resume their ancient institutions.Marius, that he may be enabled to vanquish the Cm briand the Teutones, begins by diverting the course of [*] rivers; and Sylla employs in such hard labour his soldiers, who wereterrified at the war which was carrying on against Mithridates, that they suefor battle, to put an end to their hardships.

Publius Nassica made the Romans build a fleet of ships, at a time when theyhad no occasion for such a force: these people dreaded idleness more than anenemy.

Aulus Gellius gives no very good reasons for the custom among the Romans of lettingsoldiers blood who had committed a fault; the true reason is, that strengthbeing the chief qualification of a soldier, this was the means of adding not tohis weakness, but to his disgrace.

These men thus inured were generally healthy and vigorous: we do not find byhistorians, that the Roman armies, which waged war in so great a variety ofclimate, fell often a prey to diseases; whereas in the present age we daily seearmies, without once engaging, perish and melt away, if I may use theexpression, in a single campaign.

Desertions are very frequent among us for this reason, because the soldiersare the dregs of every nation, and not one of them possesses, or thinks himselfpossessed of, a certain advantage which gives him a superiority over hiscomrades. But among the Romans they were less froquent; it being scarcepossible that soldiers, raised from among a people naturally so haughty andimperious, and so sure of commanding over others, should demean themselves tosuch a degree, as to cease to be Romans.

As their armies were not great, they were easily subsisted: the commanderhad a better opportunity of knowing the several individuals; and could moreeasily perceive the various faults and misdemeanourscommitted by the soldiery.

The violence of their exercises, and the wonderful roads they built, enabledthem to make long and speedy marches. Their sudden presence damped the spiritsof their opposers they shewed themselves, especially after some unfortunateevent, at a time when their enemies were in that state of negligence which isgenerally consequent on victory.

In the battles fought in our age, every single soldier has very littlesecurity and confidence, except in the multitude; but among the Romans, everyindividual, more robust and of greater experience in war, as well as moreinured to the fatigues of it, than his enemy, relied upon himself only. He wasnaturally endued with courage, or in other words, with that virtue which asensibility of our own strength inspires.

As no troops in the world were, in any age, so well disciplined, it washardly possible that in a battle, how unfortunate soever, but some Romans mustrally in one part or other of it; or, on the other side, but that the enemymust be defeated in some part of the field: and, indeed, we find every where inhistory, that whenever the Romans happened to be overpowered at the beginning,either by numbers, or the fierceness of the onset, they at last wrested thelaurel out of the enemys hand.

Their chief care was to examine, in what particular their enemies had anadvantage over them, and when this was found, they immediately rectified it.They accustomed themselves to behold the blood and the wounds of thegladiators. The cutting swords [*] of the Gauls, and the elephants of Pyrrhus intimidated them but once.They strengthened their cavalry first,by taking the bridles from the horses, that theirimpetuosity might be boundless; and afterwards by intermixing them with Velites [*] : when they understood the excellence of the Spanish sword, they quitted their own for it. They baffled all the art of themost experienced pilots, by the invention of an engine which is described byPolybius. In fine, as Josephus observes , war was a subject of meditation to the Romans, and peace andexercise.

If any nation boasted, either from nature or its institution, any peculiaradvantage, the Romans immediately made use of it: they employed their utmostendeavours to procure horses from Numedia, bowmen from Crete, slingers from theBaleares, and ships from the Rhodians.

To conclude, no nation in the world ever prepared for war with so muchwisdom, and carried it on with so much intrepidity.

CHAP. III.: The Methods by which the Romans raised themselves to Empire.

AS the people of Europe, in this age, have very near the same arts, the samearms, the same discipline, and the same manner of making war; the prodigiousfortune to which the Romans attained, seems incredible to us. Besides, power isat this time divided so disproportionably, that it is not possible for a pettystate to raise itself, merely by its own strength,from the low condition in which Providence has placedit.

This merits some reflections, otherwise we might behold several eventswithout being able to account for them; and for want of having a perfect ideaof the different situation of things, we should believe, in perusing ancienthistory, that we view a set of men different from ourselves.

Experience has shewn perpetually, that an European prince who has a millionof subjects, cannot, without destroying himself, keep up and maintain above tenthousand soldiers; consequently, great nations only are possessed ofarmies.

But the case was different anciently with regard to commonwealths; for thisproportion between the soldiers and the rest of the people, which is now as oneto an hundred, might, in those times, be pretty near as one is to eight.

The founders of ancient commonwealths had made an equal distribution of thelands: this circumstance alone raised a nation to power; that is to say, madeit a well regulated society. This also gave strength to its armies; it beingequally the interest (and this too was very great) of every invidual, to exerthimself in defence of his country.

When laws were not executed in their full rigour, affairs returned back tothe same point in which we now see them. The avarice of some particularpersons, and the lavish profuseness of others, occasioned the lands to becomethe property of a few; immediately arts were introduced to supply thereciprocal wants of the rich and poor; by which means there were but very fewsoldiers or citizens seen; for the revenues of the lands that had before beenemployed to support the latter, were now bestowed wholly on slaves andartificers, who administered to the luxury of the new proprietors; forotherwise the government, which, how licentious soever it be, must exist, wouldhavebeen destroyed. Before the corruption of the state,the original revenues of it were divided among the soldiers, that is, thelabourers; after it was corrupted, they went first to the rich, who let themout to flaves and artificers, from whom they received by way of tribute a partfor the maintenance of the soldiers. And it was impossible that people of thiscast should be good soldiers, they being cowardly and abject; already corruptedby the luxury of cities, and often by the very art they professed; not tomention, that as they could not properly call any country their own, and reapedthe fruits of their industry in every clime, they had very little either tolose or keep.

In the survey [*] of the people of Rome, some time after the expulsion of the kings, andin that taken by Demetrius Phalerous at Athens, the number of inhabitants was found nearly equal; Rome hadfour hundred forty thousand, Athens four hundred thirty-one thousand. But thesurvey at Rome was made at the time when its establishment was come tomaturity, and that of Athens when it was quite corrupt. We find that the numberof citizens grown up to manhood, made at Rome a fourth part of its inhabitants,and at Athens a little less than the twentieth; the strength of Rome,therefore, to that of Athens, was at these different times almost as four totwenty, that is, it was five times larger.

Agis and Cleomenes observing, that instead of thirty thousand citizens, (for so many wereat Sparta in Lycurguss time) there were but seven hundred, scarce ahundred of whom were possessed of lands; and that all the rest were no morethan a cowardly populace: they undertook to revive the laws enacted on thisoccasion; and from that period Lacedmoniarecovered its former power, and again becameformidable to all the Greeks.

It was the equal distribution of lands that at first enabled Rome to soarabove its humble condition; and this the Romans were strongly sensible of intheir corrupted state.

This commonwealth was confined to narrow bounds, when the Latins, havingrefused to succour them with the troops which had been [*] stipulated, ten legions were presently raised in the city only: scarceat this time, says Livy, Rome, whom the whole universe is not able to contain,could levy such a force, were an enemy to appear suddenly under its wall: asure indication that we have not risen in power, and have only increased theluxury and wealth which incommode us.

Tell me, would Tiberius Gracchus say to the nobles, which is the most valuable character, that of a citizenor of a perpetual slave; who is most useful, a soldier, or a man entirely unfitfor war? will you, merely for the sake of enjoying a few more acres of landthan the rest of the citizens, quite lay aside the hopes of conquering the restof the world, or be exposed to see yourselves dispossessed by the enemy, ofthose very lands which you refuse us?

CHAP. IV.: Of the Gauls. Of Pyrrhus. Parallel between Carthage and Rome. The War of Hannibal.

THE Romans were engaged in several wars against the Gauls: a thirst ofglory, a contempt of death, and an inflexible resolution of conquering, wereequal in both nations, but the weapons they used were different; the bucklersof the latter was small, and their swordsunfit for execution; and, indeed, the Gauls were cutto pieces by the Romans, much after the same manner as the Mexicans, in theselatter ages, by the Spaniards; and a surprizing circumstance is, that thoughthese people were combating perpetually with the Romans, they yet sufferedthemselves to be destroyed one after another, without their ever being sensibleof, enquiring after, or obviating the cause of their calamities.

Pyrrhus invaded the Romans at a time when they were strong enough to opposethe power of his arms, and to be taught by the victories he obtained over them:from him they learned to entrench themselves, as also the choice and properdisposition of a camp; he accustomed them to elephants, and prepared them formightier wars.

The grandeur of Pyrrhus was confined merely to his personal qualities.Plutarch [*] informs us, that he was obliged to begin the war of Macedonia, from hisinability to maintain any longer the six thousand foot, and five hundred horsein his service. This prince, sovereign of a small country, which has never madethe least figure since his time, was a military rambler, who was continuallyforming new enterprises, because he could not subsist but by enterprizing.

Tarentum, his ally, had much degenerated from the institution of theLacedmonians, her ancestors . He might have done great things with the assistance of the Samnites;but they were almost quite destroyed by the Romans.

As the Carthagenians grew wealthy sooner than the Romans, so they weresooner corrupted: thus whilst at Rome, public employments were made the rewardof virtue only, and no other emolument accrued from them than honour, and apreference in toils; at Carthage, the several advantages which the public canbestow on particular persons were venal, and every service done by suchpersons, was there paid by the public.

A monarchy is not dragged nearer to the brink of ruin by the tyranny of aprince, than a commonwealth by a lukewarmness and indifference for the generalgood. The advantage of a free state is, that the revenues are employed in it tothe best purposes; but where does not the reverse of this happen! The advantageof a free state is, that it admits of no favourites; but when the contrary isseen, and instead of the friends and relations of a prince, great fortunes areamassed for the friends and relations of all persons who have any share in thegovernment; in this case an universal ruin must ensue; the laws are then eludedmore dangerously, than they are infringed by a sovereign prince, who beingalways the greatest citizen in the state, is most concerned to labour at itspreservation.

By the constant practice of ancient customs and manners, and a peculiar usethat was made of poverty, the fortunes of all the people in Rome were very nearupon a level; but in Carthage, some particular persons boasted the wealth ofkings.

The two prevailing factions in Carthage were so divided, that the one wasalways for peace, and the other always for war; by which means it wasimpossible for that city, either to enjoy the one, or engage in the other toadvantage.

In Rome, [*] war immediately united the several interests; but in Carthage itdivided them still more.

In a monarchy, feuds and divisions are easily quieted, because the prince isinvested with a coercive power to curb both parties; but they are most lastingin a commonwealth, because the evil generally seizes the very power which onlycould have wrought a cure.

In Rome, which was governed by laws, the people entrusted the senate withthe management of affairs; but in Carthage, which was governed by fraud anddissoluteness, the people would themselves transact all things.

Carthage, in warring with all its riches against the poverty of Rome, had adisadvantage in this very circumstance; for gold and silver may be exhausted,but virtue, perseverance, strength, and poverty are inexhaustible.

The Romans were ambitious through pride, and the Carthaginians throughavarice; the former would command, the latter amass; and these, whose mindswere wholly turned to traffick, perpetually casting up their income andexpences, never engaged in any war from inclination.

The loss of battles, the decrease of a people, the decay of trade, theconsumption of the public treasure, the insurrection of neighbouring nations,might force the Carthaginians to submit to the severest terms of peace: butRome was not swayed by the consideration of blessings or calamities, beingdetermined by no other motive but its glory; and as the Romans were persuadedthey could not exist without commanding over others, neither hopes nor fears ofany kind could prevail with them to conclude a peace, the conditions of whichwere not prescribed by themselves.

Nothing is so powerful as a commonwealth, in which the laws are exactlyobserved; and this not from fear nor from reason, but from a passionateimpulse, as in Rome and Lacedmon; for then the wisdom of a goodlegislature is united to all the strength a faction could possibly boast.

The Cathaginians made use of foreign forces, and the Romans employed nonebut their own. As the latter had never considered the vanquished but merely asso many instruments for future triumphs, they made soldiers of the severalpeople they conquered; and the greater opposition those made, the more worthythey judged them of being incorporated into their republic. Thus we find theSamnites, who were not subdued till after four and twenty triumphs [*] , became auxiliaries to the Romans; and some time before the secondPunic war, they raised from among that nation and their allies , that is, from a country of little more extent than territories of thePope and Naples, seven hundred thousand foot, and seventy thousand horse tooppose the Gauls.

In the height of the second Punic war, Rome had always a standing army oftwenty-two or twenty-four legions; and yet it appears by Livy, that at thistime the census, or general survey, amounted to but about 137,000 citizens.

The Carthaginians employed a greater number of troops in invading others,and the Romans in defending themselves; the latter armed, as we have just nowseen, a prodigious multitude of men to oppose the Gauls and Hannibal whoinvaded them; and they sent out no more than two legions against the mostpowerful kings; by which means their forces were inexhaustible.

Carthage was not so strong from its situation, as Rome from the spot onwhich it stood: the latter had thirty colonies round it, all which were as so many bulwarks. The Romans were neverabandoned by one of their allies till the battle of Cann; the reason is,the Samnites and other nations of Italy were used to their sovereignty.

As most of the cities of Africa were poorly fortified, they presentlysurrendered to the first enemy that appeared under their walls; so thatAgathocles, Regulus, Scipio, in a word, all who made a descent on those places,immediately spread despair through all Carthage.

We can ascribe to nothing but to an evil administration, the severalcalamities which the Carthaginians suffered during the whole war that Scipiocarried on against them; their city [*] , and even their armies were famished, at the same time that the Romansenjoyed a profusion of all things.

Among the Carthaginians, the armies which had been defeated, grew moreinsolent upon it, insomuch that they sometimes used to crucify their generals,punishing them in this manner for their own cowardice, Among the Romans, theconsul, after punishing such soldiers as had fled from their colours, by a decimation, marched the surviving forces against the enemy.

The government of the Carthiginians was vastly oppressive : They had trampled so much upon the Spaniards, that, when the Romansarrived among them, they were considered as their deliverers; and if we reflectupon the immense sums it cost the Carthaginians to maintain, in that country, awar which proved fatal to them, it will appear that injustice is veryimprovident, and is not mistress of all she promises.

The founding of Alexandria had very much lessened the trade of Carthage. Inthe first ages, superstition used to banish, in some measure, all foreignersfrom Egypt; and after the Persians had conquered thiskingdom, they had bent their whole thoughts to theweakening of their new subjects; but under the Grecian monarchs, Egyptpossessed almost the whole commerce of the universe [*] , and that of Carthage began to decay.

Such powers as are established by commerce, may subsist for a long series ofyears in their humble condition, but their grandeur is of short duration; theyrise by little and little, and in an imperceptible manner, for they do notperform any particular exploit which may make a noise, and signalize theirpower: But when they have once raised themselves to so exalted a pitch, that itis impossible but all must see them, every one endeavours to deprive thisnation of an advantage which it had snatched, as it were, from the rest of theworld.

The Carthaginian cavalry was preferable to that of the Romans for these tworeasons; first, because the horses of Numidia and Spain were better than thoseof Italy; secondly, because the Roman cavalry was but indifferently providedwith arms; for the Romans, as Polybius informs us, did not introduce any change on this occasion,till such time as they fought in Greece.

In the first Punic war, Regulus was defeated as soon as the Carthaginiansmade choice of plains for their cavalry to engage in; and in the second, Hannibal owed his most glorious victories to the Numidians.

Scipio, by the conquest of Spain and the alliance he made with Masinissa,deprived the Carthaginians of this superiority: The Numedian cavalry won thebattle of Zama, and put an end to the war.

The Carthaginians had greater experience at sea, and were better skilled inthe working of ships thanthe Romans: But this advantage seems to have beenless in those ages than it would be in the present.

As the ancients had not the use of the sea-compass, they were confinedalmost to coasting; and indeed they had nothing but gallies, which were smalland flat-bottomed; most roads were to them as so many harbours; the knowledgeof their pilots was very narrow and contracted, and their tackle extremelysimple. Their art itself was so imperfect, that as much is now done with anhundred oars, as in those ages with a thousand.

Their larger vessels had a disadvantage in this, that being moved withdifficulty by the crew of galley-slaves, it was impossible for them to make thenecessary evolutions. Mark Antony experienced this, in the most fatal manner,at Actium; for his ships were not able to move about, when attacked on allsides by the lighter vessels of Augustus.

As the ancients used nothing but galleons, the lighter vessels easily brokethe oars of the greater ones, which were then but as so many unwieldy,immoveable machines, like modern ships when they have lost their masts.

Since the invention of the sea-compass, different methods have beenemployed; oars [*] have been laid aside; the main ocean has been visited, great ships havebeen built; the machine has become more complicated, and the practices havebeen multiplied.

The discovery of gun powder has occasioned a circumstance one would no wayhave suspected, which is, that the strength of fleets depends more than everupon art; for in order to resist the sury of the cannon, and prevent the beingexposed to a superior fire, it was necessary to build great ships; but thepower of the art must be proportioned to the bulk of the machine.

The small vessels of the antients used often to grapple suddenly with oneanother, on which occasion the soldiers engaged on both sides: A wholeland-army was shipped on board a fleet. In the sea-fight won by Regulus and hiscolleague, an hundred and thirty thousand Romans fought against an hundred andfifty thousand Carthagenians: At that time soldiers were looked upon asconsiderable, and artists the very reverse; but in these ages, the soldiers areconsidered as a little or nothing, and artists the very contrary [*] .

A strong proof of the difference is, the victory won by Duillius the consul:The Romans were totally ignorant of navigation; when a Carthaginian galleyhappening to be stranded on their coast, served them as a model for thebuilding of others: In three months time their sailors were trained, theirfleet was completely fitted out; the Romans put to sea, came up with theCarthaginians, and defeated them.

In this age, the whole life of a prince is scarce sufficient for the raisingand equipping a navy, capable to make head against a power already possessed ofthe empire of the sea: This perhaps may be the only thing which money cannot ofitself effect; and though a great monarch in our days succeeded immediately in an attempt of this kind,experience has proved to others , that such an example is to be admired rather than imitated.

The second Punic war made so much noise in the world, that it is known toevery one: When we survey attentively the croud of obstacles which started upbefore Hannibal, and reflect, that this extraordinary man surmounted them all,we view the most august spectacle that antiquity can possibly exhibit.

Rome was a miracle in constancy and resolution after the battles of Ticinus,of Trebia, and Trasymenus; after the defeat at Cann, which was stillmore fatalto them, though they saw themselves abandoned by mostof the nations in Italy, yet they would not sue for peace; and for this reason,the senate never once receded from their ancient maxims: They conductedthemselves towards Hannibal, in the same manner as they had before behaved withregard to Pyrrhus, to whom they refused all terms of accommodation, till suchtime as he should leave Italy; and Dionysius Halicarnasseus [*] informs us, that, when Coriolanus was treating with the Romans, thesenate declared they would never infringe their ancient customs; that theirpeople could not conclude a peace so long as the enemy should continue in theirterritories; but that in case the Volscians would think fit to retire, theythen should agree to any terms that were just and reasonable.

Rome was saved by the strength and vigour of its institution; after thebattle of Cann, their very women were not allowed to shed tears; thesenate refused to ransom the prisoners, and sent the miserable remains of thearmy to carry on the war in Scicily, unrecompensed, and deprived of everymilitary honour, till such time as Hannibal was driven out of Italy.

On the other side, Terentius Varro the consul had fled ignominiously as faras Venusia: This man, whose extraction was very mean, had been raised to theconsulship merely to mortify the nobles. However, the senate would not enjoythe unhappy triumph; They saw how necessary it was for them to gain theconfidence of the people on this occasion; they therefore went out to meetVario, and returned him thanks for not despairing of the safety of thecommonwealth.

It is commonly not the real loss sustained in a battle (that of theslaughter of some thousand men) which proves fatal to a state, but theimaginary loss, thegeneral damp, which deprives it even of that strengthand vigour which fortune had left it.

Some things are asserted by all men, because they have been asserted once:It is thought Hannibal committed an egregious error, in not laying siege toRome after the battle of Cann: It must be confessed, that theinhabitants of the former were at first seized with a panic; but then thesurprize and dread of a martial people, which always turns to bravery, is notlike that of a despicable populace, who are sensible to nothing but theirweakness: A proof Hannibal would not have succeeded, is, that the Romans werestill powerful enough to send succours where any were wanted.

It is also said, that Hannibal was greatly overseen, in marching his army toCapua, where his soldiers enervated themselves; but people who make theseassertions should consider, that they do not go back to the true cause of it:Would not every place have proved a Capua to a body of men, who had enrichedthemselves with the spoils of so many victories? Alexander, whose armyconsisted of his own subjects, made use, on the like occasion, of an expedientwhich Hannibal, whose army was composed wholly of mercenaries, could notemploy; and this was, the setting fire to the baggage of his soldiers, andburning all their wealth and his own. We are told that Kouli Khan, after hisconquest of the Indies, left to the share of each soldier no more than onehundred and fifty silver roupees.

The very conquests of Hannibal began to change the fortune of the war: Hedid not receive any succours from Carthage, either by the jealousy of one party [*] ,or the too great confidence of the other: So long ashe kept his whole army together, he always defeated the Romans; but when he wasobliged to put garrisons into cities, to defend his allies, to besiege strongholds, or prevent their being besieged, he then found himself too weak, andlost a great part of his army by piecemeal. Conquests are easily made, becausewe achieve them with our whole force; they are retained with difficulty,because we defend them with only a part of our forces.

CHAP. V.: The State of Greece, of Macedonia, of Syria, and of Egypt, after theDepression of Carthage.

I IMAGINE Hannibal did not abound in witticisms, especially in favour ofFabius and Marcellus against himself. I am sorry to see Livy strew his flowerson these enormous colossuses of antiquity: I wish he had done like Homer, whoneglects embellishing them, and knew so well how to put them in motion.

Besides, what Hannibal is made to speak, ought to have common sense: but if,on hearing the defeat of his brother, he said publicly, that it was the preludeof the ruin of Carthage; could any thing have a greater tendency to drive todespair a people, who had placed their confidence in him, and to discourage anarmy which expected such high recompences after the war?

As the Carthaginians lost every battle they fought, either in Spain, inSicily, or in Sardinia; Hannibal, whose enemies were fortifying themselvesincessantly, whilst very inconsiderable reinforcements were sent him, wasreduced to the necessity of engaging in a defensive war: This suggested to theRomans the design of making Africa the seat of war: Accordingly Scipiowent into that part of the world, and so great washis success, that the Carthaginians were forced to recal from Italy, Hannibal,who wept for grief at his surrendering to the Romans those very plains, inwhich he had so often triumphed over them.

Whatever is in the power of a great general and a great soldier to perform,all this Hannibal did to save his country: Having fruitlessly endeavoured tobring Scipio to pacific terms, he fought a battle, in which fortune seemed todelight in confounding his ability, his experience and good sense.

Carthage received the conditions of peace, not from an enemy, but from asovereign; the citizens of it obliged themselves to pay ten thousand talents infifty years to give hostages to deliver up their ships and elephants, and notto engage in any war without the consent of the Romans; and in order that thisrepublic might always continue in a dejected state, the victors heightened thepower of Masinissa, its irreconcileable enemy.

After the depression of Carthage, the Romans were scarce engaged but inpetty wars, and obtained mighty victories; whereas before they had obtained butpetty victories, and been engaged in mighty wars.

There were in those times two worlds, as it were, separate from each other;in one, the Carthaginians and Romans fought, and the other was shaken by thefeuds and divisions which had subsisted ever since the death of Alexander: Inthe latter, no regard was had [*] to the transactions of the western world: For though Philip, king ofMacedon, had concluded a treaty with Hannibal, yet very little resulted fromit; and this monarch, who gave the Carthaginians but very inconsiderablesuccours, just shewed the Romans that he bore them a fruitless ill will.

When two mighty people are seen to wage a long and obstinate war, it isoften ill policy to imagine that it is safe for the rest of the world tocontinue as so many idle spectators, for whichsoever of the two people triumphsover the other, engages immediately in new wars; and a nation of soldiersmarches and invades nations who are but so many citizens.

This was very manifest in those ages; for scarce had the Romans subjectedthe Carthaginians, but they immediately invaded other nations, and appeared inall parts of the earth, carrying on an universal invasion.

There were at that time in the east but four powers capable of making headagainst the Romans; Greece, the kingdoms of Macedonia, Syria and Egypt: we musttake a view of the condition, at that time, of the two first of those powers;because the Romans began by subjecting them.

There were three considerable people in Greece, the tolians, theAchaians, and the Bœotians; these were so many associations formed byfree cities, which had their general assemblies and magistrates in common. Thetolians were martial, bold, rash; greedy of gain, very lavish of theirpromises and oaths; in fine, a people who warred on land in the same manner aspirates do at sea. The Achaians were incommoded perpetually by troublesomeneighbours or defenders. The Bœotians, who were the most heavy people ofall Greece, but at the same time the wisest, lived generally in peace; guidedentirely by a sensation of happiness and misery, they had not genius enough tobe either roused or misguided by orators. What is most extraordinary, theirrepublic subsisted even in the midst of anarchy [*] .

Lacedmon had preserved its power, by which I mean that warlike spiritwhich the institutions of Lycurgus inspired. The Thessalians were, in somemeasure, enslaved by the Macedonians. The Illyrian kings had already been verymuch depressed by the Romans. The Acarnanians and Athamanes had been cruellyinfested by the troops of Macedon and tolia successively. The Athenians [*] , weak in themselves and unsupported by allies, no longer astonished the world, except by the slatteries theylavished on kings; and the orators no more ascended the rostra whereDemosthenes had harangued, unless to propose the basest and most scandalousdecrees.

Besides, Greece was formidable from its situation, its strength, themultitude of its cities, the great number of its soldiers, its polity, mannersand laws; the Greeks delighted in war; they knew the whole art of it; and, hadthey united, would have been invincible.

They indeed have been terrified by the first Philip, by Alexander, and byAntipater, but not subdued; and the Kings of Macedon, who could not prevailwith themselves to lay aside their pretensions and their hopes, made the mostobstinate attempts to enslave them.

The greatest part of Macedonia was surrounded with inaccessible mountains;the inhabitants of it were formed by nature for war; courageous, obedient,industrious, and indefatigable; and these qualities must necessarily have beenowing to the climate, since the natives of it are, to this day, the bestsoldiers in the Turkish empire.

Greece maintained itself by a kind of balance: the Lacedmonians weregenerally in alliance with the tolians, and the Macedonians with theAchaians; but the arrival of the Romans quite destroyed the equilibrium.

As the kings of Macedonia were not able to maintain a large body of troops,the least loss was of consequence to them; besides, it was difficult for thesemonarchs to aggrandize themselves; because, as their ambitious views were notunknown, other nations kept a watchful eye over every step they took; and thesuccesses they obtained in the wars undertaken for the sake of their allies,was an evil which these very allies endeavoured immediately to remedy.

But the kings of Macedonia generally possessed great talents; their monarchywas not like those which proceed for ever in the same steps that were taken atthe foundation of them; instructed perpetually by dangers and experience,involved in all the disputes of Greece, it was necessary for them either tobribe the principal magistrates of cities, to raise a mist before the eyes ofnations, or to divide or unite their interests; in a word, they were obliged toexpose, every moment, their persons to the greatest dangers.

Philip, who in the beginning of his reign had won the love and confidence ofthe Greeks by his moderation, changed on a sudden; he became [*] a cruel tyrant, at a time when he ought to have behaved with justice,both from policy and ambition: he saw though at a distance, the Romanspossessed of numberless forces; he had concluded the war to the advantage ofhis alhes, and was reconciled to the tolians: it was natural he shouldnow endeavour to unite all the Greeks with himself, in order to prevent theRomans from fettling in their country; but so far from this, he exasperatedthem by petty usurpations; and trifled awayhis time in examining affairs of little or noconsequence, at a time when his very existence was endangered: by thecommission of three or four evil actions, he made himself odious and detestableto all Greece.

The tolians were most exasperated, and the Romans snatching theopportunity of their resentment, or rather of their folly, made an alliancewith them, entered Greece and armed it against Philip. This prince was defeatedat the battle of Cynocephal, and the victory was partly gained by thevalour of the tolians: so much was he intimidated upon this, that heconcluded a treaty, which was not so properly a peace, as the renouncing hisown strength; for he evacuated his garrisons in all Greece, delivered up hisships, and bound himself under an obligation of paying a thousands talents inten years.

Polybius compares, with his usual good sense, the disposition of the Romanarmies with that of the Macedonians, which was observed by all the kings whosucceeded Alexander: he points out the conveniencies, as well asinconveniencies, of the phalanx and of the legion: he prefers the dispositionused by the Romans, in which he very probably was right, since all the battlesfought at that time shew it to have been preferable.

A circumstance which had contributed very much to the danger to which theRomans were exposed in the second Punic war, was Hannibals presentlyarming his soldiers after the Roman manner; but the Greeks did not changeeither their arms or their way of fighting; and could not prevail withthemselves to lay aside customs, by the observance of which they had performedsuch mighty things.

The success which the Romans obtained over Philip, was the greatest stepthey ever took towards a general conquest: to make sure of Greece, theyemployed all methods possible to depress the tolians, by whoseassistance they had been victorious: they ordained,moreover, that every city of Greece which had beensubject to Philip, or any other sovereign prince, should from that time begoverned by its own laws.

It is very evident, that these petty commonwealths must necessarily bedependent: the Greeks abandoned themselves to a stupid joy, and fondly imaginedthey were really free, because the Romans had declared them to be so.

The tolians, who had imagined they should bear sway in Greece,finding they had only brought themselves under subjection, were seized with thedeepest grief; and as they had always formed desperate resolutions, theyinvited, in order to correct one extravagance by another, Antiochus king ofSyria into Greece, in the same manner as they had before invited theRomans.

The kings of Syria were the most powerful of all Alexanderssuccessors, they being possessed of almost all the dominions of Darius, Egyptexcepted; but by the concurrence of several circumstances, their power had beenmuch weakened. Seleucus, who founded the Syrian empire, had destroyed, towardsthe latter end of his life, the kingdom of Lysamachus. During the feuds anddistractions, several provinces took up arms; the kingdom of Pergamus, ofCapadocia, and of Bithynia started up; but these petty, fearful states, alwaysconsidered the depression of their former masters as the making of their ownfortune.

As the kings of Syria always beheld, with a most invidious eye, the felicityof the kingdom of Egypt, they bent their whole thoughts to the conquest of thatcountry; by this means, neglecting the east, they were dispossessed of severalprovinces there, and but indifferently obeyed in the rest.

In fine, the kings of Syria possessed upper and lower Asia; but experiencehas shewn, that in this case, when the capital city and the chief forces are inthe lower provinces of Asia, there is no possibility of maintainingthe upper ones; and on the contrary, when the seat ofthe empire is in the upper provinces, the monarch weakens himself bymaintaining the lower ones. Neither the Persian nor Syrian empires were ever sopowerful as that of the Parthians, though these reigned over but part of theprovinces which formed the dominions of those two powers. Had Cyrus notconquered the kingdom of Lydia, had Seleucus continued in Babylon, and let thesuccessors of Antigonus possess the maritime provinces, the Greeks would neverhave conquered the Persian empire, nor the Romans that of Seleucus. Nature hasprescribed certain limits to states, purposely to mortify the ambition ofmortals: When the Romans stepped beyond those limits, the greatest part of themwere destroyed by the Parthians [*] ; when the Parthians presumed to pass them, they were forced immediatelyto retire back; And in our days, such Turks as advanced beyond thoseboundaries, were obliged to return whence they came.

The kings of Syria and Egypt had, in their respective dominions, two kindsof subjects, victorious nations, and nations vanquished; the former stillpuffed up with the idea of their origin, were ruled with very great difficulty:They were not fired with that spirit of independence, which animates us toshake off the yoke, but with that impatience which makes us wish to change oursovereign.

But the chief weakness of the kingdom of Syria sprung from that of thecourt, where such monarchs presided as were successors to Darius, not toAlexander. Luxury, vanity, and effeminacy, which had prevailed through all agesin the Asiatic courts, triumphed more particularly in that of Syria: The evilinfected the common people and the soldiers, and catched the very Romansthemselves; since the war in which theyengaged against Antiochus, is the true ra oftheir corruption.

Such was the condition of the kingdom of Syria, when Antiochus, who hadperformed such mighty things, declared war against the Romans; but he did notconduct himself in it with the wisdom which is even employed in common affairs:Hannibal requested either to have the war revived in Italy, and Philip bribed;or else, that he might be prevailed upon to stand neuter. Antiochus did notfollow any part of this advice: He appeared in Greece with only a small part ofhis forces; and as though he were come merely to see the war, not to carry iton, he followed nothing but his pleasures, by which means he was defeated, andfled out of Asia, terrified rather than conquered.

Philip, who was dragged to this war by the Romans, as though a flood hadswept him along, employed his whole power in their service, and became theinstrument of their victories: The pleasure of taking vengeance of, and layingwaste tolia; the promise made him of lessening the tribute he paid, andof leaving him the possession of certain cities; some personal jealousy ofAntiochus; in a word, a few inconsiderable motives swayed his resolutions; andnot daring so much as to think of shaking off the yoke, he only considered howhe might best lighten it.

Antiochus formed so wrong a judgment of things, as to fancy that the Romanswould not molest him in Asia; however, they followed him thither; he was againovercome, and, in his consternation, consented to the most infamous treaty thatever was concluded by so mighty a prince.

I cannot recollect any thing so magnanimous, as a resolution taken by amonarch in our days [*] , to bury himself under the ruins of the throne, rather than accept ofterms unworthy of a king: So haughty was his soul, that he could not stooplower than his misfortuneshad thrown him; and he was very sensible, thatcourage may, but infamy never can, give fresh strength to the regal diadem.

We often meet with princes who have skill enough to fight a battle, but withvery few that have the talents requisite for carrying on a war; who are equallycapable of making a proper use of fortune, and of waiting for her; and who jointo a frame of mind, which raises suspicions before it executes, such adisposition as makes them fearless after they have once executed.

After the depression of Antiochus, only some inconsiderable powers remained,if we except Egypt, which, from the advantage of its situation, its fertility,its commerce, the great number of its inhabitants, its naval and land forces,might have been formidable; but the cruelty of its kings, their cowardice,their avarice, their imbecillity, and their enormous sensualities, made them soodious to their subjects, that they supported themselves, for the most part, bythe protection of the Romans.

It was a kind of fundamental law, with regard to the crown of Egypt, thatthe sisters should succeed with the brothers; and in order to preserve unity inthe government, the brother was married to the sister. Now, it is scarcepossible to figure any thing more pernicious in politics than such an order ofsuccession; for as all the little domestic feuds rose so high as to disorderthe state, whichsoever of the two parties had the least discontent, immediatelyexcited against the other the inhabitants of Alexandria, a numberlessmultitude, always prepared to join with the first of their kings who shouldrouse them; so that there were for ever princes who actually reigned, andpretenders to the crown. And as the kingdoms of Cyrene and Cyprus weregenerally possessed by other princes of that house, who laid their respectiveclaims to the whole; by that means, the throne of these princes was evertottering; and being indifferently settled at home,they had no power abroad.

The forces of the kings of Egypt, like those of the Asiatic monarchs, werecomposed of auxiliary Greeks. Besides the spirit of liberty, of honour, and ofglory, which animated the latter people, they were incessantly employed inbodily exercises of every kind. In all their chief cities games wereinstituted, wherein the victors were crowned in the presence of all Greece,which raised a general emulation: Now, in an age when combatants fought witharms, the success of which depended upon their strength and dexterity, it isnatural to suppose that men thus exercised, must have had a great advantageover a crowd of barbarians, who were enlisted at random, and draggedindiscriminately into the field, as was evident from the armies of Darius.

The Romans, in order to deprive the kings of such a body of soldiery, and tobereave them, but in an easy, silent manner, of their principal forces,observed two things: First, they established, by insensible degrees, as amaxim, with respect to all the cities of Greece, that they should not concludeany alliance, give any succour, or make war against any nation whatsoever,without their consent: Secondly, in their treaties with kings [*] , they forbad them to levy any forces from among the allies of theRomans, by which means, those monarchs were reduced to employ their nationaltroops only.

CHAP. VI.: The Conduct which the Romans observed, in order to subdue all Nations.

DURING the course of so mighty a prosperity, in which it is usual formankind to forget themselves, the senate continued to act with the same depthof judgment; and whilst their armies were spreading an universal terror, theywould not suffer those to rise who were once depressed.

A tribunal arose which judged all nations: At the close of every war theydetermined the rewards or punishments which every one had merited: They tookaway from the vanquished people, part of their lands, and gave them to theirallies, in which they did two things; they engaged, in the interests of Rome,princes from whom they had little to fear, and much to hope; and they weakenedothers from whom they had nothing to hope, and every thing to fear.

In warring with an enemy they made use of their allies, but immediatelyextirpated the destroyers. Philip was overcome by the assistance of thetolians, who were destroyed presently after, for having joinedthemselves to Antiochus. This king was overcome by the assistance of theRhodians; but after the most conspicuous rewards had been bestowed upon them,they were depressed for ever, upon pretence that they had demanded to have apeace concluded with Perseus.

When the Romans were opposed by several enemies at the same time, theygranted a truce to the weakest, who thought themselves happy in obtaining it;considering it as a great advantage, that their ruin had been suspended.

When they were engaged in a mighty war, the senate winked at wrongs of everykind, and silently waited the season proper for chastisement: If at any time apeople sent them the offenders, they refused topunish them, chusing rather to consider the whole nation as guilty, and reserveto themselves a useful vengeance.

As they made their enemies suffer inexpressible evils, very few leagues wereformed against them; for he who was at the greatest distance from the danger,did not care to come near it.

For this reason war was seldom denounced against them, but themselves alwaysmade it at a season, in the manner, and with a people, as best suited theirinterest; and, among the great number of nations they invaded, there were veryfew but would have submitted to injuries of every kind, provided they could butbe suffered to live in peace.

As it was usual for them to deliver themselves always in a magisterial way,such ambassadors as they sent to nations who had not yet felt the weight oftheir power, were sure to meet with ill-treatment, which furnished them with asure [*] pretence to engage in a new war.

As they never concluded a peace with sincerity and integrity, and intended ageneral invasion, their treaties were properly only so many suspensiens fromwar; they inserted such conditions in them, as always paved the way to the ruinof those states which accepted them: They used to send the garrisons out of thestrong holds: they regulated the number of the land forces, or had the horsesand elephants delivered up to them; and in case this people were powerful atsea, they obliged them to burn their ships, and sometimes to remove higher upin the country.

After having destroyed the armies of a prince, they drained his treasury, byimposing a heavy tribute, or taxing him immoderately, under colour of makinghim defray the expence of the war: a new species of tyranny,which obliged him to oppress his subjects, andthereby lose their affection.

Whenever they granted a peace to some prince, they used to take one of hisbrothers or children by way of hostage, which gave them an opportunity ofraising, at pleasure, commotions in his kingdom: When they had the next heiramong them, it was their custom to intimidate the possessor: Had they only aprince of a remote degree, they made use of him to foment the insurrections ofthe populace.

Whenever any prince or people withdrew their allegiance from theirsovereign, they immediately indulged them with the title of [*] ally to the Romans; by which means they became sacred and inviolable;so that there was no monarch, how formidable soever, who could rely one momentupon his subjects, or even upon his own family.

Although the title of their ally was a kind of servitude , yet was it very much sought after; for these who enjoyed it were sureto receive no injuries but from them, and had reason to flatter themselves suchwould be less grievous. Hence nations and kings were ready to undertake anykind of services, and submitted to the meanest and most abject acts, merely forthe sake of obtaining it.

They had various kinds of allies; some were united to them by privileges andparticipation in their grandeur, as the Latins and the Hernici; others by theirvery settlements, as their colonies; some by good offices, as Masinissa,Eumenes, and Attalus, who were obliged to them for their kingdoms or theirexaltation; others by free and unconstrained treaties, and these, by the longcontinuation of the alliance, became subjects, as the kings of Egypt, Bithynia,Capadocia, and mostof the Grecian cities; in fine, many by forced andinvoluntary treaties, and by the law of their subjection, as Philip andAntiochus; for every peace the Romans granted an enemy, included also analliance with him; or, in other words, they made every nation subdued by them,contribute to the depression of others.

When they permitted any cities the enjoyment of their liberties, theyimmediately raised two [*] factions in them, one of which defended the laws and liberties of thecountry, whilst the other asserted, that the will of the Romans was the onlylaw; and as the latter faction was always the most powerful, it is plain such aliberty could be but a mere name.

They sometimes possessed themselves of a country upon a pretence of beingheirs to it: They entered Asia, Bithynia, and Lybia by the last wills ofAttalus, of Nicomedes , and of Appion; and Egypt was enslaved by that of the king ofCyrene.

To keep great princes for ever in a weak condition, they would not sufferthem to conclude an alliance with those nations to whom they had granted theirs ; and as they did not resuse it to any people who bordered upon apowerful prince, this condition inserted in a treaty of peace, deprived him ofall his allies.

Besides, when they had overcome any considerable prince, one of the articlesof the treaty was, that he should not make war, upon account of any feuds ofhis own, with the allies of the Romans (that is to say, generally with all hisneighbours;) but should submit them to arbitration; which deprived him of amilitary power for time to come.

And in order to keep the sole possession of it in their own hands, theybereaved their very allies of this force; the instant these had the leastcontest, they sent ambassadors, who obliged them to conclude a peace:we need but consider the manner in which theyterminated the wars of Attalus and Prusias.

When any prince had gained such a conquest as often had exhausted him,immediately a Roman ambassador came and wrested it out of his hands: among amultitude of examples, we may remember how they, with a single word, droveAntiochus out of Egypt.

Fully sensible how well the European nations were turned for war, theyestablished as a law, that no [*] Asiatic monarch should be suffered to come into Europe, and thereinvade any people whatsoever. The chief motive of their declaring war againstMithridates was, for his having subdued some barbarians contrary to hisprohibition.

When they saw two nations engaged in war, although they were not inalliance, nor had any contest with either of them, they nevertheless appearedupon the stage of action, and, like our knight-errants, always sided with theweakest: it was an ancient custom, says Dionysius Halicarnasseus, for the Romans to grantsuccour to all who came to implore it.

These customs of the Romans were not certain particular incidents, whichhappened by chance, but were so many invariable principles; and this is easy toperceive, for the maxims they put in practice against the greatest monarchswere exactly the same with those they had employed, in their infant state,against the little cities which stood round them.

They made Eumenes and Masinissa contribute to the subjection of Philip andAntiochus, as they had before employed the Latins and the Hernici to subdue theVolscians and the Tuscans: they obliged the Carthaginians and the kings of Asiato surrender their fleets tothem, in like manner as they had forced the citizensof Antium to give up their little vessels.

When any state composed too formidable a body from its situation or union,they never failed to divide it. The republic of Achaia was formed by anassociation of free cities; the senate declared, that every city should fromthat time be governed by its own laws, independent on the generalauthority.

The commonwealth of Bœoria rose likewise from a league made betweenseveral cities: but, as in the war of Perseus, one city declared for thatprince, and others for the Romans, the latter received them into favour, whenthe common alliance was dissolved.

Macedonia was surrounded by inaccessible mountains: the senate divided itinto four parts; declared those free; prohibited them every kind of allianceamong themselves by marriage; carried off all the nobles into Italy, and bythat means reduced this power to nothing.

Had a great monarch, who reigned in our time, followed these maxims, when hesaw a neighbouring prince dethroned, he would have employed a stronger force inhis support, and have confined him to the island which continued faithful tohim. By dividing the only power that could have opposed his designs, he wouldhave drawn infinite advantages even from the misfortunes of his ally.

Whenever there happened any feud in a state, they immediately madethemselves judges of it; and thereby were sure of having that party only, whomthey condemned, for their enemy. If princes of the same blood were at variancefor the crown, they sometimes declared them both kings, and by this meanscrushed the power of both: if one of them was [*] a minor,they declared in his favour, and made themselves hisguardians in quality of protectors of the world; for they had carried mattersto so high a pitch, that nations and kings were there subjects, without knowingdirectly upon what right or title; it being a maxim, that the bare hearing oftheir names, was sufficient for a people to acknowledge them theirsovereigns.

The Romans never engaged in far distant wars, till they had first made analliance with some power contiguous to the enemy they invaded, who might unitehis troops to the army they sent; and as this was never considerable withregard to numbers, they always had [*] another in that province which lay nearest the enemy, and a third inRome, ever ready to march at a moments warning. In this manner theynever hazarded but a small part of their forces, whilst their enemy venturedall his.

They sometimes insidiously perverted the subtilty of the terms of theirlanguage: they destroyed Carthage, upon pretence that they had promised topreserve the Civitas not the Urbs . It is well known in what manner the tolians, who had abandonedthemselves to their faith, were imposed upon; the Romans pretended, that thesignification of these words, abandon ones self to thefaith of an enemy, implied, the loss of all things, of persons, lands,cities, temples, and even of burial-places.

The Romans would even go so far, as to give arbitrary explanations totreaties: thus, when they were resolved to depress the Rhodians, they declared,that they had formerly given them Lycia, not by way of present, but as a friendand ally.

When one of their generals concluded a peace, merely to preserve his army,which was just upon the point of being cut to pieces, the senate, who did notratify it, took advantage of this peace and continuedthe war. Thus when Jugurtha had surrounded an army of Romans, and permittedthem to march away unmolested, upon the faith of a treaty, these very troops hehad saved were employed against him: and when the Numantians had reduced twentythousand Romans, just perishing with hunger, to the necessity of suing forpeace; this peace, which had saved the lives of so many thousand citizens, wasbroke at Rome, and the public faith was eluded by [*] sending back the consul who had signed it.

They sometimes would conclude a peace with a monarch upon reasonableconditions, and the instant he had signed them, they added others of soinjurious a nature, that he was forced to renew the war. Thus, when they hadforced Jugurtha to deliver up his elephants, his horses, his treasures, and his deserters,they required him to surrender up his person, which being the greatest calamitythat can befal a prince, cannot for that reason be ever made an article ofpeace.

In fine, they set up a tribunal over kings, whom they judged for theirparticular vices and crimes: they heard the complaints of all persons who hadany dispute with Philip: they sent deputies with them by way of safeguard, andobliged Perseus to appear before these, to answer for certain murthers andcertain quarrels he had with some inhabitants of the confederate cities.

As men judged of the glory of a general by the quantity of the gold andsilver carried in his triumph, the Romans stripped the vanquished enemy of allthings. Rome was for ever enriching itself; and everywar they engaged in, enabled them to undertake a new one.

All the nations who were either friends or confederates, quite [*] ruined themselves by the immensely rich presents they made, in order toprocure the continuance of the favours already bestowed upon them, or to obtaingreater; and half the monies which used to be sent upon these occasions to theRomans, would have sufficed to conquer them.

Being masters of the universe, they arrogated to themselves all thetreasures of it; and were less unjust robbers, considered as conquerors, thanconsidered as legislators. Hearing that Ptolemy king of Cyprus was possessed ofimmense wealth, they enacted a law, proposed by a tribune, by which they gave to themselvesthe inheritance of a man still living, and confiscated to their own use theestates of a confederate prince.

In a little time, the greediness of particular persons quite devouredwhatever had escaped the public avarice; magistrates and governors used to selltheir injustice to kings: two competitors would ruin one another, for the sakeof purchasing an ever-dubious protection against a rival who was not quiteundone; for the Romans had not even the justice of robbers, who preserve acertain probity in the exercise of guilt. In fine, as rights, whether lawful orusurped, were maintained by money only; princes, to obtain it, despoiledtemples, and confiscated the possessions of the wealthiest citizens; a thousandcrimes were committed, purely for the sake of giving to the Romans all themoney in the universe.

But nothing was of greater advantage to this people than the awe with whichthey struck the whole earth: in an instant, kings were put to silence, andseemed as though they were stupid; no regard was had to their eminence, buttheir very persons were attacked; to hazard a war, was to expose themselves tocaptivity, to death, to the infamy of a triumph. Thus kings, who lived in themidst of pomps and pleasures, did not dare to fix their eyes stedfastly on theRoman people; and their courage failing them, they hoped to suspend a littlethe miseries with which they were threatened, by their patience and submissiveactions.

Observe, I intreat you, the conduct of the Romans. After the defeat ofAntiochus they were possessed of Africa, Asia, and Greece, without havingscarce a single city in these countries that were immediately their own. Theyseemed to conquer with no other view but to bestow; but then they obtained socomplete a sovereignty, that whenever they engaged in war with any prince, theyoppressed him, as it were, with the weight of the whole universe.

The time proper for seizing upon the conquered countries was not yet come:had the Romans kept the cities they took from Philip, the Greeks would haveseen at once into their designs: had they, after the second Punic war, or thatwith Antiochus, possessed themselves of lands in [*] Africa and in Asia, they could never have preserved conquests soslightly established.

It was the interest of the Romans to wait till all nations were accustomedto obey, as free and as confederate, before they should attempt to command overthem as subjects; and to let them blend and lose themselves, as it were, bylittle and little, in the Roman commonwealth.

See the treaty which they made with the Latins after the victory at the lakeof Legilus [*] . This was one of the principal foundations of their power, yet not asingle word occurs in it, which can give the least suspicion that they aimed atempire.

This was a slow way of conquering; after overcoming a nation, they contentedthemselves with weakening it; they imposed such conditions as consumed itinsensibly: if it recovered, they depressed it still more, and it becamesubject, without a possibility of dating the first ra of itssubjection.

Thus Rome was not properly either a monarchy or a commonwealth, but the headof a body composed of all the nations in the universe.

Had the Spaniards, after the conquest of Mexico and Peru, followed thisplan, they would not have been obliged to destroy all, for the sake ofpreserving all.

It is a folly in conquerors to force their own laws and customs on allnations; such a conduct is of very ill consequence, for men are capable ofobeying under all kinds of government.

But as Rome did not impose any general laws, the nations did not form anydangerous associations; they formed one body no otherwise than by a commonobedience; and were all Romans without being countrymen.

It perhaps will be objected, that no empires founded on the laws of fiefswere ever durable or powerful. But nothing could be so contradictory as theplan of the Romans and that of the Goths: and just to mention these plans, theformer was a work of strength, the latter of weakness: in the one, subjectionwas extreme; in the other, independence; in the Gothic states, power was lodgedin the vassals, and the right of judgingonly in the prince; whereas it was the reverse in theRoman government.

CHAP. VII.: How it was possible for Mithridates to resist the Romans.

AMONG the several kings whom the Romans invaded, Mithridates was the onlyone who made a courageous defence, and exposed them to danger.

His dominions were situated to wonderful advantage for carrying on a warwith them: they bordered on the inaccessible countries of mount Caucasus,peopled with savage nations, whom that prince could call to his assistance;they thence extended along the sea of Pontus, which Mithridates covered withhis ships, and he was incessantly purchasing new armies of Scythians: Asia wasopen to his invasions; and he was rich, because his cities, situated on thePontus Euxinus, carried on an advantageous traffic with nations lessindustrious than themselves.

Proscriptions, the custom of which began at this time, had forced severalRomans to leave their country. These were received by Mithridates with openarms, and he formed legions [*] , into which he incorporated those exiles, who proved the best soldiersin his army.

On the other side, the Romans, disordered by intestine divisions, andthreatened with more imminent dangers, neglected the affairs of Asia, andsuffered Mithridates to pursue his victories, or take breath after hisdefeats.

Nothing had contributed more to the ruin of most kings, than the manifestdesire they shewed for peace:by this, they had prevented all other nations fromdividing with them a danger, from which they were so anxious to extricatethemselves: but Mithridates immediately made the whole world sensible, that hewas an enemy to the Romans, and would be so eternally.

In fine, the cities of Greece and Asia, finding the Roman yoke grow moreintolerable every day, reposed their whole considence in this barbarous king,who invited them to liberty.

This disposition of things gave rise to three mighty wars, which form one ofthe noblest parts of the Roman history, and for this reason: we do not, on thisoccasion, read of princes already overcome by luxury and pride, as Antiochusand Tigranes; not by fear, as Philip, Perseus, and Jugurtha; but a magnanimousking, who, in adversity, like a lion that gazes upon his wounds, was fired withthe greater indignation upon that account.

I his part of the Roman history is singular, because it abounds withperpetual and ever-unexpected revolutions; for as on one side, Mithridatescould easily recruit his armies, so it appeared, that in those reverses offortune, in which kings stand in greatest need of obedience and a strictdiscipline, his barbarian forces forsook him: as he had the art of enticingnations, and stirring up cities to rebellion, so was he likewise betrayed byhis captains, his children and his wives; in fine, as he was sometimes opposedby unexperienced Roman generals, so there was sent against him, at other times,Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey.

This prince, after having defeated the Roman generals, and conquered Asia,Macedonia, and Greece; having been vanquished, in his turn, by Sylla; confinedby a treaty to his former limits, and harrassed by the Roman generals; havingbeen once more superior to them, and conqueror of Asia; driven away byLucullus; pursued into his own country; obliged to fly for shelter to Tigranes,and defeated with him: findingthis monarch irrecoverably lost, and depending merelyupon himself for succour, he took sanctuary in his own dominions, andre-ascended the throne.

Lucullus was succeeded by Pompey, who quite overpowered Mithridates. He thenflies out of his dominions, and crossing the Araxes, marches from danger todanger through the country of the Lazi; and assembling in his way all thebarbarians he met with, appeared in the Bosphorus against his son [*] Macchares, who had reconciled himself to the Romans.

Although plunged in so deep an abyss, he yet formed a design of making Italy the seat of the war, and of marching toRome at the head of those nations who enslaved it some years after, and by thesame way these now took.

Betrayed by Pharnaces, another of his sons, and by an army terrified at thegreatness of his enterprises and the perils he was going in search of, he diedin a manner worthy a king.

It was then that Pompey, in the rapidity of his victories, completed thepompous work of the Roman grandeur: he united to the body of its empire,countries of a boundless extent, which, however, heightened the Romanmagnificence rather than increased its power; and though it appeared by thetitles carried in his triumph, that he had increased the revenue of the publictreasury above a third, there yet was no augmentation in power, and the publicliberty was thereby only exposed to the greater danger.

CHAP. VIII.: Of the Divisions which alwayssubsisted in the City.

WHILST Rome was conquering the world, a hidden war was carrying on withinits walls: these fires were like those of volcanos, which break out the instantthey were sed by some combustible substance.

After the expulsion of the kings, the government became aristocratical: thepatrician families only, obtained all the employments and dignities in the [*] state, and consequently all honours civil and military.

The patricians being determined to prevent, if possible, the return of thekings, endeavoured to soment the restless principles which now prevailed in theminds of the people; but they did more than they would willingly have done: byattempting to inspire them with a hatred for kings, they fired them with aninordinate thirst for liberty. As the royal authority had devolved entirelyupon the consuls, the people sound they were far from possessing that libertythey were taught to idolize: they therefore sought for methods by which theymight depress the consulate; procure plebeian magistrates; and share thecurule, or greater employments with the nobles. The patricians were forced tocomply with all the demands of the people; for in a city where poverty was thepublic virtue, where wealth, that clandestine path to power, was despised,neither birth nor dignities could bestow any great advantages: it was thereforenecessary for power to fall into the hands of the greater number, and foraristocracy to change, by insensible degrees, into a popular state.

Those who are subordinate to a king, are less tortured with envy andjealousy, than such as live under an hereditary aristocracy: the prince is atso great a distance from his subjects, that he is scarce seen by them; and israised so far above them, that they cannot conceive any relation capable ofgiving them disgust. But when the nobles preside in a state, they are exposedto the eyes of all men, and are not seated so high as to prevent odiouscomparisons from being made perpetually; and, indeed, the people have detestedsenators, in this and in all ages. Such commonwealths in which birth does notbestow any share in the legislature, are the happiest in this respect; for itis natural that the people should not bear so much envy to an authority, whichthey bestow on whom they think proper, and resume at will.

The people being disgusted at the patricians, withdrew to the Sacred Hill(Mons Sacra) whither deputies being sent, they were appeased: and as they allmade a promise to assist one another, in case the patricians should not performtheir [*] engagement, which would have created seditions every moment, anddisturbed all the magistrates in the exercise of their functions; it was judgedbetter to create an officer , who might protect the people against any injustice that should be donethem: but by a malady for ever incident to man, the plebeians, who had obtainedtribunes merely for their own defence, employed those very magistrates to annoyothers: so that they stript, by insensible degrees, the patricians of all theirprivileges. This gave rise to everlasting contests: the people were supported,or rather animated, by their tribunes; and the patricians were defended by thesenate, the greatest part of which consisted of patricians, who were moreinclined to favour the ancient maxims, and afraid that the populace would raisesome tribune to arbitrary power.

The people employed, in the defence of this magistrate, their own strength,and the superiority they had in the suffrages, their refusal to march into thefield, their threats to go quite away, the partiality of the laws, in fine,their judiciary sentences against those who had opposed them too vigorously:the senate defended themselves by their wisdom, their justice, and the lovethey inspired into all for their country; by their beneficence, and the prudentdistribution of the commonwealth; by the veneration which the people had forthe glory of the principal [*] families, and the virtue of illustrious personages; by religion itself,the ancient institutions, and the prohibition of days of public meeting, uponpretence that the auspices had not been favourable; by their clients; by theopposition of one tribune to another; by the creation of a dictator, the occupations of a new war, or the misfortunes andcalamities which united all parties; in a word, by a paternal condescension, ingranting the people part of their demands, purposely to make them relinquishthe rest; and by that stedfast maxim, of preferring the safety of the republicto the prerogatives of any order or public employment whatsoever.

In process of time, when the plebians had depressed the patricians to such adegree, that this [*] distinction of families was empty and fruitless, and that both wereindiscriminately raised to honours, new contests arose between the populace,whom their tribunes spirited up, and the chief families, whether patricians orsuch plebians as were styled noble, and were favoured by the senate that wascomposed of them: but, as the ancient manners subsisted no more: as particularpersons were possessed of immense wealth, and that it is impossible but wealthmust give power; these nobles made a stronger resistance than the patricianshad done, which occasioned the death of the Gracchi, and of several persons who followed their plan .

I must take notice of an office which contributed greatly to the happypolity of Rome; it was that of the censors. These numbered or surveyed the people; farther, as the strength of the commonwealth consisted in thestrictness of discipline, in the severity of manners, and the uninterruptedobservation of certain customs; they corrected such errors and abuses as thelegislative power had not foreseen, or the ordinarymagistrate [*] could not punish. Some bad examples are worse than crimes, and aviolation of manners has destroyed more states, than the infraction of laws: inRome, whatever might tend to introduce dangerous novelties, to create a changein the minds or affections of the citizens, and prevent, if I may use theexpression, the perpetuity of it; all disorders and tumults, whether public orprivate, were reformed by the censors; these had authority to expel whomsoeverthey pleased; the senate could take from a knight the horse maintained for himat the public expence; or degrade a citizen to the rank of such as contributedto the maintenance of the magistrates of the city, without enjoying theprivileges of it; in a word, the censors took a view of the actual situation ofthe republic, and distributed the people among their various tribes in such a manner, as to prevent the tribunesand personsof an aspiring temper from engrossing the suffrages,or the people from abusing their power.

M. Livius [*] degraded the people themselves, and reduced thirty-four tribes out ofthirty-five, to the rank of those who had no share in the privileges of thecity: for, said this Roman, you first condemned me, and afterwards raised me tothe consulate and the censorship; you therefore must either have prevaricatedonce in punishing me, or twice in creating me consul and afterwards censor.

M. Duronius , tribune of the people, was expelled the senate by the censors, forhaving annulled, when in office, the law which limits the expences offeasts.

The following institution was a very wise one; no magistrate could be turned out of his employment, because that would havedisturbed the exercise of the public power; but they divested such a man of hisorder and rank, and deprived, as it were, a citizen of his particularnobility.

Servius Tullius had made the famous division by centuries, which Livy ∥ and Dionysius Halicarnasseus have so well explained. He had divided one hundred and ninety-threecenturies into six classes, and in the last century, which of itself formed thesixth class, he placed all the commonalty. This disposition evidently excludedthe commonalty from voting; not of right, but in fact. Afterwards it wasdetermined, that, some particular cases excepted, the division of tribes shouldbe followed in voting. There were thirty-five of these tribes, each havingtheir respective vote, four belonging to the city, and thirty-one to thecountry. The principal citizens, who were all farmers, naturally belonged tothe country-tribes, and those of the cityadmitted the commonalty [*] , though these had very little influence in affairs: this was consideredas the safety of the republic. And when Fabius replaced in the fourcity-tribes, the commonalty, whom Appius Claudius had dispersed through themall, he acquired by that action the title of Maximus . The censors every five years surveyed the state of the republic, anddistributed the people in their several tribes in such a manner, that thetribunes and ambitious might not engross the votes, nor the people abuse theirpower.

The government of Rome was wonderful in this respect; ever since thefoundation of that city, its constitution was such, either from the genius ofthe people, the strength of the senate, or the authority of certainmagistrates, that every abuse of power might always be reformed in it.

Carthage was destroyed, because, when abuses were to be retrenched, thecitizens could not bear the hand even of their Hannibal. Athens fell, becausethe errors of the people appeared so lovely in their own eyes, that they wouldnot be cured of them: and among us, those Italian republics which boast theperpetuity of their government, ought to boast of nothing but the perpetuity oftheir abuses; nor indeed, do they enjoy greater liberty than Rome did under the Decemviri.

The British government is one of the wisest in Europe, because there is abody which examines it perpetually, and is perpetually examining itself; andits errors are of such a nature, as never to be lasting, and are frequentlyuseful by rouzing the attention of the nation.

In a word, a free government, that is to say, one for ever in motion, cannotsupport itself, unless its own laws are capable of correcting the disorders ofit.

CHAP. IX.: Two Causes which destroyed Rome.

WHILST the sovereignty of Rome was confined to Italy, it was easy for thecommonwealth to subsist: every soldier was at the same time a citizen; everyconsul raised an army, and other citizens marched into the field under hissuccessor: as their forces were not very numerous, such [*] persons only were received among the troops, as had possessionsconsiderable enough to make them interested in the preservation of the city;the senate kept a watchful eye over the conduct of the generals, and did notgive them an opportunity of machinating any thing to the prejudice of theircountry.

But after the legions had passed the Alps and crossed the sea, the soldiers,whom the Romans had been obliged to leave during several campaigns in thecountries they were subduing, lost insensibly that genius and turn of mindwhich characterized a Roman citizen; and the generals, having armies andkingdoms at their disposal, were sensible of their own strength, and could nolonger obey.

The soldiers therefore began to acknowledge no superior but their general;to found their hopes on him only, and to view the city as from a greatdistance: they were no longer the soldiers of the republic, but of Sylla, ofMarius, of Pompey, and of Csar. The Romans could no longer tell, whetherthe person who headed an army in a province was theirgeneral or their enemy.

So long as the people of Rome were corrupted by their tribunes only, on whomthey could bestow nothing but their power, the senate could easily defendthemselves, because they acted consistently and with one regular tenor; whereasthe common people were continually shifting from the extremes of fury to theextremes of cowardice; but when they were enabled to invest their favouriteswith a formidable exterior authority, the whole wisdom of the senate wasbaffled, and the commonwealth was undone.

The reason why free states are not so permanent as other forms ofgovernment, is, because the misfortunes and successes which happen to them,generally occasion the loss of liberty; whereas the successes and misfortunesof an arbitrary government, contribute equally to the enslaving of the people.A wise republic ought not to run any hazard which may expose it to good or illfortune; the only happiness the several individuals of it should aspire after,is, to give perpetuity to their state.

If the unbounded extent of the Roman empire proved the ruin of the republic,the vast compass of the city was no less fatal to it.

The Romans had subdued the whole universe by the assistance of the nationsof Italy, on whom they had bestowed various privileges at different times; mostof those nations did not, at first, set any great value on the freedom of thecity of Rome, and some [*] chose rather to preserve their ancient usages; but when this privilegebecame that of universal sovereignty; when a man, who was not a Roman citizen,was considered as nothing, and, with this title, was all things,the people of Italy resolved either to be Romans, ordie; not being able to obtain this by cabals and intreaties they had recourseto arms; and [*] rising in all that part of Italy opposite to the Ionian sea, the restof the allies were going to follow their example: Rome being now forced tocombat against those who were, if I may be allowed the figure, the hands withwhich they shackled the universe, was upon the brink of ruin: the Romans weregoing to be confined merely to their walls; they therefore granted this so muchwished-for privilege, to allies, who had not yet been wanting in fidelity; andthey indulged it, by insensible degrees, to all other nations.

But now Rome was no longer that city, the inhabitants of which had breathedone and the same spirit, the same love for liberty, the same hatred of tyranny;a city in which a jealousy of the power of the senate and of the prerogativesof the great (ever accompanied with respect) was only a love of equality. Thenations of Italy being made citizens of Rome, every city brought thither its genius, itsparticular interests, and its dependance on some mighty protector: Rome beingnow rent and divided, no longer formed one entire body, and men were no longercitizens of it, but in a kind of fictitious way; as there were no longer thesame magistrates, the same walls, the same gods, the same temples, the sameburying places; Rome was no longer beheld with the same eyes; the citizens wereno longer fired with the same love fortheir country, and the Roman sentiments wereobliterated.

Cities and nations were now invited to Rome by the ambitious, to disconcertthe suffrages, or influence them in their own favour; the public assemblieswere so many conspiracies against the state, and a tumultuous croud ofseditious wretches were dignified with the title of Comitia [*] . The authority of the people and their laws, nay that peoplethemselves, were more than so many chimras, and so universal was theanarchy of those times, that it was not possible to determine whether thepeople had made a law or not.

Authors enlarge very copiously on the divisions which proved the destructionof Rome; but their readers seldom discover those divisions to have been alwaysnecessary and inevitable. The grandeur of the republic was the only source ofthat calamity, and exasperated popular tumults into civil wars. Dissentionswere not to be prevented, and those martial spirits, which were so fierce andformidable abroad, could not be habituated to any considerable moderation athome. Those who expect in a free state, to see the people undaunted in war andpusillanimous in peace, are certainly desirous of impossibilities; and it maybe advanced as a general rule, that whenever a perfect calm is visible, in astatethat calls itself a republic, the spirit of libertyno longer subsists.

Union, in a body politic, is a very equivocal term: true union is such aharmony as makes all the particular parts, as opposite as they may seem to us,concur to the general welfare of the society, in the same manner as discords inmusic contribute to the general melody of sound. Union may prevail in a statefull of seeming commotions; or, in other words, there may be an harmony fromwhence results prosperity, which alone is true peace, and may be considered inthe same view, as the various parts of this universe, which are eternallyconnected by the action of some and the reaction of others.

In a despotic state indeed, which is every government where the power isimmoderately exerted, a real division is perpetually kindled. The peasant, thesoldier, the merchant, the magistrate, and the grandee have no otherconjunction than what arises from the ability of the one to oppress the other,without resistance; and if at any time a union happens to be introduced,citizens are not then united, but dead bodies are laid in the grave contiguousto each other.

It must be acknowledged that the Roman laws were too weak to govern therepublic: but experience has proved it to be an invariable fact, that goodlaws, which raise the reputation and power of a small republic, becomeincommodious to it, when once its grandeur is established, because it was theirnatural effect to make a great people, but not to govern them.

The difference is very considerable between good laws, and those which maybe called convenient; between such laws as give a people dominion over others,and such as continue them in the possession of power, when they have onceacquired it.

There is at this time a republic [*] in the world, of which sew persons have any knowledge, and which,by plans accomplished in silence and secrecy, isdaily enlarging its power. And certain it is, that if it ever rises to thatheight of grandeur for which it seems preordained by its wisdom, it mustinevitably change its laws, and the necessary innovations will not be effectedby any legislator, but must spring from corruption itself.

Rome was founded for grandeur, and its laws [*] had an admirable tendency to bestow it; for which reason, in all thevariations of her government, whether monarchy, aristocracy, or popular, sheconstantly engaged in enterprizes which required conduct to accomplish them,and always succeeded. The experience of a day did not furnish her with morewisdom than all other nations, but she obtained it by a long succession ofevents. She sustained a small, a moderate, and an immense fortune with the samesuperiority, derived true welfare from the whole train of her prosperities, andrefined every instance of calamity into beneficial instructions.

She lost her liberty, because she compleated her work too soon.

CHAP. X.: Of the Corruption of the Romans.

I AM of opinion that the sect of Epicurus, which began to be propagated atRome, towards the close of the republic, was very prejudicial to the minds andgenius of the people . The Greeks had been infatuatedwith its doctrines long before, and consequently,were corrupted much earlier than the Romans. We are assured by Polybius [*] , that oaths, in his time, could not induce any person to placeconfidence in a Greek, whereas they were considered by a Roman as inviolableobligations upon his conscience.

There is a passage in one of Ciceros letters to Atticus, which manifestly discovers how much the Romans had degeneratedin this particular, since the time of Polybius.

Memmius, says he, imparted to the senate the agreementhe and his fellow candidate had made with the consuls, by which the latterstipulated to favour them in their solicitations for the consulship the ensuingyear; and they obliged themselves to pay four hundred thousand sesterces to theconsuls, if they did not furnish them with three augurs, who should declarethey themselves were present when the people made the Curiatian law , though in reality it had not been enacted; and two former consuls, whoshould affirm they had assisted at signing the edict of the senate whichregulated the state of the provinces assigned to the present consuls,notwithstanding no such edict was in being. What an admirable set ofpeople we discover in a single contract!

As religion always furnishes the best security for the rectitude of humanactions, so there was this peculiarityamong the Romans, that the love they expressed fortheir country, was blended with some particular sentiment of devotion. Thatmighty city, founded in the most auspicious period; the great Romulus, at oncetheir monarch and their god; the capitol, esteemed as eternal as the city; andthe city, reputed as eternal as its founder, had anciently struck suchimpressions on the minds of the Romans, as might well be wished to have beenconstantly retained.

The grandeur of the state, in general, constituted the greatness of itsparticular members; but as affluence consists in conduct, and not in riches;that wealth of the Romans, which had certain limitations, introduced a luxuryand profusion which had no bounds. Those who had been at first corrupted bytheir opulence, received the same taint in their poverty, by aspiring afteracquisitions, that no way comported with private life; it was difficult to be agood citizen, under the influence of strong desires and the regret of a largefortune that had been lost: people, in this situation, were prepared for anydesperate attempt; and, as Sallust [*] says, there was, at that time, a generation of men, who, as they had nopatrimony of their own, could not endure to see others less necessitous thanthemselves.

But as great soever as the corruption of Rome might then be, all itscalamitous effects were not introduced among the people, for the efficacy ofthose institutions, by which they were originally established, was soextraordinary, that they always preserved an heroic fortitude, and devotedthemselves, with the greatest application to war, amidst all the softenings ofluxury and pleasure; which seems to me, to be a circumstance, in which theywere never imitated by any nation in the world.

The Romans were not solicitous to improve commerce, or cultivate thesciences, but ranked them among the attentions proper for slaves [*] ; we may except, indeed, some particular persons, who had received theirfreedom, and persisted in their former industry. But their knowledge, ingeneral, was confined to the art of war, which was the only track by which they could arrive at promotions in the magistracy, and otherstations of honour; for which reason, their military virtues subsisted afterall the rest were extinguished.

CHAP. XI.: Of Sylla,Pompey, and Csar.

I INTREAT the readers permission to turn my eyes from the horrors ofthe wars between Marius and Sylla; Appian has collected all the dreadfulparticulars into this history: besides the jealousy, ambition, and barbarity ofthe two chiefs, each particular Roman was infatuated with fury; the newcitizens , and the ancient, no longer considered each other as members of thesame republic, but gave a loose to a series of hostilities, so peculiar intheir nature, as to comprehend all the miseries of a civil and foreign war.

Sylla made several good laws, and reduced the power of the tribunes; towhich we may add, that the moderation or caprice which induced him to resignthe dictatorship, re-established the senate, for some time; but in the fury ofhis success, he suffered himself to be hurried into actions, which in theirconsequences, made it impossible for Rome to preserve her liberty.

In his Asian expedition, he wholly destroyed the military discipline; heaccustomed his army to rapine [*] , and taught them wants to which before they were absolute strangers: hefirst corrupted the soldiers, who afterwards corrupted their leaders.

He entered Rome with an armed force, and taught the Roman generals toviolate the asylum of liberty .

He distributed the lands of the citizens among his soldiers, and, by that proceeding,corrupted them for ever; because, from that moment, there was not one of themilitary profession who did not wait for an opportunity of seizing the effectsof his fellow-citizens.

He was likewise the inventor of proscriptions, and set a price on the headof every man who had not embraced his party. From that time, it becameimpossible for any one to be devoted to the republic; for whilst two ambitiousmen were contending for superiority, those who observed a neutrality, or wereattached to the cause of liberty, were sure to be proscribed by either of thecompetitors who should prove victorious; it therefore became prudent to engagein one of the two parties.

He was succeeded, says Cicero , by a man, who in an impious cause, and a victory still more infamous,not only confiscated the effects of individuals, butinvolved entire provinces in the same calamity.

Sylla, when he abdicated the dictatatorship, pretended, that he wasunwilling to live in any other manner than under the protection of his ownlaws; but that action, which indicated so much moderation, was itself aconsequence of his violences. He had given lands to forty-seven legions, indifferent parts of Italy. These forces, says Appian, regarding their fortune asattached to his life, gave the greatest attention to his safety, and werealways ready either to succour or avenge him [*] .

As the republic was fated to destruction, the only material question was,who should have the credit of overwhelming it?

Two men equally ambitious, with this exception, that the one knew how toproceed directly to his purpose better than the other, eclipsed, by theirreputation, their exploits, and their virtues, all the rest of the citizens.Pompey made the first appearance in the scene of action, and Csarimmediately followed him.

Pompey, to render himself popular, had disannulled the law of Sylla, whichlimited the power of the people, and when he had sacrificed the most salutarylaws of his country to his particular ambition, he obtained all he desired, andthe rash indiscretion of the populace was altogether unbounded in hisfavour.

The Roman laws had wisely parcelled out the public power into severalmagistracies, which mutually supported as well as restrained and tempered eachother; and as the power of all, who enjoyed those promotions, was confined to aproper extent, every citizen was qualified for a station of that nature; andthe people, seeing numbers of such persons passing away in succession, were nothabituated to any particular magistrate among them. But, in the times weare now describing the plan of government waschanged; the most potent competitors obtained extraordinary commissions fromthe people, which annihilated the authority of the magistrates, and drew allthe great affairs into the hands of one man, or a few.

Was war to be proclaimed against Sertorius? Pompey was nominated to commandthe army. Were the Romans to march against Mithridates? Every voice calledaloud for Pompey. Did it become necessary to transinit corn to Rome? The peoplewould have given it over for lost, had not Pompey been entrusted with theimportation. Were the pirates to be destroyed? Who so proper for thatexpedition as Pompey? And when Csar himself threatened Rome with aninvasion, the senators cried out, in their turn, and placed all theirconfidence in Pompey.

I am willing to believe (said Marcus [*] to the people) that this Pompey, who is so much caressed by thenobility, is more inclinable to secure your liberty, than he is to countenancetheir authority over you: but there was a time, when each individual among youwas protected by several, and not the whole body of the people by one person;and when it was never known, that a single man either gave or took away thingsof so much consequence.

As Rome was formed for grandeur, it became necessary to unite the honoursand power in the same persons, which in unquiet times would six the admirationof the people on one particular citizen.

When honours are granted, the givers know exactly what they bestow; but whenpower is added to the donation, they can never be certain how far it will beextended.

Immoderate preferences given to a citizen, in a republic, are alwaysproductive of necessary effects; they either raise envy in the people, or maketheir affection overflow all bounds.

When Pompey returned twice to Rome, in a condition to enslave the republic,he had the moderation to disband his armies, before he entered the city; andthen he made his appearance with the air of a common citizen: these instancesof a disinterested behaviour, which completed all his glory, did not fail, intheir consequences, to make the senate always declare in his favour, wheneverhe attempted any thing prejudicial to the laws.

The ambition of Pompey was more unactive and gentle than that ofCsar. This warrior resolved, like Sylla, to open himself a passage tosovereign power by arms, but Pompey grew displeased at such a method ofoppression; he aspired, indeed, to the dictatorship, but was willing to owe itto the suffrages of the people; he could not resolve to usurp power, but wouldhave been glad to have had it tendered to him as a gift.

As the favour of the people is always in a fluctuating state, there weresome seasons, wherein Pompey beheld his reputation in a declining condition [*] ; and it affected him in the most tender part, to see the very personshe despised, make advances in popularity, and then employ it against him.

This led him into three actions equally fatal; he corrupted the people withmoney, and fixed a price, in the elections, on the suffrage of eachcitizen.

He employed the vilest of the populace to incommode the magistrates in theexercise of their functions, in hopes, that wise people growing weary of livingin a state of anarchy, would be urged by despair to create him dictator.

In a word, he united his interests with those of Csar and Crassus:Cato said, their union and not their enmity destroyed the republic; and inreality, it was then reduced to such an unhappy state, that itreceived less injury from civil wars than by a peace,which, as it united the views and interests of the leading men, so it naturallyintroduced tyranny in the government.

Pompey did not properly lend his reputation to Csar, but sacrificedit to his cause, without knowing what he did; and Csar, in return,employed all the power he had received from Pompey to the prejudice of thedonor, and even played off his own artifices against him he raised troubles inthe city by his emissaries; he made himself master of all elections; andconsuls, prtors, and tribunes purchased their promotions at their ownprice.

The senate, who easily penetrated into Csars designs, hadrecourse to Pompey, and intreated him to undertake the defence of the republic,if that name might properly be given to a government which implored protectionof one of its citizens.

I am of opinion, that what contributed most to Pompeys destruction,was the shame that affected him, when he grew sensible, that by raisingCsar as he had done, he had committed a satal oversight; but he sufferedthis consideration to prevail as late as possible, and did not prepare for hisdefence, lest he should be obliged to acknowledge himself in danger. Heasserted before the senate that Csar durst not engage in a war; andbecause he had made such a declaration several times, he always persisted inrepeating it.

One circumstance seems to have capacitated Csar for any undertaking,and that was the unhappy conformity of names; the senate had added to hisgovernment of the Cisalpine Gaul, all that part of Gaul which was distinguishedby the name of Transalpine.

As the politics of those times did not permit armies to be stationed nearRome, so neither would they suffer Italy to be entirely destitute of troops;for which reason, considerable forces were quartered in Cisalpine Gaul, acountry which extends from the Rubicon, alittle river in Romania, to the Alps: but, in orderto secure the city of Rome against those troops, the senate passed that famousedict, which is still to be seen engraven in the road near Rimini, by whichthey solemnly devoted to the infernal gods, and branded with sacrilege andparricide, any person whatever, who should presume to pass the Rubicon, with anarmy, a legion, or a single cohort.

To a government of that importance as to keep the city in awe, another wasadded which proved still more considerable, and that was all the TransalpineGaul, which comprehended the southern parts of France, where Csar hadfor several years an opportunity of prosecuting war against as many nations ashe pleased; by which means his soldiers advanced in years as well as himself,and were conquered by him, in their turn, as well as the Barbarians. HadCsar not been entrusted with the government of Transalpine Gaul, hecould not have corrupted his troops, nor rendered his name venerable to them byso many victories; and had he not enjoyed Cisalpine Gaul, Pompey might havestopped him at the pass of the Alps, whereas he was compelled to retire fromItaly, when the war began, which made him lose among his own party thatreputation which, in civil wars, is the very soul of power.

The same consternation, which Hannibal diffused through Rome, after thebattle of Cann, was spread by Csar over all that city, when hehad passed the Rubicon. Pompey was so confounded, that he became incapable,even in the first moments of the war, of forming any design but such as isusually suggested in the most desperate conjunctures. He could only retire, andtrust to flight. Accordingly he lest Rome and the public treasure; and as hewas in no condition to retard the conqueror, he forsook part of his troops,abandoned all Italy, and crossed the sea.

Csars fortune has been greatly celebrated; but thisextraordinary man enjoyed to many great qualities, without the intermixture ofa defect, though he had several vicious inclinations, that he would have beenvictorious at the head of any army he had commanded, and would have governed inany republic that had given him birth.

When he had deseated Pompeys lieutenants in Spain, he passed intoGreece to seek Pompey himself; and this general, who had possessed himself ofthe seacoasts, and was master of a superior force, was on the point ofbeholding Csars army destroyed by misery and famine. But as thedesire of approbation was his predominant frailty, he could not forbear givingattention to some vain speeches [*] of those about him, who were perpetually blaming his conduct, andmortifying him with their jests. This general, says one, would perpetuate hiscommand, and be a new king of kings, like Agamemnon: I assure you, repliesanother, we shall not eat any Tusculum figs this year. A few encounters inwhich he had succeeded, quite intoxicated the heads of this senatorial host;and Pompey, to avoid censure, gave into an indiscretion which posterity willever blame; he resolved to sacrifice all the advantages he had then obtained,and marched at the head of undisciplined troops to engage an army that had beenso frequently victorious.

When the shattered remains of Pharsalia were withdrawn into Africa, Scipio,who then commanded them, resused to follow Catos advice for protractingthe war. He grew elated with a few instances of success; he risked all, andimmediately lost all he had risked; and when Brutus and Cassius re-establishedthat party, the same precipitation destroyed the republic a third time .

It is observable, that in the long course of these civil wars, the power ofRome was continually extending in foreign parts, under Marius, Sylla, Pompey,Csar, Antony, and Augustus; and that mighty city, growing daily moreformidable, completed the destruction of all the kings who presumed to resisther.

No state threatens its neighbours with conquest so much as that which isinvolved in the horrors of civil war: in such a season, the nobility, thecitizens, the artizans, the peasants, and, in short, the whole body of thepeople become soldiers; and when peace has united all the contending parties,this state enjoys great advantages over others, whose subjects are generallycitizens. Besides, civil wars always produce great men, because in theuniversal confusion which then reigns, those who are distinguished by anyparticular merit, have a favourable opportunity of making themselvesconspicuous: each of these persons ranges himself in a suitable situation;whereas, in times of peace, they are stationed by others, and generally veryinjudiciously. We shall pass from the Romans, and inquire for instances of thistruth, in nations that are more modern; and among these, France was never soformidable abroad, as after the contentions between the houses of Burgundy andOrleans, after the troubles of the league, after the civil wars in the minorityof Lewis the Thirteenth, and after the national dissentions in the nonage ofLewis the Fourteenth. England was never so much respected as in the time ofCromwell, after the wars of the long parliament. The Germans did not gain theirsuperiority over the Turks, till after the civil wars of the empire. TheSpaniards, under Philip the fifth, and immediately after the civil wars thatwere kindled by the succession, invaded Sicily with such a force as astonishedall Europe; and we now see the Persians rising from the ashes of a civil war,and humbling the Ottoman power.

In a word, the republic was at last enslaved, and we are not to charge thatcalamity on the ambition of particular persons, but should rather impute it tothe disposition of man in general, whose cravings after power are always mostinsatiable, when he enjoys the greatest share, and who only desires the whole,because he possesses a large part.

If the sentiments of Csar and Pompey had resembled those of Cato,others would have had the same ambitious thoughts as Pompey and Csardiscovered; and since the republic was fated to fall, it would have beendragged to the precipice by some other hand.

Csar pardoned every mortal; but the moderation people discover whenthey have usurped all, seems to be no extraordinary accomplishment.

Though he has been much commended for being indefatigable, after the battleof Pharsalia, yet Cicero, very justly, accuses him of remissness. He tellsCassius [*] they never could have imagined Pompeys party would have revivedso considerably in Spain and Africa; and that if they could have foreseen thatCsar would have amused himself in his Alexandrian war, they would nothave made their peace with him as they did, but would have followed Scipio andCato into Africa. And thus a weak passion for a woman made him engage in fourwars, and by not foreseeing the two last, he hazarded all he had gained atPharsalia.

Csar governed at first under the usual titles of magistracy, fornothing affects mankind more than names; and as the Asiatics abhorred those ofconsul and proconsul, the Europeans detested that of king; so that those titlesconstituted at that time, the happiness or despair of all the earth. He madesome overtures to have the diadem placed on his head; but when he grew sensiblethat the people discontinuedtheir acclamations, he thought fit to reject it. Helikewise made other attempts [*] , and it is not to be comprehended, how he could believe that theRomans, in order to suffer him to be a tyrant, should for that reason be inlove with tyranny, or could even give credit to what they themselves haddone.

One day, when the senate tendered him some particular honours, he neglectedto rise from his seat, and from that moment, the gravest members of that bodylost all patience.

Mankind are always most offended at any trespass on the ceremonials andpunctilios they expect. If you endeavour to oppress them, it sometimes passesfor a proof of the esteem you entertain for them, but a violation of theirdecorums is always an instance of contempt.

Csar, who was a constant enemy to the senate, could not conceal themean opinion he entertained of that body, who had almost rendered themselvesridiculous, when they were no longer in possession of power: for which reasoneven his clemency was an insult, and it became evident that he only pardonedbecause he scorned to punish.

Csar formed the edicts of the senate himself, and subscribed themwith the names of the first senators he happened to think on. Cicero, in theninth book of his familiar letters, writes to this effect: I have beensometimes informed, that an edict of the senate passed by my consent, has beentransmitted to Syria and Armenia, before I had any knowledge that it was made;and several princes have sent me letters of acknowledgment for my consent, toallow them the title of kings, when, at the same time, I was so far fromknowing them to be kings till that moment, that I even had not heard there wereany such persons in the world.

We may see, in the letters [*] of some great men of that time, though they passed under.Ciceros name, because most of them were written by himself, into whatdejection and despair persons of the first rank in the republic were sunk bythis sudden revolution, which divested them of their honours, and even theiremployments; when the senate, having no longer any functions to perform, thatreputation they had acquired through all the world, was now to be dispensedfrom the cabinet of one man. This state of affairs appears in a much betterlight in those letters, than in any relations of historians; and they are themost masterly representation of the ingenuous turn of mind of a set of peopleunited by a common affliction, and give us a complete portrait of an agewherein a false politeness had not infected all society with insincerity anduntruth. In a word, they are not written like out modern letters, with a viewto deceive, but are the faithful intercourse of friends, who communicated allthey knew.

It was hardly possible for Csar, in his situation, to preserve hislife: the generality of the conspirators against him, were of his party , or had received many great obligations from him, and the reason oftheir intention to assassinate him, is very natural; they had gained signaladvantages by his conquest, but the more their fortune improved, the greaterwas their share of the common calamity, and to those who have not any thingthey can properly call their own, it seems, in some particulars, to be oflittle consequence under what government they live.

Besides, there was a certain law of nations, or a settled opinion whichprevailed in all the republics of Greece and Italy, and ascribed the characterof a virtuous man to the person who should assassinate any onewho had usurped the sovereign power. Rome had beenextremely fond of this notion, ever since the expulsion of her kings: the lawwas very express; the examples had a general approbation; the republic put asword into the hand of every citizen, constituted him their magistrate for afew moments, and acknowledged him for their defender.

Brutus [*] was bold enough to tell his friends, that, should his own father returnfrom the grave, he would sacrifice him to the public good, with as littleremorse as he stabbed Csar; and though, by the continuance of tyranny,this surprising spirit of liberty had gradually lost its vigour, yet theconspiracies, at the beginning of Augustuss reign, were perpetuallyreviving.

The ancient Romans were animated by a predominant love for their country,which, acting by a variation from the common ideas of crimes and virtues, wasonly attentive to its own dictates, and in the fervors of its operationentirely disregarded friends and citizens, fathers and benefactors. Virtueseemed to have forgotten her own precepts, with a resolution to surpassherself, and when an action seemed too severe to be immediately considered withapprobation, she soon caused it to be admired as divine.

In a word, did not the guilt of Csar, who lived in a free government,consist in placing himself out of the reach of all punishments but anassassination? And when we ask why he was not opposed by open force, or thepower of the laws, do we not at the same time demand satisfaction for hiscrimes?

CHAP. XII.: Observations on the State of Rome after the Death of Csar.

SO impossible was it for the republic to accomplish its re-establishment,that a conjuncture then happened which was never known before; there was nolonger any tyrant, and yet liberty was extinguished; for the causes which hadcontributed to its destruction, still subsisted to prevent its revival.

The Assassins had only formed the plan of a conspiracy, but had not takenany measures to render it effectual in the event.

When they had struck the blow, they all retired to the capital; the senatesorbore to assemble, and, the next day, Lepidus, who was fond of commotions,took possession of the Forum, with a band of soldiers at his devotion.

The veteran troops, who were apprehensive that the immense donations theyhad received would be no longer repeated, had marched into Rome: thisproceeding compelled the senate to approve all the acts of Csar, andthen, by a faculty of reconciling extremes, they granted a general amnesty tothe conspirators, which produced a false appearance of peace.

Csar, a little before his death, whilst he was preparing for hisexpedition against the Parthians, had appointed magistrates for several years,that he might secure himself a set of men who, in his absence, would maintainthe tranquility of his government; so that, after his death, the party who hadespoused his interest, were in a condition to support themselves for aconsiderable time.

As the senate had ratified all the acts of Csar without anyrestriction, and as the consuls were intrusted with the execution of them,Antony, whowas then one of those magistrates, got possession ofCsars book of accounts, gained upon his secretary, and made himinsert, in that book; all the articles he thought proper, by which means thedictator reigned more imperiously than when he was living; for what he couldnever have accomplished, Antony had the dexterity to effect; great sums ofmoney, which Csar would never have bestowed, were distributed among thepeople by Antony, and every man who had any seditious designs against thegovernment, was sure to find a sudden gratuity in Csarsbooks.

It unfortunately happened that Csar to make his expedition effectual,had amassed prodigious sums, and deposited them in the temple of Ops; Antonydisposed of these as he thought fit, by the expedient of his book.

The conspirators had, at first, determined to cast the body of Csarinto the Tyber [*] , and might have executed that design without any interruption; for inthose seasons of astonishment which succeed unexpected events, every intentionbecomes practicable: this however did not take effect, and we shall now relatewhat happened on that occasion.

The senate thought themselves under a necessity of permittingCsars funeral obsequies to be performed; and indeed they couldnot decently forbid them, as they had never declared him a tyrant. Now theRomans, in conformity to a custom established among them, and much boasted ofby Polybius, always carried, in their funeral processions, the images whichrepresented the ancestors of the deceased, and made an oration over the body.Antony, who charged himself with this last province, unfolded the bloody robeof Csar to the view of all the people, read to them the particulars ofhis will, in which he had left them extraordinarylegacies, and then wrought them into such violentemotions, that they immediately fired the houses of the conspirators.

Cicero, who governed the senate in this whole affair [*] , makes no scruple to acknowledge that it would have been much better tohave proceeded with vigour, and even to have exposed themselves to destruction,though indeed it was not probable that such a fate would have attended them;but he alledges for his excuse, that as the senate was then assembled, they hadno opportunity in their favour; and he adds, that those who are sensible of theimportance even of a moment, in affairs wherein the people have so considerablea part, will not be surprized at his conduct in that transaction.

Another accident happened at this time: when the people were celebratingfuneral games in honour of Csar, a comet, with long flaming hair,appeaed for the space of seven days, which made them believe the soul ofCsar was received into heaven.

It was very customary for the people of Greece and Asia, to erect temples to the kings, and even the proconsuls who had governed them; and theywere indulged in this practice, because it was the greatest evidence they couldpossibly give of their abject servitude. Nay the Romans themselves might, intheir private temples, where their lares were deposited, render divine honoursto their ancestors; but I cannot remember, that from the time of Romulus toJulius Csar, any Roman was ever ranked among the gods of the republic.

The government of Macedonia was assigned to Antony, but he was desirous ofchanging it for that of Gaul, and the motives which so induced him are veryevident: Decimus Brutus, who governed CisalpineGaul, having refused to resign that province toAntony, he was resolved to deprive him of it by force. This produced a civilwar, in which the senate declared Antony an enemy to his country.

Cicero, to accomplish the destruction of Antony his mortal enemy, was soinjudicious as to employ all his interest for the promotion of Octavius, andinstead of defacing the idea of one Csar in the minds of the people, heplaced two before their eyes.

Octavius, in his conduct to Cicero, acted like a man who knew the world; heflattered, he praised, he consulted him, and employed every engaging artifice,which vanity never distrusts.

Great affairs are frequently disconcerted, because those who undertake themseldom confine their expectations to the principal event, but look after somelittle particular success which soothes the indulgent opinion they entertain ofthemselves.

I am inclined to think, that, if Cato had reserved himself for the republic,he would have given a very different turn to affairs. Cicero had extraordinaryabilities for the second class, but was incapable of the first. His genius wasfine, but his soul seldom soared above the vulgar. His characteristic wasvirtue; that of Cato Glory [*] . Cicero always beheld himself in the first rank; Cato never allowed hismerit a place in his remembrance. This man would have preserved the republicfor his own sake; the other that he might have boasted of the action.

I might carry on the parallel by adding, that when Cato foresaw, Cicero wasintimidated; and when the former hoped, the latter was confident: Cato beheldthings through a serene medium; Cicero viewed them through a glare of littlepassions.

Antony was defeated at Modena, where the two consuls, Hirtius and Pansa,lost their lives: The senate,who thought themselves superior to their tumultuousaffairs, began to think of humbling Octavius, who now ceased hostilitiesagainst Antony, marched his army to Rome, and caused himself to be declaredconsul.

In this manner did Cicero, who boasted that his robe had crushed the arms ofAntony, introduce an enemy into the republic, the more formidable, because hisname was much dearer to the people, and his pretensions, to all appearance,better founded [*] .

Antony, after his overthrow, retired into Transalpine Gaul, where he wasreceived by Lepidus. These two men entered into an association with Octavius,and gave up to each other the lives of their friends and their enemies . Lepidus continued at Rome, whilst the other two went in quest ofBrutus and Cassius, and found them in those parts where the empire of the worldwas thrice contended for in battle.

Brutus and Cassius killed themselves with a precipitation not to bevindicated; and it is impossible to read this period of their lives, withoutpitying the republic which was so abandoned. Cato closed the tragedy with hisown murder; and these, in some measure, opened it with theirs.

Several reasons may be assigned for this custom of self-destruction, whichso generally prevailed among the Romans; the progress of Stoicism whichencouraged it; the establishment of triumphs and slavery, which induced severalgreat men to believe they ought not to survive a deseat; the advantagesaccruing to the accused, who put an end to life rather than submit to atribunal, which condemned their memory to infamy , and their goods to confiscation; a point of honour, more rationalperhaps, than that which now promptsus to stab our friend for a gesture or an expression;in a word, the convenience [*] of heroism, which gave every one the liberty of finishing his part onthe stage of the world, in what scene he pleased.

We might add, the great facility of putting such a principle in execution:the soul all attentive to the action she is preparing to commit, to the motiveswhich determine her resolution, to the dangers she avoids by it, does notproperly behold death, because passion makes itself felt, but always blinds theeyes.

Self-love, and a fondness for our preservation, changes itself into so manyshapes, and acts by such contrary principles, that it leads us to sacrifice ourexistence for the very sake of existence; and such is the estimate we make ofourselves, that we consent to die by a natural and obscure sort of instinct,which makes us love ourselves even more than our lives.

It is certain that we are become less free, less courageous, and lesscapable of grand enterprizes than they were formerly, by this love ofourselves.

CHAP. XIII.: AUGUSTUS.

SEXTUS POMPEIUS possessed Sicily and Sardinia, was master at sea, and sawhimself at the head of a great multitude of fugitives, and persons devoted todeath by proscriptions, whose last hopes depended on their valour. Octaviuscontended with him, in two very laborious wars; and after a variety of illsuccess, vanquished him by the abilities of Agrippa.

Most of the conspirators ended their lives in a miserable manner; and it wasnatural that persons who headed a party, so frequently harrassed by wars, inwhich no quarter was afforded, should die a violentdeath. That event was, however, interpreted into a consequence of divinevengeance, which punished the murderers of Csar, and in its turnproscribed their cause.

Octavius gained over the soldiers of Lepidus to his own interest, anddivested him of his power in the triumvirate; he even envied him theconsolation of passing the remainder of his days in obseurity, and compelledhim to appear as a private man in the assemblies of the people.

It is impossible for any one to be displeased at the humiliation of thisLepidus; he was the most depraved citizen in all the republic, a constantpromoter of disturbances, and one who perpetually formed fatal schemes, whereinhe was obliged to associate with people of more ability than himself. A modernauthor [*] has thought fit to be large in his commendation, and cites Antony, who,in one of his letters, represents him as an honest man. But he, who had thatcharacter from Antony, could not have much title to it from other persons.

I believe Octavius is the only man of all the Roman generals, who evergained the affections of the soldiers by giving them perpetual instances of anatural timidity of spirit. The soldiers, at that time, were more affected withthe liberality of their commanders than their valour; perhaps it was evenfortunate for him that he was not master of any qualities which could procurehim the empire, and that his very incapacity should be the cause of hispromotion to it, since it made him the less dreaded. It is not impossible thatthe defects which threw the greatest dishonour on his character, were the mostpropitious to his fortune. If he had discovered, at first, any traces of anexalted soul, all mankind would have been jealous of his abilities; and if hehad been spirited by any true bravery,he would not have given Antony time to launch intoall the extravagances which proved his ruin.

When Antony was preparing to march against Octavius, he assured hissoldiers, by a solemn oath, that he would restore the republic; which makes itevident, that even they were jealous of the liberty of their country, thoughthey were the perpetual instruments of its destruction; for an army is theblindest and most inconsiderate set of people in the world.

The battle of Actium was fought, Cleopatra fled, and drew Antony after her.It evidently appeared by the circumstances of her future conduct, that sheafterwards betrayed him [*] ; perhaps that incomprehensible spirit of coquetry so predominant in hersex, tempted her to practise all her arts to lay a third sovereign of the worldat her feet.

A woman, to whom Antony had sacrificed the whole world, betrayed him; manycaptains and kings, whom he had raised or made, failed him; and, as ifgenerosity were connected with servitude, a company of gladiators remainedheroically faithful to him. Load a man with benefits, the first idea youinspire him with, is to find ways to preserve them; they are new interestswhich you give him to defend.

The most surprising circumstance in those wars is, that one battle shouldgenerally decide the difference, and that one defeat should be irreparable.

The Roman soldiers were not, properly, under the prevalence of any partyspirit; they did not fight for any particular acquisition, but for someparticular person; they only knew their commander, who engaged their service byprodigious hopes; but when he was once defeated and consequently no longer in acondition to accomplish his promises, they immediately revolted to the otherside. The provinces did not embark in the quarrel with any greater sincerity,for it was of little consequence to them, whether thesenate or the people prevailed; and therefore, when one of the generals lostthe day, they declared for the other; for every city was obliged to justifyitself before the conqueror, who having engaged himself to the soldiery byimmense promises, was constrained to sacrifice to their avidity those countrieswhich were most obnoxious.

We have been afflicted, in France, with two sorts of civil war; one hadreligion for its pretext, and was of long duration, because the motive whichfirst inflamed it, continued to subsist after victory; the other could notproperly be said to have any motive, but was rather kindled by the caprice orambition of some great men, and was soon extinguished.

Augustus (for that was the name offered by flattery to Octavius) was carefulto establish order, or rather a durable servitude; for when once thesovereignty has been usurped in a free state, every transaction on which anunlimited authority can be founded, is called a regulation; and all instancesof disorder, commotion, and bad government, are represented as the onlyexpedients to preserve the just liberty of the subject.

All the Roman citizens who were ever actuated by ambitious views, haveattempted to introduce a kind of anarchy in the republic; and Pompey, Crassus,and Cesar, succeeded to a miracle; they authorized an impunity for all publiccrimes, and abolished every institution calculated to prevent the corruption ofmanners, and every regulation accommodated to the best politics; and as goodlegislators endeavour to improve their fellow citizens, these, on the contrary,were indefatigable to lead them into a degeneracy from every virtue. With thisview they gave a sanction to the pernicious custom of corrupting the people bymoney, and when any persons were accused of undue practices for obtaining placeof trust, the delinquents corrupted the judges who were to decide the cause.They interruptedthe elections by every violent proceeding, and evenintimidated the tribunal itself. The authority of the people was reduced toannihilation, witness Gabanius [*] , who, after he had re-instated Ptolemy, by force of arms, on histhrone, contrary to the inclinations of the people, very boldly demanded atriumph.

These leading men in the republic endeavoured to make the people disgustedat their own power, and to become necessary themselves, by rendering theinconveniences of the republican government as disagreeable as possible. Butwhen Augustus had established himself in the supremacy, his politics wereemployed to restore order, that the people might be sensible of the happinessof being ruled by one man.

When Augustus was at the head of an armed power, he dreaded the revolt ofhis soldiers, and not the conspiracies of the citizens; for which reason helavished all his caresses on the former, and was altogether inhuman to thelatter: but when his arms had accomplished a peace, he was apprehensive ofconspiracies, and the idea of Csars untimely death being alwayspresent to his remembrance, he resolved to vary from his conduct that he mightavoid his fate. We shall now give the reader a complete key to the whole lifeof Augustus: he wore a coat of mail, under his robe, in the senate house; herefused the title of dictator: and whereas Csar insolently affirmed therepublic to be nothing, and that his words alone were the laws, Augustus wasperpetually expatiating on the dignity of the senate and his veneration for therepublic. He was solicitous therefore to establish such a form of government asshould be most satisfactory, without incommoding his particular interest, andchanging it into an aristocracy with relation to the civil, and into a monarchywith respect to the military administration;rendering it by these means an ambiguous system ofgovernment, which, being unsupported by its own power, could subsist no longerthan the sovereign pleased; and consequently was a monarchy in all itscircumstances.

A question has been started, whether Augustus had a real inclination todivest himself of the empire. But is it not apparent, that, had he been inearnest, he might easily have effected his design? But his whole proceeding, inthat affair, was a mere artifice; because, though he expressed a desire everyten years, to be eased of the mighty load that encumbered him, yet he alwaysthought fit to bear it. These were little refinements of low cunning,calculated to induce the people to give him what, in his opinion, he had notsufficiently acquired. I form my thoughts in this particular, by the whole lifeof Augustus; and though mankind are frequently fanciful and inconsistent, theyare seldom known to renounce, in one moment, any enjoyment that has engaged theattention of all their life. Every action of Augustus, and each of his variousregulations, visibly tended to the establishment of monarchy. Sylla resignedthe dictatorship: but, amidst all his violent proceedings, a republican spiritis apparent in every part of his conduct; all his regulations, though executedwith a tyrannical air, had an aspect to some certain form of a commonwealth.Sylla, who was a man of an impetuous temper, precipitated the Romans intoliberty. Augustus, who was a smooth and subtile tyrant [*] , led them gently into slavery. When the republic regained its power,under Sylla, all the people exclaimed against tyranny; and whilst this becamefortified, under Augustus, liberty was the general boast.

The custom of triumphs, which had so much contributed to the greatness ofRome, was abolished by Augustus, or, more properly, this honour became theprerogative of sovereignty [*] . The greatest part of those customs which prevailed under the emperors,derived their origin from the republic ; and it will be proper to bring them together, that the similitude maybe more apparent. That person alone under whose auspices a war had beenconducted, was intitled to demand a triumph : now wars were always carried on under the auspices of a generalissimo,and consequently of the emperor, who was the generalissimo of all theforces.

As constant war was the reigning principle of the republic, the maxim underthe emperors was altogether pacific. Victories were considered as so manyopportunities of introducing disorder by armies, who might fix too great avaluation on their services.

Those who were advanced to any command, were apprehensive of engaging inenterprises of too great importance; they found it necessary to aim at glorywith moderation, and were to engage the emperors notice, and not raisehis jealousy; in a word, they were not to appear before him with a lustre whichhis eyes could not bear.

Augustus was very cautious of investing any one with the rights of a Roman citizen; he made laws ∥ to prevent the enfranchisement of too many slaves [*] , and by his will recommended the observation of these two maxims, witha dissuasive against extending the empire by new wars.

These three particulars were very well connected; for when all war wasdiscontinued, there was no need either of new citizens or enfranchisements.

When Rome was in a constant state of war, she was under a perpetualnecessity of recruiting her inhabitants. At the beginning, part of the peoplewere transplanted thither from the conquered cities, and in process of timeseveral citizens of the neighbouring towns came to Rome to obtain a share inthe rights of suffrage, and established themselves there in such numbers, that,upon the complaints of the allies, the Romans were obliged to remand them back.Multitudes at last arrived from the provinces; the laws favoured marriages, andeven rendered them necessary. Rome, in all her wars, gained a prodigious numberof slaves, and when the riches of the citizens became immense, they boughtthese unhappy people from all parts, and, from a principle of generosity,avarice, or ambition, enfranchised them without number . Some intended by this proceeding to reward the fidelity of theirslaves: others had a view by it to receive, in their name, the corn which therepublic distributed among the poor citizens. In a word, others desired to havetheir funeral solemnity graced with a long train of attendance crowned withflowers. The people were generally composed of persons who had received their freedom, so that the lords of the universe, notonly in their original, but through the greatest part of succeeding times, wereof servile extraction.

The number of the populace being chiefly collected out of slaves who hadbeen enfranchised, or thesons of such, became very incommodious, and weretherefore transplanted into colonies; by which means the state effectuallysecured the obedience of the provinces. There was a general circulation ofmankind through the world. Rome received them in the state of slaves, and sentthem away Romans.

Augustus, under the pretence of some tumults in the elections, placed agarrison and a governor in the city, made the legions perpetual, stationed themupon the frontiers, and established particular funds for their pay. To which wemay add, that he gave orders for veterans to receive their donations in money [*] , and not in lands.

Many unhappy consequences resulted from the distribution of land after thetime of Sylla. The citizens property in their estates grew precarious, and ifall the soldiers of one cohort were not settled in the same place, they becamedissatisfied with their allotments, neglected the cultivation of their lands,and degenerated into dangerous citizens . But if they were distributed in entire legions, the ambitious couldraise armies against the republic in a moment.

Augustus likewise established fixed provisions for the naval power, whichwas never done before his time; for as the Romans were masters of theMediterranean, and as all navigation was then confined to that sea, they hadnot any enemy to fear.

Dion observes, very judiciously, that after the emperors had assumed thesovereign power, it became very difficult to write the history of those times.All transactions were industriously concealed, the dispatches from theprovinces were transmitted to the cabinets of the emperors, and we know littlemore than whateither the folly or rashness of tyrants divulged, orsuch events as fall within the conjectures of historians.

CHAP. XIV.: TIBERIUS.

AS a river, sometimes, with a slow and silent progress, undermines the banksthat have been thrown up to restrain its current, and at last overwhelms themin a moment, and sheds an inundation over the fields they formerly preserved;in the same manner, the supreme authority, which gained an insensible growthunder Augustus, bore down all before it in the succeeding reign ofTiberius.

A law at that time subsisted, which made it treason to form any injuriousattempt against the majesty of the people: Tiberius assumed to himself theinterpretation and enforcement of this law, and extended it not only to thecases for which it was originally calculated, but to every conjuncture thatcould possibly be favourable to his hatred or suspicions. And now, not onlyactions, but words and signs, and even thoughts were adjudged by this standard:for those expressions which drop from the overflowing of the heart, in theconversation of intimate friends, are always supposed to be their realsentiments. All freedom was therefore banished from their feasts, diffidencereigned among relations, there was no fidelity among the slaves: the gloomydisposition and insincerity of the prince were diffused through all ranks ofmen; friendship had the disrepute of a dangerous quicksand; a fine geniuspassed for a shining indiscretion, and virtue itself was only considered as anaffectation, which officiously reminded the people of their lost happiness.

No tyranny can have a severer effect than that which is exercised under theappearance of laws, andwith the plausible colours of justice; when theexecutors of cruel power would, if we may use the expression, drown the unhappywretches on the very plank that before saved them amidst the troubledwaves.

As a tyrant is never destitute of instruments to accomplish his designs, soTiberius always found the senate tractable enough to condemn [*] as many persons as he could possibly suspect; and this venerable bodysunk at last into a degeneracy too low to be described. The senators evencourted servitude, to gain the favour of Sejanus; and the most illustriousamong them abandoned themselves to the dishonourable profession ofinformers.

It seems easy to discover several causes of that flavish disposition, whichthen prevailed in the senate. When Csar had entirely crushed the partywho declared for the republic, all the friends as well as enemies he then hadin the senate, concurred with equal unanimity, to remove the bounds with whichthe laws had limited his power, and at the same time they agreed to render himunparalleled honours; some came into these compliances with a view to pleasehim, others intended by such means to make him odious. Dion informs us, thatsome even proposed that he might have the liberty to enjoy as many women as heshould desire. This obsequious conduct freed him from all suspicions of thesenate, and consequently was the cause of his assassination; but then itprevented in the succeeding reigns, all flattery from rising to such wild andunexampled heights as might have created disaffection in the minds of thepeople.

Before Rome submitted to the dominion of one man, the riches of thenobility, in what manner soever acquired, were certainly immense, but thosegrandees were divested of the greatest part of their treasures bythe emperors [*] . The senators were no longer resorted to by those great and wealthyclients, who were the sources of their patrons affluence. The provincesproduced nothing considerable, except for Csar; and especially when theywere under the government of his prfects, whose office had someresemblance to that of the intendants in France. However, though the fountainfrom whence all this opulence flowed was at last exhausted; the expences werecontinued in their former profusion, and the track being once marked out, themen of rank could only pursue it now, by the emperors favour.

Augustus had deprived the people of their legislative capacity, andabolished all their jurisdiction with respect to public offences; but he stillleft them the power of electing magistrates. Tiberius, who dreaded theassemblies of a people so numerous, divested them even of this privilege, andtransferred it to the senate , or rather to himself. Now it is impossible to conceive the abjectlowness to which the declension of the peoples power sunk the spirits ofthe grandees: when dignities were in the disposal of the populace, themagistrates, who solicited their interest, practised a number of meancondescensions; but these were intermixed with a certain magnificence that insome measure concealed them: for instance, they exhibited pompous games andrecreations, they distributed sums of money, and quantities of corn among thepeople, and sometimes regaled them with splendid feasts. But though the motivewas low, the manner seemed august, because it always comports with a great manto obtain the favour of the people by liberality; but when that people hadnothing to bestow, and the prince, in the name of the senate, disposed of allemployments, theywere desired as well as obtained in a dishonourablemanner, and could only be compassed by adulation, infamy, and a hateful trainof crimes, that were made necessary arts by the iniquity of the age.

It does not indeed appear that Tiberius had any intention to make the senatecontemptible; and he complained of nothing so much as the propensity of thatbody to slavery. His life was filled with dissatisfactions on that account, buthe resembled the generality of mankind, and was fond of contradictoryenjoyments. His general politics were inconsistent with his particularpassions; he would willingly have seen a free senate, who, by their conduct,might have created a veneration for his government; but then he was alsodesirous of a senate that would every moment be tractable to his fears, hisjealousies, and his aversions. In a word, the politician was perpetuallysubordinate to the man.

We have already intimated, that the people had formerly obtained from thepatricians the privilege of electing, from their own body, a set ofmagistrates, who were to protect them from the insults and injustice that mightbe intended against them; and, in order to capacitate those magistrates for theexercise of such a power, their persons were declared sacred and inviolable,and whoever should presume to treat a tribune injuriously, either by actions orlanguage, was condemned by the law to suffer death on the spot. Now when theemperors were invested with the tribunitial power, they obtained the sameprerogatives, and it was upon this principle that such a number of people weredeprived of their lives: from this source flowed the impunity with whichinformers flourished in their profession [*] ; and hence it was, that the accusation of treason, that crime, saysPliny, which was charged onthose to whom no real offence could be imputed, wasat last extended to any one to whom the wantonness of tyranny pointed out.

I am inclinable however to believe, that some of those titles of accusationwere not so ridiculous as they appear at present; and can never be persuadedthat Tiberius would have caused a man to be accused for selling to one whobought his house, a statue of the emperor; that Domitian should condemn a womanto die for undressing herself before his image; or that he should proceed withthe same severity against a citizen of Rome, for causing a description of allthe earth to be delineated on the walls of his apartment; if such actions asthese had not called up an idea in the minds of the Romans very different fromthat they now excite in us. For my part I am of opinion, that as Rome hadchanged the form of its government, those actions which now appearinconsiderable to us, might, when they were committed, have a very differentaspect; and I judge in this manner, from my reflection on what is now customaryin a nation which cannot with any justice be suspected of tyranny, and yet itis a capital crime there to drink to the health of a certain person.

I cannot omit any circumstance which tends to give a clear representation ofthe Roman genius. That people were so habituated to obedience, and soconstantly placed their happiness in homaging their masters, that, after thedeath of Germanicus, they were affected with such inconsolable sorrow anddespair, as never appears in our contemporaries. The descriptions given byhistorians [*] of a desolation, so public, so universal and immoderate, deserve areaders curiosity; and it is certain, that this scene of grief was notaffected, since a whole people are never known to practise so much flattery anddissimulation.

The Romans, who had now no longer any share in the government, and werechiefly composed of persons who had received their freedom, or such indolentand unindustrious people who lived at the expence of the public treasure, werenow sensible of nothing but their imbecility, and afflicted themselves likechildren or women, who, from a principle of weakness, abandon themselves tosorrow. These people were politically indisposed, they placed all their fearsand hopes in the person of Germanicus, and when he was snatched from them by anuntimely death, they sunk into despair.

No people are so apprehensive of calamity as those whom the misery of theircondition should rather discharge from all fear, and who ought to say withAndromache, Would to heaven I had any enjoyment I could dreadto lose! There are at this day, in Naples, fifty thousand men who have nofood but herbs, and whose whole cloathing consists of a few miserable rags; andyet these people, who are the most wretched creatures upon earth, discover adreadful consternation at the least irruption of Vesuvius, and are soinfatuated as to fear they shall be miserable.

CHAP. XV.: Remarks on the Emperors, from Caius Calicula to Antoninus.

CALICULA succeeded Tiberius, and it was said of him, that there never was abetter slave, nor a worse master: and indeed these two circumstances are veryconsistent; for the same turn of mind which inclines a person to be stronglyaffected at unlimited power in his sovereign, makes him to be no less in lovewith it, when he rises to empire himself.

Caligula restored the assemblies of the people, which Tiberius hadprohibited; and abolished the arbitrary law and constructions of treasonestablished by that emperor: from which proceeding we may observe, that thebeginnings of a bad reign sometimes resemble the conclusion of a good one; fora wicked prince may, from a principle of contradiction to the motives of hispredecessors conduct, be spirited to actions which the other performedfrom a virtuous inducement; and we owe to this very principle a number of goodas well as bad regulations.

But what did the Romans gain by these plausible beginnings? Caligulaannulled the law which constituted the circumstantials of treason; but then hedestroyed those who displeased him, by a military severity; and his vengeance,instead of pointing at some particular senators, hung over all their heads,like a sword that threatened them with extermination at one blow.

This formidable tyranny of the emperors arose from the disposition of theRomans in general; who, as they were suddenly enslaved to an arbitrarygovernment, and were hardly sensible of any interval between dominion andsubjection, were not prepared for such a transition by any gentle softenings.The fierce and untractable disposition still remained, and the citizens wereused in the same manner as they themselves had treated their conquered enemies,and were governed altogether upon the same plan. When Sylla made his publicentrance into Rome, he was still the Sylla who had done the same in Athens, andhe governed with an uniform imperiousness. As to us who are natives of France,and have sunk into subjection, by insensible degrees, if we are destitute oflaws, we are at least governed by engaging manners.

The constant view of the combatants of gladiators inspired the Romans withextraordinary fierceness; and it was observable, that Claudius became moredisposedto shed blood, by being habituated to thosespectacles. The example of this emperor, who was naturally of a gentledisposition, and yet degenerated into so much cruelty at last, makes itevident, that the education in those times, was very different from ourown.

The Romans being accustomed to tyrannize over human nature, [*] in the persons of their children and slaves, had a very imperfect ideaof that virtue we distinguish by the name of humanity. Whence proceeds thesavage cast of mind so remarkable in the inhabitants of our colonies, but fromtheir constant severity to an unfortunate class of mankind? When barbarityprevails in civil government, what natural justice or harmony of manners can beexpected from the individuals?

We are fatigued and satiated with seeing in the history of the emperors suchan infinite number of people whom they destroyed for no other end than toconfiscate their goods: our modern accounts furnish us with no such instancesof inhumanity. This difference, as we have already intimated, is to be ascribedto the milder cast of our manners, and the civilizing restraints of a moreamiable religion. We may likewise add, that we have no opportunity of pillagingthe families of senators who have ravaged the world, and we derive thisadvantage from the mediocrity of our fortunes, which are consequently in asafer situation. In a word, we are not considerable enough to be plundered .

That class of the Roman people who were called Plebeians, had no aversion tothe worst of their emperors; for since they had no longer any share of empirethemselves, nor were any more employed in wars, they became the mostcontemptible and degenerate people in the world; they looked upon commerce andthe sciencesas only proper for slaves, and the distributions ofcorn which they received, made them neglect the cultivation of their lands:they had been familiarized to public games and splendid spectacles, and sincethey had no longer any tribunes to obey, or magistrates to elect, thosegratifications which they were only permitted to enjoy, became necessary tothem, and their indolence and inactivity stimulated their relish of thoseindulgences.

Caligula, Nero, Commodus, Carcalla, were lamented by the people for theirfolly, for whatever these loved, the others were as madly fond of, in theirturn, and not only contributed their whole power, but even devoted their ownpersons to those pseasures; they lavished all the riches of the empire with thegreatest prodigality; and when these were exhausted, the people without theleast emotion, beheld all the great families pillaged. They enjoyed the fruitsof tyranny, without the least intermixture of uneasiness, because their lowobscurity was their protection. Such princes have a natural antipathy to peopleof merit and virtue, because they are sensible their actions are disapproved bysuch persons. The contradiction [*] and even the silence of an austere citizen were insupportable to them;and as they grew intoxicated with popular applause, they at last imagined theirgovernment constituted the public felicity, and consequently that it could becensured by none but disaffected and ill-disposed persons.

Caligula was a true sophist in cruelty; for as he equally descended fromAntony and Augustus, he declaredhe would punish the consuls if they celebrated theday appointed to commemorate the victory at Actium, and that they shouldlikewise feel his severity if they neglected to honour that event; andDrusilla, to whom he accorded divine honours, being dead, it was a crime tobewail her because she was a goddess, and as great an offence to forbear thatsorrow because she was a sister.

We have now ascended an eminence from whence we may take a view of humanaffairs: when we trace, in the Roman history, such a variety of wars, and theirprodigal effusion of human blood; when we view so many once flourishing nationsdepopulated, and see such a diversity of shining actions and triumphantprocessions: when we trace the masterly strokes of politics, sagacity, andfortitude, so conspicuous in that people, and reflect on their advances touniversal monarchy by schemes so judiciously concerted, so successfullysupported, and so happily accomplished; to what view are all these mightypreparations directed? Why, truly, to satiate the ambition of five or sixmonsters! Is it possible then, that the senate could divest so many kings oftheir power, only to plunge themselves into the most abject slavery to one oftheir unworthy citizens, and to exterminate itself by its own edicts? Did itrise to such a height of grandeur, to drop more splendidly into ruin, and dothe sons of men only labour to augment their power, that they may sall by theirown combinations into better hands?

When Caligula was assassinated, the senate assembled to form a new model ofgovernment; and whilst they were engaged in such deliberations, a party ofsoldiers rushed in to plunder the palace, and found, in some obscure place, aman trembling with fear; this man was Claudius, and they immediately salutedhim emperor.

Claudius completed the subversion of the ancient form of government, byintrusting the dispensation ofjustice to his officers: the principal motive to thewars of Marius and Sylla, was to determine the competition of the senators andthe equestrian [*] order for this prerogative; and it was now wrested from both parties bythe arbitrary fancy of a weak man. Surprizing event indeed, of a dispute whichhad set the world in flames!

When the reign of a prince succeeds the dissolution of a republic, noauthority can be more absolute than his own, for he then possesses all thatpower which before was distributed among the people, who exercised it withoutany limitations; and for this reason the kings of Denmark are the most despoticsovereigns in Europe.

The people were altogether as abject and unmanly as the senate, though theyonce were animated with such a martial spirit, that, when armies were levied inthe city, before the time of the emperors, they gained the military disciplineupon the spot, and immediately marched to the enemy. In the civil wars ofVitellius and Vespasian, Rome became a prey to the ambitious, and was full oftimorous citizens, who were struck with consternation by any party of soldierswho could first approach them.

The emperors themselves were in no better a situation; for as the right ofelecting a sovereign was not appropriated to any single army, it generallyhappened, that when an emperor was chosen by one body of soldiers, thatcircumstance alone was sufficient to discredit him with the others, whoimmediately set up a competitor to oppose him.

As the grandeur therefore of the republic proved fatal to that form ofgovernment, so the mighty extent of the empire was altogether as pernicious tothe monarchs. If the territories they were to defend had been confined tomoderate limits, those sovereigns might have been effectually served by oneprincipal army;and the soldiers, when they had once elected theiremperor, would have been dutiful enough to acquiesce in their choice.

The soldiers were attached to the family of Csar, under which theyenjoyed every advantage that a revolution would have procured them. The timecame, that the great families of Rome were all exterminated but that ofCsar, which itself became extinct in the person of Nero. The civilpower, which had been continually depressed, was unable to balance themilitary; each army wanted to make an emperor.

Let us here compare the times: when Tiberius began his reign, wherein did henot employ the senate [*] ? He was informed that the armies of Illyrium and Germany had mutinied:he granted some of their demands, and maintained, that it belonged to the senate to judge of the rest. He sent them deputies of that body. Thosewho have ceased to fear the power, may still respect the authority. When it hadbeen represented to the soldiers, that in a Roman army the children of theemperors, and the deputies of the senate, ran the risk of their lives, they might relent: and even proceed so far as to punish ∥ themselves: but when the senate was entirely depressed, its examplemoved no one. In vain did Otho harangue his soldiers, to talk to them of the dignity of thesenate: in vain did [**] Vitellius send the principal senators to make his peace with Vespasian:they did not, for one moment, pay to the orders of the state that respect whichthey had so long lost. The armies looked on these deputies as the most abjectslaves of a master whom they had already rejected.

It was an ancient custom at Rome, for those who obtained a triumph, todistribute some money to each soldier: it was not much [*] . In the time of the civil wars these gratuities were augmented . Formerly they were made with the money taken from the enemy; in theseunhappy times, they gave that of the citizens, and the soldiers would have ashare where there was no booty: these distributions had taken place only aftera war; Nero made them in a time of peace: the soldiers were used to them, andthey raged against Galba, who boldly told them, that he knew to choose, but notto buy them.

Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, made a very transient appearance in the imperial scene. Vespasian, who,like them, was elected by the army, devoted all his reign to there-establishment of the empire, which had been successively possessed by sixtyrants, all equally cruel, and most of them exceedingly furious anduntractable; generally very weak, and to complete the public calamity, profuseeven to infatuation.

Titus, who succeeded his father, was the darling of the people; but Domitianpresented to their view an uncommon monster more inhuman in his disposition, orat least more implacable, than any of his predecessors, because he was moretimorous.

His favourite freemen, and, according to some historians, the empressherself, finding his friendship as dangerous as his aversion, and that heallowed no bounds to his suspicions and accusations, turned their thoughts to asuccessor, and chose the venerable Nerva.

Nerva adopted Trajan, who proved the most accomplished prince in allhistory; it was a happiness to be born under his reign, which blessed theempire with more prosperity and true glory than it had ever enjoyed before. Hewas an admirable statesman, and a most accomplished general; the nativesweetness of his disposition inclined him to universal humanity; and hisunclouded penetration guided him through the best and purest tracts ofgovernment; he was actuated by a noble soul, to whose embellishment everyvirtue had contributed; his conduct was free from all extremes, and his amiablequalities were tempered with such exact proportion that the brightness of onewas never lost in the lustre of another. To sum up all, he was the bestqualified of mankind, to do honour to human nature, and to represent thedivinity on earth.

He accomplished Csars project of invading the Parthians, andwas very successful in his wars with that mighty people; any monarch buthimself would have sunk under the weight of such an enterprize, where dangerwas always present, and from whence the source of his necessary supplies was ata vast distance; in a word, where he could not be sure of victory itself wouldsave him from destruction.

The difficulty consisted in the situation of the two empires, and themilitary discipline of both nations. If he directed his march through Armeniatowards the sources of Tygris and Euphrates, he was sure to be incommoded witha mountainous and impracticable country, through which no convoy of provisioncould pass, so that the army would be half destroyed before they couldpenetrate into Media [*] . On the other hand, if he should strike out a lower tract towards thesouth, through Nisibis, he would find himself bewildered in a ghastly desartthat separated the two empires; and if he intended to proceed still lower, andmarch throughMesopotamia, he was then to cross a large countrythat was either uncultivated or laid under water; and as the Tygris andEuphrates flowed from north to south, he could not gain a passage into thecountry without quitting those rivers, which, if he did, he must inevitablyperish.

As to the manner practised by the two nations in making war, the strength ofthe Romans consisted in their infantry, which was the most firm and bestdisciplined body of soldiers in the world.

The Parthians on the contrary, had no infantry, but then their horse wereadmirable, and always combated at such a distance, as placed them out of thereach of the Roman army, and the javelin was seldom launched far enough towound them. Their own weapons consisted of a bow, and many formidable shafts,and they rather besieged an army than gave it battle; they were pursued to nopurpose in their flight, for that was the same with them as an engagement. Theycarried off all the inhabitants of the country, and only left garrisons intheir fortified places; and when these were taken, the conquerors were obligedto destroy them. The Parthians likewise set fire to all the country that layround the Roman army, and did not leave them the least blade of herbage. In aword, they managed their wars in manner very much like that which is nowpractised on the same frontiers.

We may add to these disadvantages, that the Illyrian and German legionswhich were drawn out for this war, were no way capable to sustain it, [*] because the soldiers, who were accustomed to plentiful food in theirown country, perished in these regions for want of many necessaries.

The Parthians by these means had accomplished that, for the preservation oftheir liberty, which had hitherto been impracticable to all other nations,againstthe victorious power of the Romans: but they owedthis advantage not to any resistless valour, but to their inaccessiblesituation.

Adrian gave up the conquest of Trajan, and made Euphrates the boundary ofhis empire; and indeed it was surprizing that the Romans, after such a seriesof war, should lose nothing but what they were desirous to quit; and thus theyresembled the ocean, whose expansion is never lessened but when it retires ofitself.

This conduct of Adrian occasioned great dissatisfactions among the people.It was recorded in the sacred book of that nation [*] that when Tarquin intended to build the capitol, he found the placemost commodious for his purpose filled with the statues of other deities, uponwhich he employed his skill in augury to discover if they were inclinable toresign their places to Jupiter, and they all consented, except Mars, Hebe, andTerminus. This proceeding gave birth to three religious opinions, namely, thatMars would never resign his place to any other being; that the Roman youthwould be always invincible; and that their god Terminus would never recede fromhis station; the contrary of which was however verified in the reign ofAdrian.

CHAP. XVI.: Considerations on the State of theEmpire from Antoninus to Probus.

IN this period, the Stoics propagated their doctrines in the empire withgreat popularity; and it seems as if nature herself had been industrious toproduce this admirable sect, which resembled those plants the earth causes tospring up in places never visited by the sunbeams.

This sect furnished the Romans with their best emperors; none but MarcusAurelius could extinguish the remembrance of the first Antonine who adoptedhim; and we find ourselves affected with a secret pleasure when we speak ofthis emperor. We cannot read his life without some impressions of tenderness,and grow inclinable to think better of ourselves, because the history of thatprince makes us entertain a more favourable opinion of mankind.

The wisdom of Nerva, the glory of Trajan, the valour of Adrian, and thevirtue of the two Antonines, gained them the veneration of the soldiers; butwhen a set of new monsters became their successors, the abuse of militarygovernment appeared in its full enormity; and the soldiers, who had exposed theempire to sale, assassinated the emperors for the sake of new gratuities.

It has been a conceived opinion that there is a certain prince in the world,who, for the space of fifteen years, has been endeavouring to abolish the civilgovernment in his dominions, and to substitute the military in its room. I haveno intention to make odious reflections on such a design, and shall onlyobserve, that from the nature of things in general, two hundred guards may be abetter security to a prince than four thousand; and besides, an armed peopleare of all others the most dangerous to be opposed.

Commodus succeeded his father Marcus Aurelius, and was a monster who gave aloose to all his own passions, and those of his courtiers. The persons whodelivered the world from such a Barbarian, transferred the imperial dignity tothe venerable Pertinax, who was soon assassinated by the prtorianbands.

The empire was then exposed to auction, and Didius Julian carried it by anumber of magnificent promises. This proceeding exasperated the whole body ofthe people; for though the empire had been frequently bought, it had never beensold upon credit before. Pescennius Niger, Severus, and Albinus, were salutedemperors; and Julian, not being in a condition topay the immense sums he had promised, was abandoned by the soldiers.

Severus defeated Niger and Albinus: he was master of extraordinaryqualities, but wanted that sweetness of disposition, which in princes is themost amiable quality they can possess.

The power of the Emperors might easily appear more tyrannical than that ofmodern princes; for as their dignity was a conjunction of the variousauthorities in the Roman magistracy, such as dictators, for instance, tribunesof the people, proconsuls, censors, supreme pontiffs, and sometimes consuls,they frequently assumed the dispensation of distributive justice, and it waseasy for them to create suspicions that they had oppressed those whom theycondemned; for the people usually judge of the abuse of power, by the greatnessof its extent; whereas the kings of Europe, being legislators and not executorsof the law, sovereign princes but not judges, are consequently discharged fromthe exercise of an authority that might prove odious; and have consigned theinfliction of punishments to magistrates, whilst they reserved to themselvesthe distribution of pardons and other popular acts of mercy.

Few emperors have ever been more jealous of their authority than Tiberiusand Severus, and yet they suffered themselves to be governed in a mostdishonourable manner, the one by Sejanus, and the other by Plautian.

The unhappy custom of proscribing, introduced by Sylla, was still practisedunder the emperors; and the prince must have been distinguished by some virtue,if he discountenanced that severe proceeding; for as the ministers andfavourites turned their thoughts to confiscations at the beginning of a reign,they were always representing to their sovereign the necessity of punishments,and the dangerous effects of clemency.

When Severus gave full play to his proscriptions, a great body ofNigers [*] army retired for safety to the Parthians and perfected them in every part of military discipline wherein theywere any way defective; they habituated them to the Roman weapons, and eventaught their workmen how to make their martial equipage; in consequence ofwhich, that people, who till then had usually limited their exploits todefensive wars , were generally aggressors for the future.

It is very remarkable, that in the long series of those civil wars that werecontinually raging, the chiefs, who were supported by the legions of Europe,generally defeated the leaders of the Asiatic legions ∥ ; and we read, in the history of Severus, that he could not take thecity of Atra in Arabia, because the European legions having mutinied, he wasobliged to employ those of Syria.

This difference became evident, when the levies were first made in the provinces, and it appeared as considerable in the legions, as itdid in the nations out of which they were raised, and who, by nature oreducation, were more or less formed for war.

Another unhappy consequence likewise ensued from these provincial levies;for the emperors, who were generally elected out of the soldiery, were for themost part strangers, and sometimes the worst of Barbarians.Rome was now no longer mistress of the world, butreceived laws from the whole universe.

Each emperor brought with him some peculiarity from his own country,relating to fashions, manners, politics, or religion; and Heliogabalus had evenformed a resolution to destroy every object of religious veneration in Rome,and to banish all the gods from their temples, that he might place his own intheir room.

This circumstance, even considered as independent on the secret operationsof the Deity, which are obvious to his omniscience alone, greatly contributedto the establishment of Christianity; for nothing was now strange in theempire, and the people were prepared to relish every new custom which theemperors were inclinable to introduce.

It is well known, that the Romans received the gods of other nations intotheir city; but then they received them with the art of conquerors, and carriedthem in their triumphal processions: but when strangers attempted to establishthem by their own authority, they were immediately rejected. It is likewisenotorious, that the Romans gave foreign deities the names of such of their owngods as were most conformable to the others, in their attributes: But when thepriests of other countries would introduce the adoration of their divinities,under the proper names, among the Romans, they were not permitted to accomplishthat design; and this was the greatest obstacle to the progress ofChristianity.

Caracalla, who succeeded Severus, may be called not only a tyrant, but thedestroyer of mankind. Caligula, Nero, and Domitian limited their barbarities toRome; but this monster endeavoured to extend his fury through the world like apestilence.

Severus amassed prodigious treasures by the exactions of a long reign, andhis proscriptions of those who declared for his competitors in the empire.

Caracalla having commenced his reign with murdering his brother Geta withhis own hands, purchased, with those riches, a connivance at his crime from thesoldiers who had an extraordinary regard for Geta; but the liberalities ofCaracalla had such an effect upon them, that they declared they had taken oathsto both the children of Severus, and not to one alone.

The immoderate treasures which have been gathered by princes have commonlyproduced fatal effects: they generally corrupt the successor, who grows dazzledwith the lustre they diffuse; and if they happen not to prevent his heart, theymisguide his mind, and cause him to form plans of mighty enterprizes, by theministration of a power that is only accidental, always transitory andunnatural, and an empty inflation instead of a real grandeur.

Caracalla augmented the soldiers pay; Macrinus wrote to the senate, thatthis augmentation amounted to [*] seventy millions of drachms . This prince seems to have magnified things; and if we compare oursoldiers pay now-a-days with the rest of our public expences, and suppose thatwe kept the same proportion among the Romans we shall see that this sum wasexcessive.

Here we should enquire, what was a Roman soldiers pay? We learn fromOrosius, that Domitian raised it a fourth from what it was before. And it appears from asoldiers speech in Tacitus, that ∥ at the death of Augustus it was ten ounces of brass per day. We find inSuetonius , that Julius Csar doubled the pay of his time. In Pliny [**] , at the second Punic war, itwas diminished one fifth. It was then in the Punicwar [*] about six ounces of copper; in the second , about five ounces; at ten, under Julius Csar; and thirteen anda third, under Domitian . I shall make here some reflections.

The pay which the republic might easily advance, when it was only a smallstate, when it engaged in a new war every year, and received the spoils of itas often; it was not able to raise, without running in debt, under the firstPunic war, when it carried its arms beyond Italy, when it maintained a longwar, and supported great armies.

In the second Punic war, the pay was reduced to five ounces of brass; andthis diminution might be made without danger at a time when the most of thecitizens were ashamed to receive pay, and were willing to serve at their owncharge.

The treasures of Persia ∥ , and of so many other kings, which flowed into Rome, put an end totaxes there. In such public and private opulence, they had the prudence not toenlarge the former payment of five ounces of brass.

Though even from this pay they made a deduction for corn, cloaths, and arms;still it was sufficient, because they enrolled only those citizens who hadpatrimonies of their own.

Marius having enrolled people of no substance, and his example beingafterwards followed, Julius Csar was obliged to augment the pay.

This augmentation having been continued after the death of Csar, theywere obliged under the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa, to re-establishtaxes.

The weakness of Domitian in adding one fourth to this pay, was a great blowto the state; the unhappiness of which was not that it brought in luxury ingeneral, but infused it among people of that condition who ought to be suppliedwith no more than the bare necessities which nature requires. Lastly, byCaracallas final augmentation, the empire was thrown into such acondition, that, not being able to subsist without soldiers, it could notsubsist with them.

Caracalla, to soften the horror of his fratricide, instituted divine honoursto his brother Geta; and, what was very peculiar, he himself received the samedeification of Macrinus, who after he had caused him to be stabbed, and wasdesirous of appeasing the prtorian bands, who regretted the death of aprince whose liberalities they had so often enjoyed, erected a temple, andestablished a priesthood of Flamens in his honour.

This preserved his memory from all degrading imputations, [*] and the senate not knowing to censure him, he was not ranked among thetyrants, like Commodus, who had not done more to deserve that title thanhimself.

As to the two great emperors Adrian and Severus , one established and the other relaxed the military discipline, and theevents exactly corresponded with their causes: the reigns which succeeded thatof Adrian were a series of happiness and tranquility; but after the death ofSeverus, nothing was seen but a succession of calamities and horror.

Caracalla had confined himself to no limitations in his prodigality to thesoldiers; and in that particular he acted conformably to the sentiments of hisfather,who, on his death-bed, advised him to enrich thearmy and disregard all the rest of mankind.

But these politics could be only accommodated to one reign; for thesuccessor being no longer able to continue those expences, was soonassassinated by the army; so that the emperors who were eminent for wisdom,were always murdered by the soldiers; and those whose lives were infamous, weredestroyed either by the conspiracies or edicts of the senate.

When a tyrant suffered himself to be entirely influenced by the war, andleft the citizens exposed to their licentious depredations, such injuriousproceedings could not be extended beyond the period of one reign; because thesoldiers, in consequence of their devastations, impoverished the people, anddefeated themselves of their pay by that event. It therefore became necessaryto reform the military discipline, which was a project always fatal to thepersons who presumed to attempt it.

When Caracalla lost his life by the treachery of Macrinus, the soldiers, indespair at the death of a prince, whose liberality had been dispensed to themwith an unlimited flow, elected Heliogabalus [*] ; and when he, by his prostitution to infamous pleasures, and thelawless extravagancies he suffered the army to commit, grew contemptible evenin their eyes, they dispatched him by an assassination. The same sate attendedAlexander, who was preparing to restore the true military discipline, andthreatened to punish the soldiers for their misconduct .

In this manner a tyrant, who instead of being solicitous for his safety,affected an ability to be criminal, perished with the fatal advantage of beingmurdered a few days before another who would willingly have been a betterman.

After the death of Alexander, the imperial dignity was transferred toMaximin, who was the first emperor of Barbarian extraction, and had beendistinguished by his strength and gigantic stature.

This prince and his son were likewise slain by the soldiers. The two firstGordians perished in Africa: Maximus, Balbinus, and the third Gordian weremassacred: Philip, who had caused the young Gordian to be destroyed, washimself slain with his son; and Decius, who was chosen to succeed him, wasmurdered in his turn by the treason of Gallus [*] .

The Roman empire was improperly so denominated at that time, and mightrather be called an irregular commonwealth, nearly resembling the Aristocracyof Algiers, where the militia, who are invested with the sovereign power, electand depose the magistrate they called the Dey; and it may perhaps be taken fora general rule, that a military government is, in some respects, a republicrather than a monarchy.

But lest any one should imagine the soldiers had no other share in thegovernment than what they extorted by their disobedience and insurrections, letit be asked whether the orations in which the emperors addressed themselves tothe army, were not at last very correspondent to those which the consuls andtribunes formerly made to the people? And though the soldiers had no particularplace to assemble in, nor were under the regulation of any certain forms;though the temper of their minds was not usually serene, their proceedingsconsisting of action rather than deliberation, did they not however dispose ofthe public fortunewith a sovereign authority? What was an emperor butthe minister of a violent and tumultuous government, and did not the soldierselect him for their own particular convenience?

When the army associated into the empire [*] , Philip, the prtorian prefect of the third Gordian, claimed theexercise of an undivided command, but did not succeed in his pretensions; hethen requested the army to divide the power equally between them, but to aslittle effect; he next intreated them to leave him the title of Csar,and was still refused; he afterwards solicited them to create him prefect ofthe prtorian bands, and met with the usual repulse; till at last he wasreduced to plead for his life. The army, in the instance before us, exercisedthe supreme magistracy in their several decisions.

The Barbarians were at first unknown to the Romans, and for some timeafterwards only incommodious; but at last they became formidable to them, by anevent altogether unparalleled at that time, and which perhaps may never beequalled hereafter. Rome had so effectually extinguished all nations, that whenshe at last was vanquished in her turn, the earth seemed to produce a new raceof mankind, to accomplish her destruction.

Those princes who have large dominions, seldom find them bordered by anyterritories considerable enough to be the objects of their ambition; and shouldthere be any such, they would naturally be swallowed up in a series ofconquest. We will say they are bounded then by seas and mountains, and vastdeserts, whose sterility rendered them contemptible. The Romans for this reasonsuffered the Germans to range in their forest and gloomy wilds, and let thenorthern nations shiver amidst the polar snow; and yet those inhospitableregions produced a people, who at last enslaved the conquerors of theworld.

In the reign of Gallus, a mighty collection of nations, who afterwardsbecame more celebrated, spread their ravages through all Europe; and thePersians having invaded Syria, abandoned their conquests only to preserve theirbooty.

We no longer see any of those swarms of Barbarians which the North formerlysent out. The violences of the Romans had made the people of the South retireinto the North: while the force which confined them subsisted, they remainedthere: when it was weakened, they dispersed themselves into all parts [*] . The same thing happened some ages after. The conquest and tyrannies ofCharlemagne had again forced the nations of the South into the North: as soonas this empire was weakened, they poured a second time from the North into theSouth. And if at present a prince made the same ravages in Europe, the nationsdriven into the North, with their backs to the limits of the universe, wouldmaintain their ground, till the moment they should over-run and conquer Europea third time.

The miserable disorders which had so long been springing up in the severalsuccessions of the emperors, were now come to their fatal maturity, and thatperiod which was concurrent with the close of Valerians reign, and theduration of that of his son Gallienus, produced thirty pretenders to theempire, the greatest part of whom being swept away by their mutual contentions,their devastations were limited to a short reign; and they gained nothingdurable but the appellation of the THIRTY TYRANTS.

Valerian having been taken prisoner by the Persians, and his son Gallienusneglecting the public affairs, the Barbarians penetrated into all parts, andthe empire was now in the same condition it was afterwardsreduced to in the west [*] , at the close of another century, and it would then have felt its lastconvulsions, had not a happy conjunction of events interposed for itspreservation.

The terrible confusion in succeeding to the empire being come to its height,we find at the end of the reign of Valerian, and during that of Gallienus, hisson, no less that thirty pretencers to the throne, most of whom having gotpossession of it, and reigned for a very short time, were called thetyrants.

Odenatus, prince of Palmyra, and one of the Roman allies, dislodged the Pesians, who had invaded the greatest part of Asia: Rome furnished an army of itsown citizens, and they effectually delivered it from the Barbarians who came topillage their city: an innumerable army of Scythians, who put to sea in a fleetof five thousand ships, entirely perished by storms, fatigue, and famine, andeven by their formidable grandeur; and Gallienus being at last slain, Claudius,Aurelian, Tacitus, and Probus, who happily succeeded him, and were fourextraordinary princes, snatched the empire from the verge of ruin.

CHAP. XVII.: Changes in the STATE.

THE emperors, to prevent the continual treasons of the army, associated intothe government proper persons in whom they might confide; and Dioclesian, underpretext of the weight and multiplicity of the public affairs, established alaw, that there should always be two Emperors and as many Csars. Hejudged, that, by this proceeding, the four principal armies being possessed bythe partners in the empire, would naturally intimidate one another, and thatthe inferior armies being too weak to have any thoughts of raisingtheir chiefs to the imperial dignity, their customof election would be gradually discontinued, and entirely abolished at last.Besides, the dignity of the Csars being always subordinate, that power,which, for the security of the government, was in the participation of four,would be exercised in its full extent by no more than two.

The soldiers were likewise restrained from their exorbitances byconsidering, that as the riches of particular persons as well as the publictreasure were considerably diminished, the emperors were in no condition tooffer them such large donations as formerly, and consequently the gratuitieswould be no longer proportionable to the danger of a new election.

We may add to this, that the prefects of the prtorian bands, whosepower and employments rendered them the grand visirs of those times, andfrequently tempted them to murder their emperors, in order to raise themselvesto the throne, were greatly reduced by Constantine, who divested them of allbut their civil functions, and augmented their number to four instead oftwo.

The lives of the emperors began now to be in greater security, and theymight reasonably expect to die peaceably in their beds. This circumstance seemsin some measure to have softened their dispositions, and they no longer shedhuman blood with the barbarous prodigality of their predecessors. But as theimmense power they still possessed must needs have some particular tendency, itbegan to manifest itself in a species of tyranny less glaring than the former.The subjects were no longer affrighted with inhuman massacres, but then theywere harassed by unjust sentences and forms of judicature, which seemed todefer death only to render life itself uncomfortable. The court governed, andwas likewise swayed in its turn, by a greater variety of artifices and a moreexquisite train of political resinements, which were conducted with greatersilence thanusual. In a word, instead of an unterrisieddisposition to form a bad action, and a cruel precipitation to commit it, thosegigantic iniquities shrunk into the vices of weak minds, and could only becalled languid crimes.

A new train of corruption was now introduced, the first emperors pursuedpleasures, but these sunk into softness. They shewedthemselves with less frequency to the soldiers, were more indolent and fonderof their domestics, more devoted to the palace, and more abstracted from theempire.

The poison of the court grew more malignant in proportion to the disguise itassumed. All direct terms were disused in discourse, and distant insinuationsbecame the dialect of the palace. Every shining reputation was sullied, and theministers as well as the officers of the army were perpetually left to thediscretion of that sort of people, who, as they cannot be useful to the statethemselves, suffer none to serve it with reputation and glory.

In a word, that affability of the first emporors, which alone qualified themfor an insight into their affairs, was now entirely discarded. The prince hadno informations, but what were conveyed to him by the canal of a fewfavourites, who acted always in concert together, and even when they seemed todisagree in their opinions, were only in the province of a single person totheir sovereign.

The residence of several emperors in Asia, and their perpetual competitionwith the kings of Persia, made them form a resolution to be adorned like thosemonarchs; and Dioclesian, though others say Gallerius, published an edict tothat effect.

This pompous imitation of the Asiatic pride being once established, thepeople were soon habituated to such a spectacle, and when Julian would haveregulated his conduct by a modest simplicity of manners, that proceeding whichwas no more than a renovationof the ancient behaviour, was imputed to him as areproachful inattention to his dignity.

Though several emperors had reigned after Marcus Aurelius, yet the empirewas undivided; and as the authority of those princes was acknowledged in allthe provinces, it was but one power though exercised by many persons.

But Galerius [*] and Constantius Chlorus, being at variance with each other, divided theempire in reality; and this example, which was afterwards followed byConstantine, who pursuing the plan of Galerius and not that of Dioclesian,introduced a custom which might be called a revolution rather than achange.

We may likewise add, that the strong desire of Constantine to be the founderof a new city, and an impulse of vanity to distinguish it by his own name,determined him to transfer the seat of empire to the east. Though Rome was farfrom being so spacious within the walls as it is at present, yet the suburbswere prodigiously extensive : Italy was filled with seats of pleasure, and might properly be calledthe garden of Rome. The husbandmen were in Cicily, Africa, and Egypt ; but the gardeners lived altogether in Italy. The lands were generallycultivated by the slaves of the Roman citizens, but when the seat of empire wasestablished in the east, all Rome was in a manner transplanted to thatsituation. Thither did the Grandees send their slaves, or, in other words, thegreatest part of the people, and Italy was almost exhausted of itsinhabitants.

It was Constantines intention that the new city should not beinferior in any particular to the old one; and therefore he took care to haveit sufficiently supplied with corn, commanding all the harvest of Egyptto be sent to Constantinople, and consigning that ofAfrica to Rome, which does not seem to have been a very judiciousproceeding.

Whilst the republic subsisted, the people of Rome, who were then thesovereigns of all other nations, became naturally entitled to a proportion ofthe tribute: this circumstance induced the senate to sell them corn, at first,for a low price, and afterwards to make a gratuitous distribution of it amongthem; and when monarchy itself was introduced, this latter custom was stillcontinued, though entirely opposite to the principles of that form ofgovernment. It is true, the abuse remained unrectified through an apprehensionof the inconveniences that would have risen from its discontinuance; but whenConstantine founded a new city, he established the same custom without theleast appearance of reason.

When Augustus had conquered Egypt, he conveyed the treasure of the Ptolomiesto Rome; and this proceeding occasioned much the same revolution which thediscovery of the Indies afterwards effected in Europe, and which someridiculous schemes have since accomplished in our time. The revenue was doubledat Rome [*] , and as that city continued to absorb all the riches of Alexandria,which was itself the repository of the treasures of Africa and the East; goldand silver by these means became very common in Europe, and the people wereable to pay very considerable taxations even in money.

But when the empire was afterwards divided, all these riches flowed in afull tide to Constantinople; and we may add to this unhappy circumstance, thatthe mines in Germany had not then been opened:that those of Italy [*] and Gaul were very few and inconsiderable; and that the mines of Spain had not been worked since the Carthaginians lost that country, or atleast they were not so productive as formerly; Italy itself was now a continuedwaste of forsaken gardens, and consequently could not be in any condition todraw money from the East, whilst the West at the same time was drained of allits wealth, by the oriental merchants who supplied the inhabitants with theirnecessary commodities. Gold and Silver, by these means became extremely scarcein Europe; and yet the emperors extorted the same pecuniary tributes asformerly, which completed the general destruction.

When a government has been established in one certain form, and itspolitical circumstances are adjusted to a particular situation, it is generallyprudent to leave them in that condition; for the same causes which have enabledsuch a state to subsist, though they may frequently be complicated and unknown,will still continue to support it; but when the whole system is changed,remedies can only be accommodated to the inconveniences visible in the theory,whilst others, which nothing but experience can point out, are lurking withoutopposition in the new plan.

For these reasons, though the empire grew already too great, yet it waseffectually ruined by the divisions into which it was parcelled, because allthe parts of this vast body, had, for a long series of time, been arranged soas to become settled and steady, and were compacted by a mutual dependencythrough the whole.

Constantine , after he had weakened the capital, proceededto impair the frontiers by drawing off those legionswhich were stationed on the banks of great rivers, and distributing them intothe provinces. This innovation was extremely prejudicial in more instances thanone; for as the barrier which comprehended so many nations was now removed; sothe soldiers [*] passed all their time, and grew effeminate in the Circus and thetheatres .

When Julian was sent by Constantius into Gaul, he found that fifty towns onthe Rhine had been taken by the Barbarians, and that the provinces were allplundered, and that there was now no more than the shadow of a Roman army,which fled at the very mention of the enemies name.

This prince by his wisdom ∥ , and preservance, joined with œconomy, conduct, and valour, andprospered by a noble series of heroic actions, chaced the Barbarians out oftheir new settlements, and his name became a terror to them as long as he lived .

The shortness of the reigns, the various political parties, the differentreligions, and the particular sects of these religions, have greatly disfiguredthe characters of the emperors; I shall give only two examples: that Alexander,who is a coward in Herodian, is a hero in Lampridius; that Gratian, so highlycelebratedby the Orthodox, is compared to Nero byPhilostorgius.

No prince saw the necessity of restoring the ancient plan, more thanValentinian. His whole life was employed in fortifying the banks of the Rhine,making levies, raising castles, placing troops in proper stations, andfurnishing them with subsistence on those frontiers; but an event thatafterwards happened, determined his brother Valents to open the Danube, andthat proceeding was attended with very dreadful consequences.

That track of land which lies between the Palus Motis, the mountainsof Caucasus and the Caspian sea, was inhabited by a numerous people whocomposed great part of the nation of the Huns, or that of the Alans. The soilwas exceedingly fertile; the inhabitants were fond of wars and robberies; andwere always either on horseback or in their chariots, and wandered about thecountry wherein they were inclosed: they sometimes made depredations on thefrontiers of Persia and Armenia; but the ports of the Caspian sea were easilyguarded, and it was difficult for them to penetrate into Persia by any otheravenues; and as they imagined it impracticable to cross the Palus Motis,they were altogether unacquainted with the Romans; so that whilst other nationsof Barbarians ravaged the empire, these confined themselves within the limitswhich their ignorance had drawn around them.

It has been the opinion of some, [*] that the slime which was rolled down by the current of the Tanais hadby degrees formed a kind of incrustation on the surface of the CimmerianBosphorus, over which these people are supposed to have passed. Others inform us, that two young Scythians being in full pursuit of a hind,the terrified creature swam over that arm of the sea, upon which the youthsimmediately followed her in the same track, were exceedingly astonished to findthemselves in a new world; and, at their return tothe old one, they gave their countrymen [*] a particular account of the strange hands, and if I may be indulged theexpression, in inviting Indies they had lately discovered.

Upon this information, an innumerable body of Huns immediately passed thosestreights; and, meeting first with the Goths, made that people fly before them.It should seem as if these mighty countries poured their nations outprecipitately upon one another, and that Asia had acquired a new weight to makeit ponderate equal to the European power.

The Goths in consternation presented themselves on the banks of the Danube,and with a suppliant air intreated the Romans to allow them a place of refuge.The flatterers of Valens improved this conjecture, and represented it as a fortunateconquest of a new people, who, by the accession of their numbers, would defendand enrich the empire.

Valens ordered them to be admitted into his territories upon delivering up their arms;but his officers suffered them to re-purchase with their money as many as theypleased: they were afterwards distributed into several allotments of land; butthe Goths, ∥ contrary to the custom of the Huns, did not cultivate the portions ofground assigned them. They were even left destitute of the promised supplies ofcorn, and wereready to perish amidst a land of plenty; they werearmed for war, and yet unjustly insulted. In consequence of these provocations,they ravaged all the country from the Danube to the Bosphorus; they destroyedValens and all his army, and repassed the Danube only to quit the hideoussolitude they had effected by their devastations [*] .

CHAP. XVIII.: An Account of some new maximsreceived by the Romans.

SOMETIMES the pusillanimous spirit of the emperors , and frequently the defenceless state of the empire made the peopleemploy their money to appease the nations that threatened to invade them; butthe desired peace could never be effectually purchased, because those who soldit could, whenever they pleased, oblige the Romans to buy it again.

It is much better to hazard an unsuccessful war, than to part with greatsums for a precarious peace; for a prince is always suspected when it is knownhe will make a long resistance before he can be vanquished.

Besides, such gratifications as these were changed into tribute at last, andthough they were free at the beginning, they became necessary in the event, andpassed for an acquired property: for which reason,when an emperor refused them to some particular people, or was not disposed togive them so much as they demanded, they immediately declared themselves hismortal enemies. To produce an instance or two, from a thousand: the army whichJulian led against the Persians, [*] was pursued, in his retreat from the east, by the Arabians, to whom thecustomary tribute had been refused: and in a short time afterwards, in thereign of Valentinian, the Germans , who had been offered more inconsiderable presents than usual, grewexasperated at that disobliging frugality, and these northern people beingalready influenced by a point of honour, avenged themselves of this pretendedinsult by a cruel war.

All those nations that surrounded the empire in Europe and Asia, exhaustedit by degrees of its riches: and as the Romans derived their grandeur and powerfrom the gold and silver which flowed into the empire from the coffers of somany kings; they now grew weak and despicable, because the same gold and silver was drained from them by othernations.

The misconduct of politicians is not always voluntary, but happensfrequently to be the unavoidable consequence of their particular situation; andtherefore one inconvenience is generally the offspring of another.

The army, as we have already declared, became very expensive to the state,and the soldiers had threesorts of advantages; their ordinary pay, donationsof recompence after their services, and accidental liberalities, which wereoften claimed as stated properties by a body of men who had both princes andpeople in their power.

The inability of the people to furnish these expences obliged them to employa less chargeable soldiery, and treaties were struck up with barbarous nations,who had neither the luxury of the Roman army, nor the same spirit andpretensions.

There was another advantage besides this; for as the Barbarians poured theirtroops into a country with the greatest precipitation, the Romans beingunprovided for their reception, and finding it sometimes difficult to raiselevies in the provinces, were obliged to hire another party of Barbarians, whowere always mercenary, and eager for battle and plunder. This expedient had itsuse in the present emergency; but when that was over, the Romans found it asdifficult to rid themselves of their new allies, as of their enemiesthemselves.

The ancient Romans never suffered the auxiliary troops to outnumber theirown, in their armies [*] ; and though their allies might properly be reputed their subjects, yetthey had no inclination to let those subjects be better warriors thanthemselves.

But in the latter times, this proportion of the auxiliaries was not onlydisregarded, but even the national troops were composed of Barbariansoldiers.

Thus were customs established, quite opposite to those which had renderedthe Romans masters of the world; and as the genius of their former politicsalways prompted them to reserve the military art to themselves, and excludetheir neighbours from any participation of its principles, they nowextinguishedit in their own people, and established it amongforeigners.

Take this compendium of the Roman history: They subdued all nations by theirmaxims, but when they had so far succeeded, their republic could not subsistany longer; the plan of their government must be changed, and maxims contraryto the first, being then introduced, they were divested of all theirgrandeur.

Fortune never interposes in the government of this world; and we may beconvinced of this truth by the Romans, who enjoyed a continual series ofprosperity when they regulated their conduct by one invariable plan, butsuffered an uninterrupted train of calamities when they acted upon differentprinciples. There are a set of general causes, either moral or physical, whichoperate in every monarchy, and either raise and maintain it, or else involve itin ruin. All accidental conjunctures are subordinate to these causes; and ifthe hazard of a battle, which, in other words, is no more than a particularcause, has been destructive of a state, some general cause presided, and made asingle battle be the inevitable ruin of that state. In a word, the tendency ofthe main principle draws after it all the particular incidents.

We are sensible that for two centuries past, the Danish troops have beengenerally defeated by the Swedes; we may therefore conclude, that, independentof the bravery of the two nations, and the chance of war, either their civil ormilitary government is disconcerted by some secret flaw which produces thiseffect, and I am of opinion it may easily be discovered.

In a word, the Romans lost their military discipline, and even neglected itin their very arms: Vegetius [*] acquaints us, that the soldiers finding them too ponderous, obtainedthe emperor Gratians permission to quit their coats of mail, and soonafter their helmets;and when their bodies were thus defenceless, theygrew attentive to nothing but flight.

The same author adds, they had lost the art of fortifying their camps, andthat by this negligence they were easily overwhelmed by the Barbarianhorse.

The cavalry of the first Romans was not numerous, it was but the eleventhpart of the legion, and often less, and what is extraordinary, was made lessuse of by them than by us who are obliged to carry on so many sieges, wherecavalry is of little service. When the Roman empire was in its decay, theirforces consisted of little else but cavalry. I imagine, as a nation improves inthe knowledge of the military art, it trusts the more to its intantry; and asthat science decreases, it increases its cavalry in proportion: the reason is,because the infantry, whether light or heavy, is nothing without discipline,whereas, the cavalry is always of use, even in its disorder [*] . The action of the latter consists chiefly in its impetuosity andsudden shock; that of the former in its resistance and impenetrable firmness,which is not so much action as re-action. Lastly, the force of the cavalry ismomentaneous; that of the infantry of longer duration; now there is need ofdiscipline to continue it in a persevering state.

The Romans arrived at universal monarchy not only by the arts of war, butlikewise by their wisdom, their perseverance, their passion for glory, andtheir heroic love for their country: and when even these virtues disappearedunder the emperors, and they had only the art military among them, yet thisalone, notwithstanding the weakness and tyranny of their princes, enabled themto preserve their former acquisitions. But when corruption had at lastinsinuated itself among the soldiery, they became the prey of every nation.

An empire founded by arms, must likewise have arms for its support. But as apeople, when theirstate is in confusion, are at a loss how to rectifytheir civil disorders; in the same manner, when they enjoy a profound peace,and are respected for their power, they never imagine this calm scene maychange, and consequently neglect their military force, from whence as they havenothing more to hope, so they fancy they have all things to fear, and sometimesproceed so far as to weaken that basis of their welfare.

It was an inviolable law among the Romans, that whoever abandoned his postor quitted his arms in the combat, should be punished with death. Julian andValentinian, had reinforced the ancient penalties in this particular; but theBarbarians who were taken into the Roman pay [*] , and were accustomed to make war in the manner now practised by theTartars, who fly in order to rally, and are more solicitous for plunder thanmartial reputation, were incapable of conforming to such severeregulations.

The discipline of the ancient Romans was so strict that they have hadgenerals who sentenced their own children to die, for gaining a battle withouttheir orders: but when they were intermixed with the Barbarians, theycontracted, from that association, the same spirit of independence which marksout the character of those nations; and such as read the wars of Belifariuswith the Goths, will see a general very frequently disobeyed by hisofficers.

Sylla and Sertorius amidst the fury of civil wars would rather die thanconnive at any thing from whence Mithridates might derive the least advantage;but in the succeeding times, when a minister or any grandeeimagined it would be favourable to his avarice, hisrevenge, or ambition, to admit the Barbarians into the empire, he immediatelypermitted them to give a loose to their depredations.

No states are more necessitated for tributes than those which are weak,because this circumstance obliges them to augment their charges in proportionto the peoples inability to defray them; and therefore the tributes inthe Roman provinces became insupportable.

It would not be improper to read Salvians [*] account of the horrible exactions that were made upon the people. Thecitizens were so harrassed by the farmers of the revenue, that they wereobliged either to seek refuge among the Barbarians, or surrender their libertyto the first of their insatiable countrymen who would accept of such apresent.

This may account for the relations we find in our French history, of thepatience with which the Gauls supported a revolution calculated to establishthat shocking distinction between a gallant nation, and a community of servilewretches; I say, between a nation who retained their liberty and militaryprivileges, and an ignoble body of people. The Barbarians, in making so manycitizens slaves to till the earth, that is, the country to which they wereattached, introduced no services which were not more cruelly exacted before .

CHAP. XIX.: Some Particulars of the Grandeur of Attila. The establishment of the Barbarians accountedfor. Reasons why the Western Empire was overturned before that in theeast.

AS christianity was established when the empire was in a decliningcondition, the prosessors of this religion reproached the Pagans for thatdecay, and these retorted the charge on the religious doctrines of theirantagonists. The christians replied, that Dioclesian [*] ruined the empire, by associating his three colleagues; because eachemperor would be altogether as expensive, and maintained as great armies ascould have subsisted had there been but one sovereign; in consequence of which,those who furnished the contributions being unequally proportioned to thenumber of the receivers, the charges became so excessive that the lands wereforsaken by the husbandmen, and for want of cultivation lay waste, and werecovered with wild and barren forests.

The Pagans, on the other hand, were perpetually exclaiming against thestrange innovations in religion, introduced by their adversaries, and neverheard of till those days. And as the overflowings of the Tyber, and otherprejudicial effects of nature, were, in the flourishing state of Rome, ascribedto the displeasure of the gods; so the calamities of declining Rome wereimputed to a religious novelty, and the subversion of the ancient altars.

Symmachus the prefect, in a letter to the emperors, relating to the altar of Victory, attacked thechristian religion with arguments extremely popular, and consequently veryseducing, and had art enoughto set them off with all the plausibility inventioncould furnish.

What circumstance, says he, can lead us more effectually to theknowledge of the gods, than the experience of our former prosperity? We oughtto be faithful to such a series of ages, and pursue the same track in which ourfathers so happily followed their ancestors. Imagine Rome herself speaks to youin this manner: O imperial princes! compassionate fathers of your country! Lookwith eyes of veneration on those years of mine, wherein I always conformed tothe ceremonies of my predecessors. Those sacred institutions have made theuniverse obedient to my laws. These were the allies that chaced Hannibal frommy walls, and drove the Gauls in confusion from the capitol. We fervently askpeace for the gods of our country, nay, we solicit it in the anguish of oursouls, for our compatriot deities! We have no inclination to engage in disputeswhich are only proper for idle persons, and we would express ourselves in thelanguage of supplication, and not of war.

Symmachus was answered by three celebrated authors. Orosius composed hishistory to prove there had always been calamities in the world, as great asthose complained of by the Pagans. Salvian likewise wrote his book [*] , wherein he maintains, that the ravages of the Barbarians were to beimputed to the degenerate behaviour of the christians: and St. Austin demonstrates, that the city of heaven is very different from that cityon earth in which the ancient Romans received, for a few human virtues, arecompence as vain as the virtues themselves.

We have already observed, that part of the politics of the ancient Romansconsisted in dividing all the powers that gave them any umbrage; but thatscheme was deseated in after times, and Rome could not prevent Attili fromconquering all the northern nations:he extended his victories from the Danube to theRhine, demolished all the forts and military works on the banks of thoserivers, and made both the empires tributary.

Theodosius, says he [*] , with an insolent air, is descended from a father as noble as mine; butthe moment I compelled him to pay tribute to me, he fell from the grandeur ofhis extraction, and became my vassal: and therefore it is unjust in him to actlike a base slave, and endeavour to prejudice his master bytreachery.

An emperor, said he, upon an other occasion, ought not to be a liar;he promised one of my subjects to give him the daughter of Saturninus inmarriage; and I will immediately declare war against him, if he presumes todepart from his word; but if the disobedience of those about him puts it out ofhis power to be punctual, I will march to his assistance.

It is not to be imagined that Attila was induced by any moderation andlenity of temper, to let the Romans subsist; he only conformed himself to thegenius of his nation, which prompted them to awe, and not to conquer foreignstates. This prince retiring from the splendor of majesty to his mansion builtof wood, according to the representation of Priscus , though at the same time he was lord of all the barbarous nations, and,in some degree, master of the chief part of those who were civilized , was one of the geeatest monarchs recorded in history.

Ambassadors were dispatched to his court, both from the eastern and westernempires of the Romans,to receive his laws and implore his favour.Sometimes he commanded them to deliver up the Huns who had deserted from hisarmies, or the Roman slaves who had escaped from the vigilance of his officers.At other times he would not be satisfied till some minister of the emperor wassurrendered into his power. He charged the empire of the east with a tribute oftwo hundred thousand pounds of gold; he received the yearly sum allowed to aRoman general, and sent those he intended to reward to Constantinople, thatthey might be gratified to their utmost wish, making by these means a constanttraffic of the apprehensions of the Romans.

He was feared by his subjects [*] , but we have no reason to believe they entertained any aversion to hisperson: he was surprizingly fierce and impetuous, and at the same timeexceeding politic and artful. He appeared violent in his rage, but had asufficient presence of mind to know when to pardon an offence, or deser apunishment as the circumstances were more or less agreeable to his interest.War was never his choice, when he could derive sufficient advantages frompeace. He was faithfully served even by the kings who were subordinate to hispower, and had collected into his own conduct all the ancient simplicity of thenorthern manners. In a word, we can never sufficiently admire this gallantsovereign of a people, whose very children were warmed with enthusiastic rage,at the relation of their fathers bravery; whilst those fathers shedmanly tears, because they were incapacitated by age to imitate their martialchildren.

All the Barbarian nations, after his death, were divided into severalindependent bodies; but the Romans were then so weak, that the mostinconsiderable people were in a condition to molest them.

The empire was not ruined by any particular invasion, but sunk graduallyunder the weight of the several attacks made upon it, after that generalassault it sustained in the time of Gallus. It seemed indeed, to bere-established, because none of its territories were dismembered from the mainbody; but it was stooping to its fall by several degrees of declension, till itwas at once laid low in the reigns of Arcadius and Honorius.

In vain did the Romans chace the Barbarians from their settlements in theempire; that people, without any compulsion, would have retired to deposittheir spoils in their own country. With as little success did Rome endeavour toexterminate that nation, since her cities were still sacked [*] , her villages consumed with flames, and her families either slaughteredor dispersed.

When one province had been wasted, the Barbarians who succeeded the firstravagers, meeting nothing for their purpose, proceeded to another. Theirdevastations at first were limited to Thrace, Mysia, and Pannonia; and whenthese countries were ruined, they destroyed Macedonia, Thessaly and Greece;from thence they expatiated to Noricum. The empire, that is to say, thosetracts of land which were not depopulated, was continually shrinking, and Italyat last became the frontier.

The reason why the Barbarians established themselves in no fixed settlementsin the reigns of Gallus and Gallienus, was, because the countries about themhad something left that was worth plundering.

Thus the Normans, who in some measure resembled the conquerors of theempire, ravaged France for several centuries, and when at last they could findno more booty, they thought fit to accept of a depopulated province, andparcelled it into several properties.

Scythia, in those times, lying waste and uncultivated [*] , the inhabitants were frequently subject to famine, and subsisted in agreat measure by their commerce with the Romans , who furnished them with provisions from the provinces bordering on theDanube. The Barbarians, in return, gave them the booty and prisoners they hadtaken, and the gold and silver which the Romans paid them for their friendship.But when the empire could no longer afford them a sufficient tribute for theirsubsistence , they were obliged to fix themselves in some settlement.

The western empire was destroyed before that in the East, for thesereasons:

When the Barbarians passed the Danube, they found themselves blocked up, onthe left hand, by the Bosphorus of Thrace, the city of Canstantinople, and allthe forces of the eastern empire. This made it necessary for them to bend theirmarch to the right, towards Illyria, and so proceed westward. That part of thecountry was crouded with a vast conflux of several nations; and, as thepassages into Asia were the best guarded, the whole body of the people borewith a full tide into Europe; whereas the forces of the Barbarians wereseparated in their first invasion.

The empire being parcelled out into two great portions ∥ , the eastern emperors who were then in alliancewith the Barbarians [*] , would not break it to assist the princes of the west: this division ofthe administration, says Priscus , was very prejudicial to the affairs of the West. Thus the Romans ofthe East, refused those of the West a naval armament , because they had entered into alliance with the Vandals. TheVisigoths, in conjunction with Arcadius, made an irruption into the West, andHonorius ∥ was obliged to fly to Ravenna: lastly, Zeno, to get rid of Theodoric,persuaded him to fall upon Italy, which had been already laid waste byAlaric.

There was a very strict alliance between Attila, and Genseric, king of the Vandals. The last stood infear of the Goths [**] ; he had married his son to a daughter of their king; and afterwardsslitting her nose, had sent her back to her father. For which reason he unitedwith Attila. The two empires enslaved by these two potentates, had no power toshake off their chains. The situation of that of the West was more particularlydeplorable: it had no forces at sea , they being all dispersed in Egypt, Cyprus, Phnicia, Ionia, andGreece, the only countries where at that time commerce subsisted. The Vandalsand other nations attacked the West from all sides: an embassy came from Italyto Constantinople, says Priscus , representing that it was impossible they should keep their ground,unless peace was made with the Vandals.

Those that presided in the West were not mistaken in their politics. Theyjudged it necessary to save Italy, which was in some respects the head, and inothers the heart of the empire. They removed theBarbarians to the extremities, and settled themthere The design was well laid, and as well executed. These nations asked fornothing but subsistence: they gave them the plains, and reserved to themselvesthe mountainous parts of the country, the defiles, the passes over rivers, andthe strong forts upon them, they kept in their own hands the sovereignty. It isprobable these people would have been forced to have become Romans; and thefacility with which these ravagers were themselves destroyed by the Franks, bythe Greeks, and the Moors, is a proof of this conjecture. This whole system wasoverthrown by one revolution more fatal than all the rest: the army of Italy,composed of strangers, demanded that which had been granted to nations stillgreater strangers; it formed, under Odoacer, an aristocracy, which claimed thethirds of the lands in Italy; and this was the most fatal blow to theempire.

Amongst so many misfortunes it is natural to enquire, with a melancholycuriosity, after the fate of Rome: it was, we may say, without defence, andcould easily be starved by an enemy. The extent of its walls made it almostimpracticable for the inhabitants to defend them; and, as it was situated in aplain, it might be stormed without much difficulty. Besides this, no recruitswere to be expected; for the number of the people was so extremely diminished,that the emperors were obliged to retire to Ravenna, a city once fortified bythe sea as Venice is at this time.

The Romans being generally abandoned by their princes, began to take thesovereign power into their own hands, and stipulated for their safety bytreaties [*] , which is the most likely method of acquiring the supreme authority .

Armorica and Brittany, seeing themselves forsaken, began to regulatethemselves by their own laws.

This was the fatal period of the western empire. Rome ascended to such aheight of grandeur, because the scenes of her former wars opened successively,and by an incredible felicity of affairs she was never attacked by one nationtill another had been first destroyed; but Rome herself was overpowered atlast, because she was invaded at once by all the nations around her.

CHAP. XX.: The Conquests of Justinian. Some Account of his Government.

AS this vast body of people broke all at once like a flood into the empire,they mutually incommoded one another, and all the politics of those timesconsisted in setting them at variance together: this was a circumstance easy toaccomplish, their avarice and fierce dispoposition greatly contributing to makeit practicable. The largest part of them was therefore destroyed before theycould fix themselves in any settlement; and this was the reason why the empireof the East still subsisted for some time.

The northern regions were likewise exhausted at last, and no longer pouredout those innumerable armies they originally produced; for, after the firstinvasion by the Goths and Huns, and especially since the death of Attila, thesepeople and their successors appeared in the field with force much inferior tothe former in number.

When the nations, who assembled together in the form of an army, weredistributed into peaceful partitions of lands, much of their martial vivacitywas abated; and as they were scattered through the countries they hadconquered, they were exposed themselves to the same invasions.

In this situation of affairs, Justinian undertook the recovery of Africa andItaly, and accomplished the same designs which the French so happily executedagainst the Visigoths, the Burgundians, the Lombards, and the Saracens.

When Christianity was first planted among the Barbarians, the Arian sect waspredominant in the empire, and Valens sent priests to them, who were theirfirst apostles. Now, in the interval, from their conversion to theirestablishment, this sect fell into disreputation among the Romans; for whichreason, when the Barbarians of this persuasion found all the country orthodox,and could never insinuate themselves into the affections of the people, it waseasy for the emperors to incommode them.

We may likewise add, that the Barbarians being unqualified for the siege oftowns, and much more so for their defence, suffered the walls to drop intoruins. Procopius informs us, that Belisarius found all the Italian cities inthis condition; and those of Africa had already been dismantled by Genseric [*] , with a Gothic view of fortifying the inhabitants.

The generality of these northern people, after they had establishedthemselves in the provinces of the south, soon degenerated into the unmanlysoftness of those regions, and became incapable of the fatigues of war . The Vandals were emasculated with pleasures; a luxuriant table, aneffeminate habit, the delicacy of baths, the enervating lull of music, gaydances, florid gardens, and splendid theatres were now become their necessarygratifications.

They no longer disquieted the Romans , says Malchus ∥ , when they discontinued those armies which Genseric perpetually keptprepared for any expedition, and with which he prevented the vigilance of hisenemies, and astonished all the world with the rapidity of his enterprizes.

The cavalry of the Romans, and that of the Huns their auxiliaries, were veryexpert at drawing the bow; but that of the Goths and Vandals sought only withthe sword and lance, and were unpractised in thedistant combat; for which reason Belisarius ascribes part of his success tothis difference [*] .

Justinian received signal services from the Huns, a people from whom theParthians sprung, and these descendants combated like their ancestors. When theHuns lost all their power by the divisions which the great number ofAttilas children occasioned, they served the Romans in the quality ofauxiliaries, and formed their best cavalry.

Each of these barbarous nations was distinguished by their particular manner of combating as well as bytheir arms. The Goths and Vandals were formidable at the drawn sword; the Hunswere admirable bowmen; the Suevi were serviceable infantry; the Alans wereheavily armed; and the Heruli were a flying troop. The Romans selected from allthese people, the different bodies of troops which were serviceable to theirdesigns, and sought against one nation with the joint advantage of all therest.

It is remarkable, that the weakest nations have been those that made thegreatest establishments; we should be muched deceived if we judged of theirforce by their conquests. In this long train of irruptions, the Barbarians, orrather the swarms which issued from them, were vanquishers or vanquished; everything depended on circumstances: and while one great nation was defeated orengaged, a body of new adventurers finding a country open, carried desolationinto it. The Goths, who by reason of the disadvantage of their arms, wereobliged to fly before so many nations settled in Italy, Gaul, and Spain: theVandals, too weak to keep theirpossessions in Spain, passed into Africa, where theyfounded a great empire.

Justinian could not fit out more than fifty ships against the Vandals; andwhen Belisarius embarked, he had but five thousand soldiers. This wasundoubtedly a bold expedition; and Leo, who before that time had sent againstthe same people a fleet of all the ships in the east, and manned with a hundredthousand soldiers, could not conquer Africa, and was even in danger of losingthe whole empire.

These great fleets have been as little successful as very numerous landarmies; for as they impoverish and depopulate a state, so, should theexpedition be of a considerable length, or any misfortune befal them, they canneither be succoured nor recruited; and if one part be lost, the other becomesinsignificant; because ships of war, as well as transports, cavalry, infantry,ammunition, in a word all the particulars, have a necessary dependance on thewhole. The tardiness of an enterprize makes those who engage in it always findthe enemy prepared to receive them: besides, such an expedition is seldom madein a proper season, and generally overtaken by the stormy months, because sucha vast number of preparations are hardly ever compleated till the season is toofar advanced.

Belisarius invaded Africa, and very advantageously supplied himself withprovisions from Sicily, in consequence of a treaty made with Amalasonta queenof the Goths. When he was sent to attack Italy, he took notice that the Gothsreceived their subsistence from Sicily, and therefore began his expedition withthe conquest of that island; by which proceeding he at the same time starvedhis enemies, and plentifully supplied his own army with all accommodations.

Belisarius took Carthage, Rome, and Ravenna, and sent the kings of the Gothsand Vandals captives to Constantinople, where the ancient triumphs were renewedafter a long interval of years [*] .

The extraordinary qualities of this great man [*] , naturally account for his success. A general, who was master of allthe maxims of the first Romans, was then at the head of such an army as thatbrave people anciently composed.

Virtues that are very shining are generally concealed or lost in servitude;but the tyrannical government of Justinian could not oppress the grandeur ofthat soul, nor the noble superiority of such a genius.

Narses the eunuch was thrown into this reign to make it still moreillustrious: as he had received his education in the palace, he was honouredwith a greater share of the emperors confidence; for princes alwaysesteem their courtiers the most faithful of their subjects.

On the other hand, the irregular conduct of Justinian, his profusions,tyranny, and rapine, his intoxicated fondness for building, changing, andreforming, his inconstancy in his designs, a severe and weak reign, made stillmore incommodious by a lingering old age, were a train of real calamities,intermixed with unprofitable success, and a false glitter of unsubstantialglory.

These victories were not the effect of any solid power subsisting in theempire, but resulted from the lucky conjunction of some particularcircumstances, and were soon rendered ineffectual; for whilst the army waspursuing its fortunate beginnings, a new swarm of barbarous nations passed theDanube, and spread desolation through Illyria, Macedonia, and Greece, and thePersians, in four invasions, weakened the empire with incurable wounds .

The more rapid these conquests appeared, the less durable was theirfoundation: and Italy and Africa were hardly wrested from the enemy, before itbecamenecessary to recover them a second time by newvictories.

Justinian had taken from the theatre a [*] woman who had long prostituted herself to immodest pleasures, and shegoverned him with an authority that has no parallel in history, perpetuallyintermixing his affairs with the passions and fanciful inconsistencies of hersex; in consequence of which, she defeated the victorious progress of his arms,and disconcerted the most favourable events.

The eastern people were always accustomed to a plurality of wives, in orderto deprive the sex of that strange ascendant they maintain over man in ourclimates; but at Constantinople the prohibition of Polygamy made the empiresubject to the will of a female, or, in other words, threw a natural weaknessinto the government.

The people of Constantinople had for many years been divided into twofactions, donominated the Blue and the Green: they derived their original fromthe approbation usually given in the theatres to some particular actors; andwhen races were exhibited in the circus, the charioteers who were dressed ingreen, disputed the prize with those who were habited in blue; and each ofthese spectators became interested even to madness, in the competition of thosecolours.

These two factions being diffused through all the cities of the empire,proportioned their animosities to the rank and grandeur of those cities, or, aswe may justly say, to the indolence and idle lives of the generality of thepeople.

But though such divisions are always necessary in a republic, and may beconsidered as essential to its support, they are insallibly destructive to anarbitrary government, because they can only change the person of the sovereign,but never contribute to the establishment of the laws, or the discontinuance ofabuses.

Justinian, who favoured the faction of the Blue [*] , and denied all justice to the Green, increased the mutual inveteracyof both parties, and consequently strengthened them in the state.

These contending parties proceeded so far as even to disannul the authorityof the magistrates; the Blues were in no apprehension of the laws, because theemperor protected them against their severity; and the Greens began to disregard them, because they could not defend them frominsults.

All the bands of friendship, affinity, and gratitude, were cut asunder, andwhole families destroyed each other: every villain who intended to beremarkably wicked, belonged to the faction of the blue, and every man who waseither robbed or assassinated, was a partisan for the Green.

We may add, that the government was, if possible, more cruel than senseless;and the emperor, not satisfied with a general injustice of loading his subjectswith excessive impositions, resolved to ruin them in their private affairs byall imaginable tyrannies.

I am far from entertaining an implicit belief of all the particulars relatedby Procopius in his secret history, because the pompous commendations he, inhis other works, bestows on this prince, may make his veracity a littlequestionable in this, where he paints him out as the most stupid and inhumantyrant that ever lived.

On the other hand, there are two circumstances which incline me to pay someregard to this secret history; for, in the first place, the particulars seembetter connected with the astonishing weakness whichdiscovered itself at the latter end of this reign,and in those of the succeeding emperors.

The other circumstance is that monument which still exists among us, and isa collection of the laws of this emperor, which, in the course of a few years,present us with greater variations than are to be found in our laws for thethree last centuries of our monarchy.

These variations [*] generally relate to matters of so little importance, that we can see noreason to induce a legislator to make them, unless we refer to the secrethistory for a solution, and acknowledge that this prince exposed his judgmentand his laws equally to sale.

But the political state of the government received the greatest injury fromhis project of establishing a general uniformity of opinion in matters ofreligion, and in circumstances that rendered his zeal as indiscreet aspossible.

The ancient Romans fortified their empire by indulging all sorts ofreligious worship; but their posterity destroyed it by rooting out the varioussects, whose doctrines were not predominant.

These sects were composed of entire nations, some of which, as the Jews andSamaritans, had retained their ancient religion after they were conquered bythe Romans; others were dispersed through the country, as the followers ofMontanus, in Phrygia, the Manichees, the Sabbatarians, the Arians, in the otherprovinces; besides which, the generality of the people in the country continuedin idolatry, and were insatuated with a religion as gross as theirunderstandings.

These sects Justinian caused to be extirpated by the military as well as thecivil power; and the persecuted people, revolting in their own defence, hethought himself obliged to exterminate them from the empire; in consequence ofwhich, he depopulated several provinces, and whilst he imagined himselfincreasing thenumber of the faithful, he was only diminishing therace of mankind.

Procopius assures us, that Palestine, by the destruction of the Samaritans,was changed into a desert; and this proceeding was the more singular, becausethe very zeal which weakened the empire, in order to establish religion, sprungout of the same quarter from whence the Arabians afterwards sallied with anintention to subvert it.

But nothing could be more aggravating, than that the emperor, whilst he wasso averse to all toleration himself, should yet disagree with the empress inthe most essential points; he followed the council of Chalcedon, and shefavoured its opposers; whether, as Evagrius says [*] , they were sincere in this proceeding or not, is uncertain.

When we read Procopiuss description of Justinians buildings,and the forts and other places of defence he erected in all parts, it naturallyraises in our minds the idea of a flourishing state; but that idea happens tobe very delusive.

The ancient Romans had none of these fortifications, but placed all theirsecurity in their armies, which they distributed along the banks of rivers, andraised towers at proper distances for the lodgment of the soldiers.

Afterwards, indeed, when they had but very indifferent armies, andfrequently none at all, the frontiers could not defend the countries they limited, and therefore it becamenecessary to strengthen them; theconsequence of which was, they had morefortifications, and less force; many places for retreat, and very few forsecurity; the country was only habitable about the fortifications, and thesewere built in all parts. The condition of the empire resembled that of Francein the time of the Normans, [*] which was never so defenceless as when all its villages were girtaround with walls.

We may venture to affirm, therefore, that the whole catalogue ofJustinians forts, which fills several pages in Procopius, only exhibitsto us so many monuments of the weakness of the empire.

CHAP. XXI.: Disorders in the EasternEmpire.

THE Persians, during this period, were in a much happier situation than theRomans; they had little reason to be apprehensive of the northern people , because that part of mount Taurus which extends between the Caspianand Euxine seas separated them from those nations, and they effectually shut upa very narrow pass , which was the only practicable avenue for the cavalry; in every otherpart the Barbarians were obliged to descend from frightful precipices , and to quit their horses in which all their military strengthconsisted; and besides these impediments they were blocked in by the Araxes, ariver of great depth, and which flows from west to east, all the passages ofwhich were easy to be defended.

With all these advantages the Persians were in perfect tranquility withrespect to the eastern nations; on the south they were bounded by the sea; andthe Arabian princes, who were partly their allies, and partlyin confederacy with the Romans, were totally engagedin pillaging one another. The Persians therefore had none whom they couldproperly call their enemies but the Romans. We are sensible, said an ambassadorof Hormisdas [*] , that the Romans are engaged in several wars, and are at variance withalmost all nations, whilst we, as they well know, have no hostilities with anypeople but themselves.

The Persians had cultivated the military art to as great a degree as it wasneglected by the Romans. Belisarius said to his soldiers, The Persians are notyour superiors in courage, and only surpass you in the discipline of war.

They had likewise the same superiority in the cabinet as they preserved inthe field, and demanded tribute of the Romans, under a pretence that theymaintained garrisons in the Caspian streights, as if each nation had not aright to guard its frontiers. They obliged them to pay for peace, and everycessation of arms; and did not scruple to make them purchase the very timeemployed either in negociations or war.

The Avari having crossed the Danube, the Romans, who had seldom any troopsto oppose them, being engaged against the Persians when they should have givenbattle to the Avari, and having full employment from these when they ought tohave faced the Persians, were still obliged to submit to a tribute; and thusthe majesty of the empire bowed down before all nations.

Justin, Tiberius, and Maurice were very sedulous to defend the empire; thelast of these princes had some virtues, but they were all sullied by an avaricealmost incredible in a great monarch.

The king of the Avari offered to restore all his Roman prisoners to Maurice,if he would ranson, them at an inconsiderable price for each man; and thisproposal being rejected, he caused them all to be inhumanlymurdered. The Roman army was greatly exasperated atthis proceeding, and the faction of the Greens making an insurrection at thesame time, a centurion named Phocas was raised to the imperial dignity, and heordered Maurice and his children to be put to death.

The history of the Grecian empire, for so we shall denominate the monarchyof the Romans for the future, is little more than a series of revolts,seditions, and persidy. The subjects had no idea of the loyalty due to princes,and there were so many interruptions in the successions of the emperors, thatthe title of Porphyrogenitus, which signifies one born in the apartment wherethe empress reposed, was an appellation which few princes of the severalimperial families could with any propriety assume.

All the paths that could be struck out to empire were unexceptionable; andthe candidates were conducted to the diadem by the clergy, the senate, thepeasants, the inhabitants of Constantinople, and the people of the provincialcities.

Christianity being now the prevailing religion of the empire, was intermixedwith several successive heresies, which called aloud for condemnation. Ariushaving denied the divinity of the Word; the Macedonians that of the HolySpirit; Nestorius the unity of the person of Jesus Christ; the Eutychians histwo natures; the Monothelites his two wills; it became necessary to convenecouncils against them: but their decisions not being universally received,several emperors, who had been seduced into these heretical opinions, relapsedinto the same persuasions after they had been condemned; and as no nation wasever so implacable against heretics as the Greeks, who even imagined themselvespolluted when they conversed with any of that class, or had any cohabitationwith them, several emperors, in consequence of that popular aversion, lost theaffections of their subjects, and the people became persuaded that princes whowere so frequently rebellious against God,could never be chosen by Providence to be theirsovereigns.

A new opinion, formed by an idea that it was unlawful to shed christianblood, and which daily grew more popular when the Mohammedans appeared upon thestage of military action, was the cause that offences, in which religion wasnot directly interested, were punished with great moderation. Those who hadspirited up an insurrection, or framed any attempt against the person of theprince, were only sentenced to lose their eyes, to have their hair or noses cutoff, or to suffer some other mutilation. As these offences might be committedwith very little hazard, they might likewise be attempted without much courage [*] .

A certain veneration for the regalia of imperial majesty drew the eyes ofall the people on those who presumed to wear them, and it was criminal to beeither habited in purple, or to keep it in a wardrobe; but when a man had oncethe resolution to appear in that dress, the multitude immediately flocked afterhim, because their respect was more attached to the apparel than theperson.

Ambition received greater provocatives still, from the surprisinginfatuation of those times; and there was hardly a man of any considerableconsequence who could not accommodate to himself some prediction that promisedhim the empire.

As the indispositions of the mind are generally incurable , judicial astrology, and the art of pointing out futurity by objectsseen in a bason of water, succeeded among the christians, to the solemnimposture of divination by the entrails of victims, or the flight of birds,which had been abolished with paganism its parent; and vain promises became themotives to most of the rashactions of particular persons, and constituted thewisdom of princes councils.

The calamities of the empire daily increasing, it was natural to impute illsuccess in war, and dishonourable treaties in peace, to the injudicious conductof those at the helm.

One revolution was now pregnant with another, and the effect itself became acause: and as the Greeks had seen such a succession of different families onthe throne, they were not devoted to any; and since fortune had created so manyemperors out of all classes of people, no birth was so obscure, and no merit soinconsiderable as to be destitute of hope.

Several examples which had been familiar to the nation, modelled the geniusof the people in general, and formed a system of manners which reigned asimperiously as the laws.

It should seem that great enterprizes among us, are more impracticable thanthey were to the ancients; it is very difficult to conceal them, becauseintelligence is now become so manageable that every prince has ministers ineach court, and traitors may possibly be lurking in all the cabinets ofmajesty.

The invention of posts has given wings to information, and can immediatelywast it to all parts.

As great undertakings are not to be accomplished without money, and asmerchants are masters of it since the invention of bills of exchange, theiraffairs are always connected with the secrets of state, and they neglectnothing to penetrate into those depths.

The fluctuations in exchange, without any visible cause, entice numbers ofpeople to search after it, and some of them find it at last to their cost.

The invention of printing, which has put books into the hands of all theworld; the improvements in engraving, which have made geographic charts socommon; in a word, the establishment of political papers, give every individuala knowledge of a generalinterests, sufficient enough to instruct him in allthe private transactions.

Conspiracies in a state are now become very difficult, because, since theestablishment of posts, all the secrets of particular persons are in the powerof the public.

Princes may act with promptitude, because all the power of the state is intheir possession. Conspirators must proceed with caution, because they aredestitute of expedients; and, since at present all transactions are more easilydiscovered, those who form designs against a government, are generally detectedbefore they can adjust their schemes.

CHAP. XXII.: The weakness of the EasternEmpire.

PHOCAS, amidst the general confusion of affairs, being unsettled in his newdignity, Heraclius came from Africa, and caused him to be murdered; at the sametime he found the provinces invaded, and the legions destroyed.

As soon as this prince had, in some measure, remedied these disasters, theArabians quitted their own country, to extend the empire and religion whichMohammed had founded by their co-operation.

No people ever made so rapid a progress; for they immediately conqueredSyria, Palestine, Egypt, and Africa, and then turned their hostilities againstthe Persians.

God permitted his religion to be laid low, in so many places where it oncehad been predominant; not that it now ceased to be the object of hisprovidential care, but because it always either in its state of glory ordepression produces its natural effect, which is the sanctification of thesoul.

The welfare of religion has no similitude to the prosperity of empires, andwe are told by a celebrated author, that it may well be distempered, sincemalady itself is the true state of a christian; to which we may add, that thehumiliations and dispersion of the church, the destruction of her temples, andthe persecutions of her martyrs, are eminent seasons of her glory; but when sheappears triumphant to the eyes of the world, she is generally sinking inadversity.

We are not to have recourse to enthusiasm alone to clear up this memorableevent of the Arabian conquests, which spread through so many countries: theSaracens had been long distinguished among the auxiliaries of Rome and Persia;and they, as well as the Osroanians, were the expertest archers in the world.Alexander Severus and Maximin had engaged them as much as possible in theirservice, and they were extremely useful in the wars with the Germans, to whomtheir arrows were fatal at a great distance. The Goths themselves [*] , in the reign of Valens, were incapable of resisting them: in a word,they at that time were the best cavalry in the world.

We have already observed, that the legions raised in Europe were muchpreferable to those of Asia, but it was directly contrary with respect to thecavalry; I mean that of the Parthians, the Osroanians, and the Saracens. Thiswas the power that stopped the full career of the Roman conquests, because,after the death of Antiochus, a new nation of Tartars, who had the best cavalryof any people, made themselves masters of the Upper Asia.

This cavalry was heavy , and that of Europe light, quite contrary to the present nature oftheir military equipage. Holland and Friseland were not as yet wonfrom the waters; and [*] Germany was full of woods, lakes, and marshes, where the cavalry wereof little importance.

When a free passage was opened to the great rivers, the stagnant watersshrunk from those marshes, and Germany assumed a new surface. Many changes wereeffected by the works of Valentinian on the Necker, and those of the Romans on the Rhine; and commerce beingonce established, those countries which did not originally produce horses began to propagate the breed, and the inhabitants made great use ofthose animals.

Constantine ∥ , the son of Heraclius, having been poisoned, and his son Constanceslain in Sicily, Constantine the bearded, his eldest son, succeeded to theempire; but the grandees of the eastern provinces being assembled on thisoccasion, were determined to crown the other brothers of this prince jointlywith himself; alledging, that as it was indispensably necessary for them tobelieve in the Trinity, so it was reasonable they should be governed by threeemperors.

The Grecian history is crouded with proceedings as extraordinary as this,and a low turn of mind being then characteristic of that nation, the formerwisdom was no longer conspicuous in their actions, and the empire became ascene of troubles and revolutions, to which it was impossible to assign anypreparatory motives.

An universal bigotry had stupified and emasculated the whole empire.Constantinople was the only place in the east where christianity waspredominant, and likewise, where the pusillanimous indolence, and degradingsoftness of the Asiatic nations, were blended with devotion itself. Of athousand instances that mightbe alledged, I shall only mention the conduct ofPhilippicus the general of Maurices army, who being on the point ofcharging the enemy in the field, burst into tears [*] when he suddenly considered what numbers of mankind were then to bedestroyed.

The tears of the Arabians flowed from a very different source, when they wept with regret thattheir general had agreed to a truce which frustrated their intended effusion ofChristian blood.

There is a total difference between an army of fanatics, and another ofbigots; and it evidently appeared in a late memorable revolution, in whichCromwells army resembled the Arabians, whilst the Irish and Scottishforces were like the Greeks.

A gross superstition which debases the mind as effectually as true religionexalts it, had reduced all virtue and devout confidence in the deity, to astupid veneration for images; and history presents us with generals who wouldraise a siege, or surrendered a city for ∥ the gallant acquisition of a relick.

Christianity degenerated under the Grecian empire into as many corruptionsas were intermixed with it in our time by the Muscovites, till the Czar Peterthe first, new modelled that nation, and introduced more changes into thedominions he governed than are usually established in those which conquerorsusurp.

We may easily believe the Greeks were infected with idolatry. There can beno suspicion that the Italians and Germans were but coldly devoted to externalworship; and yet when the Greek historians take notice of the contemptexpressed by the Italians for images and relies, one would be apt to comparethem with the modern zealots against Calvin. Nicetas informs us, that theGermans, in their march to the Holy Land,were received by the Armenians as friends, becausethey did not offer any adoration to images. Now, if the Italians and Germansdid not sufficiently reverence images, in the apprehension of the Greeks, whatan enormous veneration must then be paid to them by this people?

The east was on the point of being made the scence of such a revolution ashappened about two centuries ago in the west, when, upon the revival oflearning, the abuses and corruptions in religion became evident to all, and asevery person was inquisitive after a proper remedy, so there were some so boldand untractable as to rend the church by divisions, instead of restoring it toits original purity by a due reformation.

Leo Isaurus, Constantine Copronymus, and Leo his son were implacable againstimages, and when the worship of them had been re-established by the empressIrene, Leo the Arminian, Michael the Stammerer, and Theophilus abolished themagain. These princes imagined they could not moderate that worship unless theydestroyed it effectually; they likewise turned their hostilities against theMonks [*] , who incommoded the state, and as their proceedings were always carriedto extremes, they endeavoured to exterminate that fraternity instead ofregulating them in a proper manner.

The monks being accused of idolatry by those who favoured the new opinions,retorted, in their turn, upon their adversaries, and accused them of magicpractices, and then calling upon the people to behold the churches that weredivested of images, and the other furniture, which till that timehad been the objects of adoration, they created abelief in their flock, that these holy places must certainly be profaned bydaily sacrifices to Dmons.

The controversy relating to images, was connected with very delicatecircumstances, which kindled it into a raging flame, and in the event madepersons of solid judgment incapable of proposing a moderate worship. Thedispute included the tender article of power, and the monks having seized it,in consequence of their spiritual usurpations, they could neither enlarge normaintain it, but by making daily additions to the acts of external adoration,wherein they were so considerably interested. For this reason all oppositionsto the establishment of images were considered as so many hostilities againstthemselves, and when they had succeeded in their pretensions, their power wasno longer limitable.

This period was remarkable for such a conjuncture as happened some centuriesafterwards in the warm disagreement between Barlaam and the Monks of that time,which brought the empire to the verge of destruction. The subject of thedispute was, whether the light which encircled Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor wascreated or not. The Monks indeed were indifferent as to either part of thequestion in debate, but as Barlaam made a direct attack upon that fraternity,they found it consistent with their interest to assert that light to beuncreated.

The war which those emperors who were called Iconoclasts, declared againstthe Monks, revived some particular principles of government, and offered aplausible pretence for employing the public revenue, for the public advantage,and for disengaging the state from every inconvenience that encumbered it.

When I consider the profound ignorance into which the Grecian priests hadplunged the laity, it seems natural to compare the former to those Scythiansmentionedby Herodotus, [*] who caused the eyes of their slaves to be plucked out, that theirattention might not be diverted, when they were churning milk for theirmasters.

When the empress Theodora had re-established the use of images, the Monksimmediately began to corrupt the public devotion, and proceeded even to oppressthe secular clergy: they thrust themselves into every beneficial see, and gradually excluded all ecclesiastics from episcopal promotion. Bythis proceeding they became unsupportable; and if we draw a parallel betweenthem and the Latin clergy, and compare the conduct of our popes with that ofthe patriarchs of Constantinople, we shall see in our pontiffs and clergy, aset of men altogether as judicious as the others were irrational.

We are presented with a surprizing contradiction in human nature, when weconsider that the ministers of religion among the ancient Romans, when theywere not made incapable of public employments and civil society, were butlittle solicitous about either; and that after the establishment ofchristianity, the ecclesiastics who were most secluded from temporal affairs,engaged in them with the greatest moderation; but when the Monks, in thedeclension of the empire, became the sole clergy, these people who wereforbidden by a more particular profession, to intermeddle with the transactionsof state, embraced all opportunities that could possibly introduce them intothe government, and never ceased to fill every place with confusion, and todiscompose the world which they pretended to renounce.

There was not any affair of the empire, any particular peace or war, anytruce or negociation, or any private treaty of marriage capable of completionwithout the ministration of these Monks; they crowded into thecabinets of princes, and composed the greatest partof the national assemblies.

The calamities which resulted from this irreligious officiousness areinconceivable: these ecclesiastic statesmen infused an indolent insignificanceinto the minds of princes, and communicated a taint of imprudence to their bestactions. Whilst Basilius employed his naval forces in erecting a church to thehonour of St. Michael [*] ; he abandoned Sicily to the depredations of the Saracens, and sufferedthem to take Syracuse; but lest he should be singular in that proceeding, Leo,his successor, consigned his fleet to the same employment, and permitted theBarbarians to possess themselves of Tauromenia and the island of Lemnos.

Andronicus Palologus entirely neglected his maritime power, because he had been assured Godwas so well satisfied with his zeal for the churchs peace, that hisenemies would never presume to invade his dominions by sea. He was evenapprehensive that the Deity would call him to a strict account for the time hedevoted to the necessary affairs of state, and deducted from spiritualattentions.

The Greeks being very loquacious, great disputants, and naturally inclinedto sophistry, were perpetually incumbering religion with controversial points;and as the Monks were in great reputation in a court which was always weak inproportion to its corruption, that court, and those Monks mutually communicatedinfection to each other; in consequence of which, the emperors devoted alltheir thoughts, sometimes to calm, and frequently to inflame theologicaldisputes, which were always observed to be most frivolous when they weredebated with the greatest warmth.

Michael Palologus , whose reign was so infestedwith controversies in religion, growing sensible ofthe melancholy devastations committed by the Turks in Asia, said with a sigh,that the rash zeal of some persons, who by exclaiming against his conduct, hadexasperated his subjects against him, made it necessary for him to employ allhis cares to accomplish his own preservation, and compelled him to be a tamespectator of the ruin of several provinces. I contented myself, said he,with providing for the security of those distant parts, by the ministration ofgovernors, who being either corrupted by the enemy, or apprehensive ofpunishment, never acquainted me with the unhappy situation of the people withwhose welfare they were intrusted.

The Patriarchs of Constantinople had assumed an unlimited power; and as theemperors and their grandees generally retired to the churches, when the peoplewere spirited up to insurrections, the patriarchs had consequently anopportunity of delivering them up to the popular fury, and never failed toexercise this power as they were directed by any particular fancy, by whichmeans they always became the arbiters of public affairs, though in a veryindirect manner.

When the elder Andronicus [*] caused the Patriarch to be admonished not to intermeddle with thetransactions of state, but to confine his attention to spiritual affairs,such a request, replied that imperious priest, is as if the body shouldsay to the soul, I do not claim any community with you, and have no occasionfor your assistance in the exercise of my functions.

Such monstrous pretensions became insupportable to princes, and thepatriarchs were frequently divested of their sees. But such a proceeding, in asuperstitious nation, who detested all the ecclesiastical functions of thePatriarch whom they considered as an intruder, produced continual schisms, eachparticular Patriarch,the old, the new, and the last elected, beingsupported by his own set of partizans.

Such conditions as these were much more pernicious than any disagreements onpoints of doctrine, because they resembled an hydra to whom every defeat was arenovation.

The rage of disputation became so natural to the Greeks, that Cantacuzenus [*] , when he took Constantinople, found the emperor John and his empressengaged in a council which had been summoned against some adversaries of theMonks; and when Mohammed the second besieged that city , the emperor could not suppress the theological animosities, and thecouncil of Florence engaged the general attention much more than the Turkish army.

As every person, in common disputes, is sensible he may be deceived, atenacious and untractable spirit seldom prevails to any extreme but in thosecontroversies where religion is the subject; for there, as every person fromthe nature of the point in debate becomes persuaded that his own opinion istrue, he grows exasperated against those, who, instead of concurring with hissentiments, endeavour to make him a convert to their own.

Those who may happen to read the history written by Pachymerus, will beeffectually convinced of the unalterable inability of divines to accommodatetheir own disagreements, and will see an emperor ∥ who spent his days in assembling people of that class listening totheir disputations and reproaching them for the inflexibility of theiropinions: they will likewise beholdanother engaged with a hydra of controversies thatwere perpetually rising to new life, and will be sensible that the same pacificmethods and persevering patience, the same inclination to finish theircontentions; in a word, the same artless pliancy to their intrigues joined withthe same deference to their aversions will never reconcile these implacableecclesiastics while the world endures.

We shall present the reader with a remarkable instance of the disposition wehave been describing. The Partisans of the patriach Arsenus [*] , were prevailed upon, by the solicitations of the emperor, to come intoa treaty with those who were in the interest of the patriarch Joseph. Thistreaty specified that both parties should write down their several pretensions,and then throw the two papers which contained them into a pan of live coals,and if one of them should remain unconsumed, they were then to acquiesce withthat determination from heaven; but if both should happen to be burnt, theparties were no longer to persist in their demands. The fire destroyed the twopapers, the factions were reconciled, and the peace continued for a day. Thenext morning they pretended that the renunciation of their claims ought to flowfrom an internal persuasion, and not from chance; and from that moment thecontention was renewed with greater animosity than ever.

The disputes of divines should always be considered with great attention;but at the same time this ought to be concealed as much as possible; because,any visible solicitude to calm the contending parties never fails to credittheir singularities, and consequently tempts them to believe their sentimentsare of such importance as to comprehend the welfare of the state and thesecurity of the sovereign.

It is altogether as impracticable to decide the disagreements of clergymenby attending to their affected subtilties, as it would be to abolish duels byerecting a court, with a delegation to trace a point of honour through all itsrefinements.

Such was the imprudence of the Greek emperors, that when a religiouscontroversy had been lulled asleep by time, they again awakened it in all itsrage. Justinian, Heraclius, and Manual Comnenus proposed articles of faith totheir ecclesiastics and laity who would certainly have been deceived in thetruth, though it had flowed from the lips of those princes in all its purity.And as they were always defective in forms, and generally in essentials, andgrew desirous of displaying their penetration, which they might have manifestedto more advantage in other affairs confided to their judgment; they engaged invain disputes on the nature of God, who, as he withdraws himself from the proudcuriosity of the learned, so he veils the Majesty of his existence, aseffectually from the great men of the earth.

It is an error to believe any human power can be absolute and insallible inthese respects, for such there never was, nor ever will be imparted to anymortal. The largest extent of temporal authority is confined to certainlimitations, and when the Grand Seignior ordains a new taxation atConstantinople, the universal murmurs of his subjects make him sensible ofthose restrictions of his power which till then were concealed from hisobservation. A Persian monarch may indeed compel a son to murder his father, oroblige a parent to plunge his dagger into the heart of his child, but he cannever force his subjects to drink wine. There is a general principle in everynation which is the invariable basis of power, and when once this principle istoo much loaded, it infallibly shrinks into smaller dimensions.

An unacquaintedness with the true nature and limits of ecclesiastical andsecular power, was the most pernicious source of all the calamities that befelthe Greeks, and involved both priests and people in perpetual errors.

This great distinction, which constitutes all the tranquillity of a nation,is founded not only on religion, but on reason and nature, which never confoundthings really distinct in themselves, and which can only subsist in consequenceof that very distinction.

Though the priesthood among the ancient Romans did not form a separate body,yet the distinction we have been representing, was as well known to them as itcan be to us. Clodius had consecrated the house of Cicero to the goddess ofliberty, but when that great orator returned from his exile, he did not fail todemand it as his lawful property: the Pontiffs were of opinion, that if it hadbeen so consecrated without an express order obtained from the people, it mightbe restored to him without any violation of religion. They have declared, saysCicero [*] , that they only examined the validity of the consecration and not thelaw enacted by the people, and that they had decided the first article aspontiffs, and the second in the quality of senators.

CHAP. XXIII.: The Duration of the Eastern Empireaccounted for. Its Destruction.

AFTER this account of the Grecian empire, it seems natural to enquire how itcould possibly subsist so long, and I believe sufficient reasons may beassigned for that duration.

The Arabians having invaded the empire and conquered several provinces,their chiefs became competitors for the Khalisat, and the flame of their firstzeal only burst out in civil dissensions.

The same people having conquered Persia, and afterwards divided and weakenedthemselves in that country, the Greeks were no longer obliged to keep theprincipal forces of the empire stationed on the banks of the Euphrates.

Callinicus, an architect, who came from Syria to Constantinople, invented anartificial flame, which was easily ventilated into a point by means of a tube,and was of such a peculiar nature, that water and every other substance whichextinguish common fire did but increase the violence of this. The Greeks werein possession of it for several years, and managed it in such a manner as madeit capable of firing their enemies ships, particularly the Arabian fleet whichsailed from Africa or the Syrian coasts to invade them even inConstantinople.

This flame was ranked among the secrets of state, and ConstantinePorphyrogenitus in his treatise on the administration of the empire, and whichhe dedicated to his son Romanus, advises him to tell the Barbarians, when theyshould desire him to give them any of the Grecian fire, that he was notpermitted to part with it, because an angel, who presented it the emperorConstantine, commanded to refuse it to all other nations, and that those whohad disobeyed that injunction were consumed by a fire from heaven the momentthey entered the church.

Constantinople was the greatest, and almost the only city of commerce in theworld; for the Goths on the one side, and the Arabians on the other, had ruinedall manner of traffic and industry in every other part. The silken manufactureswere brought thither from Persia, and were even neglected in that country sincethe Arabian invasion. We may add to this that theGreeks were masters at sea, which opened an immenseflow of riches into the state, and proved an inexhaustible source of relief inall its emergencies; and if at any time there seemed to be any declension ofthe public affluence, it was immediately recruited by a new accession.

We shall justify this observation by a remarkable instance: the elderAndronicus Comnenus, though he was the Nero of the Greeks, yet amidst all hisvices he was indefatigable in the suppression of injustice and vexations in thegrandees, and it is a known fact, that during the three years of his reign, herestored several provinces to their ancient splendor.

In fine, the Barbarians having once fixed their settlement on the banks ofthe Danube, were no longer so formidable to the empire as before, but ratherbecame useful to it as a barrier against other barbarous nations. And thuswhilst the empire was harassed by any bad government, some particular incidentswere always in reserve for its relief. Thus we see Spain and Portugal in acondition, amidst all their weakness, to support themselves with the treasuresof the Indies: the temporal dominions of the Pope owe their safety to therespect paid to their sovereign, and the rovers of Barbary derive theirsecurity from the obstructions they fasten upon the commerce of lesser [*] nations, and the very piracies of these people on inferior states, makethem serviceable in their turn to the greater.

The Turkish empire is at present in the same state of declension to whichthat of the Greeks was formerly sunk, but in all probability it will still subsist along time; for should any prince endanger it bypursuing his conquests to an immoderate extent, it will always be desended bythe three trading powers of Europe, who are too sensible of their own interestsever to be unconcerned spectators of its fall.

It is happy for these trading powers, that God has permitted Turks andSpaniards to be in the world, for of all nations they are the most proper toenjoy a great empire with insignificance.

In the time of Basilius Porphyrogenitus, the Arabian power came to itsperiod in Persia. Mohammed the son of Sambreal, who was then sovereign of thatempire, invited four thousand Turks from the North, in the quality ofauxiliaries; but upon a sudden dissatisfaction conceived by this prince, hesent an army against them, which was soon put to flight by the Turks. Mohammed,in the height of his indignation against his pusillanimous soldiers, gaveorders, that they should pass before him habited like women; but theydisappointed his anger and joined the Turks: upon which the united armyimmediately dislodged a garrison which was stationed to guard a bridge over theAraxes, and opened a free passage to a vast body of their countrymen.

When they had extended their conquests through Persia, they spreadthemselves from east to west over the territories of the empire, and RomanusDiogenes, who endeavoured to oppose their progress, became their prisoner;after which they subdued all the Asiatic dominions of the Greeks down to theBosphorus.

Some time after this event the Latins invaded the western regions in thereign of Alexis Commenus. An unhappy schism had for a long time infused animplacable hatred between the nations of two different communions, and wouldhave produced fatal effects much sooner, had not the Italians been moreattentive to check the German emperors whom they feared, thanthey were to distress the Greek emperors whom theyonly hated.

Affairs were in this situation, when all Europe imbibed a religious beliefthat the place where Jesus Christ was born, as well as that where heaccomplished his passion, being profaned by the infidels, the surest atonementthey could make for their own sins, would be to dispossess those Barbarians oftheir acquisitions by force of arms. Europe at that time swarmed with peoplewho were fond of war, and had many crimes to expiate, and as it was proposed tothem to obtain their remission by indulging their prevailing passion, every manarmed himself for the crusade.

When this consecrated army arrived in the east, they besieged and madethemselves masters of Nice, which they restored to the Greeks; and, whilst theinfidels were seized with a general consternation, Alexis and John Commenuschaced the Turks to the banks of Euphrates.

But as advantageous as these crusades might be to the Greeks, the emperorstrembled to see such a succession of fierce heroes and formidable armiesmarching through the heart of their dominions.

This induced them to leave nothing unattempted that might create adissatisfaction in Europe at these expeditions; and the votaries to the crosswere continually ensnared by every instance of treachery that could possibly beexpected from a timorous enemy.

It must be acknowledged that the French, who promoted these expeditions, hadnot practised any conduct that could render their presence very supportable;and we may judge by the invectives of Anna Comnena against our nation, that weact without much precaution in foreign countries, and were at that timechargeable with the same exceptionable freedoms we are reproached for at thisday.

A French nobleman was going to seat himself upon the emperors throne,but earl Baldwin caught him bythe arm: You ought to know, said he, thatwhen we are in any country whatever, it is proper to comply with the customsthat prevail there. What a clown is He, replied the other, to sitwhilst so many captains are standing?

The Germans, who came after the French, and were the most civil andundesigning people in the world [*] , suffered very severely for our follies, and were continuallyembarassed with a set of dispositions that had been sufficiently irritated byour countrymen against all foreigners.

In fine, the aversion of those eastern people was worked up to the highestextreme; and this, with some incivilities offered to the Venetian merchants,operating upon the ambition, avarice, and false zeal of that nation as well asthe French, determined them to form a crusade against the Greeks.

The united army of these two European nations found their enemies altogetheras pusillanimous and unwarlike as the Chinese appeared to the Tartars in ourtime. The Frenchmen ridiculed their effeminate habit , and walked through the streets of Constantinople dressed in floweredmantles, and carrying pens and paper in their hands, in derision of thatnation, who had degenerated from all military discipline; and when the war wasover, they refused to admit any Greeks into their troops.

The Venetians and French soon after declared for the western empire, andtransferred the imperial throne to the earl of Flanders, whose dominions beingvery distant, could not create any jealousy in the Italians. The Greeks stillsupported themselves in the east, being separated from the Turks by a chain ofmountains, and divided from the Italians by the sea.

The Latins, who found no obstacles in their conquests, met with many intheir settlement. The Greeks returned from Asia into Europe, retookConstantinople, and seized the greatest part of the east.

This new empire, however, was but a feint shadow of the former, and had nosolid power for its basis.

It comprehended few territories in Asia, besides the provinces on this sidethe Meander and Sangar, and most of those in Europe were parcelled out intosmall sovereignties.

We may add to this, that during the sixty years the Latins were possessed ofConstantinople, the conquered people being dispersed, and the victors engagedin war, all commerce was transferred to the cities in Italy, and Constantinoplebecame divested of its riches.

The commerce even of the inland countries was carried on by the Latins. TheGreeks [*] , who were but newly re-established, and were likewise alarmed withinnumerable apprehensions, became desirous to ingratiate themselves with theGenoese, by granting them a permission to traffic without paying any duties;and as they were unwilling to irritate the Venetians, who had not accepted ofpeace, but only consented to a truce, these were likewise discharged from thesame payments.

Though Manuel Comnenus had suffered the navigation of the empire to declinebefore Constantinople was taken, yet it could be easily re-established, sincecommerce still subsisted; but when all maritime affairs became entirelyneglected under the new empire, the mischief grew remediless, because the powerof the empire was daily declining.

This state, which extended its dominion over many islands, and wasintersected by the sea, which likewise surrounded several of its territories,was entirely unprovided of ships. The former communication no longersubsisted between the provinces: the inhabitants [*] were obliged to shelter themselves in the inland parts from pirates;and when they thought themselves safe in such a sanctuary, they soon found itnecessary to retire into the fortresses, to preserve themselves from thehostilities of the Turks.

These barbarous people were at that time engaged in a peculiar war againstthe Greeks, and might properly be called hunters of men. They sometimes marchedtwo hundred leagues into a country to accomplish their depredations; and asthey were in subjection to several sultans , it was impossible to purchase a peace from every tribe; and to procureit from any particular parties was altogether insignificant. These Barbarianshad embraced Mohammedism, and their zeal for that religion strangely promptedthem to ravage the Christian territories: besides, as they were the mostunamiable people on earth , and married to wives as disagreeable as themselves, the moment theywere acquainted with the Grecian women, all the rest of that sex becameinsupportable to them; and those beauteous females were continually exposed tothe brutal passion of these Barbarians ∥ . In fine, they had been always accustomed to invade the properties ofother people, and were the same Huns who hadformerly involved the Roman empire in so many calamities.

The Turks broke in, like a deluge, upon the shattered remains of the Grecianempire in Asia; and those of the inhabitants who were happy enough to escapetheir fury, fled before them to the Bosphorus, from whence such as couldaccommodate themselves with ships, sailed to those parts of the empire thatwere situated in Europe, which occasioned a considerable addition to the numberof the inhabitants, though they were diminished in a short period of time: forcivil wars began to rage with so much fatality, that the two factions invitedseveral Turkish sultans to their assistance [*] , with this extravagant and inhuman stipulation, that all the people ofthe country, who were made captives from the opposite party, should be carriedinto slavery; by which means each of those factions concurred in thedestructions of their own country with a view of ruining their adversaries.

Bajazet having conquered all the other sultans, the Turks would then haveacted agreeably to their future Behaviour in the reign of Mahommed II. had notthey been in danger of extermination by the Tartars.

I am now afraid to describe the miseries which resulted from theserevolutions; and shall only intimate, that the empire under its last monarchs,being contracted within the suburbs of Constantinople, finished its progresslike the Rhine, which shrinks into a rivulet before it loses itself in theocean.

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN SYLLA AND EUCRATES.

SOME days after Sylla had resigned the dictatorship, I was toldthe reputation I had among the philosophers made him desirous of seeing me. Hewas at his house on the Tiber, enjoying the first peaceful moments he had everknown. On coming before him, I felt nothing of that confusion which thepresence of great men generally occasions in us. And when we were alone, Syila,said I to him, you have then voluntarily reduced yourself to that middlecondition of life, which to most men is an affliction. You have resigned thatcommand which your glory and your virtues gave you over all men. Fortune seemsto be vexed, that she could not raise you to higher honours.

Eucrates, said he, if the eyes of the whole universe are no longer fixed onme, it is the fault of human things, which have their prescribed limits, andnot owing to me. I imagined I had fulfilled my destiny, when I no longer hadgreat things to achieve. I was not made for governing in quiet an enslavedpeople. I love to obtain victories, to found or overturn states, makealliances, punish usurpers: but as to the little subordinate branches ofgovernment, wherein middling geniuses shew themselves to so much advantage, theslow execution of the laws, the discipline of a tame militia, my soul could notemploy itself in them.

It is very singular, said I, that you should have mixed so much delicacywith your ambition. We have seen many great men unaffected with the vain pompand splendor which wait on rulers; but there have been very few insensible ofthe pleasure of governing, and of having that respect, which is due only to thelaws, paid to their humour.

And I, Eucrates was never less satisfied, than when I saw myself absolutemaster in Rome; when I looked round me, and found neither rival nor enemy. Ithought it would be one day said, that I had only chastised slaves. Would you,said I to myself, have no more men in your country capable of being affectedwith your glory? And since you establish despotism, do not you clearly see,that no prince can come after you so cowardly and despicable, whom flatterywill not equal to you, and adorn with your name, your titles, and even yourvirtues?

My Lord, you have quite changed the idea I had formed of your conduct. Ithought you had ambition, but not a love of glory: I saw very well that you hada high spirit, but I did not suspect that you had a great soul: your whole lifeseemed to discover you to be one preyed on by lust of power, and who, full ofthe most destructive passions chearfully loaded himself with the shame, theremorse, and even the meanness attached to despotism. For, after all, yousacrificed every thing to your power; you were feared by all the Romans; youdischarged, without pity, the functions of the most terrible magistracy thatever subsisted. The senate looked with dread on a defender so relentless. Someone said to you, Sylla, how much Roman blood will you shed; do you want tocommand bare walls? You then published those tables by which the life and deathof every citizen were determined.

And it is the shedding so much blood that has enabled me to do the greatestaction of my whole life. Had I ruled the Romans with gentleness, what wonder,that weariness, disgust or caprice should make meresign the government? But I laid down the dictatorship at a time when everyone thought I entirely owed my safety to my being invested with it. I appearedbefore the Romans a citizen in the midst of my citizens, and had the boldnessto say to them, I am ready to give account of all the blood which I have shedfor the republic; I will answer all who shall come to demand of me theirfathers, their sons, or their brothers. Every Roman was silent before me.

This great action which you speak of, appears to me very imprudent. Theastonishment, indeed, into which you had just thrown the Romans, was of serviceto you: but how could you dare to talk of vindicating yourself, and taking forjudges persons who had so much to revenge on you? supposing your actions hadbeen only severities while you were in power, they became frightful crimes themoment you were out of power.

Do you call crimes, said he, what saved the republic? Would you have had mequietly see senators betray the senate, for that people, who, imagining thatliberty ought to be as extreme as slavery can be, wanted to abolish allauthority? The people, kept under by the laws and the weight of the senate,have always endeavoured to overturn both. But he who is so ambitious as toserve them against the senate and the laws, has always ambition enough tobecome their master. It is thus we have seen an end put to so many republics ofGreece and Italy.

To prevent a like evil the senate hath always been obliged to employ thisuntractable people in war. It has been forced, against its inclination, toravage the earth, and reduce so many nations, whose subjection is a burden tous. At present, when the universe can furnish no more enemies against us, whatwould be the fate of the republic? And, without me, would the senate have beenable to prevent the people, in theirblind fury for liberty, from delivering themselvesup to Marius, or to the first tyrant who should have given them hopes ofindependence?

The gods, who have given to most men a cowardly ambition, have attached toLiberty almost as many evils as to Slavery. But whatever may be the price ofthis noble liberty, the gods must be paid it.

The sea swallows up vessels, and lays under water whole countries; yet it isuseful to man.

Posterity will decide of what Rome has not as yet ventured to examine: itwill find, perhaps, that I have not shed blood enough, and that all thepartizans of Marius have not been proscribed.

I must own, Sylla, you astonish me; How! was it to serve your country, thatyou spilled so much blood? and had you no attachment but to her?

Eucrates, said he to me, I had never that predominant love for my country,of which we find so many examples in the first ages of the republic: and I loveCoriolanus, who carried fire and sword to the very walls of his ungratefulcity, and made every citizen repent the affront which every citizen had givenhim, as much as I do him who drove the Gauls from the capitol. I never piquedmyself on being the slave, or the worshipper of a society of my equals: andthis so much boasted love is a passion too popular for such a high spirit asmine. All my actions proceeded from reflexion, and principally from thecontempt which I entertained for men. You may judge by the manner in which Itreated the only great people in the world, how high my contempt was of allothers.

I thought that while I was on the earth, I ought to be free. Had I been bornamong Barbarians, I should have sought to usurp the throne less to obtaincommand than to avoid obedience. Born in a republic, I have acquired the gloryof a conqueror, in seeking only that of a free man.

When I entered Rome with my troops, I breathed neither rage nor revenge. Ipassed sentence without hatred, but also without pity, on astonished Romans.You were free, said I; and you want to live slaves. No. Die; and you will havethe advantage of dying citizens of a free city.

To deprive of its liberty a city of which I was a citizen, I looked on asthe greatest of crimes. I punished that crime; and was little concerned whetherI should be the good or the evil genius of the Republic. However, thegovernment of our ancestors has been re-established; the people have expiatedall the indignities they put on the nobles; fear has suspended animosities, andRome never enjoyed such perfect tranquility.

This it was which determined me to all the bloody tragedies you have seen.Had I lived in those happy days of the Republic, when the citizens, quiet intheir houses, presented to the Gods a free soul, you would have seen me pass mywhole life in this retreat, which has cost me so much blood and toil.

My lord, said I to him, it is well for mankind, that Heaven has been sparingin the number of such men as you. Born for a middling station, we areover-powered by sublime geniuses. One mans being raised above humanity,costs all the rest too dear.

You looked on the ambition of heroes as a common passion; and made noaccount of any but a reasoning ambition. The insatiable desire of ruling, whichyou found in the hearts of some citizens, made you resolve to be anextraordinary man: love of liberty determined you to be terrible and cruel. Whowould have thought, that a heroism founded on principle would be moredestructive than a heroism founded on fury and impetuosity? The Roman people,you say, beheld you unarmed, and made no attempt on your life. You have escapedone danger; a greater may await you. A grand offender may one day takeadvantageof your moderation, and confound you in the crowd ofa subjected people.

I have acquired a name, said he, which suffices for my safety and the safetyof the Roman people. That name prevents all attempts; there is no ambitionwhich does not stand in awe of it. Sylla lives; and his genius is more powerfulthan that of all the Romans. Sylla is surrounded by Chronea, Orchomenus,and Signion: Sylla hath given every family in Rome a terrible example withinitself: Every Roman will have me always before him, and even in his sleep Ishall appear to him covered with blood; he will imagine he sees the fataltables, and reads his name at the head of the proscribed. My laws are murmuredat in secret; they can never be effaced but by floods of Roman blood. Am not Iin the midst of Rome? You will still find with me the javelin I had atOrchomenus, and the buckler I wore on the walls of Athens. Because I have nolictors, am I the less Sylla? I have the senate, justice, and the laws for me;my genius, fortune, and glory are for the senate.

I own, said I, that when a person has once made any one tremble, he almostalways retains something of the advantage he had over him.

Undoubtedly, said he, I struck men with astonishment, and that was a greatdeal. Review in your mind the story of my life: you will see that I have drawnall from that principle; and that it has been the soul of all my actions. Callto mind my quarrel with Marius: I was stung with indignation to see a man of noname, proud of the meanness of his birth, attempt to pull down the firstfamilies in Rome, and confound them with Plebeians; and at this time I bore allthe weight of a great soul. I was young, and I resolved to put myself in acondition to call Marius to account for his insults. For this end, I fought himwith his own weapons, that is to say, by victories over the enemies of theRepublic.

When I was forced, by the caprice of chance, to leave Rome, I pursued thesame plan: I went to make war on Mithridates; and laboured to destroy Marius byvanquishing the enemy of Marius. While I left that Roman to enjoy his powerover the populace, I multiplied his mortifications, and forced him to go everyday to the Capitol to return thanks to the Gods for successes which drove himto destraction. I waged a war of reputation against him, a hundred times morecruel than what my legions made on the Barbarian king. Every word I spokeshewed my daringness, and my most inconsiderable actions, always full ofhaughtiness, were fatal presages for Marius. At last Mithridates sued forpeace; the terms were reasonable; and had Rome been in quiet, and my fortunenot still wavering, I would have accepted them. But the bad state of my affairsobliged me to make the terms still harder. I demanded that he should destroythe fleet, and restore to the kings his neighbours the territories he had takenfrom them. I leave to you, said I, the kingdom of your ancestors; to you, whoought to thank me that I leave you the hand with which you signed an order forthe execution of 100,000 Romans in one day. Mithridates was struck motionless,and Marius trembled in the midst of Rome.

This boldness, which was of such service to me against Mithridates, againstMarius, against his son, against Thelisinus, against the people, whichsupported my dictatorship, also protected my life the day I resigned thedictatorship; and that day insures my liberty for ever.

My lord, said I, Marius reasoned in the same manner, when, covered with theblood of his enemies and of the Romans, he gave proofs of that boldness whichyou have punished. You have, it is true, a few more victories, and greaterexcesses on your side. But, in assuming the dictatorship, you set an example ofthe crime which you punished. This is the example whichwill be followed, and not that of your moderationwhich will only be admitted.

When the Gods suffered Sylla with impunity to make himself Dictator at Rome,they proscribed Liberty from it for ever. They must work too many miracles nowto root out of the heart of every Roman leader the ambition of reigning. Youhave taught them, that there is a much surer way to arrive at despotism, and tomaintain it without danger. You have divulged the fatal secret, and removedwhat alone makes good citizens in a republic too rich and too great, to despairof being able to oppress it.

He changed colour, and was silent for a moment. I am only afraid, said he,with emotion, of one man, in whom I think I see many Mariuss. Chance, orperhaps a more powerful destiny, made me spare him. My eyes are ever on him, Istudy his soul, where he hides deep purposes. But if he dares to form thedesign of commanding men whom I have made my equals, I swear by the Gods, Iwill punish his insolence.

PERSIAN LETTERS. BY M. DE MONTESQUIEU.

PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS ON THE PERSIAN LETTERS,By M. DE MONTESQUIEU. Prefixed to the QUARTOEDITION.

THERE is nothing in the PERSIAN LETTERS thathas given readers so general a satisfaction, as to find in them a sort ofromance, without having expected it. It is easy to discern in them thebeginning, the progress, and the conclusion of it: the several differentpersons introduced, are connected together by a sort of a chain. The longerthey reside in Europe, the less marvellous and extraordinary the manners ofthat part of the world begin to appear to them; and they are more or lessstruck with the marvellous and extraordinary, according to their differentcharacters. Add to this, that the Asiatic seraglio grows disorderly inproportion to the time of Usbeks absence; that is to say, according asphrenzy increases in it, and love abates. There is another reason why theseromances, generally speaking, succeed, and that is, because the personsintroduced give themselves an account of what happens to them, which causes thepassions to be felt more sensibly than any narrative made by another could do.This is likewise one of the causes of the success of some admirable works whichhave appeared since the PERSIAN LETTERS. To conclude, incommon romances digressions can never be admitted, except when they themselvesconstitute another romance. Reasoning cannot be intermixed with the story,because the personages not being brought together to reason, that would berepugnant to the design and nature of the work. But in the form of letters,wherein personages are introduced at random, and the subjects treated of do notdepend upon any design, or plan, already formed, theauthor has the advantage of being able to blend philosophy, politics andmorality with romance, and to connect the whole by a secret, and, as it were,undiscoverable chain. So great a call was there for the PERSIANLETTERS, upon their first publication, that the booksellers exerted theirutmost efforts to procure continuations of them. They pulled every author theymet by the sleeve, and said, Sir, I must beg the favour of you to writeme a collection of PERSIAN LETTERS. But what hasbeen said, is sufficient to convince the reader, that they do not admit of acontinuation, and still less of a mixture with letters wrote by another hand,how ingenious soever. There are in them some strokes, which many have lookedupon as too bold. But these are requested to take the nature of the work intoconsideration. The Persians, who were to play so considerable a part in it,were all on a sudden transplanted to Europe, that is, removed to another world,as it were. At a certain time, therefore, it was necessary to represent them asfull of ignorance and prejudices. The authors chief design was todisplay the formation and progress of their ideas. Their first thoughts couldnot but have a dash of singularity in them: it was apprehended that there isnothing to be done but to give them that sort of singularity which is notincompatible with understanding. It was only to represent their situation ofmind at seeing any thing that appeared extraordinary to them. The author, farfrom having a design to strike at any principle of our religion, thoughthimself even free from the imputation of indiscretion. These strokes appearalways connected with a manifestation of surprize, or astonishment, and notwith the idea of inquiry, much less with that of criticism. In speaking of ourreligion, these Persians should not appear better informed than when they talkof our manners and customs. And if they sometimes seemto look upon the tenets of our religion as singular,the singularity they discover in them fully shews their ignorance of theirconnection with the other truths thereof. The author justifies himself in thismanner, as well on account of his attachment to these important truths, asthrough respect for the human species, which he certainly could not have had anintention to wound in the tenderest part. The reader is therefore requested notto cease one moment to consider these strokes as the effects of surprize inpersons who ought to be surprized, or as the paradoxes of men who spoke of whatthey did not understand. He is likewise requested to consider that the wholebeauty of the invention consisted in the constant contrast between the realstate of things and the singular, or whimsical manner in which they werecontemplated. Certain it is, that the nature and design of the PERSIAN LETTERS are so apparent and obvious, that none canmistake them, but such as have a mind to impose upon themselves.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST FRENCH EDITION.

I SHALL neither write a dedicatory epistle, nor solicitprotection for this work; if it is good, it will be read, if bad, I am notanxious that it should be read by any. I have adventured the first of theseletters to try the public taste; I have a great number more, which I mayhereafter give. But this depends upon my not being known, for from the momentthat happens, I am silent. I know a lady who walks very well, but limps ifobserved. There are faults enough in the work for the critics, withoutsubjecting myself to them. If I was known, it would be said, his book is histrue character; he might have engaged himself to a better purpose; it isunworthy of a grave man. The critics are never deficient in these kinds ofreflections, because little wit is necessary to make them.

The Persians, who wrote these letters, lodged with me, and we passed ourtime together; as they regarded me as one of another world, they hid nothingfrom me. In fact, persons removed to such a considerable distance, could haveno secrets. They communicated to me the most of their letters, which I copied;others I took which they were desirous not to entrust me with, as they exposedthe jealousy and vanity of the Persian. I am no more than a translator: mywhole care has been to suit this work to our manners. I have relieved thereader, as much as I could, from the Asiatic stile, and have exonerated himfrom the trouble of an infinite number of sublime and elevated expressions. Butthis is not all the service I have rendered him; I have retrenched those longcompliments, of which the orientals are not less profuse than ourselves, andhave passed over a greatmany particulars too trifling to be made public, andwhich ought only to live from friend to friend. If this had been observed bymost of those who have published epistolary collections, many of their workswould have disappeared. There is one circumstance which has often excited myadmiration; that these Persians were frequently as well instructed as myself inthe manners and customs of our nation, even to a knowledge of the most minuteparticulars, taking notice of some things which I am sure have escaped many ofthe Germans who have visited France. This I attribute to the long stay theymade here, without considering that it is less difficult to an Asiatic toinform himself of the manners of the French in one year, than it would be to aFrenchman to acquire a knowledge of those of Asia in four years; because theone are as open as the other are reserved. Translators have been indulged bycustom, even the most barbarous commentators, to decorate the head of theirversion, or glossary, with a panegyric on the original, and to expatiate on theusefulness, merit, and excellency of it; but this I have not done. The reasonsare obvious; one of the best is, that it would be tedious, in a part of a workalready too much so; I would say in a preface.

CONTENTS TO THE PERSIAN LETTERS.

- LETTER I. USBEK to his friendRustan, at Ispahan, desiring him to inform him frankly what the public say ofhis departure, Page 209

- II. Usbek to the first black eunuch, athis seraglio at Ispahan, giving him instructions about the care of his wives, 210

- III. Zachi to Usbek, at Tauris,lamenting his absence, and reminding him of their former loves, 211

- IV. Zephis to Usbek, at Erzeron,complaining of the ill-behaviour of the black eunuch, 213

- V. Rustan to Usbek, at Erzeron,acquainting him with the public talk at Ispahan, of his quitting that place, 213

- VI. Uskek to his friend Nessir, atIspahan, expressing his sorrow at leaving Persia; and his sentiments as to hiswives, 214

- VII. Fatme to Usbek, at Erzeron,bewailing his absence, 215

- VIII. Usbek to his friend Rustan,acquainting him with his real motives for travelling, 216

- IX. The Chief Eunuch to Ibben, atErzeron, informing him of his miserable situation, whilst he follows thepleasures of his masters through various countries, 218

- X. Mirza to his friend Usbek, atErzeron, desiring his opinion upon this question: Whether pleasure ishappiness, and if felicity consists in the satisfaction of the senses, or thepractice of virtue, 222

- XI. XII. XIII. XIV. Usbek to Mirza, atIspahan, answering his question by the history of a people called theTroglodites, 223, 226, 229, 230

- XV. The first eunuch to Jaron, theblack eunuch at Erzeron, expressing his early friendship for him, 232

- XVI. Usbek to Mollak-Mehemet-Ali,guardian of the three tombs at Com, acknowledging his sanctity, and asking hiscounsel, 233

- XVII. Usbek to the same, propoundinghis doubts, to which he desires his answers, 234

- XVIII. Mollak-Mehemet-Ali to Usbek, atErzeron, answering his doubts with a Mahometan tradition, 235

- XIX. Usbek to his friend Rustan, atIspahan, on the feeble state of the Empire of the Ottomans, 237

- XX. Usbek to Zachi, his wife, at hisseraglio at Ispahan, reproving her sharply for being found alone with Nadir thewhite eunuch, 238

- XXI. Usbek to the chief white eunuch,threatening him for his neglect in the affair of Nadir, 241

- XXII. Jaron to the first eunuch,complaining that Usbek had ordered him to return back to his seraglio with allhis blacks, for the greater security of his wives, 242

- XXIII. Usbek to his friend Ibben, atSmyrna, giving him an account of the great liberties allowed to the women inItaly, 243

- XXIV. Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna, givinghim an account of Paris; the French king a magician, the pope a greater; of theconstitution Unigenitus; the invisible enemies of the king, 244

- XXV. Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna, filledwith friendly compliments, 247

- XXVI. Usbek to Roxana, at the seraglioat Ispahan, reminding her of her coyness after her marriage, and contrastingthe modesty of the Persian women with the impudence of the European, 248

- XXVII. Usbek to Nessir, at Ispahan,complaining of bad health, and his uneasiness at being absent from his country, 251

- XXVIII. Rica to * * *, of the Frenchplays; a letter to him from a dancer, 252

- XXIX. Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna, of thepope and his clergy, and the Inquisition, 254

- XXX. Rica to the same, at Smyrna, theadmiration his extraordinary dress occasioned at Paris, 256

- XXXI. Rhedi to Usbek at Paris; remarkson the city of Venice, 257

- XXXII. Rica to * * *, an account of anhospital for the blind, and of the blind man who could go all over Pariswithout a guide, 258

- XXXIII. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice, ofthe dearness of wine at Paris, and of the use and bad effects of it, 259

- XXXIV. Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna, ofthe vivacity of the Europeans, and the great gravity of the Asiatics, 261

- XXXV. Usbek to Gimchid, his cousin,dervise of the shining monastery of Tauris, of the possibility of the salvationof the Christians, 262

- XXXVI. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice, ofthe wits of Paris, and their disputes about Homer, 264

- XXXVII. Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna; thecharacter of Lewis XIV. 266

- XXXVIII. Rica to Ibben at Smyrna; ofthe liberties and privileges of the European women; and whether happier in theenjoyment of them or not, 267

- XXXIX. Hagi Ibbi to the Jew Ben Joshua,a Mahometan proselyte, at Smyrna; of the miracles which attended the birth ofMahomet, 269

- XL. Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna; of theuselessness of funeral pomps, 271

- XLI. The chief black eunuch to Usbek;of the death of a black eunuch, and of his successless attempt upon Pharan tofit him for his successor, 271

- XLII. Pharan to Usbek, his sovereignlord, praying he may not be made an eunuch, 272

- XLIII. Usbek to Pharan, at the gardensof Fatme, permitting him to enjoy his manhood, 273

- XLIV. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; of thevanity of persons of all professions, and their contempt for each other, 274

- XLV. Rica to Usbek, at * * *; a strangestory of the behaviour of an alchymist, 275

- XLVI. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; ofreligious disputes, and the prayer of a man who did not know which religion tochuse, 277

- XLVII. Zachi to Usbek, at Paris; someaccount of the transactions in the seraglio, 279

- XLVIII. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice;several odd characters that he met with at a country seat near Paris, 280

- XLIX. Rica to Usbek, at * * *; of amonk who applied to him to procure leave to settle a mission in Persia, 286

- L. Rica to * * *; of modesty, and itsopposite, vanity, 287

- LI. Nargum, the Persian envoy, residingat Muscovy, to Usbek at Paris; of the manners of the Muscovites, and anextraordinary letter from a Muscovite woman to her mother, complainingthat her husband did not love her, because be neverbeat her, 289

- LII. Rica to Usbek, at * * *; of threeold ladies, who all thought themselves young, 291

- LIII. Zelius to Usbek, at Paris; askinghim whether Zelida may marry Coson, a white eunuch; some reflections on suchkind of marriages, 293

- LIV. Rica to Usbek, at * * *; of an oddmethod to gain the reputation of a wit, 294

- LV. Rica to Ibbin, at Smyrna; of thegreat indifference of French husbands and wives for each other, 296

- LVI. Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna; theEuropean fondness for gaming, 298

- LVII. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; of themonks at Paris, and their employment as casuists, 299

- LVIII. Rica to Rhedi at Venice; of thevariety of quacks, or sharpers, at Paris, 301

- LIX. Rica to Usbek, at A***; charactersof several perions who judge of every thing as it regards themselves, 303

- LX. Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna; remarkson the Jews, 304

- LXI. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; of thehardships divines suffer from unreasonable disputers, 305

- LXII. Zelis to Usbek, at Paris; of theadvantage of custom in favour of virtue, 307

- LXIII. Rica to Usbek, at * * *; how toplease the French women, 309

- LXIV. The chief of the black eunuchs toUsbek at Paris; of the confusion and disorder subsisting in the seraglio; ofthe strict government of one where he was brought up, 310

- LXV. Usbek to his wives, at theseraglio at Ispahan: in which he warmly expostulates with them on theirdisorderly behaviour, 313

- LXVI. Rica to * * *; the fondness ofthe French to be thought wits, and of writing books, 314

- LXVII. Ibben to Usbek, at Paris; withan entertaining history of Apheridon and Astarte; of the sect of the Guebres,or Magi, 315

- LXVIII. Rica to Usbek, at * * *; of thegross ignorance of the French judges, 325

- LXIX. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; offore-knowledge and free-will, 326

- LXX. Zelis to Usbek, at Paris; astrange adventure that happened to a daughter of Soliman at her marriage, 329

- LXXI. Usbek to Zelis; applauds her carein the education of her daughter, 330

- LXXII. Rica to Ibben, at * * *;character of an impertinent talker, ib.

- LXXIII. Rica to * * *; the Frenchacademy satirized, 331

- LXXIV. Usbek to Rica, at * * *;ridiculous proud behaviour of a nobleman, 332

- LXXV. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; of theinstability of the Christians in matters of faith, 334

- LXXVI. Usbek to his friend Ibben, atSmyrna; some fallacious arguments in favour of suicide, 335

- LXXVII. Ibben to Usbek, at Paris; inanswer to the former, 337

- LXXVIII. Rica to Uskek, at * * *; aFrenchmans remarks on Spain and Portugal, and Ricas satiricalreflections upon them, 338

- LXXIX. The chief black eunuch to Usbek,at Paris; account of a Circassian female slave whom he had bought for hisseraglio, 341

- LXXX. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; theadvantages of a mild above a cruel government, 342

- LXXXI. Nargum, envoy from Persia inMuscovy, to Usbek at Paris; of the great and many conquests made by theTartars, 343

- LXXXII. Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna; whattrifling arts in conversation render some men acceptable among the women, 344

- LXXXIII. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; ofthe justice of God, 346

- LXXXIV. Rica to * * *; of the hospitalof invalids, 347

- LXXXV. Usbek to Mirza, at Ispahan; infavour of toleration in religious matters, 348

- LXXXVI. Rica to * * *; of the Frenchcourts of justice, 351

- LXXXVII. Rica to * * *; of inquisitivebusy persons, and of an epitaph on one, 352

- LXXXVIII. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice;the difference between the French and Persian nobility, 354

- LXXXIX. Usbek to Ibben at Smyrna; ofthe desire of glory, and its good effects, 355

- XC. Usbek to the same, at Smyrna; ofduels, 357

- XCI. Usbek to Rustan, at Ispahan; of adespicable ambassador from Persia to France, 358

- XCII. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; of thedeath of Lewis XIV. of the regent, and of the parliaments of France, 359

- XCIII. Usbek to his brother, santon inthe monastery of Casbin; of the saints of the Roman Catholics, 360

- XCIV. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; of thelaws of nations, 361

- XCV. Usbek to the same; the samesubject pursued, and other matters arising from it, 362

- XCVI. The chief eunuch to Usbek, atParis; an account of the woman he had bought for his brother; desires him toreturn to his seraglio, being unable to preserve order there, 365

- XCVII. Usbek to Hassein, dervise of themountain of Jordan; of the European philosophy, 366

- XCVIII. Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna; ofthe sudden revolutions which happen in mens fortune in France, and of theerection of a new chamber of justice, 369

- XCIX. Rica to Rhedi, at Venice; theastonishing caprices of fashion among the French, 370

- C. Rica to the same; of the folly ofthe French, in adopting foreign laws, and the inconvenience of having manylaws, 371

- CI. Usbek to * * *, giving him thecharacter of a late prelate; a great defender of the constitution unigenitus, 373

- CII. Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna;observations on the monarchies of Europe, and of their advantages over those ofthe east, 374

- CIII. Usbek to the same; of the badcustom of the Asiatic princes, in secluding themselves from the view of theirsubjects, 376

- CIV. Usbek to the same; of the freepolitical maxims of the English, 378

- CV. Rhedi to Usbek, at Paris; of thehurt the arts and sciences have done to society, 379

- CVI. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice;convincing him of his mistaken notions about the arts and sciences, 381

- CVII. Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna; of theyoung French monarch Lewis XV. and of the influence of the women over theministry, 384

- CVIII. Usbek to * * *; remarks on theliterary journalists, 386

- CIX. Rica to * * *; of the universityof Paris, and the disputes about the pronouncing the letter Q like K, 387

- CX. Rica to * * *; of the business ofpretty women, and their affected mirth, 388

- CXI. Usbek to * * *; the speech of ageneral about Mazarine, 389

- CXII. Rhedi to Usbek, at Paris; of thegreat decrease of mankind, 390

- CXIII. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice;account of the great decrease of mankind, 393

- CXIV. Usbek to the same; the causes ofthis decrease among the Mahometans, 395

- CXV. Usbek to the same; how the Romanslaves contributed to population, 397

- CXVI. Usbek to the same; theprohibition of divorces prejudicial to population, 398

- CXVII. Usbek to the same; theadvantages the Protestants enjoy, in favour of population, above the RomanCatholics, 401

- CXVIII. Usbek to the same; the causesof the decrease of mankind in Asia and America, 403

- CXIX. Usbek to the same; a prevailingopinion sometimes promotes population; of the unjust law of primogeniture, 404

- CXX. Usbek to the same; why the savagesare not populous, 406

- CXXI. Usbek to the same; coloniesgenerally weaken the countries they are sent from, and seldom people those theyare sent to, 407

- CXXII. Usbek to the same; republicsmore populous than monarchies, and why, 410

- CXXIII. Usbek to Mollak-Mahomet-Ali,keeper of the three sepulchres at Com; of the deseat and distress of the Turksby the emperor, 412

- CXXIV. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; ofthe immense liberality of princes, ib.

- CXXV. Rica to * * *; of the variousopinions concerning the future pleasures of good men; a history of a woman, inthe Moguls country, who desired leave to burn herself with the corpse ofher husband; but who changed her mind on being informed that the reward of thataction would be living again with her husband, 414

- CXXVI. Rica to Usbek, at * * *; of thedistresses of the great, 416

- CXXVII. Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna; ofthe beheading of Baron Gortz, and of the hurt bad ministers do to the peoplewith their king, 417

- CXXVIII. Rica to Usbek, at * *;humorous characters of a geometrician and a translator, 418

- CXXIX. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; ofthe defects of legislators; and of the advantages to society arising fromparental authority, 421

- CXXX. Rica to * * *; of quidnuncs, orintelligencers; three of their letters, 423

- CXXXI. Rhedi to Rica, at Paris; of theorigin of monarchies and republics in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 426

- CXXXII. Rica to * * *; of some oddcharacters he met with at the coffee-house in Paris, 429

- CXXXIII. Rica to * * *; of the illbehaviour of a monk whom he met with in a public library, 431

- CXXXIV. Rica to the same; his secondvisit to the library, and some account of the books, 432

- CXXXV. Rica to the same; account of thelibrary continued, 434

- CXXXVI. Rica to the same; the libraryfurther described, 436

- CXXXVII. Rica to the same; account ofthe library concluded, 438

- CXXXVIII. Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna; ofthe changes in the ministry, and of Mr. Laws ruinous scheme, 440

- CXXXIX. Rica to the same; a greatexample of conjugal affection in the queen of Sweden; of the abdication ofChristina, queen of Sweden, 442

- CXL. Rica to Usbek, at * * *; theparliament of Paris banished to Pontoise, 443

- CXLI. Rica to the same; the advantagethe women will have in the next world over the men, illustrated in a Persiantale, 444

- CXLII. Rica to Usbek, at * * *; aletter from an antiquarian, and a satire on Mr. Laws destructive scheme,under the disguise of a fragment from a Greek mythologist, 453

- CXLIII. Rica to Nathaniel Levi, aJewish physician at Leghorn; on the virtue of charms and talismans; with aletter from a physician in the country, to one at Paris, containing somesatirical receipts, 458

- CXLIV. Usbek to Rica; characters of twodifferent kinds of talkers, 465

- CXLV. Usbek to * * *; observations onmen of parts, and the disadvantages they lie under, with an odd letter from aman of learning, 466

- CXLVI. Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice; ofthe destructive consequence of the Missisippi scheme at Paris, 470

- CXLVII. The chief eunuch to Usbek, atParis; informinghim of the ill behaviour of two of his wives, Zelisand Zachi, 472

- CXLVIII. Usbek to the chief eunuch atthe seraglio of Ispahan; investing him with absolute power over the seraglio, 473

- CXLIX. Narsit to Usbek, at Paris;acquainting him with the death of the chief eunuch, 474

- CL. Usbek to Narsit, at the seraglio ofIspahan, severely reproaching him for not opening his letter to the latedeceased chief eunuch, ib.

- CLI. Solin to Usbek, at Paris;acquainting him of the increasing irregularities in the seraglio, 475

- CLII. Narsit to Usbek, at Paris;acquainting him of the loss of one of his letters, 477

- CLIII. Usbek to Solin, at the seraglioof Ispahan; investing him with absolute power over the seraglio, ib.

- CLIV. Usbek to his wives at theseraglio of Ispahan; a thundering, menacing letter, 478

- CLV. Usbek to Nessir, at Ispahan;complaining to him of his anxiety about his wives, ib.

- CLVI. Roxana to Usbek, at Paris;bitterly complaining of the tyranny of the new chief eunuch, 480

- CLVII. Zachi to Usbek, at Paris:exclaiming against the indecent correction she had received from the new chiefeunuch, 481

- CLVIII. Zelis to Usbek, at Paris;remonstrating against his unreasonable treatment of her, 482

- CLIX. Solin to Usbek, at Paris;acquainting him, that his favourite wife Roxana was surprised in the embracesof a young man, 482

- CLX. Solin to Usbek, at Paris; tellinghim of the punishment he intends to inflict on his wives, 483

- CLXI. Roxana to Usbek, at Paris; fullof bitter reproaches and scorn, informing him of her having taken poison, 484

- Three Letters of the Author to the Chevalier de Bruant.

- I. Of despotism and its banefuleffects, 486

- II. Of liberty, and where it may beenjoyed, 488

- III. Of education; what spoils that ofthe nobility of France; the character of some of her kings, 490

Usbk

Usbk

1711

Tauris

Rustan

Rustan

LETTER I.

Usbk tohis Friend Rustan at Ispahan.

AT Com we remained only one day, when, having paid our devotionsat the tomb of the virgin who brought forth twelve prophets, we renewed ourjourney, and yesterday, the twenty-fifth since we left Ispahan, came to Tauris.Probably Rica and I are the first among the Persians, whose thirst afterknowledge made them leave their own country, and renounce the pleasures of alife of ease, for the laborious search of wisdom. Though born in a flourishingkingdom, we did not think that its boundaries were those of knowledge, and thatthe oriental light could only enlighten us. Inform me what is said of ourjourney, without flattery; I do not expect that it will be generally approved.Address your letter to me at Erzeron, where I shall rest some time. Farewel, mydear Rustan; be assured that in whatever part of the world I may be, thou hastthere a faithful friend.

Tauris

, the 15th of the moon Saphar,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Tauris

Black Eunuch

Eunuch, Black

LETTER II.

Usbek to theFirst Black Eunuch, at his Seraglio in Ispahan.

THOU art the trusty keeper of the finest women in Persia: I have consided inthee what I have in the world most dear: thou holdest in thy hands the keys ofthe fatal doors, which are never unlocked but for me. Whilst thou watchest overthis precious deposit of my heart, it reposes itself, and enjoys a perfectsecurity. Thou keepest watch in the silence of the night as well as in thehurry of the day. Thy unwearied cares sustain thy virtue when it wavers. If thewomen whom thou guardest, would swerve from their duty, thou destroyest thevery hope of it. Thou art the scourge of vice and the pillar of faithfulness.Thou commandest them, and thou obeyest them; thou implicitly fulfillest alltheir desires, and thou makest them conform to the laws of the seraglio withthe same obedience: thou takest a pride in rendering them the meanest services;thou submittest to their just commands with an awful respect; thou servest themas if thou wert the slave of their slaves. But again thou resumest thy power,commandest like a master as myself, when thou fearest the relaxation of thelaws of chastity and modesty. Ever remember the obscurity from which I tookthee when thou wast the meanest of my slaves, to put thee in that place, andintrusted to thee the delights of my heart; observe then the deepest humilitytowards those who share my love; yet, at the same time, make them sensible oftheir very dependant state. Procure them every innocent pleasure; beguile theiruneasiness, entertain them with music, dancing, and the most delicious liquors;induce them to meet together frequently. If they have a mind to go into thecountry, you may carry themthither; but destroy any man who attempts to comeinto their sight. Exhort them to observe that cleanliness, which is an emblemof the souls purity; talk to them sometimes of me. I wish to see themagain in that charming place which they adorn. Farewel.

Tauris

, the 18th of the moon Saphar,

1711

.

Zachi

Zachi

1711

Fatme

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER III.

Zachi to Usbek, at Tauris.

WE commanded the chief of the Eunuchs to remove us into the country; he willinform you that no accident happened. When we were to leave our litters to passthe river, two slaves, as usual, bore us on their shoulders, and we were sohidden as not to be at all observed. How can I be able to live in thy seraglioat Ispahan? which incessantly reminds me of my past happiness; which every dayrenews my desires with fresh violence? I range from apartment to apartment,ever in search of thee, and never find thee, but through the whole, meet withan afflictive remembrance of my past happiness. I sometimes behold myself inthe place where I the first time received thee to my arms; again I view thee onthe spot where thou dist decide that famous quarrel amongst thy wives; each ofus pretending to the superiority of beauty; we presented ourselves before thee,after having exerted our imaginations to the utmost, to provide ourselves withevery advantageous ornament; thou contemplatedst with pleasure, the prodigiesof our art; you admired to what a height we had carried our desires to pleasethee. But thou soon madest those borrowed charms give place to whose of nature;thou destroyedst all our labours, we were obliged to despoil ourselves of allthose ornaments, which were become incommodious to thee; we were obliged toappear tothy view in the simplicity of nature. I thoughtnothing of modesty, glory was my only thought. Happy Usbek! What charms werethen exposed to thy eyes! We beheld thee a long time, roving from enchantmentto enchantment; long thy wavering soul remained unfixed; each new gracedemanded a tribute from thee; we were in a manner covered all over with thykisses; thou carriedst thy curious looks to the most secret places; thou madestus change, in a moment, to a thousand various attitudes; thy commands werealways new, and so was our obedience. I confess to thee, Usbek, a more livelypassion than ambition made me hope to please thee. I saw myself insensiblybecome the mistress of thy heart; thou tookest me; thou quittedst me, thoutookedst me again; and I knew how to retain thee; the triumph was all my own,and despair my rivals; it seemed, to us, as if we only were in the world, andall around us unworthy of our attention. Would to heaven that my rivals had hadthe courage to have remained to have been witnesses of all those proofs of lovethat I received from thee! Had they well observed my transports, they wouldhave been sensible of the desparity between their love and mine: they wouldhave found that though they might dispute with me for charms, they could not insensibility. But where am I? Where does this vain recital lead me? Not to havebeen beloved is a misfortune; but to be so no more, an affront. Thou abandonestus, Usbek, to wander through barbarous climes But why dost thou esteem theadvantage of being beloved as nothing? Alas! thou dost not know thyself whatthou losest. I utter sighs which are never heard; my tears flow and thou dostnot enjoy them; it seems that love breathes in this seraglio, and thyinsensibility hath removed thee from it. Ah! my dear Usbek, if thou knewest howto be happy!

From the seraglio at

Fatme

, the 21st of themoon Maharram,

1711

.

Zephis

Zephis

1711

Fatme

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER IV.

Zephis to Usbek at Erzeron.

AT length the black monster has determined to make me despair. He would,forcibly, deprive me of Zelida, my slave, who served me with so much affection,and who is so handy at every graceful ornament. He was not satisfied that thisseparation should be grievous, he would have it also dishonourable. The traitorwould treat as criminal the motives of my confidence; and because he was wearyof waiting behind the door, where I always placed him, he dared to imagine thathe heard or saw things which I cannot even conceive. I am very unhappy! Neithermy retreat nor my virtue can secure me from unreasonable suspicions: a vileslave assaults me even in thy heart, and it is there I must justify myself. No;I have too much regard to myself to descend to a justification: I will have noother guardian of my conduct but thyself; thy love and mine, and if I must tellthee so, dear Usbek, my tears.

From the seraglio at

Fatme

, the 29th of themoon Maharram,

1711

.

Rustan

Rustan

1711

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER V.

Rustan to Usbek, at Erzeron.

THE whole conversation of Ispahan turns upon thee, thy departure is the onlything about which people talk. Some ascribe it to levity of mind, others tosome disgust; thy friends only justify thee, but they persuade no one. Theycannot conceive that thou canst forsake thy wives, thy relations, thy friends,and thy country, to explore climes unknown to the Persians.The mother of Rica is not to be comforted; shedemands her son of thee, whom she saith thou hast carried away. As to me, dearUsbek, I am naturally led to approve of all thy proceedings, yet I know not howto pardon thy absence, and whatever reasons thou mayest offer to me, my heartwill never relish them. Farewel, Love me always.

Ispahan

, the 28th of the moon Rebiab,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Erzeron

Nessir

Nessir

LETTER VI.

Usbek to hisFriend Nessir, at Ispahan.

AT the distance of one days journey from Erivan we quitted Persia,and entered those territories subject to the Turks. Twelve days after wereached Erzeron, where we continued three or four months. I must confess tothee, Nessir, I suffered a secret concern when I lost sight of Persia, andfound myself surrounded by faithless Osmanlins; and, as I advance into thecountry of the profane, I think I become such myself: my country, my family, myfriends, present themselves to my mind, my tenderness is revived; a certainuneasiness hath completed my sorrow, and makes me sensible that I have venturedtoo much for my quiet. But my wives are my chief affliction; I cannot think ofthem but I am swallowed up in grief. It is not, Nessir, that I love them; withrespect to that, I am in a state of insensibility, which leaves me no desires.The number of women I saw in the seraglio hath prevented love, and I havedefeated him by himself, but this coldness itself is a kind of secret jealousythat devours me. I behold a number of women trusted almost to themselves; for Ihave none but some base spirited wretches to answer for their conduct. I shouldscarcely think myself secure though my slaves were faithful; how would itbe then if they should not be so? What distressingaccounts may I receive in the distant countries through which I am to pass! Itis a malady for which my friends can afford no remedy; the causes of mydisorder arise from a place, the melancholy secrets of which they ought to beignorant of; and, if they could discern them, what could they do? Had not I athousand times better let them die with silence and impunity, than make thempublic by correction? In thy heart, my dear Nessir, I confide all my griefs,which is the only consolation that remains to me in my present state.

Erzeron

, the 10th of the moon of the secondRebiab,

1711

.

Fatme

Fatme

1711

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER VII.

Fatme to Usbek, at Erzeron.

THOU hast been gone two months, my dear Usbek, and, in the trouble that I amin, I cannot yet persuade myself that it is so. I run all over the seraglio, asif thou wert there, nor is my fancy disabused. What wouldest thou have becomeof a woman who loves thee; who hath been accustomed to hold thee in these arms;whose only concern was to give thee fresh proofs of her affection; free by theadvantage of her birth, but by the violence of her love a slave? When I marriedthee, my eyes had never seen the face of man, thou yet art the only one theyhave ever been permitted to see [*] ; for I do not place in the order of men these hideous eunuchs, whoseleast imperfection is to have nothing of man. When I compare the beauty of thycountenance with their deformity, I cannot forbear esteeming myself happy. Myimagination cannot supply me with a more ravishing idea than theinchanting charms of thy person. I swear to thee,Usbek, that if I should be permitted to quit this place, where I am shut upfrom the necessity of my condition; could I escape from the guard thatsurrounds me; if I were allowed to chuse from among all men who live in thiscapital of nations, Usbek, I swear to thee, I should chuse none but thee. Thinknot that thy absence has made me neglect a beauty dear to thee. Though I mustnot be seen by any person, and though the ornaments with which I deck myself donot contribute to thy happiness, yet I endeavour to amuse myself by a habit ofpleasing; I never go to rest till I am perfumed with the most agreeableessences. I recal to my mind the happy time when you came to my arms: aflattering dream deceives me, shews me the dear object of my love; myimagination loses itself in its desires, as it flatters itself in its hopes. Isometimes think that, disgusted at a toilsome journey, thou wilt return to us;the night wears away in these kind of dreams, which are not verified eitherwaking or asleep; I seek for thee at my side, and it seems to me that thoufliest from me; at length the fire itself which burns me, disperses thesedelusions, and recals my spirits; I then find myself reanimatedThou wiltnot believe it, Usbek, it is impossible to live in this condition; the fireburns in my veins. Why cannot I express to thee what I so sensibly feel? andhow can I so sensibly feel what I cannot express? In these moments, Usbek, Iwould give the empire of the world for one of thy kisses. How unhappy is thewoman who has such strong desires, when she is deprived of him who only cansatisfy them, who, left to herself, has nothing that can divert her; she mustlive in a course of sighs, and in the fury of an irritated passion; who, farfrom being happy, has not the privilege of promoting the felicity of another,an useless ornament of a seraglio, kept for the honour, and not the happinessof her husband. You men are very cruel! you are delighted that we have passionswhich wecannot gratify, yet you treat us as if we wereinsensible and would be sorry if we were so; you think, that our desires,though a long time mortified, will be quickened at the sight of you. It is verydifficult to make ones self be beloved; it is the best way to obtain bydoubting of our understanding, what you dare not expect from your own merit.Farewel, my dear Usbek, farewel: be assured that I live only to adore thee; mysoul is full of thee, and thy absence, far from making me forget thee, wouldquicken my love, if it were capable of becoming more vehement.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 12th of themoon of the 1st Rebiab,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Erzeron

Rustan

Rustan

LETTER VIII.

Usbek to hisFriend Rustan, at Ispahan.

THY letter was delivered to me at Erzeron, where I now am: I thought indeedmy departure would make a noise, but it gives me no trouble. What wouldest thouhave me follow? what my enemies think prudent, or what I myself think to be so?I appeared at court when I was very young. I may say, my heart was not at allcorrupted there; I formed to myself a vast design; I dared to be virtuousthere. When I knew vice, I kept at a distance from it; but I afterwardsapproached it to pluck off its mask. I carried truth to the foot of the throne,I spoke a language till then unknown; I disconcerted flattery, and astonishedat the same time the worshippers and the idol. But when I saw my sincerity hadcreated me enemies; that I had attracted the jealousy of the ministers, withoutobtaining the favour of the prince; I resolved to retire, since my feeblevirtue could no longer support me in a corrupt court. I feigned to be stronglyattached to the sciences, and, in consequence of that pretence, became reallyso.I no longer engaged myself in any affairs, butretired to a house in the country; but even this retreat had itsinconveniences; I was continually exposed to the malice of my enemies, and wasalmost deprived of the means of safety. Some secret advice disposed me to thinkmore seriously of myself; I resolved to banish myself from my country, and myretreat from court provided me with a plausible pretence. I waited on the king,and acquainted him with my desire to inform myself of the sciences in the west;I insinuated to him that he might be benefited by my travels; I found favourwith him; I departed, and stole a victim from my enemies: see, Rustan, the truemotive of my travelling. Let Ispahan talk, defend me only to those who love me;leave with my enemies their malicious interpretations; I should be happy ifthat were the only hurt that they could do to me; they talk of me at present,probably I shall be too much forgotten hereafter, and my friendsNo,Rustan, I will not resign myself to these melancholy suspicions, I shall alwaysbe dear to them, I reckon upon their fidelity, as on thine.

Erzeron

, the 20th of the moon of the 2dGemmadi,

1711

.

1711

Ispahan

Ibbi

Ibbi

LETTER IX.

The Chief Eunuch to Ibbi, at Erzeron.

THOU attendest thy ancient master in his travels; thou passest throughprovinces and kingdoms, no chagrin affects thee, each moment presents thee withfresh objects, every thing thou seest amuses thee, and makes thee pass away thytime imperceptibly. It is otherwise with me, who am shut up in a horribleconfinement, surrounded continually by the same objects, and perplexed with thesame cares. I groan beneath the burden of fifty years of cares and pains; andthrough theperiod of a long life, I cannot say I have seen adays case or a moments quiet. When my first master formed thecruel design of confining me to the care of his wives, and induced me bypromises, inforced by a thousand threats, to part with myself for ever, tiredof being employed in a most toilsome service, I reckoned upon sacrificing mypassions to ease and plenty. Unhappy that I was! my mind was prepossessed withthe evils I should escape, but not with the loss I should sustain: I expectedthat an incapacity to gratify the attacks of love would secure me from it.Alas! the gratification of the passions is extinguished, but the foundation ofthem remained, and far from being freed from them, I found myself encompassedby objects which continually excited them. I entered the seraglio, where everything filled me with regret for what I had lost; I felt myself provoked to loveeach instant, a thousand natural beauties seemed to shew themselves to my viewonly to torment me; and to complete my misfortune, I had always before me thehappy master of these beauties. During this unhappy time, I never led a womanto my masters bed, I never undressd one but I returned backenraged in my heart at myself, and my soul filled with a horrible despair. Seehow miserably I passed my youth, I had no confident but myself, loaded withgrief and care I must needs be destroyed; and those women, whom I was temptedto regard with the most tender looks, I could only behold with the most sternattention. I was ruined had they penetrated my thoughts; what advantages wouldthey not have taken? I remember once as I put a lady into a bath, I felt myselfso ravished that I entirely lost my reason, and ventured to clap my hand upon amost formidable part. On the first reflection I thought that day would be mylast, I was so happy however, to escape the thousand deaths I feared; but thebeauty whom I had made witness of my weakness, made me buy her silence verydear. I lost entirely my power over her, and sheforced me, from that time, to compliances which, athousand times exposed me to hazard the loss of my life. At length the fire ofyouth is extinguished; I am old, and I find myself, with respect to thesethings, in an easy condition; I regard women with indifference, and I rewardthem well for their contempt and all the torments which they made me feel. Ialways remember that I was born to govern them; and it seems to me as if Irecovered my manhood, on every occasion that I have yet to command them. SinceI can behold them with coldness, and my reason permits me to see all theirfoibles, I hate them: though it is for another I watch them, the pleasure ofbeing obeyed affords me a secret joy, and it is as if I did it for myself, andit always gives me an indirect happiness, when I can deprive them of theirpleasures. I am in the seraglio as in a little empire; and my ambition, my onlyremaining passion, receives some satisfaction; I see with pleasure that alldepends upon me, and that I am necessary on every occasion; I charge myselfwillingly with the hatred of all these women, which establishes me the morefirmly in my post. So they do not find me in any affair an ungrateful man, Ialways prevent them in their most innocent pleasures; I ever present myself tothem as a fixed barrier, they form schemes, and I suddenly frustrate them. I amarmed with refusals, full of scruples, I never open my mouth but with lecturesof duty, virtue, chastity, and modesty. By continually talking to them of theweakness of their sex, and of the authority of my master, I drive them todespair; afterwards I complain of the necessity I am under to be thus severe,and seem as if I would have them suppose their proper interest, and a strongattachment to them, to be my only motives. Not but that, in my turn, I suffer anumber of disagreeable things from these vindictive women, who daily endeavourto repay me the evils I heap on them; there is between us a kind of interchangeof empire and obedience; theyare always imposing upon me the most humiliatingoffices; they affect an exemplary contempt, and regardless of my age, make merise ten times in a night, on the most trifling occasion. I am continuallytired with orders, commands, employments and caprices; it looks as if theyalternately relieved each other to weary me with a succession of whimsies. Theytake a pleasure, sometimes, in making me redouble my attention, they pretend tomake me their consident; at one time they run to tell me, that a young man isseen about the walls; another time that a noise is heard, or a letterdelivered, and delight themselves with laughing at the trouble and tormentthese things give me. Sometimes they fix me behind a door, and make me continuethere night and day; they well know how to feign sickness, swoonings, orfrights, and never want a pretence to gain their will of me. On these occasionsI am forced to yield an implicit obedience, and boundless complaisance, for arefusal from such a man as I, would be an unheard of thing, and if I were tohesitate about obeying them, they would take a right to correct me. I wouldmuch rather, my dear Ibbi, lose life than to submit to such a mortifying state:but this is not the whole, my masters favour is not sure to me for amoment; I have too many enemies in his heart, who are all watching to ruin me,they enjoy certain seasons when I cannot be heard, seasons in which he canrefuse them nothing, times in which I am ever in the wrong. I conduct womenenraged to my masters bed, can you imagine they will serve me? or thatmy interest will be the strongest? From their tears, their sighs, theirembraces, and from their very pleasures, I have every thing to fear. It is thenthey triumph, and that their charms become terrible to me; their presentservices, in an instant efface all my past ones, and to a master no longerhimself, by me nothing can be answered. How frequently has it happened to me tosleep in favour, and a wake to disgrace! The day I wasso disgracefully whipt round the seraglio, what hadI done? I had left in my masters arms a woman, who, when she saw he wasinflamed, burst into a flood of tears; she lamented, and so successfullymanaged her complaints, that they arose with the love she excited in him; in socritical a moment, how was I able to support myself? I was ruined when I leastexpected, I was the victim of an amorous intrigue, and a treaty made by fighs.See, dear Ibbi, the wretched state in which I have ever lived; how happy artthou! thy cares are confined to the person of Usbek only. It is easy to pleasehim, and to support thyself in his favour to thy latest day.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the last of themoon Saphar,

1711

.

Mirza

Mirza

1711

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER X.

Mirza to hisFriend Usbek, at Erzeron.

IT is thou only who couldest recompense to me the absence of Rica, and thereis no person but Rica who could console me for thine. We want thee, Usbek, thouwast the soul of our society; how difficult is it to dissolve the engagementswhich friendship and reason have formed! We have here many disputations; whichturn commonly on morality. The question yesterday was, Whether the happiness ofmankind consists in pleasure and sensual gratifications, or in the exercise ofvirtue? I have frequently heard you maintain, that virtue is the end for whichwe were born, and that justice is a quality as necessary to us as existence;explain to me, pray, what you mean by this. I have conversed with the Moilocks,who distract me with their quotations from the Koran; for I speak no otherwiseto them than as a man, a citizen, and a father of afamily, and not as a believer. Farewel.

Ispahan

, the last day of the moon Saphar,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Erzeron

Mirza

Mirza

LETTER XI.

Usbek to Mirza, at Ispahan.

THOU renouncest thy own reason to try mine: thou condescendest even toconsult me; thou think est me capable of instructing thee. My dear Mirza, thereis one thing which flatters me more than the good opinion thou hast conceivedof me; it is what has procured it me, thy friendship. I do not think that thereis need to use very abstracted reasons, to sulfil the task which thou hastprescribed to me. There are some certain truths, of which it is not sufficientto be persuaded, but men must be made even to feel them; moral truths are ofthis kind. Probably this historical piece may affect thee more than aphilosophical subtlety. In Arabia there were a few people, named Troglodites,descendants of the ancient Troglodites, who, if we can believe our historians,resembled beasts rather than men. They were not so deformed; they were nothairy like bears; they did not hiss; they had two eyes: yet they were so wickedand brutish, that they were strangers to the principles of justice and equity.A foreign king, who reigned over them, willing to correct their naturalwickedness, treated them with severity; but they conspired against him,murdered him, and exterminated all the royal family. Having struck this blow,they met to chuse a government, and after much dissention, appointedmagistrates, but they were scarcely elected when they became intolerable, andwere massacred. The people, freed from this new yoke, consulted only their ownsavageness. Every one agreed tosubmit to no person: that each should follow his owninterest, without any attention to that of others. This general resolution wasextremely pleasing to all.They reasoned thus: Why should Idestroy myself in labouring for those who do not concern me; I will take carefor myself only; I shall live happily; what is it to me how others live? Ishall provide for my own wants; and if they are satisfied, what care I if allthe rest of the Troglodites are miserable?This was seed-time:each man said, I will only manure as much land as will supply cornsufficient for myself; a greater quantity would be useless to me; I shall nottake the trouble to work in vain. The lands of this little kingdom werenot all alike; some parts were dry and mountainous; others, in the low grounds,were well watered by rivulets. This year there was a great drought, insomuchthat the upper grounds failed greatly, whist those which were watered provedvery fertile; the consequence was, that almost all the people who lived in themountains perished by famine, through the hard-heartedness of those who refusedto share their harvest with them. The following year was very rainy; the highergrounds proved extraordinary fruitful, whilst the lower grounds were drowned.Now the other half of the people complained of famine; but these miserablepeople found the mountaineers as hard-hearted as they themselves had been. Oneof the chief inhabitants had a very handsome wise, of whom his neighbour becamein love, and forced her from him; this occasioned a strong contest, and, aftermany blows and outrages, they consented to submit the decision to a Troglodite,who, whilst the republic subsisted, had been in some esteem. They came to him,and were going to plead their cause before him.What does itconcern me, said the umpire, whose wife she is, yours, or yours; I have my landto till; I cannot spend my time in determining your quarrels, not busy myselfin your affairs to the neglect of my own; pray let me be quiet,and do not trouble me with yourdisputes.Having so said, he left them, and went to work on hisland. The ravisher, who was the stronger man, swore he would sooner die thanrestore the woman; whilst the husband, penetrated with the injustice of hisneighbour, and the hardness of his judge, returned home in despair; whenmeeting in his way a handsome young woman, returning from a fountain, andhaving now no wife of his own; being pleased with her, and much more so, whenhe learned she was the wife of him whom he had chosen for his judge, and whohad been so little sensible of his affliction; he seized on her, and forced herto go to his house. There was another man who possessed a fruitful field, whichhe had cultivated wich great labour; two of his neighbours united together,forced him out of his house, and took possession of his field; they formed acompact to defend themselves against all those who should endeavour to take itfrom them, and did really support themselves several months. But one of them,tired of sharing what he might possess alone, murdered the other, and becamesole master of the field; his reign was not long; two other Trogloditesattacked him; and he was massacred, being too weak to defend himself. AnotherTroglodite, who was almost naked, asked the price of some cloth, which he saw,and wanted to buy; the draper reasoned thus with himself: I indeed oughtnot to expect more money for my cloth than will buy two measures of wheat; butI will sell it for four times that advantage, that I may purchase eightmeasures.The man must needs have the cloth, and pay the pricedemanded; I am very well contented, said the draper, I now shall havesome wheat. What is it you say, replied the buyer, do you wantwheat? I have some to sell, however the price perhaps may surprise you; for youknow wheat is extremely dear, and that the famine is extended almost everywhere; but return me my money and you shall have a measure of wheat,and though you should perish by the famine, youshould not have it otherwise. In the mean time the country was ravagedby a mortal distemper; a skilful physician arrived from a neighbouring country,who administered his medicines so properly, that he cured all who putthemselves under his care. When the distemper ceased, he went to those whom hehad cured, to demand his pay, but refusals were all he received. He returned tohis own country, tired with the fatigue of so long a journey. But a short timeafter, he heard that the same distemper had returned again, and more grievouslyafflicted those ungrateful people. They did not now wait for his coming, butwent to him themselves. Unjust men, said he, go; you have in your soulsa more deadly poison than that of which you desire to be cured; you areunworthy to enjoy a place upon earth, for you are void of humanity, and thelaws of equity are unknown to you. I should think it an offence against thegods, who punish you, should I oppose their just anger.

Erzeron

, the 3d of the moon of the 2d Gemmadi,

1711

.

Ushek

Ushek

1711

Erzeron

Ispahan

Ispahan

LETTER XII.

Ushek to theSame, at Ispahan.

THOU hast seen, my dear Mirza, how the Troglodites were destroyed by theirown wickedness, and fell the victims of their own injustice. Of so manyfamilies, two only remained, who escaped the miseries of this people. Therewere in this country two very extraordinary men; they possessed humanity, wereacquainted with justice, and loved virtue. They were as much united by theuprightness of their hearts, as by the corruption of those of others they sawthe general desolation, and only shewed their sense of it bytheir pity; this was a new motive to union. A commonsolicitude, and a common interest, engaged their labours; there was nodifference between them but what owed its birth to a sweet and tenderfriendship. In a retired part of the country, separate from their unworthycountrymen, they led a life of peace and happiness; cultivated by theirvirtuous hands, the earth seemed to yield its fruits spontaneously. They lovedtheir wives, and were affectionately beloved by them. The training up theirchildren to virtue engaged their utmost care. They continually represented tothem the miseries of their countrymen, and placed their melancholy examplebefore their eyes. They especially inculcated upon their minds, that theinterest of individuals was always to be found in that of the community, andthat to attempt to seek it separately, was to destroy it; that virtue is by nomeans a thing that ought to be burdensome to us, nor the practice of itconsidered as painful; that doing justice to others is acting charitably toourselves. They soon enjoyed the consolation of virtuous parents, whichconsists in having children like themselves. These young people, who grew upunder their care, were increased by happy marriages, and their numberaugmented; the same union continued, and virtue, far from being weakened by themultitude, was, on the contrary, strengthened by a greater number of examples.Who is able to represent the happiness of the Troglodites at this period! Apeople so just could not but be dear to the gods. They learned to reverencethem as soon as they had a knowledge of them, and religion improved theirmorals, and softened their natural roughness. In honour of the gods theyinstituted feasts. The young women dressed with flowers, and the youths dancedto the sound of rural music; then followed banquets, which were not less joyfulthan frugal. In these assemblies pure Nature spoke; it was here they learned togive and receive hearts; it was herethat virgin modesty, blushing, consessed its alarms;but its wishes were soon established by the consent of fathers; and hereaffectionate mothers delighted themselves with the foresight of a loving andfaithful union. They went to the temple to ask the favour of the gods; it wasnot for riches, or a burdensome superfluity; such kind of wishes were unworthyto be desired by the happy Troglodites, except only for theirfellow-countrymen. They only bowed before the altars to pray for the health oftheir parents, the unity of their brethren, the affection of their wives, andthe love and obedience of their children. Maidens came thither to offer up thetender sacrifice of their hearts, and that they might make a Troglodite happywas the only favour they asked. When the flocks at evening left the fields, andthe weary oxen returned home with the plough, then these happy people mettogether, and, during a frugal repast, sang the crimes of the firstTroglodites, and their punishment; and the revival of virtue with a new race.They also sang the power of the gods, their favour, ever present to those whoworship them, and their inevitable displeasure at those who fear them not: theyafterwards described the pleasures of a rural life, and the happiness withwhich innocence is always adorned. They soon after resigned themselves to arepose never interrupted by any cares or uneasiness. Nature equally providedfor their cares and their pleasures. In this happy country, covetousness wasunknown: they made presents to each other, and the donor always supposed he hadthe advantage. The Troglodites ever considered themselves as one family; theirflocks were mingled together, and the only trouble they excused themselves wasthat of separating them.

Erzeron

, the 16th of the moon of the secondGemmadi,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Erzeron

Ispahan

Ispahan

LETTER XIII.

Usbek to theSame.

THE virtue of the Troglodites is what I cannot speak to thee enough of. Oneof them once said: My father to-morrow should labour in the field, Iwill rise two hours before him, and when he comes into the field he shall findall his work done.Another said to himself: My sister seemsto like a young Troglodite, a relation of ours, I must speak to my father, thathe may terminate it by a marriage.Another being told, that somerobbers had carried off his herd, I am very sorry, said he, for therewas a white heiffer, which I intended to have offered up to thegods.Another was once heard saying; I must go to thetemple to return the gods thanks, that my brother, who is so greatly beloved bymy father, and who is so dear to me, has recovered his health.Orelse: Adjoining to a field of my fathers there is another, andthose who work in it are continually exposed to the heat of the sun; I mustplant some trees there, that those poor men may sometimes rest themselves underthe shadow of them.One time, several Troglodites being together,an elderly man reproached a younger, whom he suspected of having committed abase action: We do not think he has done such an action, said theothers, but if he has, may his death happen the last of his family!ATroglodite being informed, that some stranger had pillaged and carried everything off, replied, I could wish the gods would give them a longer useof them than I have had, were they not unjust men.Such greatprosperity was not regarded without envy. The neighbouring people gatheredtogether, and, under a frivolous pretence, determined to take away theirflocks. As soon as this resolution was known, the Troglodites sent ambassadorsto them, who addressedthem to this purpose: What have theTroglodites done to you? Have they taken away your wives, stolen your cattle,or ravaged your country? No; we are just, and fear the gods. What then do youdemand of us? Would you have wool to make you clothes? Would you have the milkof our flocks, or the fruits of our lands? Lay down your arms, come among us,and we will give you all these; but we swear by that which is most sacred, thatif you enter our lands as enemies, we will treat you as wildbeasts.This address was treated with contempt, and the savagepeople entered armed into the country of the Troglodites, who, they supposedhad no other defence besides their innocence. But they were well prepared for adefence; they had placed their wives and children in the midst of them, andwere surprised at the injustice, but not dismayed at the numbers of theirenemies. Their hearts were seized with a fresh ardour; one would lose his lifefor his father, another for his wife and children; this for his brethren, andthat for his friends, and all of them for their country. The place of him whowas killed was instantly taken by another, who besides the common cause hadalso a private death to revenge. Such was the combat between injustice andvirtue. These base people, who sought nothing but the spoil, were not ashamedto fly, and submit to the virtue of the Troglodites, and even without beingtouched with a sense of it.

Erzeron

the 9th of the moon of the 2d Gemmadi,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Erzeron

Ispahan

Ispahan

LETTER. XIV.

Usbek to theSame.

AS these people, the Troglodites, every day grew more numerous, they thoughtit necessary to elect a king; they determined to offer the crown to himwho was the most just; and cast their eyes on onevenerable for his age, and a long course of virtue; but he would not attend theassembly, and retired to his own house with a heart oppressed with grief. Theythen sent deputies to him, to acquaint him of the choice they had made of him.The gods forbid, said he, that I should so wrong the Troglodites, asthat they should believe that there is not a more just person among them thanmyself. You offer me the crown, and if you will absolutely have it to be so, Imust accept it; but be assured I shall die of grief, at having seen theTroglodites born free, now to see them become subject.At thesewords he lamented with a torrent of tears. Miserable day! said he, whyhave I lived so long? Then cried he, in a severer accent, I verywell perceive what is the cause, O ye Troglodites; your virtue begins to be tooheavy for you. In the state you are, without a head, you are constrained to bevirtuous in spite of yourselves, or you cannot subsist, but must sink into themiseries of your ancestors. But this seems too hard a yoke for you; you likebetter to be subject to a king, and to obey his laws, less rigid than yourmorals. You know that then you may gratify your ambition, gain riches, andlanguish in slothful luxury, and, provided you avoid falling into great crimes,you will have no want of virtue. He ceased a little, and his tearsflowed more than ever.And what do you expect me to do? How can itbe that I should command a Troglodite any thing? Would you have him actvirtuously because I command him, which he would do wholly of himself withoutme, and purely from a natural inclination? Oh Troglodites, I am at the end ofmy days, my blood is frozen in my veins, I shall soon go to revisit your holyancestors; why would you have me afflict them, and why must I be obliged toinform them that I left you under any other yoke than that ofvirtue?

Erzeron

, the 10th of the moon of the 2dGammadi,

1711

.

1711

Jaron

Jaron

LETTER XV.

The first Eunuch, to Jaron, the Black Eunuch, at Erzeron.

I PRAY heaven that it may bring thee back to these parts, and defend theefrom all danger. Though I have scarcely ever been sensible of that engagementwhich is called friendship, and am entirely swallowed up in myself, yet thouhast however made me feel that I have a heart, and at the same time that I wasas brass to the rest of the slaves who lived under my command, I saw withpleasure thy infancy grow up. The time when my master cast his eyes on theeapproached. Nature had not then inspired thee with its dictates, when the ironseparated thee from what is natural. I will not confess whether I bewailedthee, or whether I was sensible of the pleasure of seeing thee brought into thesame condition with myself. I appeased thy tears and thy cries. I imagined Isaw thee undergo a second birth, and passing from a state of servitude, inwhich thou must always have obeyed, to engage in one in which thou oughtestalways to command. I took upon myself the care of thy education. That severity,which is ever inseparable from instruction, kept thee long ignorant that thouwast dear to me. However, thou wast so to me; and I assure thee that I lovedthee as a father loves his son, if the words, father and son, are compatiblewith our condition. Thou art to pass through countries inhabited by Christians,who have never believed: it is impossible but that thou must there contractsome impurities. How can the prophet behold thee in the midst of so manymillions of his enemies? I wish my master, on his return, would undertake apilgrimage to Mecca; you would be purified in that land of angels.

From the seraglio, the 10th of the moon Gemmadi,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Erzeron

Mollak Mehemet Ali

Ali, Mollak Mehemet

LETTER XVI.

Usbek to Mollak Mehemet Ali, Guardian of the Three Tombs, at Com.

WHY dost thou live, divine Mollak, in the tombs? Thou art better made forthe abode of the stars. Thou doubtless hidest thyself through fear of obscuringthe sun; thou hast no spots like that star, yet like him thou art covered withclouds. Thy knowledge is an abyss deeper than the ocean; thy wit more piercingthan Zufagar, the sword of Hali, which had two points; thou art acquainted withwhat passes in the nine choirs of the celestial powers. Thou readest the Koranon the breast of our holy prophet, and when thou findest any obscure passage,an angel, at his command, spreads his rapid wings, to descend from the throne,to reveal to thee the secret. I may, by thy means, have an intimatecorrespondence with the seraphim, for, in short, thou thirteenth Iman, art thounot the centre where heaven and earth meet, the point of communication betweenthe abyss and the empyreal heaven? I am in the middle of a profane people;permit that I may purify myself with thee; suffer me to turn my face towardsthy holy place where thou dwellest. Distinguish me from the wicked, as thewhite thread is distinguished from the black; at the rising of Aurora, aid mewith thy councils; take care of my soul; make it to drink of the spirit of theprophets; feed it with the science of Paradise, and permit that I display itswounds at thy feet. Address thy holy letters to me at Erzeron; where I shallcontinue some months.

Erzeron

, the 11th of the moon of the 2dGemmadi,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Erzeron

Mollak Mehemet Ali

Ali, Mollak Mehemet

LETTER XVII.

Usbek to theSame.

I CANNOT, divine Mollak, quiet my impatience; I know not how to wait for thysublime answer: I have doubts which must be satisfied; I perceive that myreason wanders; restore it to the right path; enlighten me, thou source oflight; drive away, with thy divine pen, the difficulties I am now going topropose to thee; make me commiserate myself, and even blush at the questions Iam about to ask. Why does our legislator restrain us from swines flesh,and from all those meats which he calls unclean? Why are we forbidden to toucha corpse? And why, for the purification of our souls, are we commandedcontinually to wash our bodies? these things appear to me to be, in themselves,neither pure nor impure; for that they should be rendered such by any inherentquality in them, I cannot conceive. Dirt appears filthy to us, only because itis offensive to our sight, or to some other of our senses, yet in itself it isno more so than gold or diamonds. The idea of filthiness contracted by touchinga dead body, arises only from a certain repugnance which we have to it. If thebodies of those who do not wash themselves neither offended our smell norsight, how could we imagine them to be impure? Therefore the senses, divineMollak, ought to be the only judges of the purity or impurity of things; yet,as the same objects do not affect all men in the same manner, as that whichyields an agreeable sensation to some, affords an unpleasant one to others, itfollows that the evidence of our senses cannot in this case serve as a rule,unless we allow that each person may, according to his own fancy, determine thepoint, and distinguish, for what relates to himself, what things are pure orimpure. But would not this, divine Mollak, overturn all thedistinctions established by our holy prophet, andthe fundamental points of that law which was written by the fingers ofangels?

Erzeron

, the 20th of the moon of the 2dGemmadi,

1711

.

Mollak Mehemet Ali

Ali, Mollak Mehemet

1711

Com

LETTER XVIII.

Mollak MehemetAli to Usbek, at Erzeron.

THOU art always offering questions which have a thousand times been proposedto our holy prophet. Why dost thou not read the traditions of the doctors? Whydost thou not go to that pure fountain of all intelligence? Thou wouldest therefind all thy doubts resolved. Unhappy man! who art continually embarrassed withworldly things; having never fixed thy attention on the things of heaven; andwho reverencest the order of the Mollaks, without daring to embrace or followit! profane beings! who never enter into the secrets of the Eternal; yourlights resemble the darkness of the abyss, and the reasonings of your mind areas the dust, which your feet throw up when the sun reaches the meridian in thescorching month of Chahban. Nor does the zenith of your understanding reach tothe nadir of the meanest Imaum. Your vain philosophy is that lightning whichforetels tempests and darkness; thou art in the midst of the storm, and carriedto and fro with every gust of wind. The solution of your difficulty is veryeasy; nothing more is necessary but to relate to you what one day happened toour holy prophet, when being tempted by the Christians, and tried by the Jews,he equally confounded each of them. Abdias Ibesalon [*] , the Jew, asked the prophet, why God had prohibited the eatingof swines flesh? Not without reason,replied Mahomet, it is an unclean animal, and that it is so I will instantlyconvince you. He moulded some dirt in his hand into the figure of a man,threw it upon the ground, and cried, Arise thou! Immediately aman arose, and said, I am Japhet, the son of Noah. To whom theholy prophet said, Was thy hair as white at the time of thydeath? No, replied he; but when thou didst awake me, I thoughtthe day of judgment was come, and I felt so great a terror, that my hair waschanged to white in a moment.Now relate to me, said theSent of God, the entire history of what happened in Noahs ark.Japhet obeyed, and gave an exact account of the events of the first months, andthen continued as follows: [*] All the dung of the beasts we cast to one side of the ark, whichmade it lean so much, that we were all terribly frightened, especially ourwives, who made an horrible lamentation. Our father Noah, having taken counselof God, he ordered him to remove the elephant to that part, and to turn hishead toward the side which leaned. This huge animal made such plentifulevacuations that a hog was produced from them. Dost thou not believe,Usbek, that from this time we have abstained from this animal, and regarded itas unclean? But as this hog wallowed daily in the dung, he raised such a stenchin the ark, that he himself could not help sneezing, and a rat fell from hisnose, which immediately ghawed every thing he met with, and thereby he becameso intolerable to Noah, that he once more thought it necessary to consult God.He ordered him to strike the lion a great blow on his forehead, who alsosneezed, and from his nose leaped a cat. Dost thou not believe these animalsalso to be unclean? How does it appear to thee? Therefore when thou dost notcomprehend the reason why certain things art unclean, it is because thou artignorantof many other things, and hast not a knowledge ofwhat has passed between God, the angels, and men. Thou knowest not the historyof eternity; thou hast not read the books which were written in heaven; thatwhich hath been revealed to thee is only a small portion of the divine library;even those who, like us, have approached much nearer, so as to be in this kindof life, are nevertheless in obscurity and darkness. Farewel. May Mahomet be inthy heart.

Com

, the last day of the moon Chahban,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Smyrna

Rustan

Rustan

LETTER XIX.

Usbek to hisFriend Rustan, at Ispahan.

AT Tocat we continued but eight days; after a journey of five and thirtydays, we reached Smyrna. Between Tocat and Smyrna we saw only one city, whichmerited that name. I was surprised to see the weak state of the Osmalin empire.This distempered body does not support itself by a mild and temperategovernment, but by such violent remedies as incessantly exhaust and destroy it.The bashaws, who procure their employments only by the power of money, enterthose provinces in a ruined condition, and ravage them as conquered countries.An insolent militia, subject only to its own caprice; the towns dismantled, thecities deserted, the country desolated, the culture of the land and commerceentirely neglected. Under this severe government impunity reigns; theChristians, who cultivate the lands, and the Jews, who collect the tribute, areexposed to a thousand outrages. The property of the lands is uncertain, andconsequently the desire of increasing their value diminished; as neither titlenor possession are a sufficient security againstthe caprice of those who have the government. Thesebarbarians have so far abandoned the arts, that they have even neglected themilitary art. Whilst all Europe grows daily more refined, they remain in theirancient ignorance, and rarely think of improving by their new inventions, tillthey have been a thousand times employed against them. They have gained noexperience at sea; no skill in naval affairs; a mere handful of Christians, thepossessors of a barren rock [*] , are a terror to the Ottoman race, and distress their whole empire. Itis with anxiety they suffer the Christians, always laborious and enterprising,to carry on for them that commerce for which themselves are unfit; they imaginethey are granting a favour, when they permit these foreigners to enrichthemselves. Through this vast extent of country that I have passed, Smyrna isthe only rich and powerful city that I have observed; it is the Europeans thathave rendered it such, and it is no fault of the Turks that it is not in thesame miserable condition with the others. See, dear Rustan, a justrepresentation of this empire, which in less than two centuries will be thetheatre of triumph to some new conqueror.

Smyrna

, the 2d of the moon of Rahmazan,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Smyrna

Zachi

Zachi

LETTER XX.

Usbek to Zachi, his Wife, at the Seraglio atIspahan.

THOU hast offended me, Zachi, I feel emotions in my heart at which you oughtto tremble, if the distance I am at did not afford thee time to alter thyconduct, and allay the excessive jealousy with which I am tormented. I aminformed, that you were catched alonewith Nadir, the white eunuch, whose head shall payfor his infidelity and treachery. How could you forget yourself so far as notto be sensible that it is not allowed you to receive a white eunuch into yourchamber, whilst you have black ones appointed to serve you? You may say whatyou will to me; that these eunuchs are not men; and that your virtue raises youabove all thoughts that an imperfect likeness might give birth to. This is notsufficient either for you, or for me; not for you, because you have done whatthe laws of the seraglio forbid; nor for me, in that you rob me of my honour,in exposing yourself to the looks; to the looks, did I say? it may be, to theattempts of a traitor, who may have defiled you by his crimes, and yet more bythe repinings of his despair, and of his impotence. Perhaps you will say, thatyou have always continued faithful. How had you a power to be otherwise? Howcould you deceive the vigilance of those black eunuchs, who are astonished atthe life you lead? How could you break through those bolts and doors with whichyou are locked up? You glory in a virtue which is not free, and perhaps yourimpure desires have robbed you a thousand times of the merit and value of thatfidelity of which you so much boast. I will admit that you have not done allthat I might reasonably suspect; that this traitor has not laid hissacrilegious hands upon you; that you have refused to indulge him with a sightof the delights of his master; that, covered with your habit, you let that weakbarrier between you and him remain; that, struck with a reverential awe, hecast his eyes to the ground; that, failing in his courage, he trembled at thechastisement he was preparing for himself. Though all this should be true, itis nevertheless so, that you have acted contrary to your duty. And if you havebroken through your duty for nothing, without fulfilling your irregulardesires, what would you have done to gratify them? What would you do, if youcould leave that sacred place, which seems toyou a melancholy prison, though it is an happyasylum to your companions against the attacks of vice; an holy temple, whereyour sex loses its weakness, and finds itself invincible, in opposition to allthe disadvantages of nature? What would you do, if, abandoned to yourself youhad no other defence but your love to me, which is so grievously injured, andyour own duty, which you have so basely acted against? How sacred are themanners of the country in which you live, which secure you from the attempts ofthe meanest slaves! You ought to thank me for the restraint I make you liveunder, since it is by that only that you even merit to live. The chief of theeunuchs is intolerable to you, because he is always attentive to your conduct,and affords you his sage advice. You cannot look at him, you say, withoutuneasiness, because he is so extremely ugly, as if the handsomest objectsshould be appointed to such kind of posts as his. The not having in his placethe white eunuch, who dishonours you, is what afflicts you. But what has yourchief slave done to you? She has told you, that the familiarities you take withyoung Zelida are not decent; this is the cause of your aversion. I ought,Zachi, to be a severe judge, but I am a kind husband, who desire to find youinnocent. The love I bear to Roxana, my new spouse, has not deprived me of thattenderness which I ought to entertain for you, who are not less beautiful. Idivide my love between you two, and Roxana hath no other advantage but whatbeauty receives from the addition of virtue.

Smyrna

, the 12th of the moon Zilcade,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1711

Smyrna

White Eunuch

LETTER XXI.

Usbek, to thechief White Eunuch.

WHEN you open this letter you ought to tremble; or rather you ought to havedone so when you permitted the treachery of Nadir. You who, in a coldlanguishing old age, may not guiltless raise your eyes to the dreadful objectsof my love; you, to whom it is never allowed to put your sacrilegious foot overthe threshold of the tremendous place which conceals them from the view ofevery human eye; you suffer those whose conduct is intrusted to your care to dowhat you have not boldness enough to do yourself; and are you not sensible ofthe thunder just ready to break on you and them? And what are you but vileinstruments which I can destroy according to my humour, who exist only as longas you obey; who were born only to live under my laws, or to die at mypleasure; who do not breathe longer than my happiness, my love, and even myjealousy, have need of your servility; in short, who have no other portion butsubmission, no other will but my pleasure, and no hope but my happiness. Someof my wives, I know, bear with impatience the strict laws of duty; thecontinual presence of a black Eunuch disgusts them; they are tired with thosefrightful objects which are appointed to confine their affections to theirhusband; all this I know. But you, who have taken part in this irregularity,you shall be punished in such a manner as to make all those who have abused myconfidence tremble. By all the prophets in heaven, and by Hali, the greatest ofthem all, I swear, that if you swerve from your duty, I will regard your lifebut as the life of those infects which I crush under my feet.

Smyrna

, the 2d of the moon Zilcade,

1711

.

Jaron

Jaron

1711

Smyrna

Eunuch

Eunuch

LETTER XXII.

Jaron to thefirst Eunuch.

USBEK, in proportion as he removes further from his seraglio, turns his mindtowards those women who are devoted to him: he sighs; he sheds tears; his griefaugments; his suspicions gain strength. He wants to encrease the number oftheir guardians. He is going to send me back again, with all the blacks whoattend him. His fears are not for himself, but for what is dearer to him athousand times than himself. I return then to live under thy laws, and todivide thy cares. Alas! how many things are necessary to the happiness of oneman! At the same instant that nature placed women in a dependent state, itseemed to deliver them from it; disorder arose between the two sexes, becausetheir rights were mutual. The plan of harmony we have engaged in is new: wehave put hatred between the women and us, love between the men and women. Mybrow is becoming stern, I shall contract a gloomy air, joy shall fly from mylips. I shall outwardly appear calm, and my mind disturbed. I shall not waitfor the wrinkles of old age to shew its peevishness. I should have takenpleasure in attending my master to the west, but my will is his property. Hewill have me guard his women; I will watch them faithfully. I know how I oughtto carry myself with the sex, which, when not allowed to be vain, becomesproud; and which it is more easy to destroy than to humble. I prostrate myselfin thy presence.

Smyrna

, the 12th of the moon Zilcade,

1711

.

Usbek

Usbek

1712

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XXIII.

Usbek to hisFriend Ibben, at Smyrna.

AFTER a sail of forty days, we have reached Leghorn. It is a new city, aproof of the great genius of the dukes of Tuscany, who have raised the mostflourishing city in Italy from a marshy village. Here the women are greatlyindulged: they may look at men through certain windows, called jealousies; they may go out every day, accompanied only bysome old women; they wear only a single veil [*] . Their brothers-in-law, uncles, and nephews may visit them; at whichthe husband is scarcely ever offended. The first view of a Christian city is agreat sight to a Mahometan. I do not mean such things as at first view strikeevery spectator, as the difference of buildings, dress, and principal customs;there is, even to the minutest thing, a singularity which I know not how todescribe, though I can feel it. We set out for Marseilles tomorrow; ourcontinuance there will be short; for Rica and I design to go immediately toParis, which is the seat of the European empire. Great cities are always thedesired objects of travellers; for they are a kind of common country to allstrangers. Farewel; be assured I shall always love you.

Leghorn the 12th of the moon Saphar,

1712

.

Rica

Rica

1712

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XXIV.

Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna.

WE have been this month at Paris, and all the while in a continual motion.There is a good deal to be done before one can be settled, meet with all thepersons one has business with, and procure every thing necessary, all which arewonted at once. Paris is as large as Ispahan. One would imagine the houses wereonly inhabited by astrologers, they are so lofty. Thou wilt easily judge, thata city built in the air, which has six or seven houses one on another, must beextremely populous, and that when all this world of people are come down intothe streets, there must be a fine bustle. Thou wilt not, perhaps, believe, thatduring the month I have been here, I have not yet seen one person a walking.There is no people in the world who make better use of their machines than theFrench; they run; they fly; the slow carriages of Asia, the regular pace of ourcamels, would make them fall asleep. As for my own part, who am not made forsuch expedition, and who often go on foot without altering my pace, I amsometimes as mad as a Christian; for, passing over the splashing me from headto foot, I cannot pardon the punches of elbows, which I receive regularly andperiodically. A man comes behind me, and passes me, turns me half round, andanother who crosses me on the other fide, in an instant returns me back againinto my first place; and I am more bruised before I have walked a hundred pacesthan if I had travelled ten leagues. Thou must not expect that I can as yetgive thee a perfect account of the European manners and customs; I have myselfonly a faint idea of them, and have scarcely had morethan time to wonder. The king of France is the mostpuissant prince in Europe. He has not, like his neighbour the king of Spain,mines of gold; but his riches are greater than his; for he supplies them fromthe vanity of his subjects, more inexhaustible than those mines. He has engagedin, and supported, great wars, without any other fund than the sale of titlesof honour, and his troops have been paid, his towns fortified, and his fleetsfitted out, by a prodigy of human pride. This prince is, besides, a greatmagician; he exercises his empire even over the minds of his subjects, andmakes them think as he pleases. If he has but only a thousand crowns in histreasury, and has occasion for two, he needs only tell them that one crown isworth two, and they believe it. If he has a difficult war to maintain, and hasno money, he has only to put it into their heads that a piece of paper ismoney, and they are presently convinced of the truth of it. He even goes so faras to make them believe that he can cure them of all kinds of evils by touchingthem; so great is the power and influence which he has over their minds. Thouneedest not be astonished at what I tell thee of this prince; there is anothermagician more powerful than he, who is no less master of his mind than he is ofthose of others. This magician is called the Pope: sometimes he makes himbelieve, that the bread which he eats is not bread, or that the wine which hedrinks is not wine, and a thousand other things of the same nature. And, tokeep him always in breath, and that he may not lose the habit of believing, hegives him, from time to time, to exercise him, certain articles of faith. It istwo years since he sent him a large scroll, which he called constitution, and would needs oblige, under great penalties,this prince and all his subjects, to believe every thing it contained. Hesucceeded with the king, who instantly submitted, and setan example to his subjects; but some among themrevolted, and declared they would believe nothing of all that was contained inthe scroll. The women are the movers of this rebellion, which divides the wholecourt, all the kingdom, and every family in it. This constitution prohibits the women reading a book, which all theChristians say was brought down from heaven; which is properly their Koran. Thewomen, enraged at this affront offered to their sex, raise all their forceagainst the constitution; they have gained the men totheir party, who, on this occalion, will not receive their privilege. TheMufti, it must be owned, does not reason amiss; and, by the great Hali, it mustbe, that he has been instructed in the principles of our holy faith; for, sincethe women are an inferior creation to ours, and our prophets insorm us, thatthey will not enter into Paradise, for what end should they corcern themselvesin reading a book, which is only designed to teach the way to Paradise? Somemiraculous things I have heard related to the king, which I doubt not but youwill hesitate to believe. It is said, that whilst he made war against hisneighbours, who were all leagued against him, he had in his kingdom an infinitenumber of enemies, who surrounded him. They add, that he searched for themabove thirty years, and that, notwithstanding the unwearied pains of somedervises, who have his confidence, he could never discover one. They live withhim; are in his court, in his capital, in his troops, in his tribunals; yet itis said, he will have the mortisication to die without finding one of them.They may be said to have a general existence, and to have nothing ofindividuality; it is a body, but without members. Doubtless it is heaven thatwould punish this prince, for not having been sufficiently moderate towards hisconquered enemies, since it hath raised up against him invisible ones, whosegenius and appointment are superior to his own. I shall continue to write toyou, andto acquaint you with things extremely remote fromthe character and genius of the Persians. It is indeed the same earth thatbears us both; yet the men of the country in which I live, and those of thatwhich thou inhabitest, are very different kinds of men.

Paris

, the 4th of the moon of the 2d Rebiah,

1712

.

Usbek

Usbek

1712

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XXV.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

I HAVE received a letter from thy nephew Rhedi, who acquaints me with hisdesign to see Italy, and that the sole view of his voyage is to improvehimself, and thereby to render himself more worthy of thee. I congratulatethee, on having a nephew who will one day be the comfort of thy old age. Ricawrites thee a long letter; he tells me that he gives thee a large account ofthis country. The quickness of his understanding makes him apprehend everything with ease; as to me, who conceive more slowly, I cannot at present informthee of any thing. Thou art the subject of our most tender conversations; wecan never talk enough of the kind reception you afforded us at Smyrna; nor ofthe friendship thou renderedst us. Mayest thou, generous Ibben, find everywhere friends, as grateful and as faithful as we! May I soon see thee again,and once more enjoy with thee those happy days, which pass so sweetly betweentwo friends. Farewel.

Paris

, the 4th of the moon of the 2d Rebiab,

1712

.

Usbek

Usbek

1712

Paris

Roxana

Roxana

LETTER XXVI.

Usbek to Roxana, at the Seraglio at Ispahan.

HOW happy art thou, Roxana, to be in the delightful country of Persia, andnot in these poisoned climes, where neither virtue nor modesty are known! Howhappy art thou! Thou livest in my seraglio, as in the abode of innocence,secure from the attempts of all mankind! you, with pleasure, experience a happyinability to go astray; never did man pollute you with his lascivious looks;during the freedom of festivities even your father-in-law never saw your finemouth; you never neglected to cover it with a holy veil. Happy Roxana! wheneveryou have gone into the country, you have always had eunuchs to march before, topunish with death the temerity of those who did not fly from your sight. Even Imyself, to whom heaven gave you to make me happy, how much trouble have I hadto render myself master of that treasure, which with so much constancy youdefended! How distressing to me, during the first days of our marriage, not tosee you! And how impatient when I had beheld you! Yet you would not satisfy it;on the contrary you increased it, by the obstinate refusals of your bashfulalarms; you did not distinguish me from all other men, from whom you are alwaysconcealed. Do you recollect the day I lost you among your slaves, who betrayedme, and hid you from my searches? Do you remember another time, when, findingyour tears insufficient, you engaged the authority of your mother, to stop theeagerness of my love? Do you remember, when every other resource failed you,those you found in your own courage? You took a dagger, and threatened tosacrifice a husband who loved you, if he persisted in requiring of you what youprized more thanyour husband himself. Two months passed in thestruggle between love and modesty. You carried your modest scruples too far;you did not even submit after you were conquered. You defended to the lastmoment a dying virginity; you regarded me as an enemy who had done you a wrong,not as a husband who had loved you; you was above three months before you couldlook at me without a blush; your bashful looks seemed to reproach me with theadvantage I had taken. I did not enjoy even a quiet possession; you deprived meof all those charms and graces that you could; and without having obtained theleast favours, I was ravished with the greatest. If your education had been inthis country, here you would not have been so troublesome. The women here havelost all modesty; they present themselves before the men with their facesuncovered, as though they would demand of them their defeat; they watch fortheir looks; they see them in thier mosques, their public walks, and even bythemselves; the service of eunuchs is unknown to them. In the room of thatnoble simplicity, and that amiable modesty which reigns amongst you, a brutalimpudence prevails, to which it is impossible to be accustomed. Yes, if thouwert here, Roxana, you would be enraged at the wretched shamefulness to whichyour sex is degenerated; you would fly these polluted places, and sigh for thatsweet retreat, where you find innocence, and yourself secure, and where nodangers terrify you: in a word, where you can love me without fear of everlosing that love for me which is my due. When you heighten your beautifulcomplexion with the finest colours; when you persume your whole body with themost precious effences, when you deck yourself with the richest dresses, whenyou endeavour to distinguish yourself from your companions by your gracefulmotions in dancing, and when, by the sweetness of your voice, you pleasinglydispute with them charms,affability, and gaiety, I cannot imagine you haveany other object to please but myself; and when I see your modest blush, thatyour eyes seek mine, that you insinuate yourself into my heart by your softalluring speeches, I cannot, Roxana, suspect your love. But what can I think ofthe European women? The art which forms their complexion, the ornaments theyuse in dress, the pains which they take with their persons, the constant desireto please that possesses them, are blemishes in their virtue, and affronts totheir husbands. It is not, Roxana, that I suspect they carry theirincroachments upon virtue to such a length as their conduct might lead one tobelieve; or that they carry their defection to such a horrid excess, that makesone tremble, as really to violate the conjugal vow. There are few womenabondoned enough to go this length; they all bear in their hearts a certainimpression of virtue, naturally engraved on them, which though their educationmay weaken, it cannot destroy. Though they may decline the external dutieswhich modesty exacts; yet when about to take the last step, nature returns totheir help. Thus when we shut you up closely, when we make you be guarded by somany slaves, when we so strongly restrain your desires when they would rangetoo far; it is not that we fear the least infidelity; but because we know thatpurity cannot be too great, and that by the least stain it may be polluted. Ipity you, Roxana; your chastity, so long tried, merited a husband who wouldnever have left you, and who might himself have satisfied those desires whichcan be subdued by your virtue alone.

Paris

, the 7th day of the moon Regeb,

1712

.

Usbek

Usbek

1712

Paris

Nessir

Nessir

LETTER XXVII.

Usbek to Nessir, at Ispahan.

WE are at present at Paris, that proud rival of the city of the Sun [*] . I engaged my friend Ibben, when I left Smyrna, to send a box to thee,containing some presents for thee; by the same means thou wilt receive thisletter. Though removed at so great a distance from him, as five or six hundredleagues, I send my letters to him, and receive his, with as much facility as ifhe was at Ispahan, and myself at Com. My letters I send to Marseilles, fromwhence there are vessels going continually to Smyrna; from thence, thoseintended for Persia, he sends by the Armenian caravans, which are constantlydeparting for Ispahan. Rica enjoys perfect health; his strong constitution,youth, and natural chearfulness, render him superior to every affliction. But,for my own part, I am not well; my body and mind are both depressed; I givemyself up to reflections which every day become more melancholy; my health,which is impaired, turns my mind towards my own country, and renders thiscountry still more foreign to me. But I conjure thee, dear Nessir, take carethat my wives may be ignorant of the condition I am in; for if they love me, Iwould spare their fears; and if they love me not, I would not increase theirboldness. If my eunuchs believed me in danger, if they could hope their basecompliance would pass unpunished; they would soon cease to be deaf to theflattering voice of that sex, which can melt rocks, and move things inanimate.Farewel, Nessir; it is a happiness to me to afford thee proofs of myconfidence.

Paris

, the 5th day of the moon of Chahban,

1712

.

Rica

Rica

LETTER XXVIII.

Rica to * * *.

YESTERDAY I saw a very extraordinary thing, though it happens every day atParis. After dinner, towards evening, all the people assemble to act a kind ofmimickry, which I heard called a play. The performance is in a place called atheatre; on each side are little nooks, called boxes, in which the men andwomen act together dumb scenes; something like those in use in Persia. Here yousee a languishing love-sick lady; another more animated eagerly ogling herlover, whose returns are as ardent; all the passions are painted in theirfaces, and expressed by an eloquence which, though dumb, is not the lesslively. Here, the actresses expose but half their bodies, and commonly, cut ofmodesty, wear a muff to conceal their arms. In the lower part of the theatre isa troop of people standing, who ridicule those who are above, and they in theirturn, laugh at those below. But those who put themselves to the greatesttrouble, are some who take the advantage of their youth to support the fatigueof it. They are forced to be every where, they go through passages known onlyto themselves, they mount, with extraordinary activity from story to story;they are above, below, and in every box; they dive, if I may so speak; they arelost this moment, and appear again the next; they often leave the place ofscene, and go to play in another. Now there are others, though such a prodigyis not to be expected, seeing they use crutches, who walk and move about likethe others. You come, at length, to some rooms where they act a private comedy.This commences with low bows, continued by embraces; the slightestacquaintance, they say, gives a man a right to squeeze another to death. Thisplace seems to inspire tenderness; in fact,they say, that the princesses who reign here are notcruel, and excepting two or three hours a day, in which they are hard-heartedenough, one must allow that they are very tractable, and that the other humouris a kind of drunkenness which they easily quit. All that I have been relatingto you, is pretty nearly transacted in another place, called the Opera-house;all the difference is, that they speak at the one, and sing at the other. Afriend of mine, the other day, took me into a room where one of the principalactresses was undressing; we became so intimate, that the next day I receivedfrom her the following epistle.

1712

Paris

SIR,

I am the most unhappy woman in the world. I have been always the mostvirtuous woman in the whole opera. Seven or eight months ago, as I was dressingmyself for a priestess of Diana, in the same room you saw me in yesterday, ayoung abbot came in, and regardless of my white habit, my veil, or my frontlet,deprived me of my innocence. I have in vain remonstrated to him the sacrifice Imade to him, he only laughs, and maintains he found me a very profane woman. Inthe mean time I dare not come upon the stage I am so big; for I am, withrespect to honour, inconceivably delicate, and I always insist, that to a womanwell born it is more easy to lose her virtue than her modesty. With thisdelicacy, you may readily judge, that the young abbot had never succeeded, ifhe had not made to me a promise of marriage; such a lawful motive induced me topass over those little usual formalities, and to begin where I ought to haveconcluded. But since his infidelity has dishonoured me, I will no longercontinue at the opera, where, between you and me, they scarcely give mesufficient for my support; for, at present, that I advance in years, and losethe advantage of charms, my salary, thoughthe same, seems to diminish daily. I have learnedfrom one of your attendants, that in your country a good dancer is highlyesteemed, and that if I was at Ispahan, my fortune would be quickly made. Ifyou would take me under your protection, you would have the praise of doinggood to a woman, who by her virtue and prudent conduct, would not renderherself unworthy of your generosity. I am, c.

From

Paris

the 2d of the moon of Chalval,

1712

.

Rica

Rica

1712

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XXIX.

Rica to Ibben at Smyrna.

THE Pope is the head of the Christians; an old idol whom they reverencethrough custom. He was heretofore terrible even to princes themselves; for hedeposed them as easily as our magnificent sultans do the kings of Iremetta andGeorgia; but he is no longer feared. He says he is the successor of one of thefirst Christians, named Saint Peter; and it is certainly a rich succession, forhe hath immense treasures, and a large country under his dominion. The bishopsare the men of the law, who are subject to him, and have, under his authority,two very different functions. Articles of faith are constituted by them as wellas by himself, when they are assembled together. When they are separated, thebusiness of their function is no other, than to dispense with the fulfilment ofthe law. For the Christian religion, thou must know, is loaded with a vastnumber of very difficult practices, and as it is judged less easy to fulfilthose obligations, than to have bishops to dispense with them, they have, forthe public benefit, taken the latter method, in such a manner, that if they arenot willing to observe the fast of Rahmazan [*] , if unwilling to subject them to the formalitiesof marriage, if they would break their vows, if theywould marry contrary to the appointment of the law; nay, sometimes if they aredesirous not to abide by their oath, they go to the Bishop or Pope, whopresently grants a dispensation. The bishops do not make articles of faith oftheir own proper accord. There is a prodigious number of doctors, for the mostpart dervises, who raise among themselves new questions in religion, which arelest in dispute a long time, and the contention subsists until a decision comesto terminate it. I can also affirm to thee, that there never was a kingdomwhere there has been so many civil wars as in that of Christ. Those who publishany new proposition, are at once called heretics; each heresy has its own name,which is used in ridicule to those who engage in it. But no man need to be anheretic unless he will; he has only to divide the difference in the middle, andadmit a distinction to those who charge him with heresy, and provided there bea distinction, intelligible or not, he purifies himself as white as snow, andmay make himself esteemed orthodox. What I tell you does very well in Franceand Germany; but I have heard that in Spain and Portugal the dervises do notrelish jesting, and will burn a man as readily as they would straw. When a mancomes into the hands of these people there, it is happy for him if he hasalways prayed to God with little wooden balls in his hands, that he has carriedabout with him pieces of cloth fastened to two ribbons, and that he has beensometimes in the province of Galicia; otherwise the poor devil is terriblyembarrassed. Though he should swear like a pagan that he is orthodox, it ispossible they may not admit his plea, and may burn him for an heretic, it is tono purpose for him to make distinctions, away with distinctions, he shall be inashes before they even think of hearing him. The judges here commonly presumeupon the innocence of the accused; there they always suppose the partyculpable. If in doubt, it is theircustom to determine on the side of severity;probably because they think badly of mankind; but the others conceive so wellof them that they never judge them capable of a lie, for they receive thetestimony of mortal enemies, of loose women, of such who follow an infamouscalling. The others in their sentence pay a slight compliment to those whomthey dress up in a shirt painted with flames of fire; and assure them that theyare extremely concerned to see them so badly habited; that their owndisposition is to mercy; that they abhor blood, and that they are grieved athaving condemned them. But for their own consolation, they confiscate to theirown emolument all the effects of the miserable sufferers. Happy the land whichis possessed by the children of the prophets! There these melancholy spectaclesare unknown [*] . The holy religion brought there by angels, maintains its power bytruth itself; it needs no cruel means for its support.

Paris

, the 4th of the moon Chalval,

1712

.

Rica

Rica

1712

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XXX.

Rica to theSame, at Smyrna.

THE people of Paris are curious to an extravagant degree. When I came here Iwas stared at as if I had been sent from heaven; old and young, men, women, andchildren, all must have a peep at me. If I went out, every body was at theirwindow; if I walked in the Thuilleries, I was presently surrounded by a circle;the women formed a rainbow about me, variegated with a thousand colours; if Iattended the public shows, my strange figure attracted a hundred spyingglasses;in short, never was a man so much looked at asmyself. I smiled sometimes at hearing persons, who but scarcely ever stirredfrom their chamber, whispering to each other, it must be allowed he has much ofthe air of a Persian. But what is very wonderful, I met with my own pictureevery where, saw myself multiplied in every shop, upon every chimney-piece; sofearful were they of not seeing me sufficiently. All these honours however areonly burdensome; I did not imagine I was so curious, or so extraordinary aperson; and though I think very well of myself, I never imagined I should havedisturbed the quiet of a great city where I was wholly unknown. This determinedme to quit my Persian dress, and put on that of an European, to try if myphysiognomy would yet retain any of the wonderful. This experiment convinced meof what I really was; divested of these foreign ornaments I found myselfproperly rated. I had occasion enough to be displeased with my taylor formaking me lose all public regard and attention, for I at once sunk into acontemptible nothingness. I was sometimes an hour in company without being theleast noticed, and without any bodys giving me occasion to speak. But ifby chance any one informed the company that I was a Persian, there was a buzaround me; ha! ha! the gentleman a Persian! very strange, that any one shouldbe a Persian!

Paris

, the 6th of the moon Chalval,

1712

.

Rhedi

Rhedi

1712

Venice

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER XXXI.

Rhedi to Usbek, at Paris.

I AM at present, my dear Usbek, at Venice. After seeing all the cities inthe world, a person may be surprised on his arrival at Venice; it will alwaysexcite wonder to see a city whose spires and mosquesrise out of the water, and to meet with an innumerable people in a place wherenaturally fishes ought only to be found. But this profane city wants the mostprecious treasure in the world, that is, pure water; it is impossible here toperform a single legal ablution. This city is an abomination to our holyprophet, who never beholds it from the height of heaven but with indignation.Was it not for this, my dear Usbek, I should be delighted to spend my lifehere, where my understanding is every day improved. I gain a knowledge ofcommercial secrets, the interests of princes, their method of government; nordo I even despise the European superstitions; I apply to medicines, physics,astronomy; I study the arts; in short, I get out of the clouds in which I wasenveloped in my native country.

Venice

, the 16th of the moon Chalval,

1712

.

Rica

Rica

1712

Paris

LETTER XXXII.

Rica to * * *.

THE other day I went to see a house where a mean provision is made for aboutthree hundred persons. I had soon done, for the church and the buildings arenot worth regarding. The inhabitants of this house are very chearful, many ofthem play together at cards, or at other games that I do not understand. As Iwas coming away, one of these men was going out also, and hearing me enquirethe way to Murais, which is the most extreme quarter of all Paris, I amgoing there, said he to me, and I will conduct you there; follow me. Heguided me admirably, cleared me from crouds, and saved me very dextrously fromcoaches and carriages. Our walk was pretty near at an end when my curiosityprompted me: My good friend, said I tohim, may I not know who you are? I am,Sir, replied he, a blindman. How? said I to him, are you blind?And why did you not desire the honest man you was playing at cards with toconduct us? He is blind also, replied he; there hath been forthis four hundred years, three hundred blind persons in the house where you metwith me; but I must leave you, there is the street you asked for; I must jointhe crowd to go into that church, where I dare swear I shall be a greaterobstruction to others than they to me.

Paris

, the 17th of the moon Chalval,

1712

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER XXXIII.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

AT Paris, wine is so extremely dear, on account of the duties laid on it,that it seems as if it was designed to fulfil the commands of the divine Koran,which prohibits the drinking of it. When I think upon the melancholy, fataleffects of this liquor, I cannot avoid considering it as the most dreadfulpresent that nature hath made to mankind. If any thing ever disgraced the livesand characters of our monarchs, it hath been their intemperance; it hath beenthe most empoisoned spring from whence have issued all their injustice andcruelty. I must needs say, to the disgrace of these men, the law prohibits ourprinces the use of wine, and yet they drink it to an excess that degrades themof humanity; this custom, on the contrary, is indulged to the Christianprinces, and never observed to lead them into any crime. The mind of man is acontradiction to itself. During a licentious debauch they transgress theprecepts, and the law made to render us just, serves only to render us moreculpable. Yet when I disapprove of the use of this liquor, whichdestroys our reason, I do not at the same timecondemn those beverages which exhilerate the mind. The Orientals are so wise,as to inquire after remedies against melancholy, with the same solicitude asfor more dangerous disorders. When any misfortune happens to an European, hehath no other resource but to read a philosopher called Seneca: but theAsiatics, more sensible than they, and in this case better naturalists, drink aliquor capable of chearing the heart, and of charming away the remembrance ofits sufferings. There is nothing so distressing as the consolations drawn fromthe necessity of evil, the inefficacy of medicines, the irreversibleness offatality, the decrees of providence [*] , and the miserable condition of humanity. It is mockery to attempt tosoften evils by the consideration, that it is the consequence of our beingborn; it is much better to divert the mind from its reflections, and to treatman as a being susceptible of sensation, rather than reason. The soul united toa body is continually under its tyrannical power. If the blood moves tooslowly, if the spirits are not sufficiently pure, if they are not enough inquantity, we become dejected and melancholy; but if we make use of such liquorsthat can change the disposition of our bodies, our soul again becomes capableof receiving pleasing ideas, and is sensible of a secret pleasure in perceivingits machine recover, as it were, its life and motion.

Paris

, the 25th of the moon Zilcade,

1713

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XXXIV.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

THE women of Persia are finer than those of France, but those of thiscountry are prettier. It is difficult not to love the first, and not to bepleased with the latter; the one are more delicate and modest, and the othersmore gay and airy. What in Persia renders the blood so pure, is the regularlife the women observe, they neither game nor sit up late, they drink no wine,and do not expose themselves to the open air. It must be allowed that theseraglio is better adapted for health than for pleasure; it is a dull uniformkind of life, where every thing turns upon subjection and duty; their verypleasures are grave, and their pastimes solemn, and they seldom taste them butas so many tokens of authority and dependence. The men themselves in Persia arenot so gay as the French; there is not that freedom of mind, and thatappearance of content, which I meet with here in persons of all estates andranks. It is still worse in Turky, where there are families in which fromfather to son, not one of them ever laughed from the foundation of themonarchy. The gravity of the Asiatics arises from the little conversation thereis among them, who never see each other but when obliged by ceremony.Friendship, that sweet engagement of the heart, which constitutes here thepleasure of life, is there almost unknown. They retire within their own house,where they constantly find the same company; insomuch that each family may beconsidered as living in an island detached from all others. Discoursing onetime on this subject with a person of this country, he said to me, that whichgives me most offence among allyour customs is the necessity you are under ofliving with slaves, whose minds and inclinations always savour of the meannessof their condition. Those sentiments of virtue which you have in you fromnature are enfeebled and destroyed by these base wretches who surround you fromyour infancy. For, in short, divest yourself of prejudice, and what can youexpect from an education received from such a wretch, who places his wholemerit in being a jailer to the wives of another man, and takes a pride in thevilest employment in society? who is despicable for that very fidelity which ishis only virtue, to which he is prompted by envy, jealousy, and despair? who,inflamed with a desire of revenging himself on both sexes, of which he is anout-cast, submitting to the tyranny of the stronger sex, provided he maydistress the weaker; a wretch who, deriving from his imperfection, ugliness,and deformity, the whole lustre of his condition, is valued only because he isunworthy to be so; who, in short, rivetted for ever to the gate where he isplaced, and harder than the hinges and bolts which secure it, boasts of havingspent a life of fifty years in so ignoble a station, where, commissioned by hismasters jealousy, he exercises all his cruelties.

Paris

, the 14th of the moon Zilhade,

1713

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Gimchid

Gimchid

LETTER XXXV.

Usbek to Gimchid, his Cousin, Dervise of the shining Monastery of Tauris.

WHAT dost thou think, sublime dervise, of the Christians? Dost thou believe,that at the day of judgment it will be with them as with the unbelieving Turks,who will serve the Jews for asses, and to carrythem in a high trot to hell? I well know that theirabode will not be with the prophets, and that the great Haly is not come fortheir sakes. But dost thou believe they will be sentenced to eternalpunishment, because they have been so unhappy as to find no mosques in theircountry? and that God will punish them for not practising a religion that henever made known to them? I can assure thee I have frequently examined theseChristians; I have questioned them, to see if they had any idea of the greatHaly, who was the most excellent of mankind, and have found that they havenever so much as heard him mentioned. They are not like those infidels whom ourholy prophet put to the sword, for refusing to believe in the miracles ofheaven; but rather like those unhappy people who lived under the darkness ofidolatry, before the divine light illuminated the face of our great prophet.Again, if you search their religion closely, you will find some seeds of ourdoctrines. I have often admired the secret dispositions of providence, whichseems thereby willing to prepare them for a general conversion. I have heardspeak of a book of their doctors called PolygamyTriumphant, in which is proved, that polygamy is enjoined to Christians.Their baptism is an emblem of our legal washings; and the Christians onlymistake in the efficacy that they ascribe to this primary ablution, which theybelieve sufficient for every other. Their priests and monks, like us, prayseven times a day. They hope to enjoy a paradise, where they shall taste athousand delights, by the means of the resurrection of their bodies. They have,as well as we, set fasts, and mortifications, by which they hope to incline thedivine mercy. They worship good angels, and fear the evil. They pay a holycredulity to the miracles which God works by the ministry of his servants. Theyacknowledge, as we do, the insufficiency of their own merits, and the need theyhave of an intercessor with God. I see Mahometism throughout the whole, thoughI donot there find Mahomet. Do all we can, truth willprevail and shine through the cloud that surrounds it. A day will come, whenthe Eternal will see none upon earth but true believers. Time, which consumesall things, will destroy even errors themselves. All mankind will be astonishedto find themselves under the same standard. All things, even to the law itself,shall be done away; the divine examplers will be taken up from the earth, andcarried to the celestial archives.

Paris

, the 20th of the moon Zilhage,

1713

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER XXXVI.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

COFFEE is very much used at Paris; here are a great many public houses wherethey sell it. In some of these houses they talk of news, in others they play atdraughts. There is one where they prepare the coffee in such a manner, that itinspires the drinkers of it with wit; at least, of all those who frequent it,there is not one person in four who does not think he has more wit after he hasentered that house. But what offends me in these wits is, that they do not makethemselves useful to their country, and that they trifle away their talents onchildish things. For instance, at my arrival in Paris, I found them very warmabout the most trifling controversy imaginable; they were disputing about thecharacter of an old Greek poet, of whose country, and the time of his death,they have been ignorant these two thousand years. Both parties allowed he wasan excellent poet; the question was only whether he had more or less meritascribed to him than he deserved. Each was for settling the value, but amidstthese distributers of reputation, some made better weight than others; such wasthe quarrel. It has been very fierce, for they soheartily abused each other, and were so bitter in their raillery, that I didnot less admire the manner of their dispute, than the subject of it. If anyone, said I to myself, should be giddy-headed enough in the company of thesedefenders of this Greek poet, to attack the reputation of an honest citizen, hewould be but badly received! and surely this zeal, so delicate for thereputation of the dead, would be inflamed in defence of that of the living! Buthowever that may be, added I, may I ever be defended from the censors or thispoet, whose abode of two thousand years in the grave has not defended him fromso implacable an hatred; they now do but beat the air, but how would it be, iftheir fury was animated by the presence of an enemy? These I have been speakingof, dispute in the vulgar tongue, and must be distinguished from another kindof disputants, who make use of a barbarous language, which seems to augment thefury and obstinacy of the combatants. There are particular quarters of the townwhere these people engage as in a battle, night and day; they, as it were, feedthemselves with distinctions, and live upon obscure reasonings, and falseconsequences. This trade, by which it should seem no bread could be got, yetdoes not fail answering. A whole nation, expelled their own country, hath beenseen to pass the seas, to settle in France, bringing nothing with them to wardoff the necessities of life, but a formidable talent for disputation.Farewel.

Paris

, the last day of the moon of Zilhage,

1713

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XXXVII.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

THE king of France is old; we have not one instance in our history, of amonarch who reigned so long. He is said to possess to a very great degree theart of making himself obeyed; he governs with the same spirit, his family, hiscourt, and his kingdom; he hath often been heard to say, that of all thegovernments in the world, that of the Turks, or of our august Sultan, pleasedhim best; so highly does he esteem the politics of the East! I have studied hischaracter, and have discovered in it contradictions impossible for me to solve:for example, he hath a minister who is not above eighteen years old, and amistress turned of fourscore; he loves his religion, and yet cannot bear thosewho say it ought to be rigorously observed; though he avoids the tumult ofcities, and is little communicative, yet he is busy from morning to evening,what he may do to be talked of; he is very fond of trophies and victories, buthe fears as much to see a good general at the head of his troops as he wouldhave cause to do one at the head of his enemies troops. It never happened, Ibelieve, but to himself, to be at the same time loaded with more riches than aprince could wish to be, and to be oppressed with a poverty that a privateperson could not be able to sustain. He loves to reward those who serve him;but he rewards as liberally the assiduity, or rather the idleness of hiscourtiers, as the laborious campaigns of his generals. He oftentimes prefers aman who undresses him, or gives him a napkin when he sits down to table,preferable to another who takes cities, or gains battles for him; he does notthink that the grandeur of a sovereign ought to be restrained in thedistribution of favours, and without examiningwhether the man he loads with his favours hath realmerit, he thinks his choice capable of rendering him such; accordingly he hathbeen known to bestow a small pension on a man who run away two leagues from theenemy, and a good government to another who run twice that length. He ismagnificent above all in his buildings; he has more statues in hispalace-gardens than there are inhabitants in a great city. His guard is asstrong as that of the prince before whom all other thrones are debased; hisarmies are equally numerous, his resources as many, and his finances asinexhaustible.

Paris

, the 7th of the moon Maharan,

1713

.

Rica

Rica

1713

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XXXVIII.

Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna.

WHETHER it is better to deprive women of their liberty, or to permit itthem? is a great question among men; it appears to me that there are goodreasons for and against this practice. If the Europeans urge that there is awant of generosity in rendering those persons miserable whom we love: ourAsiatics answer, that it is meanness in men to renounce the empire which naturehas given them over women. If they are told that a great number of women, shutup, are troublesome, they reply, that ten women in subjection are lesstroublesome than one who is refractory. But they object in their turn, that theEuropeans cannot be happy with women who are faithless to them; they reply,that this fidelity, of which they boast so much, does not hinder that disgust,which always follows the gratification of the passions; that our women are toomuch ours; that a possession so easily obtained, leaves nothing to be wished orfeared; that a little coquetry provokes desire, and prevents disgust. Perhaps aman wiser than myself would bepuzzled to decide this question; for if the Asiaticsdo very well to find out proper means to calm their uneasiness, the Europeansalso do as well to have uneasiness. After all, say they, though we should beunhappy as husbands, we should always find means to recompence ourselves aslovers. For that a man might have reason to complain of the infidelity of hiswife, it must be that there should be but three persons in the world, they willalways be at even hands when there are four. Another question among the learnedis, Whether the law of nature subjects the women to the men? No, said a gallantphilosopher to me the other day, nature rever dictated such a law. The empirewe have over them is real tyranny, which they only suffer us to assume, becausethey have more good nature than we, and in consequence more humanity andreason. These advantages, which ought to have given them the superiority, hadwe acted reasonably, have made them lose it, because we have not the sameadvantages. But if it is true that the power we have over women is onlytyrannical, it is no less so that they have over us a natural empire, that ofbeauty, which nothing can resist. Our power extends not to all countries, butthat of beauty is universal. Wherefore then do we hear of this privilege? Is itbecause we are the strongest? But this is really injustice. We employ everykind of means to reduce their spirits. Their abilities would be equal withours, if their education was the same. Let us examine them in those talentswhich education hath not enfeebled, and we shall see if ours are as great. Itmust be acknowledged, though it is contrary to our custom, that among the mostpolite people, the women have always had the authority over their husbands; itwas established among the Egyptians, in honour of Isis, and among theBabylonians, in honour of Semiramis. It is said of the Romans, that theycommanded all nations, but obeyed their wives. I say nothing of the Sauromates,whowere in perfect slavery to the sex, they were toobarbarous to be brought for an example. Thou seest, my dear Ibben, that I havecontracted the fashion of this country, where they are found of defendingextraordinary opinions, and reducing every thing to a paradox. The prophet hathdetermined the question, and settled the rights of each sex; the women, sayshe, must honour their husbands, and the men their wives; but the husbands areallowed one degree of honour more.

Paris

, the 26th of the moon of the 2d Gemmadi,

1713

.

Hagi

Hagi

1713

Paris

Jew Ben-Joshua,

Ben-Joshua, Jew

LETTER XXXIX.

Hagi [*] Ibbi to the Jew Ben-Joshua, a Mahometan Proselyte, at Smyrna.

IT appears to me, Ben-Joshua, that there are always some amazing prodigiespreparative to the birth of extraordinary persons, as if nature suffered a kindof crisis, and the celestial power could not bring forth without a struggle.There is nothing of this kind so marvellous as the birth of Mahomet. God, whohad determined by the decrees of his providence from the beginning, to send tomankind this great prophet, to chain up Satan, created a light four thousandyears before Adam, which descending from elect to elect, from ancestor toancestor of Mahomet, descended at length to him, as an authentic testimony, ofhis descent from the patriarchs. For the sake of this very prophet it was, thatGod decreed that no child should be conceived, but the woman should cease to beunclean, and the man should be circumcised. He was born circumcised, and joysmiled on his face from his birth; thrice the earth trembled asif she herself had brought forth; all the idolsprostrated themselves, and the thrones of kings were overturned; Lucifer wascast down into the bottom of the sea, and it was not till after forty days,that he immersed from the abyss, and fled to Mount Cabes, from whence, with aterrible voice, he called upon the angels. This same night God fixed a boundbetween the man and woman, which neither of them can pass. The art of themagicians and necromancers failed; a voice was heard from heaven speaking thesewords: I have sent into the world my faithful friend. Accordingto the testimony of Isben Aben, an Arabian historian, the generation of birds,clouds, winds, and all the host of angels met together to bring up this child,and disputed the preference. The birds, in their warbling, said they were bestfitted to educate him, because they could more easily collect together theseveral fruits from different parts. The winds murmured, and said, it is ratherus, because we can convey to him from all places the most delightful odours.No, no, said the clouds, no; it is to us the care of him ought to be consigned,for we will continually bear to him the coolness of the waters. From above theangels, indignant, cried out, what will there remain for us to do? But a voicefrom heaven was heard, which determined all disputes; he shall not be removedout of the hands of mortals, because happy are the breasts that shall give himsuck, the hands that shall hold him, and the bed on which he shall rest! afterso many striking evidences, my dear Joshua, the heart of man must be steelednot to believe his holy law. What could heaven do more to authorize his divinemission, unless nature itself had been overturned, and all mankind had beendestroyed whose conviction it designed?

Paris

, the 20th of the moon Rhegeb,

1713

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XL.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

ON the death of a great man they assemble in a mosque to pronounce hisfuneral oration, which is a discourse in praise of him; from which it is verydifficult to determine justly the merit of the deceased. I would abolish thesefuneral pomps. The birth, not the death of men should be mourned. To what enddo these ceremonies serve, and all their mournful show to a dying man in hislast moments? even the tears of his family, and the grief of his friends, dobut exaggerate to him the loss he is about to sustain. We are so blind, that weknow not how to time our sorrow nor our joy; we have scarcely ever any butfalse joys and false sorrows. When I see the Mogul, who every year goes toweigh himself in a balance, to be weighed like an ox; when I see the peoplerejoice that their prince is become more gross, that is, less fit to governthem, I have pity, Ibben, on human extravagance.

Paris

, the 20th of the moon Rhegeb,

1713

.

1713

Fatme

LETTER XLI.

The Chief black Eunuch to Usbek.

ISMAEL, one of thy black eunuchs, magnificent lord, is just dead, and I wasunwilling to neglect filling up his place; but as eunuchs are extremely scarceat present, I intended making use of a black slave that thou hast in thecountry; but I have not as yet been able to bring him to submit to be initiatedinto this office. As I considered that this was really for hisgood, I was willing the other day to use a littleviolence, and with the assistance of the intendant of thy gardens, I ordered,against his will, that he should be put into a state capable of rendering theethose services most pleasing to thy heart, and to live, as I do, within thisformidable palace, which he dares not even to look at; but he fell a-roaring asif he was going to be skinned, and struggled so that he got out of our hands,and escaped the fatal knife. I have just now been informed that he intendswriting to thee, to ask thy favour, affirming that I formed this design onlyfrom an insatiable desire to be revenged for some sharp railleries of hisagainst me. However, I swear to thee by the hundred thousand prophets, that Iacted only for the good of thy service, the only thing dear to me, and beyondwhich there is nothing that I regard. I prostrate myself at thy feet.

From the seraglio at

Fatme

, the 7th of themoon Maharran,

1713

.

Pharan

Pharan

1713

Fatme

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER XLII.

Pharan to Usbek, his Sovereign Lord.

IF thou wert here, magnificent lord, I should appear before thee covered allover with white paper, and that would not be sufficient to write all the abuseswhich thy chief black eunuch, the wickedest of all men, hath exercised towardsme since thy departure. On account of some jokes which he pretends. I made onhis miserable condition, he hath incensed the cruel intendant of thy gardensagainst me, who, since thy departure hath imposed upon me the most intolerablelabours, under which I have a thousand times thought I should lose my life,without abating for a moment of my zeal for thy service. How many times have Isaid to myself, I have a master full of goodness, andyet am I the most unhappy slave upon earth! Iconfess to thee, magnificent lord, I did not believe myself destined to greatermiseries, but this traitor of an eunuch was willing to fill up the measure ofhis wickedness. Some days ago, of his own authority, he determined that Ishould guard thy sacred women, that is, that I should suffer an execution,which to me would be a thousand times more severe than death. Those who havehad the unhappiness to suffer such kind of treatment from their cruel parents,at their birth, have this to comfort them, that they never knew a differentstate; but for me to be degraded, and deprived of manhood, I should die withgrief, if I did not of the barbarity itself. I embrace thy feet, sublime lord,in the most profound humility. Grant that I may experience the effects of thyvirtue, so highly respected, and that it may not be said, there is upon earthone unhappy man the more by thy order.

From the gardens of

Fatme

, the 7th of the moonMaharran,

1713

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Pharan

Pharan

LETTER XLIII.

Usbek to Pharan, at the Gardens of Fatme.

LET thy heart receive joy, and reverence these sacred characters; let thechief eunuch and the intendant of my gardens kiss them. I forbid theirattempting any thing against thee; tell them to buy the eunuch I want. Do youdischarge your duty, as though I was always present with thee; for know thatthe greater my kindness is, if thou abusest it, the greater shall be thypunishment.

Paris

, the 25th of the moon Rhegeb,

1713

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER XLIV.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

IN France there are three kinds of professions; the church, the sword, andthe long robe. Each hath a sovereign contempt for the other two: for example, aman who ought to be despised only for being a fool, is often so because he is alawyer. There are none, even to the meanest mechanic, who does not contend forthe excellency of the trade they have chosen; each values himself above him whois of a different profession, according to the idea he has formed to himself ofthe superiority of his own. These men are, more or less, like that woman in theprovince of Erivan, who having received a favour from one of our monarchs,wished a thousand times, in the blessings she bestowed upon him, that heavenwould make him governor of Erivan. I have read, that a French ship putting inupon the coast of Guinea, some of the crew went on shore to buy sheep. Theywere carried to the king, who administered justice to his subjects under atree. He was seated on a throne, that is to say, a piece of timber, as statelyas though he had sat upon the throne of the Great Mogul, attended by three orfour guards armed with hedge stakes; an umbrella in the form of a canopy,secured him from the heat of the sun; his whole regalia, and that of the queenhis wife, consisted in their black skins and some rings. This prince, yet morevain than miserable, asked these strangers if he was not much talked of inFrance. He imagined that his name could not but have reached from pole to pole;and different from that conqueror of whom it is said, that he had silenced thewhole earth, he fancied that the whole world must talk of him. When the Cham ofTartary hath dined, a herald proclaims, that all the princes of the earth maygo to dinner, if they please: and this barbarian whofeeds only upon milk, who hath no house to dwell in, and who lives only bymurder and robbery, regards all the potentates in the world as his slaves, andformally insults them twice a-day.

Paris

, the 28th of the moon Rhegeb,

1713

.

Rica

Rica

1715

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER XLV.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

AS I was in bed, yesterday morning, I heard a violent rapping at my door,which was soon opened, or rather sorced open, by a man with whom I had madesome acquaintance, and who seemed to me to be beside himself. His dress was farfrom being decent, his peruke, all awry, had not been so much as combed; he hadnot had leisure to get his black waistcoat mended; and, for this time, hadneglected those wise precautions with which he was used to conceal the tatteredcondition of his dress. Get up, says he to me, I have business with youall day; I have a thousand implements to buy, and should be glad to have youwith me. We must go first to the street St. Honor, to speak to anotary, who is commissioned to sell an estate of five hundred thousand livres,and I am willing he should give me the preference. As I came here, I stopt amoment in the suburbs of St. Germain, where I have hired a house for twothousand crowns, and hope to execute the contract to-day. As soon as Iwas drest, or pretty near so, my gentleman made me hastily go out with him.Let us, said he, first buy a coach, and settle our equipage.Indeed we bought not only the coach, but also an hundred thousand livres worthof goods, in less than an hour; all this was done presently, for my gentlemanhaggled about nothing, paid no money, nor was he ever out of his way. Ireflected upon all this, and when I examined mygentleman, I found in him so strange a mixture of riches and poverty, that Iknew not what to think. But at last I broke, silence, and taking him on oneside, I said to him, Sir, who is to pay for all these things?Myself, says he; come to my chamber, I will shew you immense treasures,and riches that might excite the envy of the greatest monarchs, but not yours,who shall always share them with me. I followed him; we clambered up tohis fifth floor, and by a ladder hoisted ourselves to the sixth, which was acloset, open to the four winds, in which there was nothing but two or threedozen of earthen basons, filled with different liquors. I got up early,says he, and, as I have done these five and twenty years, went immediately tovisit my work; I saw that the great day was come which was to render me therichest man upon earth. Do you see this fine red liquor? It hath now all thosequalities which the philosophers require to make a transmutation of metals. Ihave gathered these grains which you see, which are true gold by their colour,though a little imperfect as to their weight. This secret, whichNicholas Flammel found out, but Raymond Lully, and a million of others,have been always seeking after, is at length come to me, and I this day findmyself an happy adept. May heaven grant that I may never make use of thetreasures it hath bestowed upon me but to its glory! I left him, andcame, or rather tumbled down the ladder, transported with anger, and left thisvery rich man in his hospital.Farewel, my dear Usbek, I will come andsee you to morrow, and if you please we will return together to Paris.

Paris

, the last day of the moon Rhegeb,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER XLVI.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

I MEET here with people who are continually disputing about religion; but itseems as if they contended at the same time who should least observe it. Butthey are neither better Christians, nor even better citizens; and this is whathurts me: for whatever religion we profess, the observation of the laws, thelove of mankind, duty to our parents, are ever the principal duties of it. Andindeed, ought not the first object of a religious man to be, to please thedeity who hath established the religion he professes? But the surest way to doso is, without doubt, to obey the laws of society, and to discharge the dutiesof humanity; for whatever religion a man professes, the moment any religion issupposed, it must also necessarily be supposed, that God loves mankind, sincehe establishes a religion to render them happy: that if he loves men, we arecertain of pleasing him in loving them also; that is, in exercising toward themall the duties of charity and humanity, and not breaking the laws under whichthey live. By these means we are much surer of pleasing God, than by observingsuch and such a ceremony; for ceremonies in themselves have no degree ofgoodness, they are only relatively good, and upon a supposition that God hathcommanded the observance of them. But this is a nice point to discuss, aboutwhich we may easily be deceived; for the ceremonies of one religion must bechose from among those of two thousand. A certain man daily offered up to Godthis prayer:Lord, I understand none of those disputes which arecontinually made concerning thee: I would serve thee according to thy will, butevery person I consult would have me do so according to his will. When I wouldpray to thee, I know not what languageI should use; nor do I know in what posture I oughtto put myself; one says I ought to pray standing, another that I should sit,and a third requires me to kneel. This is not all: there are those who pretendthat I ought to wash myself every morning with cold water: others maintain,that thou wilt regard me with abhorrence, if I do not cut off a small piece ofmy flesh. The other day I happened to eat, at a caravansary, a rabbit: threemen who were present made me tremble; they all three maintained that I hadgrievously offended thee: one [*] , because this was an unclean animal; the other , because it was strangled, and the third , because it was not fish. A Brachman who was passing by, whom I desiredto judge between us, says to me, they are all wrong, for certainly you yourselfdid not kill the creature: but I did, said I: ah! then you have committed anabominable action, and God will never forgive you, says he to me in a severetone: how do you know that the soul of your father hath not passed into thisanimal? All these things, Lord, greatly embarass me; I cannot move my head thatI am not threatened with having offended thee: though all the while I desire toplease thee, and to that end to employ the life I hold from thee. I know notwhether I deceive myself; but I believe the best way to please thee is, to be agood citizen in the community thou hast made me to live in, and a good fatherof the family which thou hast given me.

Paris

, the 8th of the moon Chahban,

1713

.

Zachi

Zachi

1713

Fatme

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER XLVII.

Zachi to Usbek, at Paris.

I HAVE great news to communicate to you; I am reconciled to Zephis; theferaglio that was divided between us is reunited. There is nothing wanting inthis place, where peace reigns, but thee: come then, my dear Usbek return, andmake love triumph here. I gave Zephis a grand entertainment, to which thymother, wives, and principal concubines, were invited; there were also thyaunts, and several of thy female cousins; they came on horseback, covered withthe dark cloud of their veils and habits. The next day we set out for thecountry, where we hoped to be more at liberty: we mounted our camels, and wentfour and four under a covering. As it was a party suddenly made, we had nottime to send round the neighbourhood to publish the Courouc [*] : but the chief eunuch, ever attentive to his duty, took anotherprecaution, for he added to the cloth which covered us so thick a curtain, thatwe could really see nobody. When we arrived at the river, which we were tocross, we each of us, according to custom, placed ourselves in a box, for wewere informed there were a great many people on the river. One more curiousthan the rest, who approached too near to where we were shut up, received amortal blow, which for ever deprived him of the light of the day; another whowas bathing himself quite naked near the shore, suffered the same fate! and thyfaithful eunuchs sacrificed to thine and our honour, these two unhappycreatures. But attend to the rest of our adventures; we had scarcely reachedthe middle of the river, when so violent a wind arose, and so frightful a cloudcovered the sky,that the sailors began to despair. Affrightened atthis danger, we almost all of us swooned away. I remember I heard our eunuchstalking and disputing, some of whom said we ought to be acquainted with ourdanger, and released from our confinement; but their chief constantlymaintained that he would rather perish than let his master be so dishonoured,and that he would force a dagger into his breast who should make such a boldproposal. One of my slaves, out of her wits, came running to my assistance, allundrest; but a black eunuch brutishly forced her back to the place she camefrom. I then swooned away, and did not come to myself until the danger wasover. How dangerous are journies to women! men are exposed to no dangers butsuch as threaten their lives; but we are every instant in fear of losing ourlives, or our virtue. Adieu, my dear Usbek; I shall adore thee always.

From the seraglio at

Fatme

, the 2d of the moonRhamazan,

1713

.

Usbek

Usbek

1713

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER XLVIII.

Usbek [*] to Rhedi, at Venice.

THEY who love to inform themselves, are never idle. Though I have nobusiness of consequence to take care of, I am nevertheless continuallyemployed. I spend my life in examining things: I write down in the eveningwhatever I have remarked, what I have seen, and what I have heard in the day:every thing engages my attention, and every thing excites my wonder: I am likean infant, whose organs, as yet tender, are strongly affected by the slightestobjects. Perhaps you will not believe we are agreeably received into allcompanies, and into all kinds of societies. Ibelieve much of this is owing to the sprightlinessand natural gaiety of Rica, which leads him to search through the whole world,and makes him equally searched after. Our foreign air no longer offends anybody; we even take pleasure at the surprise our politeness occasions; for theFrench do not imagine that our climate produces men, yet it must be confessed,they are worthy the trouble of convincing them. I have passed some days at acountry house near Paris, with a man of some consequence, who delighted inhaving company with him. He hath a very lovely wife, who hath, joined to agreat share of modesty, a liveliness which the constant retired life of ourPersian ladies deprives them of. As I was a stranger I had nothing better toemploy me, than to observe the company who were continually coming there, andalways affording me something new. I observed at first a man, whose simplicitypleased me, I attached myself to him, and he to me, insomuch that we werecontinually together. As we were one day conversing together, amidst a largecircle, leaving the general conversation to themselves: You find perhapsin me, said I to him, more curiosity than politeness, but pray allow me to askyou some questions; for I am tired with doing nothing, and of living amongpeople, among whom I cannot mix. My mind hath been at work above these twodays: there is not one of these men here, who hath not put me to the tortureabove two hundred times; and I should not be able to comprehend these people ina thousand years; they are more invisible to me than the wives of our greatmonarch. You have only to ask, said he to me, and I will acquaintyou with all you wish to know, and the more willingly, because I believe youare a discreet man, and that you will not abuse my confidence.Who is that man, said I to him, who talks so much to us of the greatentertainments he has given to great men, who is so familiar with your dukes,and who conversesso frequently with your ministers, who I am informedare difficult of access? He certainly must be a man of quality; but his aspectis so mean, that he does not much honour to men of that rank; and besides I donot find he has any education. I am a foreigner, but it seems to me, that thereis in general a certain politeness common to every nation; I find none of thisin him: is it that your men of quality are worse educated than othermen? This man, answered he laughing, is a farmer of thekings revenues, he is as much above others in riches, as he is below allthe world in birth. He would have the best table in Paris, could he persuadehimself never to dine at home; he is very impertinent, as you see, but heexcels in a cook, nor is he very ungrateful, for you have heard how he haspraised him all day. And who is that big man in black, said I tohim, who the lady hath placed next herself? how comes he to wear so grave adress, with so gay an air, and so florid a countenance? He smiles graciously atevery thing said to him, his apparel is more modest, but more formal, than thatof your women. He is a preacher, and what is worse, a director.Notwithstanding his looks, he knows more than the husbands; he knows the weakside of the women, and they also know that he hath his weak side too.How, says I, he is always talking of something which he callsgrace? No; not always, replied he; at the ear of a pretty womanhe talks more freely of the fall of man; he thunders in public, but in privatehe is as gentle as a lamb. It seems to me, says I, that he isgreatly distinguished, and highly respected. How comes it that he is sodistinguished? He is a necessary man; he sweetens a retired life,petty councils, officious cares, set visits; he removes the head-ach betterthan any man in the world; he is excellent. But if I am not tootroublesome to you, tell me who is that man over against us, so badly dressed,who makes so many faces, and speaks a language different from the rest,who hath not wit enough to talk, but talks that hemay have wit? He is a poet, replied he, a grotesque figure of the humankind. These kind of creatures, they say, are born what they are; it is true,and no less so that they will continue the same all their lives, that is tosay, for the general part the most ridiculous of mankind; accordingly nobodyspares them; contempt is liberally poured on them by all. Hunger hath drivenhim to this house, and he is here well received by both the master and mistressof the house, whose good nature and politeness do not permit them to descend topersonal prejudices. He wrote an epithalamium when they were married, it is thebest thing he ever did; for the marriage hath proved as happy as he predictedit would be. You will perhaps not believe, added he, possessed as you are oforiental prejudices, that there are among us happy marriages, and women whosevirtue is their strict guard. The couple we are talking of enjoy anuninterrupted peace; they are beloved and esteemed by all the world. There isbut one thing amiss; their good-nature makes them admit all kinds of people,which occasions their having bad company. Not that I dislike them, we must livewith people as we find them; those who are called good company, are often suchwhose vices are more refined; and perhaps it is as with poisons, of which themost subtle are the most dangerous. And who is this old man, saidI to him softly, who looks so morose? I took him at first for a foreigner; forbesides that he is dressed different from the rest, he censures every thingdone in France, and disapproves of your government. He is an oldwarrior, said he, who makes himself memorable to all his auditors, by thetedious relation of his exploits. He will not allow France hath gained anybattle at which he was not present, or that any siege should be boasted ofwhere he did not mount the trenches. He fancies himself of so much importanceto our history, that he imagines it ended where he concludedhis actions; he looks upon some wounds he received,as he would upon the dissolution of the monarchy; and different to thosephilosophers, who say that we enjoy only the present time, and that the past isnothing, he, on the contrary, enjoys only the past, and exists not but in thecampaigns he hath made: he breathes in the times that are passed away, asheroes ought to live in those which are to come. But why, said I,did he quit the service? He did not quit it, replied he, but itquitted him; he is employed in a little garrison, where he will recount hisadventures the remainder of his life, but he will get no further; the road ofhonour is shut up from him. And why? said I: Wehave a maxim in France, replied he, never to promote officers whose patiencehath languished in subaltern offices; we regard them as persons whoseunderstandings are straitened by a narrow sphere of action; and who, accustomedto little things, are become incapable of greater. We think that a man who atthirty hath not the qualifications of a general, will never have them; that hewho has not that cast of eye, as to shew him at once a tract of several leaguesin all its various situations, that presence of mind which enables him toimprove all the advantages of a victory, and, in a defeat, to help himself byevery possible resource, will never acquire these talents. Therefore we havehigh employments for great and elevated persons, to whom heaven has not onlygiven the heart, but also the genius of heroism; and inferior stations forthose whose talents are also inferior. Of this class are those who are grownold in an obscure warfare: at best they succeed only in doing what they havedone all their lives; and we ought not to begin loading them at a time whenthey begin to be enfeebled. A moment afterwards the spirit of curiosityre-seized me, and I said to him, I promise to ask no further questions,if you will allow of this one more. Who is that big young man in his own hair,with so little wit, and somuch impertinence? How comes he to talk louder thanthe rest, and seem so pleased that he is alive? He is a man ofgood fortune, replied he.As he said this, some company came in,others went away, and all got up; somebody came to speak to my companion, and Iremained as ignorant as before. But a moment afterwards this young man happenedto sit by me, and began talking to me: It is fine weather, Sir, will youtake a turn in the garden? I answered him as civilly as possible, and wewent out together. I am come into the country to please the mistress ofthis house, with whom I am upon no bad terms. There is a certain woman in theworld who will not be in the best humour; but what can be done? I visit thehandsomest women in Paris; but I do not confine myself to one, and they haveneed to look sharp after me; for, between you and I, I am a sad fellow.Probably then, Sir, said I, you have some post, or employment, thatprevents you from attending them more constantly. No, Sir, I havenothing else to do but to provoke an husband, or drive a father to despair: Ilove to alarm a woman who thinks she is secure of me, and reduce her within afingers breadth of losing me. Here is a set of us young fellows who inthis manner divide all Paris, and make it take notice of the least step wetake. By what I learn from you, said I, you make a greater noisethan the most valiant warrior, and are more observed than a grave magistrate.You would not enjoy all these advantages if you were in Persia; you would bethought fitter to guard our women than to give them pleasure. I began togrow warm, and I believe if I had talked a little more, I could not have helpedaffronting him.What sayest thou of a country where these kind ofwretches are tolerated, and where they suffer a man to live who employs himselfin such a manner? Where infidelity, treason, rapes, persidy and injustice,conduce to render a man considerable. Where a man shall be esteemed becausehe has stole away a mans daughter, or a wifefrom her husband, and troubled the happiest and most sacred societies? Happythe children of Hali, who protect their families from infamy and debauchery!The light of the day is not more pure than the fire which warms the hearts ofour women; our daughters think not, without trembling, of the day that is todeprive them of that virtue which renders them like angels and incorporealpowers. O my dear native country, whom the sun honours with his first regards,thou art unsullied by those horrible crimes, which obliges this luminary tohide himself as soon as he approaches the black west!

Paris

, the 5th of the moon of Rhamazan,

1713

.

Rica

Rica

1713

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER XLIX.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

AS I was in my chamber the other day, in came a dervise very strangelydressed. His beard reached quite down to his hempen girdle; he was barefooted,his habit grey, coarse, and in some parts folded into points. The whole of himappeared so odd to me, that I thought at first of sending for a painter to drawa sketch of him. He addressed me with a long compliment, in which he acquaintedme, that he was a person of merit, and also a capuchin. I am informed,Sir, added he, that you are to return shortly to the court of Persia, where youpossess a distinguished rank. I come to ask your protection, and to desire youto obtain for us a small settlement near Casbin, for two or threereligious. My father, said I, will you go then to Persia?I, Sir! cried he; I shall take better care of myself; I am provincialhere, and would not change my condition for that of all the capuchins in theworld. What in the name of wonder then do you want of me?Why,replied he, if we had this settlement, our fathersof Italy would send thither two or three monks. You thencertainly know these monks, said I. No, Sir, I do not knowthem. My stars! what then will their going into Persia signify toyou? It is a wondrous fine project indeed, for two capuchins to breathe the airof Casbin! it will be of extreme advantage to Europe, and to Asia! and highlynecessary to interest monarchs about it! indeed they are what are called noblecolonies! Begone! you and your fellows are not made for transplantation; andyou will do much better to remain crawling about the places where ye were firstingendered.

Paris

, the 15th of the moon Rhamazan,

1713

.

Rica

Rica

1713

Paris

LETTER L.

Rica to * * *.

I HAVE known some people to whom virtue was so natural, that they themselveswere scarcely sensible of it. They have applied themselves to their dutywithout any constraint, and been carried to it as by instinct; far from raisingin their conversation, an opinion of their own great qualities; it is as ifthey themselves were insensible of them. Such are the men I love, not thosevirtuous persons who themselves seem so surprised at their being so, and whoconsider a good action as a prodigy, the report of which ought to astonishevery body. If modesty is a virtue necessary to those whom heaven hath endowedwith the greatest talents, what must be said of those insects who dare to shewa pride capable of dishonouring the greatest men? I every where meet withpeople whose conversation is continually about themselves; their discourseis a mirror which always presents their ownimpertinent figure; they will talk of the most trifling things which havehappened to themselves, and think their interest in them must make them ofconsequence in your sight; they have done every thing, seen every thing,thought every thing; they are an universal model; an inexhaustible subject ofcomparison, a spring of examples never to be dried up. Oh how despicable ispraise, when it bounds back from whence it comes! A man of this character somedays ago overwhelmed us for two hours, with himself, his merit, and histalents; but as there is no perpetual motion in the world, he stopt at last.The conversation then came to us, and we took possession of it. One who seemedto be a little splenetic, began by complaining of the wearisomeness some peopleoccasioned in conversation. What! fools for ever, who give their owncharacters, and bring every thing home to themselves! Your observationis just, replied our talker abruptly, there is nobody acts as I do; I neverpraise myself; I have riches, and am well-born; I spend freely; my friends sayI have some wit, but I never talk of all this; if I have some good qualities,that which I make the most account of is my modesty. I greatly wonderedat this impertinent; and while he was talking very loud, I said very low: happythe man who hath vanity enough never to speak well of himself; who is in awe ofthose who hear him; and never opposes his merit to the pride of others!

Paris

, the 20th of the moon Rhamazan,

1713

.

Nargum

Nargum

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LI.

Nargum the Persian Envoy residing at Muscovy, to Usbek at Paris.

THEY write to me from Ispahan, that thou hast quitted Persia, and art nowactually at Paris. Why must I learn news of thee from others, and not fromthyself? The command of the king of kings hath detained me in this countrythese five years, where I have concluded several important commissions. Thouknowest that the Czar is the only Christian prince whose interests are mingledwith those of Persia, because he is an enemy to the Turks as well as we. Hisempire is greater than that of ours; for it is computed to be a thousandleagues from Moscow to the utmost limits of his territories, on the side ofChina. He is absolute master of the lives and effects of his subjects, who areall slaves, four families excepted. The lieutenant of the prophets, the king ofkings, does not use his power more dreadfully. To see the horrible climate ofMuscovy, none would ever think it a punishment to be exiled; nevertheless whena great man is disgraced, he is banished to Siberia. As the law of our prophetforbids us to drink wine, that of this prince prohibits the Muscovites the useof it. They have a custom of receiving their guests, which has nothing at allof Persian in it. On the entrance of a stranger into the house, the husbandpresents him to his wife, and the stranger kisses her, and this passes as acompliment to the husband. Though the fathers in the marriage contract of theirdaughters, generally covenant that their husbands shall not beat them; yet itis not to be believed how much the Muscovite women love to be beaten [*] ; they cannot conceive that theypossess their husbands heart, if he does notbeat them. A contrary treatment from him, is a mark of indifference not to beforgiven. See a letter which one of these wives lately wrote to her mother:

1713

Moscow

My dear Mother,

I am the most unhappy woman in the world, there is nothing that Ihave not done to make my husband love me, but I cannot obtain it Yesterday Ihad a thousand houshold affairs to do; I went out and staid abroad all day; Iexpected at my return that he would beat me severely; but he did not say oneword to me about it. My sister is much otherwise treated, her husband beats herevery day; she cannot look at a man but he knocks her down in a moment; theylove one another very dearly, and there is the best understanding in the worldbetween them. This it is that makes her so proud; but I will not long give heroccasion to despise me. I am determined to procure my husbands love, letit cost what it will; I will so provoke him that he must needs give me someproofs of his love. It shall never be said, that I was never beat, and that Ilived in the house without ever being thought of: the least slap he gives me Iwill cry out with all my might, that the neighbourhood may imagine that allgoes well, and I believe that if any of them should come to my assistance, Ishould strangle them. I beseech you, my dear mother, that you would representto my husband, that he treats me in an unworthy manner. My father, who was agood man, did not carry himself so; and I remember, when I was a little girl, Ithought he sometimes loved you too much. I embrace you, my dearmother.

The Muscovites must not leave the kingdom, even to travel. Thus, separatedby the laws of their country from all other nations, they have retained theirancientcustoms with so much the more constancy, as they didnot think it was possible to have any others. But the now reigning prince wasresolved to change the whole; he had a great struggle with them about theirbeards; the clergy and the monks did not contend less in favour of theirignorance. He employs himself in making the arts flourish, and neglects nothingto spread the glory of his nation throughout Europe and Asia, not observedhitherto, and scarcely known to any but themselves. Restless, and continuallybusied, he wanders through his extensive dominions, leaving behind him in everyplace, marks of his natural ferocity. As if not sufficient to contain him, hequits them, to explore in Europe other provinces and new kingdoms. I embracethee, my dear Usbek, I beg I may hear of thee.

Moscow

, the 2d of the moon Chalval,

1713

.

Rica

Rica

1713

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LII.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

THE other day I was in some company, where I was very well diverted. Therewere women of every age, one of fourscore years, one of sixty, one of forty,who had a niece between twenty and two and twenty. A certain instinct led me togo near the last, who whispered in my ear: What do you say to my aunt,who at her years is desirous of having lovers, and still endeavours to bethought handsome? She is in the wrong, said I, it is a designonly suitable to you. A moment afterwards I happened to be near heraunt, who says to me, What do you say to that woman, who, at least, isthreescore, and yet spent an hour to-day at her dressing table?It was time lost, said I, and she ought to havehad your beauty to excuse her. I went to thisunhappy threescore, and pitied her in my heart, when she whispered me:Is there any thing so ridiculous? Look at that woman of fourscore, whoyet wears flame-coloured ribbons; she would fain make herself young, and indeedshe has succeeded, for this borders upon infancy. Oh heavens!said I to myself, shall we never be sensible but of the folly of others?It is perhaps a happiness, said I, afterward, that we can reap comfortfrom the weaknesses of another. However, being in a humour to be merry,Come, said I, we have mounted high enough, let us now go downward, and beginwith the old lady who is at the top. Madam, you are so very likethe lady I just now left to speak to you, that it seems as if you were sisters;I fancy you are both of the same age. Truly, Sir, said she, whenone dies of age, the other will quake for fear; I do not believe there is twodays difference between us. When I had quitted my decrepid lady, I wentto her of sixty. Madam, said I, you must decide a wager I have laid; Ihave ventured a wager that you and this lady are of an age, shewing her thelady of forty. Truly, said she, I believe there is not above sixmonths difference. Good, so far; let us go on. I still descend, and goto the lady of forty. Madam, do me the favour to inform me, if it is notin jest, when you call the lady, who is at the other end of the table, yourniece? You are as young as she is; besides, she has something of a decay in herface, which you certainly have not; and the lively colours in yourcheeksNo, hear me, said she, I am her aunt; but her motherwas at least five and twenty years older than myself; we were not by the sameventer; I have heard my late sister say, that her daughter and myself were bothborn in the same year. I then said right, madam, and was not wrong inbeing surprised. My dear Usbek, when the women find themselves neartheir end by the loss of their charms, they would willingly stealback again towards youth. How should they butendeavour to cheat others, who make every effort to deceive themselves, and todispossess their minds of the most afflicting of all thoughts?

Paris

, the 3d of the moon Chalval,

1713

.

Zelis

Zelis

1713

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LIII.

Zelis to Usbek, at Paris.

NEVER was there a more strong and lively passion than that of Cosrou, thewhite eunuch, for my slave Zelida, he hath so earnestly desired her inmarriage, that I am not able to deny him. And why should I make any opposition,when her mother does not, and that even Zelida herself appears satisfied withthe idea of this mock marriage, and this empty shadow with which she ispresented? What will she do with this unhappy creature, who will have nothingof a husband besides his jealousy; who can only exchange his coldness for anunavailing despair; who will always be calling to mind what he hath been, toput her in mind of what he now no longer is; who, always ready to enjoy, andnever enjoying, will always be cheating himself, and cheating her, and make hercontinually sensible of the wretchedness of her condition? And then! to bealways in dreams and fancies! to live only in imagination! to find onesself ever near, but never tasting, pleasure! languishing in the arms of anunhappy wretch! instead of answering to his sighs, to answer only to hisrepinings! What a contempt must such a kind of man inspire, formed only toguard, and never to possess? I seek for love, and I find it not!I speakfreely to thee, because thou lovest my frankness and disposition for pleasure,more than the affected reserve of my companions. I have heard thee say athousand times that eunuchs taste a kind of pleasure withwomen that is unknown to us; that makes up theirloss; that nature hath resources which repair the disadvantage of theircondition; that they may indeed lose their manhood, but not their sensibility;and that in this state, they enjoy a kind of third sense; so that they onlychange, as one may say, one pleasure for another. If it be so, I shall thinkZelida less to be pitied. It is some consolation to live with people lessunhappy. Give me thy orders on this affair, and let me know if thou wilt havethis marriage consummated in thy seraglio. Farewel.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 5th of themoon Chalval,

1713

.

Usbek Rica

Rica, Usbek

1714

Paris

LETTER LIV.

Rica, Usbek at * * *.

THIS morning as I was in my chamber, which, as thou knowest, is only dividedfrom the next by a slight partition, and full of cracks, so that one may hearevery thing that is said in the adjoining room, a man, walking hastily up anddown it, said to another, I know not how it is, but every thing goesagainst me. It is above three days since I have said any thing that hath doneme honour, and I have been confounded indiscriminately in the generalconversation, without the least attention, or being spoken to twice. I hadprepared some witty expressions to embellish my discourse, but they would notlet me introduce them. I had a good story, but every time I endeavoured to tellit, they avoided it, as though they had done it on purpose. I was provided withsome clever jests, which for these four days have lain like old lumber in myhead, without the least occasion to use them. If this continues, I shall be afool at last; it seems that my stars will have it so, and drive me to despair.Yesterday I had hopesof shining among three or four old ladies, whocertainly had no design to impose upon me, and I had some mighty pretty thingsto say; I was above a quarter of an hour labouring to turn the conversation,but they would not follow, but, like the fatal sisters, cut off the thread ofmy discourse. Shall I tell you? It is very difficult to support the characterof a wit. I do not know how you have managed to obtainit.I have a thought, replied the other, let us jointlyendeavour to support each others wit; let us make a partnership. We willevery day tell each other what we will say, and support each other so well,that let what will happen, our thoughts shall never be interrupted; we willdraw every body to us, and if they will not come over freely, we will forcethem. We will agree when to approve, when to smile, and when to burst out alaughing. You shall find we will give a turn to all conversations, and nothingshall be admired but the quickness of our wit, and the good things we say; wewill protect each other upon a nod. You shall shine to-day, to morrow you shallsecond me. I will go into a house with you, and cry out, as I introduce you, Imust tell you a witty reply this gentleman made just now, to one we met in thestreet; and then, turning to you, he did not expect any such thing, he wasquite confounded. I will repeat some of my verses, and you must say, I waspresent when he made them, it was a supper, he did not study a moment for themNay, you and I will sometimes rally each other; and people will say, observehow they attack one another, how they defend themselves; they do not spare eachother; lets see how he will get off that; wonderful! what presence ofmind! a downright battle indeed!But they cannot tell we have beenskirmishing beforehand. We must get some works full of jests, composed for theuse of those who have not wit, and are willing to counterfeit it; but alldepends upon copying from originals. I see that in less than six months weshall be able tomaintain a conversation of an hour long, allcomposed of witticisms. But we must be very careful to support our goodfortune; it is not enough to say a good thing, it must be spread abroad, anddispersed every where, or else it will be lost; and I must confess that thereis nothing so mortifying as to have said a smart thing, and to have it expirein the ear of the fool who heard it. It is true this is sometimes compensated,by having a good many foolish things we say passed over in silence; and this isthe only thing that can console us on such an occasion. See, my dear friend,the scheme we must pursue. Act as I have directed you, and I promise you inless than six months you will have a seat in the academy; this is to let youknow your labour will be soon over; for thou mayest then give up thine art; foryou will then be a man of wit, in spite of yourself. It is observed in France,that when a man enters himself of any society, he instantly catches what iscalled the spirit of the body; you will experience this; and I am in no fearfor you, but for the applauses you will be loaded with.

Paris

, the 6th of the moon Zilcade,

1714

.

Rica

Rica

1714

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER LV.

Rica to Ibben at Smyrna.

THE first quarter of an hour after marriage, among the Europeans, smoothsevery difficulty; the last favours are always of the same date with the nuptialblessing: the women here do not behave like ours in Persia, who sometimesdispute the ground for whole months: there is nothing so indulging; if theylose nothing, it is because they have nothing to lose: but you may always know,O shameful! the moment of their defeat; and, without consulting the stars, thebirth of their children may be predicted to the very hour. The French seldom orever speak of theirwives; it is for fear of talking of them beforepeople who know them better than themselves. There is a set of very miserablecreatures among them, whom nobody comforts; these are jealous husbands; thereare some whom all the world hates, jealous husbands; there are some whom everybody despises, these are the same, jealous husbands. Therefore there is nocountry where there are so few of them as among the French. Their tranquilityis not placed upon the confidence they have in their wives, it is on thecontrary, upon the bad opinion they entertain of them. All the wise precautionsof the Asiatics, the veils that cover them, the prisons that secure them, thevigilance of eunuchs, appear to them more likely means to put the sex uponcontriving, than to weary it out. Here, the husbands bear their part with agood grace, and consider the infidelity of their wives as an inevitable strokeof fatality. An husband who would keep his wife to himself, would be regardedas a disturber of the public peace, and as a madman, who would enjoy the lightof the sun to the exclusion of every body else. Here, an husband who loves hiswife, is considered as a man who hath not merit enough to make himself belovedby any other woman; and as one who makes a bad use of the necessity of the law,to supply the perfections he wants; who makes use of his rights to theprejudice of the whole community; who appropriates that to himself which wasonly lent to him; and who endeavours, as much as in him, to break that tacitcompact which constitutes the happiness of both sexes. The report of beingmarried to a very handsome woman, which in Asia is concealed with so much care,is borne here without uneasiness; they find themselves able to divertthemselves every where. A prince comforts himself upon the loss of one place,by the taking of another. At the time the Turks took Bagdad from us, were notwe taking from the Mogul the sortress of Candahar? In general, a man who bearswith the infidelity of a wife, is not disapprovedof; on the contrary, he is praised for his prudence: there are only someparticular cares which are dishonourable. It is not that there are no virtuouswomen here; it may be said they are distinguished; my conductor hath constantlymade me take notice of them: but they were all so ugly, that a man must be asaint not to hate such virtue. After what I have told thee of the manners ofthis country, thou wilt easily imagine, that the French do not pique themselvesmuch on their constancy. They think it as ridiculous to swear to a woman, thatthey will love her always, as to maintain that they will always continue ingood health, or that they will always be happy. When they promise a woman thatthey will always love her, they suppose that she on her part, engages to bealways amiable; and if she breaks her word, they think themselves no longerbound to their word.

Paris

, the 7th of the moon Zilcade,

1714

.

Usbek

Usbek

1714

Paris

Ibbin

Ibbin

LETTER LVI.

Usbek to Ibbin, at Smyrna.

IN Europe gaming is much used; to be a gamester is sufficient to hold theplace of birth, riches, or honesty, and, without examination, admits him to therank of a gentleman; though there is nobody who does not know, that in judgingin this manner, they are often deceived; but they have agreed to beincorrigible. The women, above all, are greatly given to it. It is true, theydo not practise it much in their youth, to favour a dearer passion; but as theyadvance in years, their passion for play revives, and seems to supply thevacancy of the rest. They are determined to ruin their husbands, and to thatend they have means suitedto every stage of life, from the tenderest youth tothe most decripid old age; the destruction commences with dress and equipage,gallantry continues it, and it is finished with gaming. I have often seen nineor ten women, or rather nine or ten centuries, set round a table; I havewatched them in their hopes, their fears, their joys, especially in theirtransports of anger: you would swear they could never have time to appeasethemselves, and that their lives would end before their rage; thou wouldesthave been in doubt, whether those they paid were their creditors or theirlegatees. It seems that our holy prophet principally intended to restrain usfrom every thing that might disturb our reason: He forbad us the use of wine,which as it were buries our reason: he hath, by an express command, prohibitedall games of chance; and where it was impossible to take away the cause of ourpassions, he hath deadened them. Love, amongst us, brings no trouble, no fury;it is a languid passion, which leaves our soul in peace: a plurality of wivessaves us from their dominion; and moderates the violence of our appetites.

Paris

, the 10th of the moon Zilhade,

1714

.

Usbek

Usbek

1714

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER LVII.

Usbek, to Rhedi, at Venice.

A PRODIGIOUS number of women of pleasure are maintained here by thelibertines, and an innumerable quantity of dervises by the bigots. The dervisestake three oaths, of obedience, poverty, and chastity. The first is said to beobserved best of all; as to the second, I can assure you it is not regarded; Ileave thee to judge of the third. But as rich as these dervises are, they willnever quit the character ofpoverty; our glorious sultan would sooner resign hissublime and noble titles: they are in the right, for this pretence to povertyprevents them from being so. The physicians, and some of these dervises, calledconfessors, are here always too much esteemed, or too much despised: yet it issaid the heirs are better reconciled to the physicians than to the confessors.The other day I was in a convent of dervises, one of them, venerable for hisgrey hairs, received me very courteously; having shewn me all the house, wewent into the garden, and fell into discourse. My father, said I to him,what is your employment in the community? Sir, replied he, withan air of pleasantry at my question, I am a casuist. Casuist!replied I; from the time of my being in France, I have never heard of thisemployment. How! do you not know what a casuist is? attend; Iwill give you an idea of it that shall thoroughly inform you. There are twokinds of sins, mortal sins, which absolutely exclude from Paradise, and venalsins, which though indeed offensive to God, do not so provoke him as to depriveus of beatitude. Now our whole art consists in rightly distinguishing these twokinds of sin; for except some libertines, all Christians are willing to obtainParadise; but there is scarce any person would not willingly gain it upon aseasy terms as possible. When they are well acquainted what sins are mortal,they take care not to commit them, and their business is done, These arepersons who do not aspire to a great degree of perfection, and as they have noambition, are not solicitous for the first places; so as they can but get intoParadise they desire no more; provided they are there, thats enough forthem. These are those who take heaven by violence, rather than not obtain it,and who say to God, Lord, I have rigorously fulfilled the conditions, thoucanst not refuse to keep thy promise; as I have done no more than what thoudidst demand of me, I do not expect thou shouldest grantme more than thou hast promised. We are therefore,Sir, a very necessary kind of people. This, however, is not all; you shall hearsomething further. It is not the act that constitutes the sin, it is theknowledge of him who commits it; he who doth evil, if he can believe that it isnot an evil, his conscience is safe: and there are a vast number of actions ofa doubtful nature, a casuist can give them a degree of goodness that they havenot, and pronounce them good; and provided he can persuade the man to believethey are harmless, he entirely takes away all their evil. I have here told youthe secret of a trade I am grown old in: I have made you sensible of the nicetyof it: there is a turn to be given to every thing, even to things which appearthe least capable of it. My father, said I to him, all this isvery well, but how do you yourself settle matters with heaven? If the grandsophi had in his court a man who was to act with respect to him as you dotowards your God, who should put a distinction between his orders, and shouldteach his subjects in what case they ought to obey them, and in what case theymight violate them, he would instantly impale him.I bowed to mydervise, and left him without waiting for his reply.

Paris

, the 23d of the moon Maharran,

1714

.

Rica

Rica

1714

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER LVIII.

Rica to Rhedi, at Venice.

THERE are a great many trades, my dear Rhedi, at Paris. A man there will beso obliging, as to offer you, for a little silver, the secret of making gold.Another promises that you shall lie with the spirits of the air, providing youwill only abstain from women thirty years. You may also meet with ablediviners,who will tell you your whole life, if they have hadbut one quarter of an hours conversation with your servants. There aresome ingenious women, who make virginity a flower which dies and revives everyday, and is gathered the hundredth time with more pain than the first. Thereare others, who by the power of their art, repair all the injuries of time; whoknow how to re-establish the fading beauty of a complexion, and even to bringback a woman from the extremity of old age, to return again to the tenderestyouth. All these people live, or endeavour to do so, in a city which is themother of invention. The revenues of the citizens cannot possibly be farmed:they consist only in ingenuity and industry; each person hath his talent, whichhe renders as profitable as he can. Whoever would number the men of the law,who seek after the revenue of some mosque, might as soon count the sands of thesea, and the slaves of our monarch. A vast number of masters of languages,arts, and sciences, teach what they themselves are ignorant of; and this is avery extraordinary talent, for a great understanding is not necessary to teachwhat one knows, but a person must have a very great understanding to teachanother what he himself is ignorant of. Nobody can die here, except suddenly;death hath no other way to exercise his power: for there are here in everycorner, people who have infallible remedies against every imaginable distemper.All the shops are spread with invisible nets, in which they catch theircustomers. However a good bargain is sometimes made: a young female dealer willwheedle a man for a whole hour, to make him buy a packet of tooth-pickers.There are none but who leave this city more cautious than when they entered it,by having squandered away part of their subsistence amongst others, they learnhow to take care of the remainder; the only benefit which strangers gain inthis enchanting city.

Paris

, the 10th of the moon Saphar.

1714

.

Rica

Rica

1714

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LIX.

Rica to Usbek, at A * * *.

THE other day I was in a house where there was a circle of all sorts ofpeople; I found the conversation engrossed by two old ladies, who had labouredin vain all the morning to make themselves young again. It must beallowed said one of them, that the men of these times are very different fromthose whom we saw in our youth; they were polite, well bred, complaisant, butnow they are intolerably brutish. Every thing is changed, said aman, who appeared crippled with the gout; times are not as they were: fortyyears ago all the world behaved well, they walked, were gay, they desirednothing but to dance and sing, but now all the world is insupportablydull. Soon after the conversation turned to politics.Said an oldlord, The state is no longer governed; point me out now, such a ministeras monsieur Colbert; he was one of my friends, he always ordered the pay of mypension before it was due: in what good order did he keep the finances! everybody was at ease, but now I am ruined. Sir, said an ecclesiastic, youare speaking of the most wonderful times of our invincible monarch; was thereany thing so great as what he then did to extirpate heresy? Anddo you reckon for nothing his putting an end to duels? said another withan air of satisfaction, who had not spoke a word before. That remark isvery judicious, said another in a whisper to me. This man is charmed with theedict, and he observes it so strictly, that six months ago he suffered himselfto be heartily caned, rather than violate it. It appears to me, Usbek,that we never judge of things but with a private view to ourselves. I do notwonder that the negroes paint the devil in the most glaring whiteness, andtheir gods as black as a coal; that the Venus of some nations should berepresented with breasts pendant to her thighs; norindeed that all idolators have made their gods ofhuman figures, and have ascribed to them all their own passions. My dear Usbek,when I see men who creep upon an atom, the earth, which is but as a point tothe universe, propose themselves as the immediate models of Providence, I knownot how to reconcile so much presumption with so much insufficiency.

Paris

, the 14th of the moon Saphar,

1714

.

Usbek

Usbek

1714

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER LX.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

THOU asketh me if there are any Jews in France? Know that throughout theworld wherever there is money, there are Jews. Thou inquirest what they dohere? The very same they do in Persia: nothing more resembles a Jew in Asia,than a Jew in Europe. They shew among the Christains, as among us, aninvincible obstinacy for their religion, which they carry to the height offolly. The religion of the Jews is an old trunk which hath produced twobranches, which have covered all the earth, I mean Christianity and Mahometism;or rather it is a mother who hath brought forth two daughters, who have coveredher with a thousand wounds: for with respect to religion, its nearest friendsare its greatest enemies. But as ill as she hath been treated by these, shedoth not cease to glory in having produced them; she serves herself of both toencompass the whole world, whilst on her own part, her venerable age embracesall ages. The Jews consider themselves as the source of all holiness, and theorigin of all religion: they on the other hand, look upon us as heretics, whohave changed the law, or rather as rebellious Jews. If the change had beengradually effected, they think they might have beeneasily seduced; but as it was suddenly changed, andin a violent manner, as they can point out the day and the hour of the birth ofthe one and the other, they are offended at finding us reckoning our religionby ages, and therefore adhere firmly to a religion, not preceded in antiquityby even the world itself. They never enjoyed in Europe a calm equal to thepresent. Christians begin to lay aside that intolerating spirit which formerlyinfluenced them. Spain hath experienced the bad consequence of having expelledthe Jews, and France of having worried the Christians, whose faith differed alittle from that of the prince. They are now sensible that a zeal for theprogress of religion is different from that attachment which ought to bepreserved towards her; and that in order to love and obey her, it is notnecessary to hate and persecute those who do not regard her. It is to be wishedthat our Mussulmans would think as rationally upon this subject as theChristians, that we might, in good earnest, make peace between Hali andAbubeker, and leave to God the care of deciding the pretensions of these holyprophets. I would have them honoured by acts of veneration and respect, and notby vain preferences, and to endeavour to merit their favour, whatever place Godmay have assigned them, whether at his right hand, or quite under the footstoolof his throne.

Paris

, the 18th of the moon Saphar,

1714

.

Usbek

Usbek

1714

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER LXI.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

THE other day I went into a famous church, called Notre-Dame; whilst I wasadmiring this superb edifice, I had an opportunity of conversing with achurchman,whom, as well as myself, curiosity had drawnthither. Our conversation fell upon the ease enjoyed in his profession.The generality of people, said he, envy the happiness of our condition,and with reason. However it hath its uneasinesses; we are not so divided fromthe world, as not to be called into it upon a thousand occasions, and there itis very difficult to support our part. The people of the world are surprising,they can neither bear our approbation, nor our censures; if we attempt toreprove them, we are ridiculous; if we approve their conduct, we are consideredas acting beneath our character. There is nothing so humbling, as the thoughtof having given scandal even to the impious. We are therefore obliged to use adoubtful kind of conduct, and deal with libertines, not in a decisive way, butby the uncertainty in which we leave them to judge of the manner in which wereceived their conversation. There must be a good deal of ingenuity to thispurpose; this neutral state is very difficult: the men of the world, who hazardevery thing, who indulge all their flights, and who, according to theirsuccess, pursue or drop them, succeed much better. This is not all. This state,so happy and so quiet, so much boasted of, is not to be kept up in the world.As, on our appearance there, we are forced to dispute: we are obliged toundertake, for example, to prove the efficacy of prayer, to a man who does notbelieve in God; the necessity of fasting, to another, who all his life timehath denied the immortality of the soul; the enterprize is difficult, and thelaughers are not with us. Further, a strong desire to draw others to ouropinion, perpetually torments us, and is, as I may say, fixed to ourprofession. This is as ridiculous, as it would be for the Europeans to labour,for the honour of human nature, to wash the Africans white. We trouble thestate, we torment even ourselves, to make men receive the nonessential pointsof religion; and we are like that conquerorof China, who forced his subjects into a generalrevolt, because he wanted to oblige them to cut their hair and their nails.That zeal even which we have, to make those who are under our immediate care,fulfil the duties of our holy religion, is often dangerous, and cannot beattended with too much prudence. Theodosius, the emperor, put to the sword allthe inhabitants of a certain city, even the women and children! afterwardsoffering to go into a church, Ambrose, a bishop, shut the doors against him, asa sacrilegious murderer; and in this he did a noble action. This emperor havingafterwards submitted to the penance such a crime required, being admitted intothe church, going to place himself among the priests, the same bishop turnedhim out; and in this he acted like a fanatic: so true it is that we ought to bediffident of our zeal. What did it import to religion, or the state, whetherthis prince had, or had not, a place among the priests?

Paris

, the first of the moon of the 1stRebiab,

1714

.

Zelis

Zelis

1714

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LXII.

Zelis to Usbek, at Paris.

THY daughter having attained to her seventh year, I thought it was time toremove her into the inner apartments of the seraglio, and not to wait till sheshould be ten years old, to entrust her to the care of the black eunuchs. Wecannot too soon deprive a young person of the liberties of childhood, andbestow on her an holy education, within the sacred walls where modesty dwells.For I cannot be of the opinion of those mothers, who do not shut theirdaughters up, till they are upon the point of marrying them, who rather condemnthem to a seraglio, thanconsecrate them in it; making them embrace byviolence, a kind of life they ought to have inspired them with the love of. Isall to be expected from the force of reason, and nothing from the sweetness ofcustom? It is in vain to talk of the state of subjection in which nature hathplaced us: this is not sufficient to make us sensible of it; we must be made topractise it, that it may support us at the critical time when the passionsshoot forth, and provoke us to independence. If by our duty only we wereattached to you, we might sometimes forget it; if drawn only by ourinclination, perhaps a stronger might weaken it. But when the laws have devotedus to one man, they deprive us of all others, place us as distant from them, asif we were an hundred thousand leagues off. Nature, industriously favourable tomen, hath not bounded itself in giving desires to men, she was willing that weshould have them too, and that we should be the animated instruments of theirfelicity: she hath put in us the flame of the passions, to make them live easy:if they ever quit their insensibility, she hath destined us to make them returnto it again, without our ever being able to taste that happy state in which weplace them. Yet, Usbek, do not imagine that thy situation is happier than mine:I have tasted here a thousand pleasures unknown to you. My imagination hathincessantly laboured to make me sensible of their value: I have lived, and youhave only languished. In the very prison where thou hast confined me, I am morefree than thou. Thou only knowest how to redouble thy cautions, to have meguarded, yet I shall enjoy thy fears, and thy suspicions, thy jealousy and thyuneasiness are so many marks of thy dependence. Continue, dear Usbek, to haveme watched night and day; nay, do not trust to common precautions: augment myhappiness, by securing thy own: and know that I dread nothing but thyindifference.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 2d of themoon of the 1st Rebiab,

1714

.

Rica

Rica

1714

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LXIII.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

THOU intendest, I think, to pass thy life in the country. I was not to havelost thee at first, for more than three or four days, and here are fifteengone, and I have not seen thee. It is true, thou art in a delightful house,where you find company suitable to your taste, and can reason at thy ease:there is nothing more necessary to make thee forget the whole universe. I, formy part, lead my life pretty nearly in the same manner, as when you saw me. Ilaunch into the world, and endeavour to know it. My mind insensibly loses allthat remained of the Asiatic, and easily conforms to European manners. I am nolonger surprised at the sight of five or six women in one house, with as manymen; and I begin to think it is not improper. I may say I knew nothing of womentill I came here: I have learned more of them here in a month, than I shouldhave done in thirty years in a seraglio. With us there is an uniformity ofcharacter, as it is al forced: we do not see people as they are, but as theyare obliged to appear: in this state of slavery, both of body and mind, it istheir fears only that speak, which have but one language, and that not ofnature, which expresses herself so differently, and which appears unde so manyforms. Dissimulation, an art among us universally practised, and so necessary,is unknown here: they speak every thing, see every thing, and hear every thing:the heart, like the face, is visible: in their manners, in their virtue, evenin their vices, there is always something genuine and native to be perceived.To please the women here, a certain talent is necessary, different from thatwhich contributes more to their pleasure: it consists in a kind of wittyplaying of the fool, that amuses them, as it seems to promise them every minutewhat they can only hope to enjoy at toolong intervals. This playing of the fool, naturallyadapted to the toilet, seems to constitute the general character of thisnation; they thus play the fool in the council, at the head of an army, and dothe same with ambassadors. No profession appears ridiculous but in proportionto the gravity mixed with it; a physician would not be so ridiculous, if hisdress was less affectedly grave, and if he killed his patients with morepleasantry.

Paris

, the 10th of the moon of the 1st Rebiab,

1714

.

1714

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LXIV.

The Chief of the Black Eunuchs to Usbek at Paris.

I KNOW not how, magnificent lord, to express the perplexity I am in; theseraglio is in terrible confusion and disorder: war reigns among thy wives: thyeunuchs are divided: nothing is heard but complaints, murmurings, andreproaches: my remonstrances are despised, every thing seems allowable in theirlicentious moments, and I bear no more than an empty title in the seraglio.There is not one of thy wives who does not judge herself superior to the restfor her birth, beauty, riches, wit, or thy love; and who does not make one ofthese pretences a sufficient ground to claim the whole respect. I at thisinstant lose my long-continued patience, with which I have always had themisfortune to make them displeased at me; my prudence, even my complaisance, avirtue so rare and uncommon in the post I hold, have been ineffectual. Shall Idiscover to thee, magnificent lord, the source of all this disorder? It iswholly in thy heart, and in the tender regard thou hast for them. If thou didstnot restrain my hand; if, instead of the liberty of remonstrating, thou wouldstallow me that of chastising: if, instead of suffering thyself to be softened bytheir complaints and tears, thou wouldst send them to weepbefore me, which should never soften me, I wouldsoon fashion them to the yoke they ought to bear, and I should weary out theirimperious and independant humour. Being stole away at the age of fifteen years,from the remotest part of Africa, my native country, I was at first sold to amaster, who had above twenty wives or concubines, who judged from my gravityand taciturnity, that I was fit for a seraglio; he ordered I should be made so,and made me submit to an operation painful at first, but which afterwards mademe happy, as it brought me to the ear and confidence of my masters. I enteredthe seraglio, which was a new world to me. The chief eunuch, a man the mostsevere I ever saw, governed there with an absolute power. There was no talkheard there of divisions or quarrels: a profound silence reigned throughout;all the women retired to rest at the same hour, from one end of the year toanother, and rose again always at a certain hour: they entered the baths byturns, and came out at the least signal we made: they were shut up in theirchambers almost the rest of their time. He had one rule, which was to make themobserve the greatest neatness, and it is impossible to express his care forthis purpose: he punished without mercy the least refusal of his orders.I am, said he, a slave, but it is to a man who is your master as well asmine; and I only use the power he hath given me over you; it is he who correctsyou, and not I, who do no more than lend my hand. These women never entered mymasters chamber, unless they were called; they received this favour withjoy, and saw themselves deprived of it without murmuring. In short, I who wasthe meanest black in this peaceful seraglio, was a thousand times morerespected than I am in thine, where I command every body. As soon as this chiefeunuch understood my genius, he regarded me; spoke of me to my master, as a manfit to pursue his methods, and to succeed him in the post he filled: he was notprejudiced at my youthfulness; he thought myattention would supply the want of experience. ShallI tell thee! I grew so much in his confidence, that he made no difficulty toput into my hands the keys of those tremendous places, which he for so long atime had guarded. It was under this able master that I learned the difficultart of commanding, and formed to myself the maxims of an inflexible government;I studied under him, the hearts of women; he taught me to take advantage oftheir weaknesses, and not to be confounded by their haughtiness. Often did heplease himself with seeing me force them to the utmost verge of obedience; hethen made them return again by degrees, and made me seem myself to give way fora time. You should have seen him in those moments, when they were driven almostto despair, between intreaties and reproaches; he bore their tears withoutbeing moved himself, and experienced a pleasure in this kind of triumph. See,said he, with an air of complacency, how women must be governed; their numberdoes not incommode me; I could govern in the same manner, all those of ourgreat monarch. How can a man captivate their hearts, if their trusty eunuchsdid not first break their spirits? He was not only possessed of a firmresolution, but also of as great penetration. He read their thoughts, and sawthrough their dissimulations: their studied looks, their fictitiouscountenances concealed nothing from him. He gained a knowledge of all theirmost private actions, and their most secret words. he made use of some to gainintelligence of others, and delighted to reward the least confidence placed inhim. As they never approached their husbands but when they had notice, theeunuch introduced whom he pleased, and directed his masters regardsaccording to his own views; and this distinction was the reward of some secretintelligence. He had persuaded his master that it was necessary to leave thischoice to him, in order to preserve good order, and to make his authority thegreater. Such was the government,magnificent lord, in a seraglio which was, Ibelieve, better regulated than any other in Persia. Leave my hands at liberty,permit me to make myself obeyed; one week shall put this confusion into order:this is what thy honour demands, and what thy security requires.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 9th of themoon of the 1st Rebiab,

1714

.

Usbek

Usbek

1714

Paris

LETTER LXV.

Usbek to hisWives, at the Seraglio at Ispahan.

I UNDERSTAND that the seraglio is in disorder, and that it is filled withquarrels and intestine divisions. What did I recommend at my departure, butpeace and good understanding? You promised me this, was it to deceive me? It isyou who would be deceived, if I was willing to follow the advice given me bythe chief eunuch; if I would use my authority to make you live as myexhortations required you to do. I know not how to make use of such violentmethods, until I have tried every other. Do then, in consideration ofyourselves, what you would not be willing to do for my sake. The chief eunuchhath great occasion to complain: he says you have no respect for him. How canyou reconcile this conduct with the modesty of your condition? Is it not to himthat, during my absence, your virtue is intrusted? This is a sacred treasure,of which he is the depository. But the contempt you shew him, makes it appear,that those who have the care of making you live according to the law of honour,are burthensome. Change therefore your conduct, I desire you, that I may yetreject the proposals made to me against your liberty and repose. For I wouldmake you to forget that I amyour master, and that you may only remember that Iam your husband.

Paris

, the 5th of the moon Chahban,

1714

.

Rica

Rica

1714

Paris

LETTER LXVI.

Rica to * * *.

THE sciences are here very much studied; but I know not if those who studythem are very learned. He who doubts of every thing as a philosopher, dares todeny nothing as a divine; this contradictory man is always satisfied withhimself, provided qualities are agreed to. The passion of most of the French isto be taken for wits, and the passion of those who would be thought wits, is towrite books. And yet there is nothing so badly imagined: nature seems to haveprovided, that the follies of men should be transient, but they by writingbooks render them permanent. A fool ought to content himself with havingwearied those who lived with him: but he is for tormenting future generations;he is desirous that his folly should triumph over oblivion, which he ought tohave enjoyed as well as his grave; he is desirous that posterity should beinformed that he lived, and that it should be known for ever that he was afool. Of all kind of authors there are none I despise more than compilers, whosearch every where for shreds of other mens works, which they join totheir own, like so many pieces of green turf in a garden: they are not at allsuperior to compositors in a printing house, who range the types, which,collected together, make a book, towards which they contribute nothing but thelabours of the hand. I would have original writers respected, and it seems tome a kind of profanation to take those pieces from the sanctuary in which theyreside, and to expose them toa contempt they do not deserve. When a man hathnothing new to say, why does not he hold his tongue? What business have we withthis double employment? But I will give a new order. You are an ingenious man;you come into my library, and you remove those books which were at the top tothe bottom, and put those which were lowermost at top; this is a masterly workindeed! I write to thee on this subject, * * *, because I am angry at a bookwhich I have just left, which is so large, that it seems to contain universalscience, but it hath almost split my head, without teaching me any thing.Farewel.

Paris

, the 8th of the moon Chahban,

1714

.

Ibben

Ibben

1714

Smyrna

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LXVII.

Ibben to Usbek, at Paris.

THERE are three ships arrived here, without bringing me any news of thee.Art thou sick? or dost thou take a pleasure in making me uneasy? If thou dostnot love me in a country where thou art tied to nothing, what wouldst thou doin the middle of Persia, and in the bosom of thy family! But may be I deceivemyself: thou art amiable enough to find friends every where; the heart is acitizen of every country; how can a well-formed mind hinder itself fromentering into engagements? I confess to thee I respect old friendships, but Iam not displeased at making new ones every where. In whatever country I havebeen, I have lived as though I was to pass my life there: I have had the samewarm affection for virtuous people, the same compassion, or rather the sametenderness, for the unhappy; the same regard for those whom prosperity hath notblinded. This is my disposition, Usbek: wherever I shall meet with men, I shallchusefriends. There is a certain Guebree here, who, Ithink, after thee, enjoys the first place in my heart: he is probity itself.Some particular reasons have obliged him to retire to this city, where he livesat ease, with his wife, whom he loves, on the product of an honest traffic. Hiswhole life is remarkable for generous actions; and though he seeks to beprivate, he hath more heroism in his soul, than in that of the greatestmonarchs. I have talked a thousand times to him of thee, I shew him all thyletters; I observe they give him pleasure, and I already perceive that thouhast a friend who is unknown to thee. Thou wilt find here his chief adventures;though he wrote them with reluctance, he could refuse nothing to my friendship,and I intrust them to thine.

The History of Apheridon and Astarte.

I WAS born among the Guebres [*] , of a religion which is, perhaps, the most ancient in the world. I wasso unhappy, that love came to me before reason. I was scarce six years of agewhen I could not live without my sister: my eyes were always fixed on her; andif she left me but a moment, she found them at her return bathed in tears:every day did not add more to my age than to my love. My father, astonished atso strong a sympathy, wished indeed to marry us together, according to theancient custom of the Guebres, introduced by Cambyses, but the fear of theMahometans, whose yoke we live under, restrains those of our nation fromthinking of such holy alliances, which our religion rather commands thanforbids, and which resemble so much the natural union constituted by nature. Myfather, seeing it would be dangerous tofollow his inclination and mine, determined toextinguish a flame which he thought in its infancy, but which was at itsheight; he pretended to make a voyage, and took me with him, leaving my sisterin the hands of one of his relations, for my mother had been dead two years. Iwill not tell you what my despair was at this separation: I embraced my sister,all bathed in teats, but I shed none; for grief had rendered me insensible. Wearrived at Tefflis, and my father, having intrusted my education to one of ourrelations, left me there, and returned home. Some time after I learned, that,by the interest of one of his friends, he had got my sister into thekings seraglio, where she attended a sultana. If I had been informed ofher death, I could not have been more affected; for, besides that I had nohopes of seeing her again, her entering into the seraglio had made her aMahometan; and she could no more, according to the prejudice of that religion,regard me but with horror. However, not being able to live longer at Tefflis,weary of myself and of life, I returned to Ispahan. My first words to my fatherwere bitter; I reproached him with having put his daughter in a place, intowhich none can enter without changing their religion. You have broughtupon your family, said I to him, the wrath of heaven, and of the sun thatlights you: you have done worse than if you had sullied the elements, since youhave defiled the soul of your daughter, which is not less pure: I shall die ofgrief and love, but may my death be the only punishment that God may make youfeel! At these words I went out; and, during two years, I passed my lifein looking at the walls of the seraglio, and considering the part where mysister might be; exposing myself a thousand times every day to be killed by theeunuchs, who keep their round about these dreadful apartments. At last myfather died; and the sultana, whom my sister waited on, observing her beautyincreased every day, became jealous of her,and married her to an eunuch, who passionatelywished for her. By this means my sister left the seraglio, and took with hereunuch an house at Ispahan. I was above three months without an opportunity ofspeaking to her; the eunuch, the most jealous of all men, always putting me offwith frivolous excuses. At last, I entered this seraglio, and was obliged totalk through a latticed window. The eyes of a lynx could not have discoveredher, so hid was she with her dress and veils; and I only knew her by her voice.What was my emotion when I saw myself so near her, and so far from her! Irestrained myself, for I was observed. As to her, it seemed to me that she shedsome tears. Her husband offered to make some trifling excuses, but I treatedhim as the most contemptible of slaves. He was quite confounded, when he foundI talked to my sister in a language unknown to him; this was the ancientPersic, which is our sacred language. What, my sister, said I, is ittrue that you have renounced the religion of your fathers? I know that onentering the seraglio you must have made profession of Mahometism; but tell me,hath your heart consented like your mouth, to quit the religion which permitsme to love you? And for whom have you quitted that religion which ought to beso dear to us? For a wretch yet marked with the chains he wore; who, if he wasa man, would be the last of mankind. My brother, said she, thisman of whom you speak is my husband: I must honour him, all unworthy as heappears to you; and I should also be the last of women, ifAh, my sister! interrupted I, you are a Guebre; he is not your husband,nor can he be; if you was a believer, like your forefathers, you could not butregard him as a monster. Alas, said she, at what a distance does that religionshew itself to me! Scarce had I known its precepts, when I was obliged torenounce it. You must observe, that the language I speak is not very familiarto me, and that I take theutmost pains to express myself: but be assured, thatthe remembrance of our childhood always gives me pleasure; but, since thattime, I have known only false joys; that there hath not passed a day of my lifein which I have not thought of you; that you have a greater share in mymarriage than you can believe; and that it had not been concluded but from ahope of seeing you again. But this day, which hath cost me so much, will yetcost me more! I see you are quite beside yourself; my husband foams with rageand jealousy: I shall see you no more; I, without doubt, speak to you for thelast time of my life: if so, my brother, it will not be long. At thesewords she wept; and finding herself incapable of talking, she left me, the mostdisconsolate of all men. Three or four days after, I desired to see my sister;the barbarous eunuch would indeed have hindered me; but, besides that thesekind of husbands have not the same authority over their wives as others, heloved my sister so passionately, that he knew not how to refuse her any thing.I saw her again in the same place, and with the same veils, attended by twoslaves, which made me have recourse to our own language. My sister, saidI, how comes it that I cannot see you, without finding myself in this terriblesituation? These walls which keep you shut up, these bolts and iron gates,these miserable attendants who watch you, put me in a rage. How have you lostthat sweet liberty which your ancestors enjoyed! Your mother, who was sochaste, did not give herself to her husband to guard her virtue, but her virtueitself was her guard: they both lived happy together in mutual confidence; andthe simplicity of their manners was to them a treasure a thousand times moreprecious than that false splendor which you seem to enjoy in this sumptuoushouse. In losing your religion you have lost your liberty, your happiness, andthat precious quality which constitutes the honour of your sex. But what is yetworse, is, that you are notthe wife, for that you cannot be, but a slave to aslave, who hath been degraded of manhood. Ah, my brother! said she,respect my husband, respect the religion I have embraced; according to whichreligion I cannot hear you, nor speak to you, without guilt.What, my sister! cried I, quite in a transport, do you then believe thisreligion to be true? Ah, said she, how well would it be for me ifit was not! I have made too great a sacrifice to it, not to believe in it; and,if my doubtsAt these words she was silent. Yes, yourdoubts, my sister, are well founded, whatever they are. What can you expectfrom a religion which renders you unhappy here in this world, and leaves you nohope of another? Consider, our religion is the most ancient in the whole world;that it hath always flourished in Persia, and hath no other origin but withthat empire, whose beginning is not known; it was nothing but chance whichintroduced Mahometism there; that sect was established there, not by the powerof persuasion, but by that of conquest. If our natural princes had not beenweak, you would have seen the worship of the ancient Magi flourishing yet.Review those ages which are passed, every thing informs you of Magism, andnothing of the Mahometan sect, which, many thousand of years after, was butthen in its infancy. But, said she, though my religion should beof a more modern date than yours, it is at least more pure, since it adoresnone but God; whereas you also adore the sun, the stars, fire, and even theelements. I see, my sister, that you have learned among theMussulmans to calumniate our holy religion. We worship neither the stars northe elements, and our fathers never worshipped them: they never raised templesto them, they never offered sacrifices to them. They only paid them a religiousworship of an inferior kind, as to the works and manifestations of thedivinity. But, my sister, in the name of him who enlightens us, receive thissacred bookwhich I have brought you; it is a book of ourlegislator Zoroaster, peruse it without prejudice; receive in your heart therays of light, which will enlighten you as you read it; remember your fathers,who for so long a time honoured the sun in the city of the Holy Balk; andlastly, do thou remember me, who hope neither for ease, happiness, nor life,but from your change. There, quite transported, I quitted her, and lefther alone to determine the most important affair that I could have in my life.I came there again two days after; I said nothing to her, waiting with silencethe sentence of my life, or of my death. Thou art beloved, my brother,said she to me, and by a Guebre. I have struggled a long time; but, Gods! whatdifficulties doth love remove! How relieved am I! I fear nothing now but lovingyou too much; I can fix no bounds to my love: but the excess is lawful. Ah, howwell does this suit the state of my heart! But you who have known how to breakthe chains which my mind itself had forged, how will you break those that tiemy hands? From this moment I give myself to thee; show by the readiness withwhich you receive me, how dear this present is to you. My brother, the firsttime that I embrace you, I believe I shall die in your arms. I can neverfully express the joy I felt at these words: I did believe, and actually sawmyself, in a moment, the most happy of all mankind: I saw all the wishes whichI had been five and twenty years of my life in forming, nearly accomplished,and all those uneasinesses vanished, which had rendered my life so burthensome.But when I had a little enjoyed these delightful thoughts, I found that I wasnot so near my happiness, as I had so hastily imagined within myself, though Ihad surmounted the greatest of all obstacles. The vigilance of her guardianswas to be deceived: I did not dare to confide this secret of my life with anybody; I had nobody but my sister, and she nobody but me, to consult: if myschemefailed, I ran the risque of being imprisoned; but Isaw no pain more tormenting than that of miscarrying. We agreed that she shouldsend to me for a cloak that her father had left her, and that I should put afile into it, to saw the lattice of her window, which opened to the street, anda rope-ladder to descend by, and after that not to visit her; but that I shouldwalk every night under the window, to wait till she could execute her design. Ipassed fifteen whole nights without seeing any body, because she had not founda favourable opportunity. At length, the sixteenth night, I heard a saw atwork: from time to time the work was discontinued, and in those intervals myfear was inexpressible. After an hours labour I saw her fasten the cord,she then put herself on it, and slided down into my arms. I thought no more ofdanger, and staid some time without moving from thence; I then conducted herout of the city, where I had a horse ready; I placed her behind me, and rodewith all the haste possible, from a place which might have been very fatal tous. We reached, before day, the house of a Guebre, in a desert place, where helived retired by the labour of his hands. Not thinking it proper to stay withhim, by his advice we entered into a thick forest, and hid ourselves in thehollow of an old oak tree, till the noise of our flight should be over. Welived both together in this place, without being seen, continually repeatinghow we would always love one another, waiting an opportunity when some Guebrepriest should perform the ceremony of our marriage, ordered by our sacredbooks. My sister, said I to her, how holy is this union! Nature hathunited us, our holy law will again unite us. At length a priest came to satisfyour impatient love; he performed, in the house of a peasant, the whole marriageceremony: he blessed us, and wished us a thousand times all the vigour ofGustaspe, and the sanctity of Hohoraspe. Soon after we quitted Persia, wherewe were not in safety, and retired to Georgia. Welived there a year, every day more delighted with each other. But as my moneywas near expended, and as I feared the distress of my sister more than ofmyself, I left her, to seek some assistance from our relations. Never was therea parting so tender. But my journey was not only unprofitable, but fatal: forfinding, on one hand, our whole estate confiscated, on the other, my relationsin a manner incapable of assisting me, I brought away no more money than wassufficient for my journey back. But what was my despair at not finding mysister! Some days before my arrival, the Tartars had made an incursion into thetown where she was; and, as they found she was beautiful, they took her, andsold her to some Jews, who were going into Turky, and left only a little girl,of whom she had been delivered a few months before. I followed these Jews, andgot up to them three leagues off: my prayers, my tears, were in vain; theydemanded of me thirty tomans for her, and would not abate one. After I hadasked every body, implored the help of both Christian and Turkish priests, Iapplied to an Armenian merchant; sold both my daughter and myself to him, forfive and thirty tomans. I went to the Jews, paid them thirty tomans, andcarried the other five to my sister, whom I had not yet seen. Thou artat liberty, my sister, said I to her, and I may embrace you; here are fivetomans, which I bring you; I am sorry the sale of myself would fetch nomore. What! cried she, are you sold? Yes, repliedI. Ah, unhappy man, what hast thou done? Was I not miserableenough without your endeavouring to make me more so? Your liberty consoled meand your slavery will send me to the grave. Ah! my brother! how cruel is yourlove! and where is my daughter? I have not seen her I have soldher also, said I. We both melted into tears, and were no more able totalk. I went afterwards to wait upon my master, and my sister got therealmost as soon as myself: she fell down upon herknees before my master; I ask slavery of you, said she, as others doliberty; take me, you may sell me at a higher price than my husband.This then occasioned a struggle between us, which drew tears from my master.Unhappy man! said she, did you think I would accept of my liberty at theexpence of thine? Sir, behold here two unfortunate persons, who must die if youseparate us. I offer myself to you, pay me, perhaps that money, and myservices, may one day obtain from you what I dare not ask of you. It is yourinterest not to separate us; be assured that his life is at my disposal.The Armenian, who was a good tempered man, was touched with our misfortunes.Both of you serve me, said he, with fidelity and zeal, I promise you,that in a year you shall have your liberty. I see that neither of you merit themisfortunes of your condition. If, when at liberty, you should be as happy asyou deserve to be, if fortune should smile upon you, I am certain you willrecompence me for the loss I shall sustain. We both embraced his knees,and went the voyage with him. We mutually assisted each other in the labours ofservitude, and I was always delighted when I had done that work which belongedto my sister. The end of the year at length arrived; our master kept his word,and gave us our liberty. We returned to Tefflis; there I found an old friend ofmy father, who practised physic in that city with success. He lent me somemoney, with which I trafficked. Some affairs afterwards called me to Smyrna,where I settled. I have lived here six years, and I enjoy here the mostdelightful and most agreeable society in the world: unity reigns in my family,and I would not change my condition for that of all the kings in the world. Ihave been so happy as to find out the Armenian merchant, to whom I owe everything, and I have rendered him some considerable services.

Smyrna

, the 27th of the moon of the 1stGemmadi,

1714

.

Rica

Rica

1714

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LXVIII.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

THE other day I went to dine with a man of the long robe, by whom I had beenoften invited. After we had talked upon a variety of subjects, I said to him,Sir, your profession appears to me to be very troublesome.Not so much as you imagine, answered he, in the manner we conduct it, itis no more than an amusement. But how? Have not you your headalways filled with the affairs of another? Are not you perpetually busied withaffairs that do not concern you? You are right, those affairs donot give us any concern, because we do not interest ourselves the least inthem; and this is the reason that the profession is not so fatiguing as yousupposed it to be. When I saw he treated the matter with so muchease, I added, Sir, I have not yet seen your study. Ibelieve not, for I have none at all. When I took this office. I wanted money topay for it; I sold my library; and the bookseller, who purchased it, out of thegreat number of volumes it contained, left me only my account book. But thisgives me no concern: we judges do not puff ourselves up with useless knowledge.What business have we with so many volumes of law? Almost all cases arehypothetical, and out of the general rule. But may not that be,Sir, said I, because you put them out of the general rule? For, in short, whyhave all the people in the world laws, if they do not make use of them? And howcan they be used if they do not know them? If you was butacquainted with the courts of justice, answered the magistrate, you would nottalk in this manner: we have living books, who are the counsellors, they studyfor us, and take upon themselves our instruction. And do not theysometimes take upon themselves to deceive you? replied I.You would do well to guard yourselves against theirarts. They have arms, with which they attack your equity, it would be well youhad some to defend it; and not to suffer yourselves to be placed in the middleof a battle, slightly armed, among men dressed in armour to the verychin.

Paris

, the 13th of the moon Chahban,

1714

.

Usbek

Usbek

1714

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER LXIX.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

THOU couldst never have imagined that I should become a greatermetaphysician than I was; however so it is, and you will be convinced of it,when you have endured this inundation of my philosophy. The most sensiblephilosophers, who have reflected upon the nature of God, have declared him tobe a being most absolutely perfect; but they have very greatly abused thisidea. They have enumerated all the different perfections that man is capable ofpossessing, or imagining; and with these they load this idea of the divinity,not considering that these attributes are frequently opposite to one another,and that they cannot subsist in the same subject without destroying themselves.The poets of the west say, that a painter, desirous to make a portrait of thegoodess of beauty, assembled the handsomest Grecian women, and selected fromeach what was most agreeable, of which several beauties he composed one whole,to resemble the most beautiful of all the goddesses. If a man from hence shouldconclude that she was fair and brown, that she had black eyes and grey, andthat her countenance was mild and fierce, he would pass for a fool. God oftenwants a perfection which would render him very imperfect: but he is neverlimited but by himself; he is his own necessity. Thus,though God is all powerful, he cannot break hispromises, nor deceive man. Very often too, the inability is not in him, but inrelative things; and this is the reason why he cannot change the essence ofthings. So that it is not a matter of wonder, that some of our divines havedared to deny the infinite foreknowledge of God; upon this foundation, that itis incompatible with his justice. As bold as this opinion may be, there is inmetaphysics, what favours it greatly. According to the principles of that, itis not possible that God can foresee what depends upon the determination offree agents: because what hath not existed, is not in being, and consequentlycannot be known, which having no properties, cannot be perceived: God cannotread in the will what is not in it, or see in the soul a thing which is not yetexisting in it: for, till she hath determined, the action which she determinesupon is not in her. The soul is the maker of her own determination: but thereare some circumstances in which she is so irresolute, that she knows not onwhich side to determine. Sometimes she may even do it, only to make use of herliberty! in such a manner, that God cannot see this determination beforehand,neither in the action of the soul, nor in the actions which the objects makeupon her. How then can God foresee those things which depend upon thedetermination of free agents? He could foresee them but in two ways; byconjecture, which is irreconcileable with infinite foreknowledge; or otherwisehe must see them as necessary effects, which infallibly follow a cause whichproduces them as infallibly; for the soul must be free upon this supposition;and yet in the act, she would be no more so than one billiard ball is free tolie still when it is pushed by another. However, do not think I would setbounds to the knowledge of God. As he makes his creature act according to hisown mind, he knows all that he wills to know. But though he can see everything, he doesnot always make use of that power; he commonlyleaves the creature at liberty to act, or not to act, that he may leave him apower to merit or demerit: it is for this end then, that he renounces his rightwhich he hath to act upon her, and to determine her actions. But when he willsto know any thing he always knows it; because that he needs only to will thatit happen as he sees it, and to determine his creatures according to his will.Thus it is, that he brings forth what shall happen, from a number of thingsmerely possible, by fixing by his decrees, the future determinations of theminds of his creatures, and depriving them of that power which he hath giventhem to act, or not to act. If the comparison may be used, with respect to whatis above all comparison, a monarch is ignorant of what his ambassador will doin a certain important affair; if he would know it, he need only order him toact in such a manner; and he may be assured the thing will happen as hedirects. The Koran, and the books of the Jews, constantly oppose this doctrineof absolute foreknowledge. God appears there throughout ignorant of the futuredetermination of human minds; and it seems that this was the first truth Mosestaught mankind. God places Adam in a terrestrial paradise, upon condition thathe should not eat of a certain fruit: an absurd command from a being who knewthe future determination of the soul: for in short, could such a being makethat the condition of his favour, without rendering it ridiculous? It is as ifa man who knew of the taking of Bagdad, should say to another; I will give youan hundred tomans, if Bagdad is not taken. Would not this be a very bad jest?My dear Rhedi, why so much philosophy? God is above, whom we cannot perceive,even in the clouds. Indeed we have no knowledge of him, but in his precepts. Heis immense, spiritual, infinite. What his greatness is, we may conclude fromour own weakness.Always to humble ourselves, is always to adorehim.

Paris

, the last day of the moon Chahban,

1714

.

Zelis

Zelis

1714

Fatme

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LXX.

Zelis to Usbek, at Paris.

SOLIMAN, whom thou lovest, is driven to despair, by an affront he hath justreceived. A giddy-headed young man, called Suphis, hath been seeking thesethree months to marry his daughter; he seemed pleased with her figure, from thereport and description that he had of her, from the women who had seen her fromher infancy; the portion was agreed on, and every thing passed without anydifficulty. Yesterday, after the first ceremonies, the maid went on horseback,attended by her eunuch, and covered according to custom, from head to foot.But, when she was arrived at the house of her intended husband, he shut thedoor, and swore he would never receive her, unless her fortune was augmented.Her relations run there from all parts, to accommodate the matter; and after agood deal of disputing, Soliman agreed to make his son-in-law a small present.The ceremonies of the marriage were finished, they conducted the young woman tobed with a good deal of violence; but an hour after, this giddy-headed youngman got up in a fury, cut her face in several places, and afferting that shewas not a virgin, sent her back to her father. Nobody can be more confoundedthan he is at this injury. There are many persons who maintain, that hisdaughter is innocent. Fathers are very unhappy to be exposed to such affronts!If my daughter should receive such treatment, I believe I should die of grief.Farewel.

From the seraglio at

Fatme

, the 9th of themoon of the 1st Gemmadi,

1714

.

Usbek

Usbek

1714

Paris

Zelis

Zelis

LETTER LXXI.

Usbek to Zelis.

I AM sorry for Soliman, and the more, because this distress is withoutremedy, and his son-in-law hath done no more than taking advantage of the powerof the law. I think this law is very hard, thus to expose the honour of afamily to the caprice of a madman. It is easy to say there are certain signs toknow the truth by: it is an old error which we have now quitted; and ourphysicians have given invincible reasons of the uncertainty of these proofs.There are none even among the Christians, who do not regard them as chimerical,though they are plainly established in their sacred books, and though theirantient legislator hath made the innocence, or condemnation of all theirdaughters to depend upon them. I hear with pleasure, the care thou takest ofthe education of thine. May her husband find her as beautiful, and as pure, asFatima; may she have ten eunuchs to watch her; may she be the honour andornament of the seraglio for which she is decreed; may she always have gildedcielings over her head, and never walk but upon rich tapestry! And, to fill upmy wishes, may my eyes see her in all her glory!

Paris

the 5th of the moon Chalval,

1714

.

Rica

Rica

1715

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER LXXII.

Rica to Ibben, at * * *.

THE other day I was in company, where I saw a man who was highly pleasedwith himself. He had decided, in a quarter of an hour, three questions inmorality, four historical problems, and five pointsin natural philosophy. I never saw so universal a decider; his mind was neversuspended by the least doubt. We left the sciences; talked of the news of thetimes. He decided the news of the times. I was willing to catch him, and saidto myself, I must get into my strong fort; I will take refuge in my owncountry; I talked to him of Persia; but I had scarce spoke four words to him,but he contradicted me twice, upon the authority of Tavernier and Chardin. Hah!said I to myself, what a man is this here? He will presently know all thestreets in Ispahan better than myself; I soon determined what part to take; Iwas silent; I left him to talk; and he yet decides.

Paris

, the 8th of the moon Zilcade,

1715

.

Rica

Rica

1715

Paris

LETTER LXXIII.

Rica to * * *.

I HAVE heard much talk of a kind of tribunal, called the French academy [*] . There is not in the whole world a tribunal less respected; for as soonas it makes a decision, the people break its decrees, and impose on its lawswhich it is obliged to follow. Some time since, in order to fix theirauthority, they published a code of their decisions. This babe of so many fathers, was nearly in its oldage when born; and, though legitimate, a bastard , who had got into the world before him, was very near stifling him inthe birth. Those who compose this tribunal, have noother employment but to be continually a-prating; panegyric, of its own accord,takes place in their incessant babbling; and as soon as they are initiated intotheir mysteries, this fury of panegyric seizes them, and never more leavesthem. This body hath forty heads, all filled with figures of metaphors andantitheses; so that their mouths hardly ever open but with an exclamation;their ears always expect to be struck with cadence and harmony. As to theireyes, they are out of the question; these people seem as if they were made tohear, and not to see. It does not yet stand firm upon its feet; for time, whichis its scourge, shakes it every moment, and destroys every thing it doth. Itshands were said formerly to have been griping [*] ; I shall say nothing of this, but leave it to be decided by those whoknow more of it than myself. Such vagaries, * * *, are not to be found in ourcountry. Our genius does not bend us to such odd singularities: we always seekafter nature in our plain customs and native manners.

Paris

, the 27th of the moon Zilhage,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Rica

Rica

LETTER LXXIV.

Usbek to Rica, at * * *.

SOME time ago, a man of my acquaintance said to me, I promised tobring you to the best houses in Paris; I will take you now to a great lord, whosupports his dignity better than any man in the kingdom. What doyou mean, Sir? is it that his behaviour is more polite, more affable than thatof others?No, said he. Oh! I understand;he takes all opportunities to make every body who comes near him sensible ofhis superiority: If it be so, I have no business to go there: I allow him hiswhole demand, and acquiesce in the inferiority he condemns me to. Yet Imust go there, and I saw a little man, so lofty; he took a pinch of snuff withso much dignity; he blowed his nose so unmercifully; he spit with so muchphlegm, and caressed his dogs in a manner so offensive to the company, that Icould not but wonder at him. Ah, said I to myself, if, when I was at thecourt of Persia, I hehaved so, I behaved like a great fool! We must,Rica, have been naturally very bad, to have practised a hundred little insultstowards those people who came every day to shew their good will to us. Theyknew very well our superiority over them; and, if they had been ignorant of it,the favours we every day conferred on them, must have convinced them of it.Having no necessity to do any thing to make ourselves respected, we did all torender ourselves beloved: we were accessible to the meanest; amidst thosehonours, which commonly harden the heart, they experienced the sensibility ofours; they found only our souls superior to them; we descended to their wants.But when it was necessary to support the dignity of our prince in publicceremonies, when it was proper to make our nation respectable to strangers; orlastly, when in cases of danger it was necessary to animate our soldiers, weascended a hundred times higher than we had before descended; recalled all ourdignity into our looks; and it was found that we sometimes properly representedourselves.

Paris

, the 10th of the moon Saphar,

1715

.

Uskek

Uskek

1715

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER LXXV.

Uskek to Rhedi, at Venice.

I MUST needs confess to thee, I have not observed among the Christians, thatlively persuasion of their religion, that is to be found among the Mussulmans.There is hence among them a great difference between profession and belief,between belief and practice. Religion is less a matter of holiness than ofdispute, in which every body is concerned. Courtiers, soldiers, even the womenoppose themselves against it to the clergy, demanding from them a proof of whatthey are determined not to believe. It is not because they would be determinedby reason, and that they have taken the pains to examine the truth or falsehoodof the religion which they reject; they are rebels who have felt the yoke, andhave shook it off before they knew what it was. Nor are they better fixed intheir incredulity than in their faith: they live in a fluctuating state, whichleads them continually from one opinion to another. One of them once said tome, I believe the immortality of the soul six months together; myopinions absolutely depend upon the temperature of my body; as I have more orless animal spirits, as my digestion is good or bad, as I breathe a finer orgrosser air, as my food is light, or solid, I am a spinosist, a socinian, acatholic, an atheist, or a bigot. When the physician is at my bedside, theconfessor always finds me at his disposal. I know very well how to hinderreligion from distressing me when I am in health, but I allow it to comfort mewhen I am sick: when I have no longer any thing to hope for from anotherquarter, religion offers herself to me, and gains me by her promises: I am verywilling to resign myself to her, and to die on the hopeful side. It is a longtime since the Christian princes set free all theslaves in their kingdoms; because, say they,Christianity makes all men equal. It is true, this act of religion hath beenvery serviceable to them. They destroyed, by this means, the power of thenobility, by which they kept the people in subjection to themselves. Theyafterwards made conquest in countries where they found it was to theiradvantage to have slaves; they allowed of buying and selling them; forgettingthose principles of religion, which had so much touched them. What shall wecall this? Truth at one time, error at another. Why do we not act likeChristians? We are very foolish to refuse settlements, and easy conquests, inhappy climates, because the water is not pure enough to wash us [*] , according to the principles of the holy Koran. I render thanks to themost high, who hath sent Haly, his great prophet, from whence it is that Iprofess a religion which renders itself preferred to all worldly interest, andwhich is pure as the heavens, from which it descended.

Paris

, the 13th of the moon Saphar,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER LXXVI.

Usbek to hisFriend Ibben, at Smyrna.

IN Europe the laws are very severe against self-murderers. They put them todeath, if I may so say, a second time; they are ignominiously dragged throughthe streets, marked with infamy, and their effects confiscated. It seems to me,Ibben, that these are very unjust laws. When I am loaded with grief, misery,and contempt, why should I be restrained from putting an end to my pains, andbe cruelly deprived of a remedy that I have in my power? Why would they haveme labour for a society of which I consent no longerto be a member? Why to hold, in spite of myself, a compact made without myagreement? Society is founded upon mutual advantage; but when it becomesburthensome to me, what should hinder me from quitting it? Life was given to meas a favour; I may then return it, when it is no more so; the cause ceasing,the effect then ought also to cease. Would a prince desire that I should be hissubject, when I reap none of the advantages of subjection? Can myfellow-citizens ask this unequal division of their benefit, and my despair?Will God, contrary to all other benefactors, condemn me to accept of favourswhich oppress me? I am obliged to obey the laws, whilst I live under the laws,but when I no longer live under them, can they still bind me? But, tissaid, you disturb the order of providence. God hath united your soul to yourbody, and you separate them; you then oppose his designs, and you resist hiswill. What would they say by this? Do I disturb the order of providence, when Ialter the modifications of matter, and render square a bowl, which the firstlaws of motion, that is to say, the laws of creation and preservation, havemade round? No, without doubt. I do but use the right which hath been given me;and, in this sense, I may disturb, according to my fancy, all nature, withoutits being said, that I oppose myself to providence. When my soul shall beseparated from my body, will there be less order, and less regularity in theuniverse? Do you believe that this new combination would be less perfect andless dependent upon the general laws? That the world can thereby lose anything? that the works of God would be less great? or rather less immense? Doyou think that my body, when become a blade of grass, a worm, a green turf,would be changed into a work of nature less worthy of her? and that my soul,disengaged from all its earthy part, would become less pure? These ideas, mydear Ibben, have noother source but our pride. We are not at allsensible of our littleness; and however it may be, we are willing to bereckoned of consequence in the universe, and to be there an object ofimportance. We imagine, that the annihilation of such a perfect being asourselves would degrade all nature; and we do not conceive, that one man moreor less, in the world; what did I say one? all mankind together, a hundredmillions of heads such as ours, are but one small minute atom, whom Godperceives not but from the immensity of his knowledge.

Paris

, the 15th of the moon Saphar,

1715

.

Ibben

Ibben

1715

Smyrna

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LXXVII. [*]

Ibben to Usbek, at Paris.

IT appears to me, my dear Usbek, that to a true Mussulman misfortunes arenot so much chastisements as warnings. Those are valuable days indeed, whichlead us to expiate our offences. It is the time of prosperity which ought to beshortened. To what end does all our impatience serve, but to make us see thatwe would be happy, independently of him who bestows happiness, because he ishappiness itself. If a being is composed of two parts, and that the necessityof preserving their union is the greatest mark of submission to the decrees ofthe Creator, this then may be made a religious law: if this necessity ofpreserving that union is a better security of human actions, it may be made acivil law.

Smyrna

, the last day of the moon Saphar,

1715

.

Rica

Rica

1715

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LXXVIII.

Rica to Usbek, at ***.

I SEND thee a copy of a letter, which a Frenchman, who is in Spain, wrote tohis friend here: I believe you will be pleased to see it.I have, in sixmonths time, run through Spain and Portugal; and I have lived among a people,who despising all others, do the French alone the honour of hating them.Gravity is the shining character of these two nations, it shows itself chieflythere two ways, by spectacles and mustachios. The spectacles demonstrativelyshow, that he who wears them is a man consummate in the sciences, and buried inprofound reading, to such a degree as to have impaired his sight: and everynose that is thus ornamented, or loaded, may pass, without contradiction, forthe nose of a learned man. As to the mustachio, it is respectable in itself,and independently of any consequences; though great benefits have beensometimes drawn from it, for the service of the king, and the honour of thenation, as hath been made appear by a famous Portuguese general [*] in the East-Indies; for, being in want of money, he cut off one of hismustachios, and sent to demand of the inhabitants of Goa twenty thousandpistoles upon this pledge: they very readily accepted it, and he afterwardshonourably redeemed his mustachio. It is easily conceived that such grave andphlegmatic people as these may be proud; and so they are. They commonly foundit upon these two considerable points. Those who live upon the continent ofSpain and Portugal, find their hearts greatly elated, if they are those who arecalled the Old Christians; that is to say, not originally descended from those,who, in the latter centuries were forced by the inquisition to embraceChristianity. They who live in the Indies are noless elated, when they consider that they have the sublime merit to be, as theysay, men with white skins. There never was in the seraglio of the GrandSignior, a Sultana so proud of her beauty, as the oldest, great ugly cur born,is of his olive-white complexion, when in the town of Mexico, sitting at hisdoor, with his legs crossed. A man of such consequence, so compleat a creature,would not work for all the treasures in the world, nor ever persuade himself,by a vile mechanic industry, to venture the honour and dignity of his skin. Foryou must know, that when a man hath a certain merit in Spain, as for example,when he can add to the qualities I have been speaking of, that of being theproprietor of a long sword, or hath learned of his father the art of making awretched noise on an ill tuned guitar, he works no more; his honour isinterested in the repose of his limbs. He who sits still ten hours a day,acquires exactly one moiety more of respect than one who rests but five;because honour is here to be acquired upon a chair. But though these invincibleenemies to labour make a show of philosophical tranquility, they have yet nonein their heart; for they are always in love. They are the first men in theworld to die languishing under the window of their mistresses: and everySpaniard who hath not a cold, cannot pass for a gallant. They are in the firstplace bigots, in the next jealous. They take great care not to venture theirwives to the attacks of a soldier disabled with wounds, or to a decrepidmagistrate: but they will shut them up with a servent novice, who meekly castshis eyes down to the earth, or a robust Franciscan, who as devoutly turns themupwards. They allow their wives to appear with their bosoms naked: but theywill not let their heel be seen, lest they should be catched by the foot. Therigours of love are universally admitted to be great; they are much more so tothe Spaniards. The women relieve their pains, but they only do so tochange them; and frequently a long and troublesomeremembrance of an extinguished passion continues with them. They observe littlepieces of politeness, which in France would appear oddly applied: for example,a captain never corrects his soldier without first asking his leave; and theinquisition never burns a Jew without making an apology to him. The Spaniardswho are not burned appear so fond of the inquisition, that it would beill-natured to deprive them of it. I would only have another erected, not forheretics, but for heresarchs, who attribute to some little monkish tricks thesame efficacy as to the seven sacraments, who worship every thing which theyshould only reverence: and who are so extremely devout, that they are hardlyChristians. You may meet with wit and good sense among the Spaniards, but lookfor neither in their books. View but one of their libraries, romances on thisside, and school divines on the other; you would say that they had been made,and collected together, by some secret enemy to human reason. The only good oneof all their books, is that which was wrote to show the ridiculousness of allthe others. In the new world they have made immense discoveries and as yet knownot their own continent: they have not yet discovered there what they have upontheir rivers and in their mountains, nations [*] unknown to them. They say that the sun rises and sets in their country:but it may also be said, that, in passing his course, he reckons only ruinedcountries, and deserted lands.I should not be sorry. Usbek, to see aletter written at Madrid by a Spaniard who had travelled in France; I believehe might thoroughly revenge himself on this nation. What a vast field for aphlegmatic pensive man! I imagine he would commence the description of Paris inthis manner: here is a house in which mad folks are put; it might at firstthought be expected larger thanthe whole city; no: the remedy is insufficient forthe malady. Doubtless the French, extremely despised by their neighbours, shutup some madmen in this house, that it may be thought that those who are atliberty are not such.There I leave my Spaniard. Farewel, my dearUsbek.

Paris

, the 17th of the moon Saphar,

1715

.

1715

Fatme

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER LXXIX.

The Chief black Eunuch to Usbek, at Paris.

SOME Armenians, yesterday, brought to the seraglio a young Circassian slave,whom they desired to sell. I made her enter the private apartments, there Iundressed her, I examined her with the eyes of a judge, and the more I observedher, the more beauties I discovered. A virgin modesty seemed to conceal themfrom my view; I saw how much it cost her to submit; she blushed at seeingherself naked, even before me, who, exempt from those passions which mightalarm her modesty, am unmoved under the empire of that sex; and who, theminister of modesty, in the freest actions, bring only chaste looks, and caninspire nothing but innocence. From the moment I judged her worthy of thee, Ibent my eyes downwards; I threw a scarlet mantle over her; I put upon herfinger a ring of gold; I prostrated myself at her feet; I adored her as thequeen of thy heart. I paid the Armenians; I shut her up from every eye. HappyUsbek, thou possessest greater beauties than are enclosed in all the palaces ofthe east. What pleasure to thee, to find at thy return, all that Persia hathmost delightful! and to see in thy seraglio all the graces re-born, as fast astime and possession labour their destruction.

From the seraglio at

Fatme

, the 1st of themoon of the 1st Rebiab,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER LXXX.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

SINCE I have been in Europe, Rhedi, I have seen a variety of governments. Itis not here as in Asia, where the rules of policy are every where found thesame. I have often enquired which government is most conformable to reason. Itappears to me, that the most perfect is that which arrives at its end with theleast difficulty; of this kind, that which leads men in a way which best suitstheir disposition, is the most perfect. If under a mild government, thesubjects are as obedient as under a severe one; the first is preferable,because it is most conformable to reason, and because severity is a foreignmotive. Be assured, Rhedi, that in a state, punishments, more or less cruel, donot procure greater obedience to the laws. In a country where chastisements aremoderate, they are as much dreaded as in those where they are tyrannical anddreadful. Let the government be mild, let it be cruel, the punishment is alwaysgradual; the punishment inflicted is greater or less, as the crime is greateror less. The imagination conforms itself to the manners of the country in whichwe live: eight days imprisonment, or a lighter punishment, affects the mind ofan European, brought up under a mild government, as much as the loss of an armintimidates an Asiatic. Men affix a certain degree of fear to a certain degreeof punishment, and each makes the distribution in his own way: a Frenchmanshall be driven to despair at the infamy of a punishment to which he iscondemned, which would not deprive a Turk of his sleep for one quarter of anhour. Besides, I do not observe that policy, justice, and equity, are betterobserved in Turky, Persia, or under the Mogul, than in the republicks ofHolland, Venice, and even in England: I do not find that less crimesare committed in the former countries, or that menintimidated by severe punishments are more submissive to the laws. I have, onthe contrary, remarked, a foundation for injustice and distress in the midst ofthe very same states. I have even found the prince, who is himself the law,less master than in any other state. I observe, that these times of rigour havealways been attended with tumultuous commotions, in which nobody is chief; andthat, when once a violent authority is despised, there remains no longersufficient power with any per on to restore it. That the very despair ofimpunity strengthens the disturbance, and renders it greater. That, in suchstates, they never make a flight revolt; and that there never is any intervalbetween murmurings and insurrections. That there is no necessity that greatevents should there be prepared for by great causes; on the contrary, a greatrevolution hath been produced by the least accident, often also as unforeseenby those who effected it, as by those who suffered from it. When Osman, emperorof the Turks, was deposed, each of those concerned in that attempt thoughtnothing of what they effected: they demanded only, in a supplicant manner, thatthey might have justice done with regard to a particular grievance: a voice,that none had ever known, from among the multitude pronounced, by accident, thename of Mustapha, and immediately Mustapha was emperor.

Paris

, the 2d of the moon of the 1st Rebiab,

1715

.

Nargum Envoy

Envoy, Nargum

LETTER LXXXI.

Nargum, Envoyfrom Persia in Muscovy, to Usbek at Paris.

OF all the nations in the world, Usbek, there is not one that hath exceededthe Tartars, in glory, or in the greatness of their conquests. This nation istruly the Lord of the universe: all others seem madeto serve it: it is alike the sounder and destroyer of empires: in all ages itafforded the world marks of its power; in all ages it hath been the scourge ofnations. The Tartars have twice conquered China, and to this time keep it insubjection to them. They rule those vast countries which form the empire of theMogul. Master of Persia, they sit upon the throne of Cyrus and Gustaspes. Theyhave subdued Muscovy. Under the name of Turks, they have made immense conquestsin Europe, Asia, and Africa, and they reign over these three parts of theuniverse. And, to speak of more remote times, it was from them that issuedforth some of those people who overturned the Roman empire. What are theconquests of Alexander, in comparison to those of Genghiscan? This victoriousnation hath only wanted historians, to celebrate the memory of its marvellousachievements. What immortal actions have been buried in oblivion! What empiresfounded by them, of whose original we are ignorant! This warlike nation, whollytaken up with her present glory, sure of conquest at all times, never thoughtof signalizing herself in time to come, by the remembrance of her pastconquests.

Rica

Rica

1715

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER LXXXII.

Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna.

THOUGH the French talk much, there is yet among them a kind of mutedervises, called Carthusians. It is said, that they cut out their tongues attheir admittance into the convent; and it is much to be wished, that all theother dervises would retrench, in the same manner, every thing that theirprofession renders useless to them. Now I am mentioning these silent people,there are some much more remarkablethan they, and who have a very extraordinary talent:These are such as know how to talk without saying any thing; and who support aconversation two hours together, without its being possible to discover theirmeaning, to retale what they say, nay, to retain one word of what they havebeen talking. These kind of people are adored by the women; but not so much assome others, who have received from nature the amiable talent of smiling atproper times, that is, every moment, and who assume the grace of a pleasingapprobation for every thing that comes from the ladies. But these are highaccomplished wits, who can discover a fine thought in every thing, and find outa thousand little ingenious strokes in the most common discourse. I knowothers, who are so happy as to introduce into their conversation thingsinanimate, and to make their embroidered coat, their white peruke, theirsnuff-box, their cane, and their gloves, speak for them. It is a good way tobegin in the street to make ones self heard by the rattling of a coach,or by the loud thunder of a knocker at the door: this prologue gives aprepossession in favour of the rest of the discourse; and when the introductionis good, it renders all the folly that follows afterwards supportable, butwhich, by good fortune, arrives too late. I can assure thee that these littletalents, which are made of no value to us, are of great use here to those whoare so happy as to possess them; and a man of good sense shines not at allamong such people.

Paris

, the 6th of the moon of the 2d Rabiab,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER LXXXIII.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

IF there be a God, Rhedi, he must necessarily be just; if he was not such,he would be the worst and most imperfect of all beings. Justice is a relationof congruity which really subsists between two things: this relation is alwaysthe same, whatever being considers it, whether it be God, or an angel, orlastly a man. It is true, men do not always see these relations: often indeed,when they do see them, they deviate from them; and their interest is alwayswhat they see best. Justice raises her voice, but it is with difficulty shemakes herself heard amidst the tumult of the passions. Men may do injustice,because it is their interest to commit it, and because they prefer their ownprivate satisfaction to that of others. It is always with a view to themselvesthat they act: nobody is wicked for nothing; he must have some reason thatdetermines him; and this reason is always a reason of interest. But it isimpossible that God should ever commit any injustice: from the instant that wesuppose he sees justice, it must necessarily be that he follows it: for, as hehath no want of any thing, and is all-sufficient in himself, he would be themost wicked of all beings, because he would be such without gaining any thing.Thus, though there was no God, we ought always to love justice; that is, weshould endeavour to resemble that being, of whom we have so amiable an idea,and who, if he exists, must necessarily be just. Though we should be free fromthe yoke of religion, we ought not to be so from that of equity. This it is,Rhedi, that makes me believe that justice is eternal, and depends not uponhuman compacts. And, if it was dependent upon them, it would be a terribletruth, which should be concealedeven from ourselves. We are surrounded by menstronger than we are; they can injure us in a thousand different ways; threetimes in four they might do it with impunity. What a satisfaction to us, toknow that there is in them, in the heart of all these men, an inward principlewhich fights in our favour, and secures us from their attempts? If it was notfor this, we should be in continual fear; we should pass by men as by lions,and we should not be assured one moment of our goods, honour, and life. Allthese considerations make me angry at those doctors, who represent God as abeing who exercises his power with tyranny; who make him act in a manner thatwe ourselves would not, for fear of offending him; who charge him with allthose imperfections that he punishes in us, and, by their contradictoryopinions, represent him as an evil being, by and by as a being who hates evil,and punishes it. When a man searcheth himself, what a satisfaction is it to himto find that he hath a just heart! This pleasure, as severe as it is, mustdelight him: he beholds himself a being as much above those who have not such aconsciousness, as he sees himself superior to tygers and bears. Yes, Rhedi, ifI was sure always to pursue, inviolably, that equity that I have before myeyes, I should think myself the first of mankind.

Paris

, the 1st of the moon of the 1st Gemmadi,

1715

.

Rica

Rica

1715

Paris

LETTER LXXXIV.

Rica to * * *.

YESTERDAY I was at the hospital of the Invalids: I had rather have foundedthat establishment, if I was a prince, than have gained three battles. In everypart of it there appears the hand of a greatmonarch. I think that it is the most respectableplace in the world. What a fight to see assembled in one place all the victimsof their country, who only breathed for its defence; and who, still finding thesame heart, but not the same power, only bewail themselves for the inabilitythey are under, of sacrificing themselves again for their country. What can bemore pleasing, than to see these disabled warriors, observing in this retreatas exact a discipline as if they were in fear of the presence of an enemy,taking their last satisfaction in this picture of the war, and dividing theirhearts and minds between the duties of religion, and those of the military art!I would have the names of those who die for their country preserved in temples,and written in registers, that should be, as it were, the foundation of gloryand nobility.

Paris

, the 15th of the moon of the 1stGemmadi,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Mirza

Mirza

LETTER LXXXV.

Usbek to Mirza, at Ispahan.

THOU knowest, Mirza, that some of the ministers of Cha Soliman, had formed adesign to oblige all the Armenians in Persia to quit the kingdom, or to embraceMahometism, from a conceit that our empire would be always defiled as long asshe protected these infidels in her bosom. This had finished the Persiangreatness, if, on this occasion, blind devotion had been listened to. It isunknown how this affair failed. Neither those who made the proposal, nor thosewho rejected it, were sensible of the consequences: chance did the office ofreason and policy, and saved the empire from a greater danger than it wouldhave gone through from the loss of a battle and of two cities. Bybanishing the Armenians, it is supposed they wouldhave rooted out, at once, all the traders, and very near all the artificers inthe kingdom. I am certain that the great Chah-Abbas would rather have cut offboth his arms, than have signed such an order; and he would have been ofopinion, that by thus sending to the Mogul, and the other kings of the Indies,the most industrious of his subjects, he had given them half his dominions. Thepersecution which our Mahometan zealots exercised against the Guebres, obligedthem to remove in multitudes into the Indies: and deprived Persia of thatpeople, so much given to tillage, and who alone, by their industry, were in away to get the better of the sterility of our lands. There remained but onething more for bigotry to do, that was, to destroy industry; and then theempire had fallen of itself, and with it, as a necessary consequence, that veryreligion it wanted to render so flourishing. If we could reason withoutprejudice, I know not, Mirza, but it may be good for a state, that there shouldbe several religions in it. It is observable, that the members of the toleratedreligions commonly make themselves more useful to their country, than those ofthe established religion; because, being excluded from all honours, they canonly render themselves considerable by their opulence; they are led to acquireit by their industry, and to embrace the most toilsome employments in thesociety. Besides, as all religions contain precepts useful to society, it isgood that they should be observed with zeal. Now what is there more capable ofanimating this zeal than a multiplicity of religions? They are rivals who neverforgive any thing. This jealousy descends to individuals: each keeps upon hisguard, and is cautious of doing any thing that may dishonour his party, andexpose it to the contempt and unforgiving censures of the opposite party.Accordinglyit hath always been observed that a new fectintroduced into the state, hath been the most certain means of reforming allthe abuses of the old one. It signifies nothing to say, that it is not theprinces interest to permit several religions in his kingdom. Thoall the sects in the world were to get together in it, it would not be anyprejudice to it; for there is not one which doth not enjoin obedience, and thatdoth not preach up submission. I acknowledge that history is full of religiouswars; but we must take care to observe, it was not the multiplicity ofreligions that produced these wars, it was the intolerating spirit whichanimated that which thought she had the power of governing. It was the spiritof proselytism, which the Jews contracted from the Egyptians, and which fromthem hath passed, like an epidemic and popular disease, to Mahometans andChristians. It is, in short, the spirit of enthusiasm, the progress of whichcan be considered only as a total eclipse of human reason. For indeed if therewas nothing of inhumanity in forcing the conscience of another, though theredid not arise from it any of those bad effects which spring from it bythousands, it would be folly to advise it. He who would have me change myreligion, no doubt, desires me to do so, because he would not change his own ifhe was forced to it: he yet thinks it strange, that I will not do a thing whichhe himself would not do, perhaps, for the empire of the world.

Paris

, the 26th of the moon of the firstGemmadi,

1715

.

Rica

Rica

1715

Paris

LETTER LXXXVI.

Rica to * * *.

IT seems as if every family here governed itself separately. The husbandhath only the shadow of an authority over his wife, the father over hischildren, and the master over his slaves. The law interferes in alldifferences, and you may be sure, that it is always against a jealous husband,a peevish father, or an ill-tempered master. The other day I went to the courtwhere justice is administered. Before I could arrive there, I was obliged tosuffer the attacks of a prodigious number of young shop-women, who invite youwith a deceitful voice. This sight at first is diverting enough, but it becomesmelancholy, when you enter the great halls where you see none but persons whosedress is even more solemn than their countenances. At length you come into thesacred place, where all the secrets of families are revealed, and where themost private transactions are brought into open light. Here a modest girl comesto confess the torments of a virginity too long preserved, her struggles, andher sorrowful resistance; she is so little proud of her victory, thatthreatened every moment with an approaching defeat; and that her father may beno longer ignorant of her wants, she exposes them to every body. Next comes animpudent wife to publish the insults she hath committed against her husband, asa reason to be separated from him. Another, with equal modesty, says she isweary of bearing the title of wife, without the enjoyments of one; she revealsthe hidden mysteries of the marriage night; she desires to be put under theinspection of the most able artists, and by a decree to be re-established inall the rights of virginity. There are even some who dare desy their husbands,and challenge them to apublic trial, which witnesses renders so difficult;a trial as disgraceful to the wife who stands to it, as to the husband who iscast by it. A vast number of girls, ravished or debauched, represent mankindmuch worse than they are. This court echoes with love, there no talk is heardbut of enraged fathers, abused daughters, faithless lovers, and discontentedhusbands. By the law observed here, every child born in wedlock is counted thehusbands: he may have good reasons to believe it is not his; the lawbelieves it for him; and frees him from his scruples and examination. In thistribunal they follow the majority of voices; but they say it hath been found byexperience, that it would be the surer way to determine by the minority; andthis is natural enough; for there are very few just reasoners, and all theworld agrees that there is a very great number of false ones.

Paris

, the first of the moon of the 2dGemmadi,

1715

.

Rica

Rica

1715

Paris

LETTER LXXXVII.

Rica to * * *.

MAN, they say, is a sociable animal. In this respect, the French appear tome to be more men than others: they may be called men by way of excellence; forthey seem to be only made for society. But I have observed among them, personswho are not only sociable, but who are themselves an universal society. Theymultiply themselves in every corner; they people, in an instant, the fourquarters of the town: a hundred men of this fort make a greater shew than twothousand citizens. They might repair, in the eyes of a stranger, thedevastation made by a plague or famine. It is a question in the schools,whether the same body can be at one instant in several places: these men area proof of what the philosophers propose as a doubt.These men are always in haste, as they have upon their hands the importantbusiness of asking every body they meetwhere they are goingandwhere they have been. You can never put it out of their heads, but that it is apart of good breeding to visit the public every day, separately, exclusive ofthe visits they make in general, at places where every body meet; but as thisis too short a way, it is reckoned as nothing in the rules of their ceremonial.They injure the doors more with knocking at them, than the winds and storms. Ifall the porters visiting lists were to be examined, their names would be foundevery day mangled a thousand ways in Swiss [*] scrawls. They pass their lives in attending funerals, compliments ofcondolance, or in matrimonial congratulations. The King never confers a favouron any of his subjects, that it does not put them to the expence of a carriageto go and wish the party joy. At last they return home, vastly fatigued, torest themselves, that they may be able the next day to resume their tiresomeemployment. The other day one of them died of weariness, and this epitaph wasput upon his tomb.Here is a man at rest who never rested before. Hewalked at five hundred and thirty burials. He made himself merry at the birthof two thousand six hundred and fourscore children. The pensions on which hecongratulated his friends, always in different terms, amounted to two millionssix hundred thousand livres; the ground he walked in town, to nine thousand sixhundred furlongs; his walks in the country to thirty-six. His conversation waspleasing; he had a fund ready made, of three hundred sixty five stories: hepossessed besides, from his youth, an hundred and eighteen apothegms collectedfrom the ancients, which he made use of upon extraordinary ocsions. He at lastdied, in the sixtieth year of his age.I hold my tongue, passenger, for when should Ifinish telling thee every thing that he said, and every thing that he saw?

Paris

, the 3d of the moon of the 2d Gemmadi,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER LXXXVIII.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

AT Paris, liberty and equality reign. Birth, virtue, nor even militaryservice, how great soever it may be, do not distinguish a man from the croud inwhich he is confounded. Jealousy about rank is unknown here. They say the firstperson in Paris is he who hath the best horses in his chariot. A great man ishe who sees the king, who talks with the ministers, hath ancestors, debts, andpensions. If he can, with all this, hide his idleness by an air of business, ora feigned attachment to his pleasures, he esteems himself the happiest of allmankind. In Persia, no person is reckoned great, but such on whom the monarchconfers some part of his government. Here, there are persons who are great bytheir birth, but without interest. Kings act like those able artificers, who,to execute their works, always make use of the plainest tools. Favour is thegreat divinity of the French; the minister is the high priest, who offers hermany victims: those who attend upon her are not dressed in white; sometimes thesacrificers, and sometimes the sacrifices devote even themselves to their idol,with the whole nation.

Paris

, the 3d of the moon of the 2d Gemmadi,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER LXXXIX.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

A THIRST after glory is not different from instinct, which every creaturehath for its own preservation. We seem to extend our existence, when we canmake it to be remembered by others; this is a new life which we acquire, andwhich becomes as precious to us as that which we received from heaven. But asall men are not equally fond of life, neither are they equally sensible toglory. This noble passion is indeed always engraved upon their hearts; butimagination and education mould it a thousand ways. This difference, which isfounded between man and man, is more perceivable between nation and nation. Itmay be laid down as a maxim, that, in every state, the desire of gloryincreases with the liberty of the subjects, and diminishes with it: glory isnever the companion of slavery. A sensible man said to me, the other day; weare in France, in many respects, more free than you are in Persia; andtherefore, here there is a greater love of glory. This happy delusion makes aFrenchman do with pleasure and inclination what your sultan obtains only fromhis slaves, by continually setting before their eyes rewards and punishments.Therefore, among us, the prince is jealous for the honour of the meanest of hissubjects. There are for the support of it, the most respectable tribunals; thisis the sacred treasure of the nation, and the only one of which the sovereignis not master; for he could not be so without acting against his own interest.So that when a subject finds himself injured in his honour by his prince,either by an unjust preference, or by the smallest mark of contempt, he quitsimmediately his court, his employment, and his service, and retires to hisestate. The difference betweenthe French troops and yours is, that the one,composed of slaves, naturally cowards, only surmount the fear of death by thatof punishment; which railes in the soul a new kind of terror, which rendersthem insensible: instead of which the others present themselves to dangers withdelight, and banish fear, by a satisfaction which is superior to it. But thesanctuary of honour, reputation, and virtue, seems to be seated in republics,and in those states where the word country may bepronounced. At Rome, at Athens, at Lacedmon, honour was the only paymentfor the most signal services. A crown of oak, or laurel, a statue, or aninscription, was an immense recompence for a battle won, or a city taken. Therea man who had performed a brave action, found himself sufficiently recompensedby the action itself. He could not behold one of his countrymen, without beingsensible of the pleasure of having been his benefactor he reckoned the numberof his services by that of his fellow-citizens. Every man is capable of doinggood to another; but it is being like to God, to contribute to the happiness ofa whole society. But must not this noble emulation be wholly extinct in theheart of your Persians, among whom employments and honours are only derivedfrom the caprice of the sovereign? Reputation and virtue are there onlyconsidered as imaginary, if not accompanied by the favour of the prince, withwhich alone they spring up, and die. A man who enjoys the public esteem, isnever sure that he shall not be dishonoured the next day. You see him to daythe general of an army; it may be the next the prince makes him his cook, andleaves him no other praise to hope for, but that of having made a goodragout.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XC.

Usbek to thesame, at Smyrna.

FROM this general passion which the French nation have for glory, there issprung up in the minds of the people, a certainI know not what, whichthey call a point of honour: this is properly the character of everyprofession, but more remarkable in the men of the sword; and among them it isthe point of honour by way of excellence. It will be very difficult to me tomake thee understand what this is, because we have not a right idea of it. TheFrench, formerly, especially the nobility, followed scarcely any other lawsthan those of this point of honour: they regulated the whole conduct of theirlives; and they were so strict, that they could not, without suffering what wasworse than death, I do not say infringe, but not even elude, the leastpunctilio of them. When they had occasion to settle any difference, they seldomprescribed more than one method to decide it, that was by duel, which cut offall difficulties. But what was the worst part of it, was, that frequently thetrial was made between other parties besides those who were interested in theaffair. How little soever a person might know another, he was obliged to enterinto the dispute, and to expose his person in the same manner as if he himselfwas in anger. Such a one always thought himself honoured by the choice, and soflattering a distinction: one, who would not have been willing to give fourpistoles to a man to save him and all his family from the gibbet, would make nodifficulty to run the risque of his life for him a thousand times. This mannerof decision was badly enough contrived; for if one was more dextrous, orstronger than another, it does not follow that he had more reason on his side.Therefore thekings have forbidden it under very severe penalties;but this is in vain: honour, which will always reign, rebels, and willacknowledge no laws. So that the French are in a great state of violence: forthese laws of honour oblige a well-bred man to revenge himself when he hathbeen affronted; but on the other hand, justice punishes him with the severestpenalties when he hath done so. If men follow the laws of honour, they die upona scaffold; if those of justice, they are banished for ever from the society ofmen: there is then only this cruel alternative, either to die, or to beunworthy to live.

Paris

, the 18th of the moon of the 2d Gemmadi,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Rustan

Rustan

LETTER XCI.

Usbek to Rustan, at Ispahan.

A PERSON hath appeared here who hath travested the character of anambassador from Persia; who insolently ridicules the two greatest kings in theworld. He brings to the French monarch presents which ours would not offer to aking of Irimetta or Georgia: and by his base avarice he hath disgraced twoempires. He hath made himself contemptible before a people who pretend to bethe politest in Europe: and hath given occasion to have it said in the West,that the king of kings reigns over none but barbarians. He hath receivedhonours which he seemed to wish had been denied him: and, as if the court ofFrance had had the Persian grandeur more at heart than himself, she hath madehim appear with dignity before a people whose contempt he is. Do not tell thisat Ispahan; spare the head of an unhappy wretch. I am not willing that ourminister should punish him fortheir own imprudence, and the unworthy choice whichthey have made.

Paris

, the last day of the moon of the 2dGemmadi,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER XCII.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

THE monarch who reigned so long, is no more [*] . He made many people talk of him during his life: all the world issilent at his death. Firm and courageous to the last moment, he seemed tosubmit only to destiny. Thus died the great Cha-Abas, after having filled thewhole earth with his name. Do not imagine that this great event hath only givenoccasion to moral reflections. Every one thought of his own affairs, and totake his advantage of this change. The king, great grandson to the deceasedmonarch, being but five years old, a prince, his uncle, hath been declaredregent of the kingdom. The late king made a will, which limited the power ofthe regent. This wise prince went to the parliament, and, there laying beforethem all the prerogatives of his birth, he made them break the regulations ofthe monarch, who, desirous to survive himself, seemed to have claimed the powerof governing, even after his death: The parliaments resemble those ruins whichwe tread under foot, but which always recal to our mind the idea of some templefamous for the ancient religion of the people. They seldom now interfere in anything more than in affairs of justice; and their authority will continuallydecline, unless that some unforeseen event should arrive, to restore life andstrength to it. These great bodies have followed the common course of humanaffairs: they yielded to time,which destroys every thing, to the corruption ofmanners, which hath weakened every thing, to the supreme, which hath overturnedall things. But the regent, who wished to render himself agreeable to thepeople, seemed at first to respect this shadow of public liberty; and, as if hehad an intention to raise from the ground the temple and the idol, he waswilling that they should regard it as the support of monarchy, and thefoundation of all legal authority.

Paris

, the 4th of the moon Rhegeb,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1715

Paris

Santon

Santon

LETTER XCIII.

Usbek to hisBrother, Santon [*] in the Monastery of Casbin.

I HUMBLE myself before thee, sacred Santon, and prostrate myself upon theearth: I regard the prints of thy footsteps as the apple of my eye. Thysanctity is so great, that it seemeth as if thou hadst the heart of our holyprophet; thy austerities astonish even heaven itself: the angels have beheldthee from the summit of glory, and have cried out, how can he yet be uponearth, when his spirit is with us, and flies about the throne which issupported by the clouds? How then can I but honour thee; I who have learnedfrom our doctors, that the dervises, even the infidel ones, have always asacred character, which renders them respectable to true believers; and thatGod hath chosen to himself, out of every part of the earth, some souls morepure than others, whom he hath separated from the wicked world, to the end thattheir mortifications and fervent prayers may suspend his wrath, ready to fallupon so many rebellious people? TheChristians tell wonders of their first Santons, whotook sanctuary by thousands in the frightful deserts of Thebais, and had fortheir chiefs, Paul, Anthony, and Pacomus. If what they say of them be true,their lives were as full of prodigies as those of our most sacred Imaums. Theysometimes passed ten entire years without seeing a single person: but theydwelt night and day with dmons; they were continually tormented by theseevil spirits; they found them in their beds, at their tables, they never hadany place of security from them. If all this be true, venerable Santon, it mustbe acknowledged that no person ever lived in worse company. The more sensibleChristians regard all these accounts only as a natural allegory, which servesto make us sensible of the miserable state of humanity. In vain do we seek indeserts for a state of ease; temptations follow us every where; our passions,represented by the dmons, never wholly quit us: these monsters of theheart, these illusions of the mind, these vain phantoms of error and falsehood,appear continually to us, to mislead us, and attack us even in our fasts andhair-cloths, that is, even in our greatest strength. For my part, venerableSanton, I know that the messenger of God hath chained Satan, and precipitatedhim into the abyss: he hath purified the earth, formerly filled with his power,and hath rendered it worthy of the abode of his angels and prophets.

Paris

, the 9th of the moon Chahban,

1715

.

Usbek

Usbek

1716

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER XCIV.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

I NEVER heard any body talk of the law of nations, but he carefully begunwith inquiring into the origin of society; which appears ridiculous to me. Ifmen did not form themselves into societies, if theyavoided and fled from each other, it would be right to ask the reason, and toinquire why they kept themselves separate: but they are born all united to oneanother, a son is born near his father, and there he continues; here is societyand the cause of it. The law of nations is better understood in Europe than inAsia, yet it must be acknowledged, that the passions of princes, the patienceof nations, the flattery of authors, have corrupted all the principles of it.This law, as it is at present, is a science which teaches princes to whatdegree they may violate justice without hurting their own interest. What aknavish distinction this! Rhedi, to harden their consciences, by reducinginiquity to a science, by giving rules for it, by settling the principles ofit, and drawing consequences from them! The unlimited power of our sublimesultans, which hath no rule but itself, doth not produce more monsters thanthis base art, which can make justice bend, all inflexible as it is. It seems,Rhedi, there are two kinds of justice entirely different, one which regulatesthe affairs of private persons, which reigns in the civil law; another whichregulates the differences that arise between people and people, whichtyrannizes in the law of nations: as if the law of nations was not a civil law,not indeed of a particular country, but of the world. I shall in another letterexplain my thoughts further to thee upon this subject.

Paris

, the 1st of the moon Zilhage,

1716

.

Usbek

Usbek

1716

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER XCV.

Usbek to theSame.

THE magistrates ought to administer justice between citizen and citizen,every nation ought to do the same between themselves and another nation. Inthis second distribution of justice, no other maximsought to be employed but those in the first. For nation and nation there isseldom need of a third to judge between them, because the subjects of theirdisputes are for the most part always plain and easy to be determined. Theinterests of the two nations are generally so separate, that nothing more isnecessary but a love of justice to find it out; they can scarcely mistake theproper cause. It is not the same with the differences that happen betweenprivate persons. As they live in society, their interests are so mixed and soconfounded, and there are so many different kinds of them, that it is necessaryfor a third person to clear up what the covetousness of the parties endeavourto obscure. There are but two kinds of just wars: one which is waged to repulsethe attack of an enemy, the other to succour an ally who is attacked. It wouldnot be justice to enter into a war upon the private quarrel of a prince; unlessthe case was so heinous as to merit the death of the prince or the people whocommitted it. Thus, a prince should not engage in a war because he hath beenrefused an honour which was his right, or for any unsuitable demeanor towardshis ambassadors, and such similar cases; no more than a private person ought tokill him who refuses him precedency. The reason is this, as a declaration ofwar ought to be an act of justice, wherein the punishment should always be inproportion to the fault, it should be inquired whether the party against whomwar is declared merits death. For to make war against any person, is to bewilling to punish him with death. In the law of nations the severest act ofjustice is war, since the effect of it is the destruction of society. Reprisalsare of the second degree. To proportion the punishment to the offence, is a lawwhich no tribunals could ever avoid observing. The third act of justice, is todeprive a prince of the advantages that he might derive from us, alwaysproportioning the punishment to the offence. The fourthact of justice which ought to be the most frequent,is the renunciation of the alliance of a people against whom we have reason tocomplain. This punishment answers to that of banishment, appointed by courts ofjustice, to cut off delinquents from the community. Thus a prince, whosealliance we renounce, is cut off from our society, and is no longer one of itsmembers. A greater affront cannot be done to a prince than to renounce hisalliance, nor a greater honour than to contract one with him. There is nothingamong men, that can be more honourable, or more useful to mankind, than to bealways attentive to their preservation. But that the alliance may be binding itmust be just; so that an alliance concluded between two nations to oppress athird is not lawful, and may be broke without a fault. It is not suitable tothe honour and dignity of a prince to ally himself to a tyrant. An Egyptianmonarch once remonstrated to a king of Samos, upon his cruelty and tyranny, andcalled upon him to amend; as he did not, he sent him word that he renounced hisfriendship and alliance. Conquest of itself gives no right. When a societysubsists, it is a security for peace and for reparation of injuries; and if itis destroyed, or dispersed, it is a monument of tyranny. Treaties of peace areso sacred among men, that they seem as if they were the dictates of nature,which reclaims its rights. They are always lawful, when the conditions of themare such, that both parties may preserve themselves: without which that of thetwo societies which would perish, deprived of its natural defence by peace, mayseek it by war. For nature, which hath established different degrees ofstrength and weakness among men, hath yet often made weakness equal tostrength, by despair. This, Rhedi, is what I call the civil law; the law ofnations, or rather the law of reason.

Paris

, the 4th of the moon Zilhage,

1716

.

1716

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER XCVI.

The Chief Eunuch to Usbek at Paris.

THERE are a great many yellow women arrived here, from the kingdom ofVisapour: I have bought one for thy brother, the governor of Mazenderan, who,about a month ago, sent me his sublime commands, and a hundred tomans. Iunderstand women the better, because they do not surprize me, and my eyes arenot troubled by the motions of the heart. I have never seen so regular andperfect a beauty: her sparkling eyes enliven her face, and heighten the lustreof a complexion, capable of eclipsing all the beauties of Circassia. The chiefeunuch of a merchant of Ispahan treated with me for her; but she disdainfullyavoided his sight, and seemed to court mine, as if she would have told me, thata mean merchant was unworthy of her, and that she was destined for a moreillustrious husband. I confess to thee, I feel a secret joy within myself, whenI think of the charms of this beautiful person: I fancy I see her entering intothe seraglio of thy brother; I please myself with a foresight of theastonishment of all his wives; the haughty grief of some; the silent, yet moremournful, distress of others; the malicious pleasure of those who have nothingfurther to hope for, and the enraged ambition of those who yet have hope. I amtravelling from one end of the kingdom to another, entirely to change the faceof the seraglio; what passions am I going to provoke; what fears and troublesam I preparing! Yet notwithstanding all this inward distress, there shall notbe less outward tranquillity; great revolutions shall be hid in the bottom ofthe heart; they shall be consumed with grief, and their joys restrained; theirobedience shall be not the less exact, nor the government less severe; thatmild behaviour they are alwaysobliged to shew, shall spring up from the depth oftheir very despair. We have observed, the more women we have under our care,the less trouble they give us. A greater necessity of pleasing, lessconvenience for caballing, more examples of submission; all these form theirchains. Each of them continually watches the steps of the others; it seems asif, in consort with us, they strived to render themselves more dependent; theydo part of our work for us, and open our eyes when we shut them. What shall Isay? They continually stir up their master against their rivals, and see nothow near they themselves are to be punished next. But all this, magnificentlord, all this is nothing without the masters presence. What can we dowith this vain phantom of authority, which can never be entirely communicated?We do but faintly represent the half of thyself; we can only shew them anhateful severity. Thou temperest fear with hopes; more absolute when thoucaressest, than when thou only threatenest. Return thou, magnificent lord,return to these mansions, and carry through the whole of them thy empire. Comeand assuage their despairing passions; come and remove every pretext to stray;come and appease murmuring love, and make even duty itself amiable; come,lastly, and relieve thy faithful eunuchs from a burthen which every day growsmore heavy.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 8th of themoon Zilhage,

1716

.

Usbek

Usbek

1716

Paris

Hassein

Hassein

LETTER XCVII.

Usbek to Hassein, Dervise of the mountain of Jaron.

O THOU, sage dervise, whose curious mind is resplendent with such a varietyof knowledge, hearken to what I am going to say to thee. There are philosophershere, who indeed have not arrived at the pinnacle oforiental wisdom: they have not indeed been caught up to the throne of light:they have not heard the ineffable words echo from the conforts of angels, norfelt the awful impressions of a divine fury: but, left to themselves, deprivedof these holy assistances, they follow, in silence, the traces of human reason.Thou canst not believe how far this guide hath led them. They have dispersedthe chaos, and have explained, by a simple mechanism, the order of the divinearchitecture. The author of nature hath given motion to matter; there wasnothing more wanting to produce that prodigious variety of effects which we seein the universe. The laws which common legislators offer to us to regulatehuman society, are subject to alteration, like the minds of those who formthem, and the people who observe them: these men here talk of nothing but oflaws general, immutable, eternal, which are observed without any exception,with order, regularity, and an infinite readiness, in the great immensity ofspace. And what dost thou think, divine man, that these laws are? Thouimaginest, perhaps, that penetrating into the councils of the Eternal, thoushalt be astonished with the sublimity of deep mysteries; thou renouncestbeforehand, the power of comprehending; thou promisest thyself only admiration.But thou wilt soon change thy thoughts; they do not dazzle us with a falseparade; the plainness of them have made them long misunderstood; and it was nottill after much reflection, that all their fruitfulness and extensiveness werediscovered. The first law is, that all bodies tend to form right lines, unlessthey meet with some obstacle which turns them out of them; and the second,which is no more than a consequence of the former, is that all bodies whichmove round a center, have a tendence to fly from it; because that the fartherit is removed, the more the line which it moves in, approaches to a right line.See, divine dervise, the key of nature; hereare the fruitful principles, from which they drawconsequences which extend beyond our sight. The knowledge of five or six truthshath filled their philosophy full of wonders; and hath enabled them to effectmore marvellous miracles than all those which are related to us of our holyprophets. For in short, I am persuaded that there is none of our doctors whowould not have been embarrassed, if he had been asked to weigh in a balance,all the air which surrounds the earth, or to measure all the water which fallsevery year upon the surface of it; and who must not have thought more thanonce, before he could have told how many leagues sound travels in an hour? Whattime a ray of light takes up in its journey from the sun to us? How manyfathoms it is from hence to Saturn? What is the curve according to which a shipshould be cut to make the best sailer that can possibly be? Perhaps if somedivine man had embellished the works of these philosophers with losty andsublime expressions; if he had mixed bold figures and mysterious allegories, hewould have composed a noble work, which would have been inferior to none exceptthe holy Koran. However, if it be necessary to tell thee what I think, I rarelygive into the figurative stile. Our Koran abounds with trifles, which to mealways appear as such, although they rise with strength and liveliness ofexpression. At first it seems as if these inspired writings were only thedivine ideas cloathed in the language of men. On the contrary, we often meet inthe Koran, the language of God, and the ideas of men, as if, by a marvellouscaprice, the supreme Being had dictated the words, and man had furnished thesentiments. Perhaps thou wilt reply, I talk too freely of things which aredeemed most holy among us; this thou wilt believe is the fruit of that libertywhich distinguisheth the people of this country. No; heaven be praised, my headhath not corrupted my heart; and, while I breath, Hali shall be my prophet.

Paris

, the 15th of the moon Chahban,

1716

.

Usbek

Usbek

1717

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER XCVIII.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

THERE is no country in the world where fortune is so inconstant as in this.A revolution of ten years shall precipitate the rich man into misery, and exaltthe poor man with rapid wings to the summit of affluence. The new-made rich manadmires the wisdom of providence, the poor man the blind disposal of fate.Those who collect the taxes, swim in the midst of treasures: there are amongthem a few Tantaluses. Yet they come into this employment from extremewretchedness. They are despised like dirt whilst they are poor; when they arerich, they are well enough esteemed, as they neglect nothing to acquirerespect. At present they are in a terrible situation. They are going to erect achamber of justice, called so, because it is to strip them of all their riches.They cannot transfer their effects, nor conceal them; for they are obliged torender a just account, upon pain of death; so that they are compelled to pass avery narrow straight, as I may say, between their lives and their money. Tofill up their misfortune, there is a minister remarkable for his wit, whohonours them with his jokes, and is very merry upon all the deliberations ofthe council. They will not always find ministers disposed to make the peoplelaugh; and they ought to take it kindly of him for behaving so. The body offootmen is more respectable in France than any where else: it is a seminary ofgreat lords; they fill up the vacancies in the other states. Those who composeit take place of the unfortunate great, of ruined magistrates, of gentlemenkilled by the fury of war; and when they cannot supply them from amongthemselves, they raise up all the great families by the help of theirdaughters, who are a kind of a dung by which mountainousand barren lands are fattened. I find providence,Ibben, wonderful in her manner of distributing wealth. If she granted it onlyto good men, it would not have been sufficiently distinguished from virtue, andmen would never have been sensible of the insignificancy of riches. But when weexamine who are the people most loaded with them, by despising of the rich, weshall come at last to contemn riches themselves.

Paris

, the 26th of the moon Maharran,

1717

.

Rica

Rica

1717

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER XCIX.

Rica to Rhedi, at Venice.

THE caprices of fashion among the French are astonishing; they have forgothow they were dressed in the summer: they are even more ignorant how they shalldress this winter: but, above all, it is not to be believed how much it costs ahusband to put his wife in the fashion. What should I get by giving thee a fullaccount of their dress and ornaments? A new fashion would destroy all mylabour, as it does that of their works; and before thou hadst received myletter, the whole would be changed. A woman who quits Paris, to go and pass sixmonths in the country, is as antiquated at her return, as if she had beenforgotten thirty years. The son does not know the portrait of his mother; sostrange does the dress she was drawn in appear to him: he imagines it is someAmerican who is there represented, or that the painter had a mind to expresssome fancy of his own. Sometimes the head-dresses mount up gradually to a greatheight, and a sudden revolution makes them descend again at once. There was atime when the immense loftiness of them left the face of a woman in the middleof her body; another time, thefeet occupied the same situation; the heels formed akind of pedestals, which raised the women into the air. Who will credit this?The architects have often been obliged to raise, lower, and enlarge the doors,as the dress of the women required these changes; and the rules of their arthave been subjected to their caprice. You shall sometimes see, upon one face, aprodigious quantity of patches, and next day they all disappear again. Thewomen formerly had shapes and teeth, at present they are not regarded. In thischangeable nation, whatever an unlucky joker may say to the contrary, thedaughters are differently formed from their mothers. It is the same in theirbehaviour and manner of life, as with their fashions: the French change theircustoms according to the age of their king. The monarch might even be able torender this nation grave, if he would undertake it. The prince communicates hisown sentiments to the court, the court to the city, the city to the provinces.The soul of the sovereign is a mold in which all the rest are formed.

Paris

, the 8th of the moon Saphar,

1717

.

Rica

Rica

1717

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER C.

Rica to theSame.

THE other day I wrote to thee about the great inconstancy of the French intheir fashions. Yet it is inconceivable to what a degree they are infatuatedwith them; they determine every thing by them: they are the rules by which theyjudge of the transactions of other nations: whatever is foreign appears to themridiculous. I confess to thee, I know not how to reconcile this madness fortheir customs, with the inconstancy with which they are daily changing them.When I tell thee that they despiseevery thing that is foreign, I speak only oftrifles; for, upon important occasions, they seem to be diffident even ofthemselves, to their own degradation. They are very ready to allow othernations are wiser, provided they will allow that they are better dressed: theyare quite willing to submit themselves to the laws of a rival nation, providedFrench peruke-makers may decide, like legislators, the shape of foreignperukes. To them nothing appears so glorious, as to see the taste of theircooks reign from north to south, and the ordonnances of their tire-womenextended through all the toilettes of Europe. With these noble advantages whatdoes it signify to them if their good sense comes to them from abroad, and thatthey have taken from their neighbours every thing that relates to theirgovernment, political and civil? Who would think, that a kingdom, the mostancient, and the most powerful in Europe, should have been governed about tenages by laws which were not made for them? If the French had been conquered itwould not be difficult to comprehend this: but they are the conquerors. Theyhave abandoned the ancient laws made by their first kings, in the generalassemblies of the nation; and what is more extraordinary, the Roman laws, whichthey have taken instead of them, were partly made, and partly digested by theemperors cotemporary with their legislators. And, that the theft might becomplete, and that all their good sense might be derived from others, they haveadopted all the constitutions of the popes, and made them a new part of theirlaw; a new kind of slavery. In these latter times they have, it is true,digested in writing some statutes of cities and provinces; but they are almostall taken from the Roman law. This multitude of adopted, and, if I may say,naturalized laws, is so great, that it oppresses equally justice and the judge.But these volumes of laws are nothing in comparison to that terrible army ofglossers, commentators, and compilers: a set of men as weak,as to the justness of their understanding, as theyare strong from their number. This is not all: these foreign laws haveintroduced formalities, whose excess is a disgrace to human reason. It would bevery difficult to determine whether formality hath been more hurtful when itgot into the law, or when it took place in physic: whether it hath ravaged moreunder the robe of the lawyer, than under the large hat of the physician; andwhether, in the one, it hath ruined more people, than it hath killed under theother.

Paris

, the 17th of the moon Saphar,

1717

.

Usbek

Usbek

1717

Paris

LETTER CI.

Usbek to * * *.

THEY are always talking here of the constitution. The other day I went intoa house, where the first person I saw was a great fat man, with a ruddycomplexion, who said, with a loud voice, I have published my mandate; I shallmake no further answer to what you say; but read that mandate, and you willfind that I have resolved all your doubts. I sweated much to do it, said hewiping his forehead with his hand; I had need of all my learning, and I wasobliged to read many a Latin author. I believe so, said a man who was by; forit is a curious work, and I desy even the Jesuit, who comes so often to seeyou, to compose a better. Read it then, replied the other, and you will bebetter instructed in these matters in a quarter of an hour, than if I hadtalked to you a whole day. Thus he avoided entering into a conversation, andexposing his insufficiency. But as he saw himself pressed, he was obliged toquit his entrenchments; and began to say, with a theological energy, a greatmany foolish things, supported by a dervise who shewed theutmost respect to what he said. When two persons whowere present denied him any of his principles, he presently cried out it iscertain, we have so determined it, and we are infallible judges. And how cameyou, said I to him then, to be infallible judges? Do not you perceive, repliedhe, that the holy spirit hath enlightened us? That is happy, returned I; forfrom the manner of your talking to-day I perceive you have great need to beenlightened.

Paris

, the 18th of the moon Rebiab,

1717

.

Usbek

Usbek

1717

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER CII.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

THE most powerful states in Europe, are those of the emperor, the kings ofFrance, Spain, and England. Italy, and a large part of Germany, are dividedinto a great many little states, the princes of which are, strictly speaking,the martyrs of Sovereignty. Our glorious sultans have more wives than some ofthese petty princes have subjects. The states of Italy, which are not sounited, are more to be pitied, their dominions are as much exposed as so manycaravanseras, they are forced to admit the first who come: they are thereforeobliged to attach themselves to some great prince, and give him a share oftheir fears, rather than of their assistance. The greater part of thegovernments in Europe are monarchical, or rather they are so called: for I donot know whether there ever was one truly so; at least it is difficult thatthey should subsist long without being corrupted. It is a state of violence,that always degenerates into despotism, or into a republic. The power can neverbe equally divided between the people and the prince; the balance is toodifficult to be preserved: the power must decrease on one side, whilst itincreases on the other; but the balance is generallyin favour of the prince, who is at the head of the armies. Accordingly thepower of the European kings is very great, and it may be said they have as muchas they please: but they do not exercise it so extensively as our sultans;first, because they are not willing to offend the manners and religion of thepeople; secondly, because it is not their interest to extend it so far. Nothingmore reduces princes to the condition of their subjects, than the immense powerthey exercise over them; nothing subjects them more to the turns and capricesof fortune. The custom, in some states, of putting to death all those whooffend them, upon the least signal that they make, destroys that proportionwhich ought to be observed between crimes and punishments, which is in a mannerthe soul of a state, and the harmony of empires; and this proportion, carefullyobserved by the Christian princes, hath given them a very great advantage overour sultans. A Persian who hath, by imprudence or misfortune, drawn uponhimself the displeasure of his prince, is sure to die: the smallest fault, orthe least caprice, reduces him to this necessity. But, if he had attempted thelife of his sovereign, if he had designed to give up places of importance intothe hands of the enemy, he still would but lose his life; he runs no greaterrisque in this latter case than in the former. So that under the leastdisgrace, seeing certain death before him, and nothing worse to fear, he isnaturally led to disturb the state, and to conspire against his sovereign, theonly resource he hath left. It is not the same with the great men in Europe,from whom their disgrace takes away only the good will and favour of theirprince. They retire from court, and think of nothing but enjoying a quiet life,and the advantages of their birth. As they seldom lose their lives but forhightreason, they are fearful of falling into it, from a consideration of howmuch they have to lose, and howlittle to gain: this is the reason that we see fewrebellions here, and few princes perish by violent deaths. If in that unlimitedpower our princes have, they did not take so many precautions for the securityof their lives, they would not live a day; and if they had not in their pay agreat number of troops to tyrannize over the rest of their subjects, theirempire would not subsist a month. It is not above three or four ages ago, thata king of France took guards, contrary to the custom of those times, to securehimself from some ruffians, whom a petty prince of Asia had sent to assassinatehim: till then kings lived quiet in the midst of their subjects, as fathersamidst their children. Though the kings of France cannot, of their own motion,take away the life of any of their subjects, like our sultans, they havehowever always the power of extending mercy to all criminals: it is sufficientthat a man hath been so happy as to see the august countenance of his prince,to remove his unworthiness to live. These monarchs are like the sun, whocarries warmth and life every where.

Paris

, the 8th of the moon of the 2d Rebiab,

1717

.

Usbek

Usbek

1717

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER CIII.

Usbek to theSame.

TO pursue the subject of my last letter, hear what a sensible European saidto me the other day. The worst method the Asiatic princes could take, is toshut themselves up as they do. They think to render themselves more respected:but they make the royalty respected, and not the king; and attach the minds ofthe subjects to a certain throne and not to a certain person. That invisiblepower which governs, is always the same to the people. Though ten kings, whoare known only by name, have their throats cut one after another, the subjectsare sensible of no difference; it is just as ifthey had been governed by their spirits. If thedetestable parricide of the great king Henry IV. here, had given his blow toone of the Indian kings, master of the royal signet, and of a great treasurewhich would have seemed to have been heaped up for him, he would quietly haveassumed the reins of the empire, without any persons thinking to inquireafter his king, or his family and children. We wonder that there is scarcelyever any change in the governments of the eastern princes: whence comes this,if it is not that they are tyrannical and terrible? Changes cannot be effectedbut by the prince, or by the people. Now, there, the princes will take care notto make a change, because, being in so high a degree of power, they have allthey can have; if they were to make any change, it could not but be to theirown prejudice. As to the subjects, if any one of them forms such a design, hecannot execute it upon the state; it would be necessary he shouldcounterbalance immediately a power formidable, and always the only one; hewants time as well as the means: but he has no more than to go to the source ofthis power; and he wants nothing but an arm and a moment. The murderer mountsthe throne, whilst the monarch descends, falls, and expires at his feet. Amalecontent, in Europe, thinks of carrying on some private intelligence; to goover to the enemy: to get some strong place into his power; to excitemurmurings among the subjects. A malecontent, in Asia, aims directly at theprince, surprises, strikes, and overthrows: he blots out his very memory; in aninstant slave and master, in an instant usurper and lawful. Unhappy the kingwho hath but one head! he seems to collect all his power upon it, only to pointout to the first ambitious rebel the part where he may meet with it alltogether.

Paris

, the 17th of the moon of the 2d Rebiab,

1717

.

Usbek

Usbek

1717

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER CIV.

Usbek to theSame.

ALL the people of Europe are not equally subject to their princes: forinstance, the impatient humour of the English seldom give their king time tomake his power heavy. Passive obedience and non-resistance are no virtues intheir esteem. They say upon this head very extraordinary things. According tothem, there is but one tie that can bind men, which is that of gratitude: ahusband, a wife, a father and son, are not bound to each other, but either bythe love they bear to one another, or by mutual services: and these differentmotives of acknowledgment are the origin of every kingdom, and of allsocieties. But if a prince, very far from making his subjects live happy,endeavours to oppress and ruin them, the foundation of obedience ceases;nothing ties them, nothing attaches them to him, and they return to theirnatural liberty. They maintain that no unlimited power can be lawful, becauseit never could lawfully commence. For we cannot, say they, give to another morepower over us, than we have ourselves: now we have not an unlimited power overourselves; for instance, we cannot take away our own lives, no person then uponearth, conclude they, hath a right to such a power. High treason is nothing,according to them, but a crime committed by the weaker against the stronger, bydisobeying him, in whatever manner he does so. Accordingly the people ofEngland, when they found themselves strongest in opposition to one of theirkings, declared it to be high treason in a king to make war upon his subjects.They have therefore good reason to say, that the precept in their Koran, whichenjoins obedience to the powers, is not very difficult to be followed, as it isimpossible for them not to observeit; since it is not to the most virtuous that theyare obliged to submit, but to the strongest. The English say, that one of theirkings having overcome, and taken prisoner, a prince who disputed the crown withhim, and reproaching him with his treachery and perfidiousness; it is not abovea moment, replied the unfortunate prince, since it was decided which of us twois the traitor. An usurper declares all those to be rebels, who have not, likehim, oppressed their country: and, believing there are no laws where he sees nojudges, forces respect to the caprices of chance and fortune, as to the decreesof heaven.

Paris

, the 20th of the moon of the 2d Rebiab,

1717

.

Redi

Redi

1717

Venice

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CV.

Redi to Usbek, at Paris.

THOU talkest much to me in one of thy letters, of the arts and sciencescultivated in the west. Thou wilt be ready to regard me as a barbarian: but Iknow not if the benefit derived from them hath made amends to mankind, for thebad use to which they are daily applied. I have heard say, that the singleinvention of bombs, hath destroyed the liberty of all the people of Europe. Theprinces being no longer willing to intrust the guard of towns to the citizens,who would surrender them at the first bomb, made that a pretext for keeping alarge body of regular troops, with which they afterwards oppressed theirsubjects. Thou knowest, that since the invention of gun-powder, there is noplace impregnable; that is to say, Usbek, that there is not any longer anassylum upon earth against injustice and violence. I always tremble, left theyshould arrive at last at the discovery of some secret which may furnish themwith a shorter way to destroymankind, and to depopulate whole nations and wholekingdoms. Thou hast read the historians; reflect seriously upon them; almostall monarchies have been founded only upon the ignorance of arts, and have onlybeen destroyed by their being too much cultivated. The ancient empire of Persiamay furnish us with a domestic example. I have not been long in Europe; but Ihave heard wise men talk of the ravages of chymistry. It seems to be a fourthscourge, which ruins mankind, and destroys them singly, but continually; whilstthat of war, plague, and famine, destroys them in large bodies, but byintervals. How have we been benefited by the invention of the compass, and thediscovery of so many nations, who have rather communicated to us theirdistempers, than their riches? Gold and silver have been established, by ageneral agreement, to be the price of all merchandizes, and the measure oftheir value, because these metals were scarce, and unfit for other uses: whatbenefit was it to us, then, that they should become more common? and that tomark the value of any commodity, we should have two or three tokens instead ofone? This was only a greater inconvenience. But, on the other hand, thisinvention hath been very hurtful to the countries that have been discovered.Whole nations have been discovered; and those who have escaped death, have beenreduced to so cruel a slavery, that the relation of it makes the Mussulmanstremble. Happy ignorance of the children of Mahomet! amiable simplicity, sodear to our holy prophet; thou dost always recal to my mind the plain honestyof antient times, and that tranquility which reigned in the hearts of our firstfathers.

Venice

, the 5th of the moon Rhamazan,

1717

.

Usbek

Usbek

1717

Paris

Redi

Redi

LETTER CVI.

Usbek to Redi, at Venice.

THOU dost not think as thou sayest, or else thy actions are better than thythoughts. Thou hast quitted thy country to gain knowledge, and thou despisestall instruction: thou travellest to improve thyself, in a country where theycultivate the polite arts, and lookest upon them as hurtful. Shall I tell thee,Rhedi? I agree with thee more than thou dost with thyself. Hast thou wellreflected on the barbarous and unhappy condition into which we should be sunkby the loss of the arts? There is no need to imagine it, we may see it. Thereare yet people upon earth among whom an ape, tolerably well taught, might livewith honour; he would be nearly upon a level with the rest of the inhabitants;he would not be thought an odd being, nor a whimsical character; he would passas well as another, and would even be distinguished for his politeness. Thousayest, that almost all the founders of empires have been ignorant of the arts.I will not deny that these barbarous people may have, like an impetuoustorrent, spread themselves over the earth, and covered with their savage armiesthe most polite states: but, observe, they learned the arts, or made those theyconquered exercise them, otherwise their power would have passed away like thenoise of thunder and tempests. Thou sayest, thou art afraid lest they shouldinvent some crueller method of destruction than that now used. No: if such afatal invention should be discovered, by the law of nations it would beprohibited, and by the unanimous consent of nations it would be suppressed. Itis not the interest of princes to conquer by such means: it is their businessto gain subjects and not lands. Thou dost complain of the invention ofgun-powder andbombs; you think it is bad that no place is anylonger impregnable, that is, you think it is a bad thing that wars should besooner terminated than they were before. Thou must have observed, in reading ofhistory, that, since the invention of gun-powder, battles are much less bloodythan formerly, because armies hardly ever mix among one another. And, if an artin some partiticular case should be found prejudicial, ought it, on thataccount, to be rejected? Thou thinkest that the arts render the peopleeffeminate, and by that means are the cause of the fall of empires. Thoumentionest the ruin of the antient Persians, which was the effect of theireffeminacy: but this example is far from being decisive, since the Greeks whoconquered them so often, and subdued them, cultivated the arts with muchgreater assiduity. When they say, the arts make men effeminate, they do not inthe least speak of those people who work at them; because they are never idle,which, of all vices, is that which weakens courage most. The question then is,as to those who enjoy the fruits of them. But as in a polite country, those whoreap the benefits of one art, are obliged to cultivate another, lest theyshould be reduced to a shameful poverty; it follows, that idleness and luxuryare incompatible with the arts. Paris is, perhaps, the most luxurious city inthe world, and refines the most upon her pleasures; and yet, perhaps, no peoplelive harder than there. That one man may live in luxury, a hundred must becontinually labouring. A lady takes it into her head, that she must appear atan assembly in a certain dress; from this moment fifty artificers have noleisure either to eat, drink, or sleep: she commands, and is more readilyobeyed than our monarch, for interest is the greatest monarch upon earth. Thisgreat application to labour, this thirst to grow rich, runs through every rank,from the artificers up to the greatest men. Nobody loves to be poorer than himwho is next beneath him. You may see atParis, a man who hath sufficient to live upon to theend of the world, who continually labours, and ventures the shortening of hisdays, to scrape up, as he says, wherewith to live. The same spirit prevailsthrough the whole nation, nothing is seen there but labour and industry. Wherethen is the effeminate people of whom you talk so much? I will suppose, Rhedi,that in some kingdom they should suffer no arts but such as are absolutelynecessary for the manuring of the lands; which are nevertheless very numerous;and that they should expel all those which only administer to pleasure, orcuriosity: I will maintain, that this would be one of the most miserable statesthat hath ever been in the world. Though the inhabitants should have resolutionenough to shift without so many things as their wants require, the people woulddecay daily, and the state would become so weak, that there would be no stateso little that could not conquer it. It would be easy to discuss this at large,and to make thee sensible that the revenues of the subjects would be almostabsolutely at an end, and consequently those of the prince. There would hardlybe any of those mutual relations between citizens of the same faculties: theywould see an end to that circulation of riches, and that increase of therevenues which arise from the dependance of the arts one upon another: everyone would live upon his land, and raise no more than what would be preciselynecessary to keep him from starving. But as this sometimes is not the twentiethpart of the revenue of the state, the number of the inhabitants must diminishin proportion, and there would be but a twentieth part of them remaining.Consider to how much the revenue of industry arises. Land produces annually tothe owner but the twentieth part of its value; but with a pistole worth ofcolours a painter will draw a picture that will produce him fifty. The same maybe said of goldsmiths, workers in wool and silk, and every kind of artificers:fromall which we conclude, Rhedi, that, for a prince tobe powerful, it is necessary his subjects should live in affluence, it isnecessary he should endeavour to procure them every kind of superfluities, withas much attention as the necessaries of life.

Paris

, the 14th of the moon Chalval,

1717

.

Rica

Rica

1717

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER CVII.

Rica to Ibben at Smyrna.

I HAVE seen the young monarch. His life is very valuable to his subjects, itis not less so to all Europe, because of the great troubles his death mightoccasion. But kings are like the gods; and whilst they live, we must believethem immortal. His countenance is majestic, but pleasing; a good educationconcurs with a happy disposition, and already promises a great prince. They saywe can never know the character of these western princes, till they have passedthese two trials, their mistress and their confessor. We shall soon see the oneand the other labouring to possess the mind of this, and he on this accountwill be the subject of great contentions. For, under a young prince, these twopowers are always rivals; but they agree and unite together under an old one. Adervise hath a difficult part to support with a young prince: the kingsstrength is his weakness; but the other triumphs equally in his strength andweakness. At my arrival in France, I found the late king entirely governed bywomen: and yet, considering his age, I believe he had less occasion for themthan any monarch upon earth. I one day heard a woman say, I must do somethingfor this young colonel, I know his valour: I must speak to the minister.Another said, it is astonishing this young abbot hath been forgot; hemust be a bishop; he is a man of birth, and I cananswer for his conduct. However, thou must not imagine that these women whoheld this conversation were favourites of the prince: they had not perhapsspoke to him twice in their lives; which yet is a very easy thing to do withEuropean princes. But there is not a person who hath any employment at court,in Paris, or in the provinces, who hath not some woman through whose hands allthe favours, and sometimes all the injustice he can do, always pass. Thesewomen are constantly connected together, and make a kind of republic, themembers of which are always busy mutually to succour and serve each other: itis a new kind of state within another: and a person at the court at Paris, orin the provinces, who sees the ministers, magistrates, and prelates, acting intheir several stations, if he knows nothing of the women who govern them, islike a man indeed who sees a machine at work, but who is unacquainted with thesprings that move it. Dost thou think, Ibben, that a woman agrees to be amistress to a minister for the pleasure of lying with him? What a strangethought this would be! It is that she may every morning present him with fiveor six petitions: and the goodness of their natural disposition appears in thezeal which they have to do good to a great number of unhappy people, whoprocure them a hundred thousand livres a year. They complain in Persia, thatthe kingdom is governed by two or three women: but it is much worse in France,where the women in general govern, and not only assume the authority in gross,but even divide it among themselves by retail.

Paris

, the last of the moon Chalval,

1717

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

LETTER CVIII.

Usbek to * * *.

THERE are a kind of books here not at all known to us in Persia, and whichseem to be much in fashion here: these are the Journals. Lazy people aremightily pleased with reading them: they are hugely delighted with being ableto run through thirty volumes in a quarter of an hour. In most of these books,the author hath hardly paid his usual compliments, but the reader is at hislast gasp: he leads him half dead into a subject drowned in the midst of anocean of words. One man hath a mind to immortalize himself in a duodecimo, this in a quarto, another in a folio: it is necessary then he should extend his subjectin proportion; this he does without mercy, esteeming the labour of the poorreader as nothing, who kills himself in reducing what the author took so muchpains to enlarge. I cannot find, * * *, what merit there is in composing suchkinds of work: I could do the same easily enough, if I had a mind to ruin myhealth, and a bookseller. The great fault of these journalists is, that theyspeak only of new books; as if truth was always novel. It seems to me, that,till a man hath read all the ancient books, he hath no reason to prefer the newones to them. But, when they impose it as a law upon themselves, never to speakof works but such as are just hot from the forge, they likewise lay themselvesunder another which is, to be very tiresome. They take care not to criticisethose books from which they make their extracts, for this reason, because theyare not able; and indeed, what man is bold enough to make ten or a dozenenemies every month? The generality of authors are like the poets, who willbear a hearty caning without complaining: but who, little under [Editor:illegible?] of their shoulders, are so much more so of theirworks, that they know not how to bear the leastcriticism. A person therefore must take great care how he attacks them in sosensible a part; and the journalists are well acquainted with this. Theytherefore do just the contrary; they begin with praising the subject treatedon; this is their first folly: from thence they go on to praise the author,with forced encomiums; for they have to do with people who are always inbreath, ever ready to do themselves justice, and to attack, with a stroke oftheir pens, a fool-hardy journalist.

Paris

, the 5th of the moon Zilcade,

1718

.

Rica

Rica

1718

Paris

LETTER CIX.

Rica to * * *.

THE university of Paris is the eldest daughter of the Kings of France: andthe eldest by much; for she is above nine hundred years old, so that she nowand then doats; I have been told, that she had sometimes a great quarrel withsome doctors about the letter Q [*] , which she would have pronounced like a K. The dispute grew so warm,that some were stript of their estates: the parliament was obliged to determinethe difference; and it granted permission, by a solemn arret, to all thesubjects of the King of France, to pronounce this letter according to their ownfancy. It was certainly very diverting to see the two most respectable bodiesin Europe, employed in deciding in so vehement a manner about a letter in thealphabet! It looks, my dear * * *, as if the heads of the greatest menidiotized when they meet together; and that where there are most people, thereis so much the less wisdom. Great bodies always attach themselves so stronglytolittle things, and foolish customs, that essentialsnever come to be considered till afterwards. I have heard say, that a king ofArragon having assembled [*] the states of Arragon and Catalonia, the first meetings were employedin deciding what language the deliberations should be held in: the dispute waswarm, and the states would have broke up a thousand times, if they had notthought of an expedient, which was, that the questions should be put in theCatalonian tongue, and the answers in that of Arragon.

Paris

, the 25th of the moon Zilhage,

1718

.

Rica

Rica

1718

Paris

LETTER CX.

Rica to * * *.

THE part a pretty woman hath to conduct, is more important than may beimagined. Nothing is more serious than what passes every morning at her toilet,amidst her servants: a general of an army does not make use of moreconsideration how to place his right, or his corps dereserve, than she does to place a patch, which may fail of its end, but ofwhich she hopes or foresees the success. What perplexity of mind, what thought,continually to be reconciling the interests of two rivals; to appear neuter toboth, while she is resigned to the one and to the other; and makes herself themediatrix in all the causes of complaint that she gives them! How busy insettling the order, and to appoint parties of pleasure, and to prevent everyaccident that may interrupt them! With all this, the greatest trouble is not tobe, but to appear, diverted. Be as dull as you please, they will excuse you,provided they can but be thought to have been very merry. Some days ago, I wasat a supper which some ladiesgave in the country. All the way thither they werecontinually saying, however we must make ourselves very merry. We were very illpaired, and consequently grave enough. I must confess, says one of the women,that we are very merry: there is not to-day in Paris so gay a party as ours. AsI grew heavy, a woman jogged me, and said, Well, are not we in acharming good humour? Yes, answered I yawning, I believe I shallburst myself with laughing. However, gravity got the better of ourresolutions; and, as to myself, from one gape to another, I sunk into alethargic sleep, which put an end to all my mirth.

Paris

, the 1st of the moon Maharran,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CXI.

Usbek to * * *.

THE late kings reign was so long, that the end had made the beginningto be forgot. At present the fashion is, to be taken up with nothing but withthe events that happened in his minority: and no body reads any thing now butthe memoirs of those times.See a speech which one of the generals of thecity of Paris made in a council of war: though I must confess I can conceivenothing very great in it.

1718

Paris

Gentlemen,

Though our troops have been repulsed with loss, I believe it will bevery easy for us to repair this misfortune. I have composed six couplets of asong ready to be published, which, I am persuaded, will restore all our affairsto an equilibrium. I have made choice of some excellent voices, which, issuingfrom the cavity of certain strong breasts, will wonderfully move the people.They are set to an air, which hitherto hath had a singular effect. If this doesnotdo, we will publish a print of Mazarine as hanged.Luckily for us, he does not speak good French [*] , and so murders it that it is impossible but that his affairs mustdecline. We do not fail making the people observe, with what a ridiculousaccent he pronounces . A few days ago we made such a ridicule of a blunder that he made ingrammar, that it hath been made a joke of in every street. I hope, that beforeeight days, the people will make the name of Mazarine a general word to expressall beasts of burden and carriage. Since our defeat, our music about originalsin , hath so vexed him, that not to see all his party reduced to one half,he hath been obliged to send back all his pages. Recover yourselves then; takecourage; and be assured that we will make him repass the mountains by the forceof our hisses.

Paris

the 4th of the moon Chahban,

1718

.

Rhedi

Rhedi

1718

Esbek

Esbek

LETTER CXII.

Rhedi to Esbek, at Paris.

DURING my stay in Europe, I employ myself in reading the antient and modernhistorians: I compare one age with another: I have the pleasure of seeing thempass, as it were before me: and my mind is particularly engaged to those greatchanges which have made so great a difference between times and times, and theearth so little like itself. Thou hast perhaps considered a thing which is acontinual subject of wonderto me. How comes the world to be so thinly peopled,in comparison to what it was formerly? How hath nature lost the prodigiousfruitfulness of the first ages? Is she already in her old age, and sunk into astate of feebleness? I staid above a year in Italy, where I saw nothing but thewrecks of the ancient Italy, so famous in past times. Though all theinhabitants live in the cities, yet are they entire deserts, and whollydepopulated: they seem to subsist now only to show the places where thosepotent cities stood, so much talked of in history. Some persons here pretend,that the city of Rome alone contained formerly more people than the greatestkingdom in Europe does at this day. There were some Roman citizens who had ten,and even twenty thousand slaves, without counting those who worked at theircountry houses: and as they reckon that there were four or five hundredthousand citizens, we cannot fix the number of its inhabitants, withoutshocking imagination itself. In Sicily there were formerly powerful kingdoms,and numerous nations, who have since disappeared: This island is nowconsiderable for nothing but its volcanoes. Greece is so deserted, that it dothnot contain the hundredth part of its ancient inhabitants. Spain, formerly socrouded, now shows us only uninhabited countries; and France is nothing incomparison of that ancient Gaul described by Csar. The northerncountries are greatly stript; they are now far from being obliged, as formerly,to divide themselves, and to send out, like swarms, colonies and whole nationsto seek for new habitations.Poland, and Turky in Europe, have hardly anypeople. We cannot find in America the fiftieth part of the men who once formedthere such great empires. Asia is scarcely in a better state. That Asia Minor,which contained so many powerful Monarchies, and such a vast number of greatcities, hath now but two or three. As to the greater Asia, that part of itwhich is subject to the Turk, is not more populous: as to that underthe dominion of our kings if compared with theflourishing state it formerly enjoyed; we shall find it hath but a very smallshare of those numberless inhabitants which it had in the times of the Xerxesesand Dariuses. As to the petty states on the borders of these great empires,they are really desarts: such are the kingdoms of Irimetta, Circassia, and thatof Guriel. These princes with vast dominions, can hardly reckon up fiftythousand subjects. Egypt is not less deficient than other countries. In fine, Isurvey the whole earth, and I find nothing there but ruin and decay: I think Isee her just emerging from the ravages of plague and famine. Africa hath alwaysbeen so little known, that we cannot speak so exactly of it as of other partsof the world: but if we consider only the Mediterranean coasts, which have beenalways known, we shall see that it hath greatly fallen from what it was underthe Carthaginians and the Romans. At present her princes are so weak, that theyare the most petty potentates in the world. According to a calculation, asexact as can be made in matters of this nature, I find there is hardly upon theearth the tenth part of the people that there was in ancient times. And what isvery astonishing, is, that it becomes every day less populous: and, if thiscontinues, in ten ages it will be no other than a desert. This, Usbek, is themost terrible catastrophe that ever happened in the world. But we have hardlyperceived it, because it hath arrived by degrees, and through the course of agreat number of ages, which denotes an inward defect, a secret hidden poison, alanguishing disease which afflicts human nature.

the 10th of the moon Rhegeb,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXIII.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

THE world, Rhedi, is not incorruptible; the heavens themselves are not; theastronomers are eye-witnesses of their changes; which are indeed the naturaleffects of the universal motion of matter. The earth is subject, like the otherplanets, to the laws of motion: and she suffers within herself, a perpetualconflict among her own principles: the sea and land seem engaged in an eternalwar; every instant produces new conjunctions. Mankind, in an abode so subjectto changes, are in a state likewise uncertain: a hundred thousand causes mayact, capable of destroying them, and much more of increasing or diminishingtheir number. I shall not mention to thee those particular catastrophes, sofrequent among historians, which have destroyed cities and whole kingdoms:there are general ones, which have often put the human species within an inchof destruction. History is full of those universal plagues, which have, byturns, desolated the whole earth; of one, among others, that was so violentthat it blasted the very roots of the plants, and infected the whole knownworld, to the very empire of Cathai: one degree more of corruption wouldperhaps, in a single day, have destroyed all human nature. It is not twocenturies ago that the most shameful of all distempers was felt in Europe,Asia, and Africa; it wrought in a little time prodigious effects, that wouldhave destroyed mankind, if it had continued its progress with the same fury.Depressed with disease from their birth, incapable of sustaining the weight ofthe duties of society, they must miserably have perished. What if the venom hadbeen a little more exalted? and without doubt it would have become so, if theyhad not beenso happy as to find out so powerful a remedy as thatwhich hath been discovered. This disease, perhaps, attacking the parts ofgeneration would have affected generation itself. But why talk I of thedestruction which might have happened to human nature? Hath it not in factarrived? and did not the deluge reduce it to one single family? There arephilosophers who maintain two creations; that of things, and that of man: theycannot conceive that matter and things have been created but six thousandyears; that God deferred his works during all eternity, and did not use butyesterday his creative power. Was it because he could, or because he would not?But, if he could not at one time, neither could he at another. It must be thenbecause he would not: but as there is no succession of time in God, if we admitthat he willed any thing once, he willed it always, and from the beginning [*] . However all historians mention a first father: they present us withthe birth of human nature. Is it not natural to think that Adam was saved fromsome common destruction, as Noah was from the deluge; and that these greatevents have been frequent upon earth since the creation? But all thesedestructions have not been violent. We see many parts of the earth grown weary,as it were, of furnishing subsistence to man; how do we know if the whole earthhath not in it general causes, slow and imperceptible, of this weariness? I waswilling to give thee these general ideas, before I answered more particularlyto thy letter of the decrease of mankind, which hath happened within theseseventeen or eighteen centuries. I shall show thee in a succeeding letter, thatindependent of physical causes,there are moral ones by which this effect may havebeen produced.

Paris

, the 18th of the moon Chahban,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXIV.

Usbek to theSame.

THOU inquirest from what cause the earth is less populous than it wasformerly; and if thou considerest carefully, thou wilt find that this greatdifference comes from that which hath happened in our manners. Since theChristian and Mahometan religions have divided the Roman world, things havebeen greatly changed: these two religions have been far from being sofavourable to the propagation of our species, as that of those lords of theuniverse. Among the Romans, polygamy was prohibited; and by that law it had avery great advantage over the Mahometan religion: divorces were also allowed,which gave it another, and no less considerable advantage over the Christian. Ifind nothing so contradictory as this plurality of wives permitted by the holyKoran, and the order of satisfying them commanded in the same book. Conversewith your wives, says the prophet, because ye are as necessary to them as theirvestments, and they are as necessary to you as your own vestments. See here aprecept which renders the life of a true Mussulman very laborious. He who haththe four wives settled by law, and only as many concubines, or slaves, must nothe be weighed down with so many vestments? Your wives are your tillage, saiththe prophet; apply yourselves therefore to your tillage: do good for yoursouls, and you shall one day find your recompence. I consider a good Mussulmanas a champion, destined always to be fighting; but who, soon weakened andweighed down with his first fatigues, saints in the very field of battle, andfinds himself, as may be said, to beburied beneath his own triumphs. Nature evers actsslowly, and as one may say, sparingly; her operations are never violent, evenin her productions she requires temperance: she constantly goes on by rule andmeasure: if she is precipitated, she falls into a languor; she employs all herremaining strength for her own preservation, quite losing her productive virtueand generative power. It is to this state of debility we are always reduced byso great a number of women, who are fitter to exhaust, than satisfy us. It isvery common among us, to see a man with a very great seraglio, and yet a verysmall number of children; these children too are generally weak and unhealthy,and feel the imbecility of their fathers. This is not all: these women, obligedto a forced continence, have need of people to guard them, who can be none buteunuchs: religion, jealousy, reason itself will permit no others to approachthem: these guardians must be numerous, to the end they may maintain peacewithin doors amidst the continual contentions of these women, and preventattempts from without. So that a man who hath ten wives, or concubines, musthave no fewer eunuchs to guard them. But what a loss to society, so great anumber of men, dead as it were from their birth! What depopulation must follow!The female slaves kept in the seraglio, to wait with the eunuchs upon thisgreat number of women, almost always growing old in an afflicting virginity:they cannot marry while they stay there; and their mistresses, when once usedto them, will hardly ever dismiss them. See how many persons of both sexes asingle man employs for his pleasures; they are dead to the state, and rendereduseless in the propagation of the species. Constantinople and Ispahan are thecapitals of the two greatest empires in the world: it is there that every thingought to terminate, and where every body, drawn by a thousand different ways,should come from all parts. Yet even these cities decayof themselves, and would soon be destroyed, if thesovereigns did not, almost every century, make whole nations remove thither torepeople them. I will continue this subject in another letter.

Paris

, the 13th of the moon Chahban,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXV.

Usbek to theSame.

THE Romans had not a less number of slaves than we; they had even more: butthey made a better use of them. So far from hindering by violent means, themultiplication of their slaves, they on the contrary favoured it all in theirpower; they coupled them, as much as they could, by a kind of marriage; by thismeans, they filled their houses with servants of both sexes, of all ages, andthe state with an innumerable people. These children, who made in time theriches of their master, were born around him without number; he alone had thecharge of their maintenance and education: their fathers, freed from thisburden, followd wholly the inclination of their nature, and multipliedwithout the fear of having too numerous a family. I have observed to thee, thatamong us, all the slaves are employed in guarding our women, and in nothingmore; that they are, with respect to the state, in a perpetual lethargy; sothat the cultivation of the arts, and of the land, is necessarily confined tosome freemen, and some heads of families, who apply themselves to it as littleas possible. It was not the same among the Romans. The republic served itselfwith very great advantage, by this generation of slaves. Each of them had his peculium [*] , which he enjoyed upon such conditionsas his master imposed upon him; with this peculium, he laboured, and applied himself in that way towhich his ingenuity led him. This made himself a banker; another appliedhimself to commerce by sea; one sold goods by retail; another gave himself tosome mechanic art, or else farmed and cultivated some lands; but there was nonewho did not apply himself, to his utmost power, to improve his peculium, which procured him, at the same time, comforts inhis present state of servitude, and the hope of being able, in some futuretime, to purchase his liberty; this made a laborious people, and encouragedarts and sciences. These slaves became rich by their care and labour, boughttheir freedom, and became citizens. The republic was thus continuallyreplenished, and received into her bosom new families as fast as the old onesfailed. I may, perhaps in my following letters, have an opportunity to prove tothee, that the more men there are in any state, there commerce flourishes themore; I may also as easily prove, that the more commerce flourishes, the morethe number of people increases: these two things mutually assist and favoureach other. If this is so, how much must this very great number of slaves,always at work, have grown and increased! Industry and plenty gave them birth,and they in return gave birth to plenty and industry.

Paris

, the 16th of the moon Chahban,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXVI.

Usbek to theSame.

HITHERTO we have spoken only of the Mahometan countries, and inquired intothe reason why they are less populous than those which were subjectto the government of the Romans: let us now examinewhat hath produced this effect among the Christians. Divorces were allowed inthe Pagan religion, and forbidden to the Christians. This change, which atfirst may appear of so little consequence, had by degrees terrible effects, andsuch as are not easily to be believed. This not only took away all the sweetsof marriage, but struck at its very end: desirous to tie the knot faster, theyloosened it; and, instead of uniting hearts, as they pretended, they separatedthem for ever. In so free an action, and in which the heart ought to have sogreat a part, they put torment, necessity, and even fate itself. They reckonedfor nothing disgusts, caprices, and unsociable humours: they wanted to fix theheart, that is to say, that which is the most variable and inconstant thing innature; they joined together, without the hope of a change, people tired of oneanother, and almost always ill matched; and did by them like those tyrants whoused to tie living men to dead bodies. Nothing contributed more to a mutualattachment, than the power of divorce; a husband and a wife were induced tobear patiently domestic troubles, knowing they were masters of the power ofending them; and they often retained this power in their hand all theirlife-time, without using it, from this single consideration, that they were atliberty to do so. It is not the same with the Christians, their presentvexations drive them to despair at the apprehension of those which are to come.They see nothing in the discomforts of marriage, but their continuance, orrather their eternity; hence arise disgusts, contentions, contempt; and this isso much loss to posterity. Three years of marriage are scarcely past, but theessential design of it is neglected: thirty years of coldness follow: privateseparations are formed as strong, and perhaps more hurtful, than if they hadbeen public: each lives apart his own way: and all this to the prejudice offuture generations. A man, disgusted at havinga wife for ever, soon gives himself up to loosewomen; a commerce shameful, and contrary to nature, which, without answeringthe end of marriage, represents at most but the pleasures of it. If, of twopersons thus linked together, one be unfit to answer the design of nature, andthe propagation of the species, either from constitution or age, that partyburies the other with itself, and renders the other equally useless. We are nottherefore to wonder that we see, among the Christians, so many marriagesproduce so small a number of citizens. Divorce is abolished; marriages illformed are not to be rectified; the women do not pass, as among the Romans,successively through the hands of several husbands, who, for the time, make thebest they can of them. I dare say, if in a free state, like that ofLacedmon, where the citizens were continually tormented by odd andsubtle laws, and in which there was but one family, that of the republic, if ithad been there established that the husbands might change their wives everyyear, it would have produced an innumerable people. It is very difficult tocomprehend the reason that led the Christians to abolish divorces. Marriage,among all the nations of the world, is a contract capable of every kind ofsettlement; and none ought to be excluded from it but such as would haveweakened the design of it. But the Christians do not consider it in this pointof view; and they are at a good deal of trouble to explain themselves upon thissubject. They do not make it to consist in the pleasure of sense; on thecontrary, as I have already told thee, it seems as if they were desirous tobanish it as much as they can; but it is with them an image, a figure, and somemysterious thing that I cannot at all comprehend.

Paris

, the 19th of the moon Chahban,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1716

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXVII.

Usbek to theSame.

THE scarcity of people in the Christian countries is not to be ascribedsolely to the prohibition of divorces: the great number of eunuchs which theyhave among them, is not a less considerable occasion of it. I mean the priestsand dervises of both sexes, who devote themselves to perpetual continence: thisis, among the Christians, a virtue of virtues; in which I cannot comprehend anyvirtue, not knowing how that can be a virtue which is productive of nothing. Ifind their doctors plainly contradicting themselves, when they say thatmarriage is holy, and that celibacy, which is opposite to it, is more holy;without considering, that in a matter of precepts and dogmas, the good isalways the best. The number of these people professing celibacy is prodigious.Fathers used formerly to condemn their children to it from their infancy; atpresent they devote themselves to it at fourteen years of age, which comes verynear to the same point. This practice of continence hath been the loss of moremen than ever have been destroyed by the plague, or the most bloody wars. Wesee in every religious house an endless family, where nobody is born, and whoare maintained at the expence of every body else. These houses are always open,like so many pits, wherein future generations are buried alive. This is verydifferent policy from that of the Romans, who established penal laws againstthose who avoided the law of marriage, and who wanted to enjoy a liberty soopposite to the public good. I have yet only spoken of Catholic countries. Inthe Protestant religion every body enjoys the right of propagation; it allowsneither of priests not dervises [*] :and if, at the establishment of this religion, whichbrought back every thing to the standard of the primitive times, its foundershad not been continually reproached with incontinence, it is not to be doubtedbut that, after having rendered the practice of marriage universal, they wouldlikewise have softened the yoke, and have concluded with entirely removing thebarrier which in this case separates the Nazarene from Mahomet. But howeverthat might have been, it is certain that the religion of the Protestants givesthem a very great advantage over the Catholics. I might venture to say, that,in the present state of Europe, it is not possible the Catholic religion shouldsubsist there five hundred years. Before the reduction of the power of Spain,the Catholics were greatly stronger than the Protestants. The latter aregradually come to an equality with them. The Protestants are grown richer andmore powerful, and the Catholics weaker. The Protestant countries ought to be,and really are, better peopled than those of the Catholics; from whence itfollows, first, that their public revenues are more considerable, because theyare augmented in proportion to the number of those who pay them: secondly, thattheir lands are better cultivated: lastly, that trade flourishes better there,because there are more people who have their fortunes to make; and where thereare more wants, there will be more resources to supply them. When there areonly a sufficient number of people to cultivate the lands, trade must needsperish; and where there are no more than necessary for carrying on of trade,the cultivation of the lands must be neglected; which is indeed to say, thatboth must sink together, because no person can apply himself to one but theother must suffer. As to the Catholic countries, not only the cultivation oftheir lands is neglected, but even their industry is hurtful; it consists onlyin learning five or sixwords of a dead language [*] . With this attainment, a man need not trouble himself about hisfortune; he will find in a cloister a life of ease, which in the world wouldhave cost him labour and pains. This is not all: the dervises have in theirhands all the riches of the state; they are a society of misers, who are alwaysreceiving, but never restore; they are continually heaping up their revenues,to acquire a large capital. So much wealth, if we may be allowed theexpression, falls into a dead palsy; and there is no more circulation, no moretrade, no more arts, no more manufactories. There is no Protestant prince whodoes not raise from his people much greater taxes than the pope does from hissubjects: yet these latter are poor, whilst the former live in affluence. Tradegives life to every thing among the one, but monkery carries death among everything belonging to the others.

Paris

, the 26th of the moon Chahban,

1716

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXVIII.

Usbek to theSame.

AS we have nothing further to say of Asia and Europe, let us pass on toAfrica. But as we do not know the innermost parts of it, we can hardly say anything of it, except of the coasts. Those of Barbary, where the Mahometanreligion is established, are not so well peopled, as they were in the times ofthe Romans, for the reasons I have already mentioned. As to the coasts ofGuinea, they must have been terribly stript in two hundred years, that thepetty kings, or heads of villages, sell their subjects to the European princes,to be transported to their colonies in America. What is veryextraordinary is, that this very America, whichreceives every year so many new inhabitants, is itself a desert, and gains noadvantage by the continual losses of Africa. The slaves who are removed intoanother climate, perish there by thousands; and the labour of the mines, inwhich the natives of the country and the strangers are continually employed,the malignant vapours that arise from them, the quicksilver which they areobliged always to use, destroy them without remedy. Nothing can be moreridiculous than to destroy an innumerable number of men, to take out of thebowels of the earth gold and silver: those metals in themselves absolutelyuseless, which are only riches because they have been fixed upon for the marksof riches.

Paris

, the last of the moon Chahban,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1717

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXIX.

Usbek to theSame.

SOMETIMES the fruitfulness of a people depends upon the minutestcircumstances in the world; in such a manner that often nothing is necessarybut a new turn in the imagination, to render them much more numerous than theywere. The Jews so frequently exterminated, and always multiplying, haverepaired their continual losses and destructions, by this single hope, whichreigns amongst all their families, of seeing the birth of a powerful king, whoshall be lord of the whole earth. The ancient kings of Persia had not had somany thousand subjects, but on account of this dogma in the religion of theMagi, that the most pleasing acts to God that men can do, are, to get a child,manure a field, and to plant a tree. If China contains such a prodigious numberof people, it arises only from a certain way of thinking: for as the childrenregard theirfathers as Gods, whom they respect as such in thislife, whom they honour after their deaths by sacrifices, in that they believethat their souls extinguished in the Tyen [*] , resume a new life; every one therefore is induced to increase a familyso dutiful in this life, and so necessary in the next. On the contrary, thecountries of the Mahometans every day become deserts, from an opinion, which,all holy as it is, yet is not without very hurtful consequences, when it isrooted in the mind. We should consider ourselves as travellers who ought tohave all our thoughts fixed upon another country: but all useful and permanentlabours, every care to secure fortunes for our children, schemes which reachbeyond this short and transitory life, appear as things extravagant. Indolentto the present, and unsolicitous for what is to come, we take no trouble torepair public buildings, to clear uncultivated lands, nor to manure those thatare deserving of our cares; we live in a general state of insensibility, andleave every thing to be done by Providence. It was a spirit of vanity thatestablished among the Europeans the unjust law of primogeniture, sounfavourable to propagation, in that it directs the attention of a father toonly one of his children, and turns his eyes from all the others; in that itobliges him, in order to make a solid fortune for one only, to hinder thesettlement of the rest; lastly, in that it destroys the equality of citizens,which constitutes all their wealth.

Paris

, the 4th of the moon Rhamazan,

1717

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXX.

Usbek to theSame.

COUNTRIES inhabited by savages are usually thinly peopled, from the aversionthey almost always have to labour and the cultivation of lands. This unhappyaversion is so strong, that when they would make an imprecation against one oftheir enemies, they wish nothing more than that he may be obliged to manure afield; thinking no exercise noble and worthy of them, except hunting andfishing. But as there are often years in which hunting and fishing afford verylittle, they are desolated by frequent famines: besides that there is not anycountry where game and fish is so plentiful, as to afford subsistence to anumerous people, because animals always fly from places too much inhabited.Besides the hords of the savages, with two or three hundred inhabitants ineach, separated from one another, and having interests as different as those oftwo empires, can never support themselves; because they have not the resourcesof great states, whose parts all unite and mutually assist each other. There isanother custom among the savages, not less prejudicial than the first; thecruel custom among the women of procuring abortions, that their bigness may notrender them disagreeable to their husbands. There are terrible laws hereagainst this crime; they carry them even to excess. Any woman who does notdeclare her pregnancy to a magistrate, is punished with death if her fruit islost: shame and modesty, nay accidents themselves, do not excuse them.

Paris

, the 9th of the moon Rhamazan,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXXI.

Usbek to theSame.

THE ordinary effect of colonies is the weakening of the countries from whichthey are drawn, without peopling that to which they are removed. Men ought toremain where they are: there are disorders contracted by changing a good for abad air; and others which come from changing at all. The air, like plants, ischarged with the particles of each country. It so acts upon us, that ourconstitution is fixed by it. When we are removed into another country we growsick. The fluids being accustomed to a certain consistency, the solids to acertain habit, and both to a certain degree of motion, cannot admit of others,and resist a new habit. When a country is a desert, it is a sign that there issome particular bad quality in the nature of the earth or climate: so that whenwe take men from a happy climate, to send them into such a country, we actdirectly contrary to the end we designed. The Romans knew this by experience;they banished all their criminals into Sardinia, and made the Jews go theretoo. They were obliged to be contented with their loss; which the contempt theyhad for those wretches made very easy to them. The great Cha-Abbas, inclined todeprive the Turks of the means of supporting great armies upon his frontiers,transported almost all the Armenians out of their own country, and sent morethan twenty thousand families into the province of Guilan, who almost allperished in a little time. All the removals of people to Constantinople havenever succeeded, the vast numbers of Negroes, whom we have already mentioned,have not filled America. From the destruction of the Jews, under Adrian,Palestine hath been uninhabited. It must then be allowedthat great depopulations are scarcely to berepaired; because a people reduced to a certain degree, continue in the samestate: and if, by cance they are re-established, it must be the work of wholeages. But if, in a state of decay, the least of the circumstances alreadymentioned, happens to occur, it not only can never repair itself, but decaysevery day, and approaches to its utter destruction. The expulsion of the Moorsout of Spain is now as much felt as at the first day: so far is that vacancyfrom being filled up, that it becomes greater every day. Since the devastationof America the Spaniards, who have taken place of its ancient inhabitants, havenot been able to re-people it: on the contrary, by a fatality, which I mightbetter call the divine justice, the destroyers destroy themselves, and dailyconsume away. Princes therefore must not think of peopling large countries bycolonies. I do not say they never succeed: there are some climates so veryfavourable, that the inhabitants multiply there continually, witness thoseislands [*] which were peopled by some distempered people whom some ships leftthere, and where they soon recovered their health. But though such coloniesshould always succeed, instead of increasing the power, they only divide it;unless they are but of small extent; as those are, where they send some toinhabit a place for the convenience of trade. The Carthaginians, as well as theSpaniards, discovered America, at least some large islands in which theycarried on a very great trade: but when they found the number of theirinhabitants decreased, this wife republic forbid their subjects that trade andnavigation. I may venture to say, that instead of sending Spaniards into theIndies, they ought to make all the Indians and all the Metifs remove intoSpain: and if only half of those great colonies were preserved, Spain wouldbecome themost formidable power in Europe. We may compareempires to a tree, whose branches if extended too far, draw all the sap fromthe trunk, and serve only for a shade. Nothing is properer to cure the arduousdesire in princes of making distant conquests, than the examples of thePortugueze and Spaniards. These two nations having conquered, withinconceivable rapidity, immense kingdoms, more astonished at their ownvictories, than the conquered people were at their own defeat, considered ofthe means to preserve them, and took each for that end a different way. TheSpaniards, despairing of keeping the conquered nations in subjection,determined to exterminate them, and send thither more loyal people from Spain;never horrible design was more punctually executed. A people as numerous as allthose of Europe together, were cut off from the earth, at the arrival of thesebarbarians, who seemed, in discovering the Indies, to have thought only ofdiscovering to mankind the utmost reach of cruelty. By this barbarity they keptthe country under their government. Judge by this what fatal things conquestsare, since the effects are such as these: for, in short, this terribleexpedient was the only one. How was it possible they could have kept so manymillions of men in their obedience? How could they have supported a civil warat such a distance? What would have become of them, if they had given time tothose people to have recovered from the consternation they were in at thearrival of these new gods, and at the terror of their thunder? As to thePortuguese, they took a quite contrary method; they did not make use ofcruelties: therefore they were soon drove out of all the countries they haddiscovered. The Dutch favoured the rebellion of those nations, and profitedthemselves by it. What prince would envy the lot of these conquerors? Who wouldenjoy these conquests upon such conditions? The one were soon driven out, theothers made nothing butdeserts, and rendered their own countries the same.It is the fate of heroes to ruin themselves by conquering of countries whichthey suddenly lose again, or by subduing of nations which they themselves areobliged to destroy; like that madman who ruined himself by buying statues whichhe threw into the sea, and glasses which he broke as soon as he had purchasedthem.

Paris

, the 18th of the moon Rhamazan,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXXII.

Usbek to theSame.

THE propagation of mankind is vastly promoted by a mild government. Allrepublics are certain proofs of this; and above all others, Swisserland andHolland, which are the two worst countries in Europe, if we consider the natureof their land, and which are nevertheless the best peopled. Nothing invitesstrangers more than liberty and wealth, which always follow the former: thefirst is searched after for its own sake; and we are led by our wants into thecountry where the latter is to be acquired. The species increase itself in acountry where the plenty of it supports the children without diminishing thesubstance of their fathers. The equality of citizens, which commonly producesan equality in their fortunes, brings plenty and life into every part of thebody politic, and extends them through the whole. In countries subject to anarbitrary power it is not the same: the prince, the courtiers, and some privatepersons, possess all the riches, whilst all the rest groan beneath extremepoverty. If a man is in bad circumstances, and is sensible that his childrenwould be poorer than himself, he will not marry; or if he does marry, he willbe afraid of having too great a number of children, who maycomplete the destruction of his fortune, and sinkinto the condition of their father. I own that the rustic or peasant, beingonce married, will people that state alike, whether he be rich or poor; thisconsideration does not affect him, he hath always a sure inheritance to leaveto his children, which is a plough, and nothing prevents him from blindlyfollowing the instinct of nature. But what purpose, in a state, do thosenumbers of children answer, who languish in misery? Almost all of them perishas soon as they are born: they seldom thrive; weak and seeble they die byretail, a thousand different ways, whilst others are carried away wholesale byfrequent popular distempers, which poverty and a bad diet always produce: thosewhich escape, reach the age of manhood without having the strength of it, andlanguish all the remainder of their lives. Men are like plants, that neverflourish if they are not well cultivated: among a miserable people, the speciesloses, and even sometimes degenerates. France can supply us with a sufficientproof of this. In the late wars, the fear all the youths were in of beingenrolled in the militia, forced them to marry, and this at too tender an age,and in the bosom of poverty. From so many marriages sprung such numbers ofchildren, which are now looked for in vain, and whom misery, famine, andsickness, have destroyed. Now, if in so happy a climate, in a kingdom of somuch policy as France, such remarks as these may be made, what may be done inother states?

Paris

, the 23d of the moon Ramazan,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Mollak Mahomet Ali

Mollak Mahomet Ali

LETTER CXXIII.

Usbek to Mollak Mahomet Ali, Keeper of the Three Sepulchres, at Com.

THE fastings of the Imaums, and the sackcloths of the Mollaks, what do theyprofit us? Twice hath the hand of God been heavy upon the children of the law:the sun is obscured with clouds, and seems to give light only to their defeats;their armies assemble, and they are dispersed like the dust. The empire of theOsmalins is shaken by two such blows as it never before received: A ChristianMufti [*] supports it with difficulty: the Grand Vizier of Germany is the Scourgeof God, sent to chastise the followers of Omar: he carries every where thewrath of heaven, incensed by their rebellion and perfidiousness. Sacred spiritof the Imaums, night and day thou weepest over the children of the prophet,whom the detestable Omar hath misled: thy bowels are moved at the sight oftheir misfortunes: thou desirest their conversion, and not their destruction;thou wouldst willingly see them united under the banner of Hali, by the tearsof the saints; and not dispersed among the mountains, and in the deserts, bythe terror of the infidels.

Paris

, the 1st of the moon Chalval,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXXIV.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

WHAT can be the motives of those immense liberalities which princes lavishupon their courtiers?Would they attach them to them? They have alreadygained them as much as they can. And, besides, if they gain some of theirsubjects by briding them, they must by that very means lose a prodigious numberof others by impoverishing them. When I think on the situation of princes,always surrounded with avaritious and insatiable men, I cannot but pity them:and I commiserate them the more, when they have not courage enough to refusedemands always burthensome to those who ask nothing. I never hear talk of theirliberality, of the favours and pensions which they grant, without indulgingmyself with a thousand reflections: a crowd of ideas offer themselves to mymind: I think I hear this ordinance published: The indefatigable courageof some of our subjects, in asking pensions from us, having, without ceasing,fatigued our royal magnificence, we have at last consented to the multitude ofrequests presented to us, which have hitherto been the greatest uneasiness ofthe throne. They have represented to us, that they have never failed, since ouraccession to the throne, attending at our levee; and that we have always seenthem as we passed along, immoveable as the boundaries of land; and that theyhave greatly raised themselves above the shoulders of others, to behold ourserenity. We have even received several petitions from some of the fair sex,supplicating us to observe, that it is notorious that they are of a veryreserved conversation: and some of them, who are very ancient, shaking theirheads, have intreated us to consider, that they have been the ornaments of thecourts of the kings our predecessors; and that if the generals of our armiesrendered the state formidable by their military actions, they no less renderedthe court celebrated by their intrigues. Therefore, desirous to treat thesesuppliants graciously, and to grant them all their petitions, we have commandedwhat follows:Thatevery labourer having five children, shall dailyretrench the fifth part of the bread he gives them.We also enjoinfathers of families to make a diminution from each in their house, as justly ascan be made. We expressly forbid all those who apply themselves to improvetheir estates, or who let them out in farms, to make any repairs in them ofwhat kind soever. We also order, that all persons who exercise low trades andmechanics, who have never been at the levee of our majesty, shall hereafterpurchase no clothes for themselves, their wives, and their children, but oncein every four years: further, strictly forbidding them those little rejoicingswhich they were accustomed to make in their families upon the principalfestivals in the year. And, forasmuch as we are informed, that the greatestpart of the citizens of our good towns are wholly engaged in providing anestablishment for their daughters, who have made themselves respectable in ourstate, only by a dull joyless modesty; we order that they delay marrying them,till they, having attained to the age appointed by ordinances, may have it intheir power to oblige them to it. We charge our magistrates not to take care ofthe education of their children.

Paris

, the 1st of the moon Chalval,

1718

.

Rica

Rica

1718

Paris

LETTER CXXV.

Rica to * * *.

IN all religions men are at a great loss, when they attempt to give anaccount of the pleasures appointed for those who have led good lives. Thewicked may be easily terrified by a long detail of pains and torments,with which they are threatened; but as for thevirtuous they know not what to promise them. It seems to be the nature ofpleasures to be of short duration, the imagination can hardly form to itselfany others. I have heard descriptions of Paradise capable of disgusting everysensible person. The happy shades, according to the fancy of some, arecontinually playing on the flute, others condemn them to the punishment ofeternally walking about; others, in short, make those above to be always ravingafter their mistresses here below, not thinking a hundred millions of yearslong enough to make them get quit of their amorous inquietudes. I remember, onthis occasion, a story I heard told by a person who had been in the country ofthe Mogul; which shows that the Indian priests are no less fruitful than othersin the ideas they have of the pleasures of Paradise.A woman who had justlost her husband, went in form to the governor of the city to ask his leave toburn herself; but as in the countries subject to the Mahometans they abolishthis cruel custom as much as they can, he absolutely refused her. When she sawher prayers were in vain, she flew into a furious passion. Howtormenting, said she, is this! A poor woman is not even permitted to burnherself when she hath a mind to it! Was ever the like seen? My mother, my aunt,my sisters, they all were happily burnt. And when I come to beg leave of thiscursed governor, to be permitted to burn myself, he falls into a passion, andraves like a madman. There happened to be present a young Bonze:Insidel, said the governor to him, is it you who have instilled thismadness into the mind of the woman? No, replied he, I never spoketo her; but if she will be guided by me, she shall perform her sacrifice; shewill do an action agreeable to the god Brama: and she shall also be wellrecompensed; for she shall find in the other world her husband, and be joinedto him againby a second marriage. What do you say?cried the woman in a frightI shall find my husband again? Ah! I willnever burn myself.He was jealous, stupid, and besides so old, that, ifthe god Brama hath made no reformation in him, he certainly hath no need ofme.Burn myself for him!not even the end of my finger to take himout of the bottom of hell. Two old Bonzes deceived me, who knew what kind oflife I led with him, and took care not to tell me this: but, if the god Bramahath no other present to make me, I renounce this blessedness, Mr. governor, Iturn Mahometan. And for you, said she, looking at the Bonze, you may, if youplease, go tell my husband I find myself extremely well.

Paris

, the 2d of the moon Chalval,

1718

.

Rica

Rica

1718

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CXXVI.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

I EXPECT thee here to-morrow: mean time I send thee thy letters fromIspahan. Mine bring word that the ambassador from the great Mogul hath receivedorders to quite the kingdom. They add, that they have arrested the prince,uncle to the king, and who had the care of his education, that they havecarried him to a castle, where he is closely guarded; and have deprived him ofall his honours. I am touched with the misfortune of this prince, and pity him.I own to thee, Usbek, I never saw the tears of any person trickle down, withoutbeing moved to compassion: I have the feelings of humanity for the unhappy, asif none but they were men: and even the great, towards whom I find my heart asstone whilst they are in prosperity, I love them when they are fallen. Andindeed, duringtheir prosperity what need have they of tenderness?It looks too much like equality. They are fonder of respect, which requires noreturn. But as soon as they are fallen from their high station, nothing but ourlamentations can make them recal the idea of their greatness. I think there issomething very natural and very great in the speech of a prince, who, beingvery near falling into the hands of his enemies, seeing his courtiers roundabout him weeping: I find, said he to them, by your tears, that I am still yourking.

Paris

, the 3d of the moon Chalval,

1718

.

Rica

Rica

1719

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER CXXVII.

Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna.

A THOUSAND times thou hast heard talk of the famous king of Sweden; he wasbesieging a place, in the kingdom of Norway; as he was visiting the trenches,with only one engineer, he received a shot in his head which killed him. Theyimmediately arrested his prime minister [*] , the states assembled, and condemned him to lose his head. He wasaccused of a very great crime; namely, of calumniating the nation, anddepriving them of the confidence of their king: an offence that in my opinionmerits a thousand deaths. For in short it is a bad action to blacken the lowestsubjects in the mind of their king; what is it then to traduce a whole nation,and to deprive them of the goodwill of him whom providence hath made choice ofto render them happy? I would have men speak to kings, as the angels spoke toour holy propher. Thou knowest that, in the sacred banquets, where the Lord ofLords descends from the most sublimethrone in the world, to communicate himself to hisslaves, I made a severe law to myself, to restrain an unruly tongue. They neverheard me utter a single word that might have been disagreeable to the meanestof his subjects. Though I happened to lose my sobriety, I never lost myhonesty; and in that trial of our fidelity, I ventured my life, but never myvirtue. I know not how it happens, but there is scarcely a king so bad, but hisminister is still worse; if he commits a bad action, he is almost alwaysprompted to it: insomuch, that the ambition of princes is never so dangerous,as the baseness of soul in his counsellors. But can you comprehend, that a man,who was a minister but yesterday, who may be deprived of his place tomorrow,can become in a moment an enemy to himself, his friends, his country, and tothe people who are to be born of those whom he is about to oppress? A princehath passions; the minister works upon them: it is by their means that hedirects his ministry; he hath no other aim, nor will he observe any other. Thecourtiers mislead him by their flattery, and he flatters him more dangerouslyby his counsels, by the designs he inspires him with, and by the maxims heproposes to him.

Paris

, the 25th of the moon Saphar,

1719

.

Rica

Rica

1719

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CXXVIII.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

THE other day, as I was passing over the Pontneuf, witha friend of mine, he met a man of his acquaintance, who, he told me, was ageometrician, and indeed every thing in him showed him such: forhe was in a deep meditation; my friend was obligedto pull him a long time by the sleeve, and to jog him, to make him descend fromhis sublime speculations; he was so busied with a curve, which he had beenperhaps eight days about. Great civilities passed between them, and theymutually informed each other of the literary news. This conversation led themto the door of a coffee-house, into which I went with them. I observed that ourgeometrician was received there with the utmost officiousness, and that thecoffee-house boys paid him much more respect than to two musqueteers, who werein a corner of the room. As for him, he seemed as if he thought himself in anagreeable place: for he unwrinkled his brow a little, and laughed, as if he hadnot the least tincture of the geometrician in him. In the mean time he measuredevery thing that was said in conversation. He resembled a person in a garden,who with a sword cuts off all the heads of the flowers that rise up above therest. A martyr to regularity, he was offended at every start of wit, as atender eye is by too strong a light. Nothing was indifferent to him, if so beit were true; accordingly his conversation was singular. He was come that dayout of the country, with a person who had been to view a noble seat andmagnificent gardens; but he saw nothing but a building of sixty foot in front,by five and thirty in depth, and a wood of ten acres: he wished that the rulesof perspective had been so observed, that the walks of the avenues might haveappeared throughout of one and the same breadth; and he would have laid downfor that end, an infallible method. He seemed very well satisfied with a dialhe found there, of a very singular make, and was mighty angry at a learned man,who sat next me, who unhappily asked if the dial showed the Babylonian hours. Anewsmonger talked of the bombardment of the castle of Fontarabbia: and hepresently informed us what kind of linesthe bombs described in the air; and delighted withthe knowledge of this, he was contented to remain entirely ignorant of thesuccess of the bombardment. A gentleman complaining, that the winter before hehad been ruined by an inundation: what you say pleases me much, said thegeometrician, I find I am not mistaken in the observation I made, and that atleast, there fell upon the earth two inches of water more than the year before.A moment after, he went out, and we followed him. As he walked very fast, andnever looked before him, he run full against another man: it was a roughrencounter, and, from the percussion, each rebounded back, in proportion to hisvelocity and bulk. When they were a little recovered from their dizziness, theman, with his hand on his forehead, said to the geometrician, I am very gladyou run against me, for I have great news to tell you: I have just nowpublished my Horace. How! replied the geometrician, Horace hath been published these two thousand years. Youdo not understand me, says the other, it is a translation of that ancientauthor, which I have just now published: I have been twenty years engaged intranslations. How, Sir! answered the geometrician, have you been twenty yearswithout thinking? You speak for others, and they think for you? Sir, says thelearned man, do not you believe that I have rendered a great service to thepublic, by making the reading of good authors familiar to them? I do not sayabsolutely so: I esteem as much as another the sublime genius whom you havetravestied: but you do not at all resemble him; for, if you should translatefor ever, you will never be translated yourself. Translations are like coppermoney, which bear in proportion, an equal value with a piece of gold, and areeven sometimes of far greater use to the people, but they are always light, andof a bad alloy. You are desirous, you say, to revive among us these illustriousdead; and Iown that you give them indeed a body: but you do notrestore life to them, there is still wanting a spirit to animate them. Why donot you rather apply yourself to the search of a thousand glorious truths,which an easy calculation discovers to us every day? After this advice, theyparted, I suppose, not much pleased with each other.

Paris

, the last of the moon Rebiab,

1719

.

Usbek

Usbek

1719

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXXIX.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

THE greater part of the legislators were men of confined understandings,whom chance put at the head of others, and who scarcely consulted any thing buttheir own prejudices and fancies. They appear not to have known the greatnessand dignity of their employment: they amused themselves in forming childishinstitutions, by which, indeed, they conformed themselves to weakerunderstandings, but disgraced themselves with men of good sense. They plungedthemselves into disadvantageous circumstances; and run into particular cares:which is the sign of a narrow genius, which sees things only by parts,incapable of taking a general view. Some affected to make use of a languagedifferent from the vulgar; an absurd thing in a maker of laws; for how shouldthe people observe what they do not understand? They often abolishedneedlessly, those laws that were established; thereby plunging the people intodisorders inseparable from changes. It is true, that on account of a strangeturn that springs rather from the head than the heart, it is sometimesnecessary to change certain laws. But it is an uncommon case;and when it happens, it should be touched with atimorous hand: they ought to observe much solemnity in doing it, and conduct itwith such precautions, that the people may naturally conceive that the laws arevery sacred, since so many formalities are necessary to be observed inrepealing them. They have often made them too refined, and have followedlogical ideas, rather than natural equity. In process of time they were foundto be severe; and men thought themselves obliged in equity to deviate fromthem; but this remedy was a new inconvenience. Be the laws of what nature theywill, they should be always punctually adhered to, and considered as theconscience of the public, to which that of individuals should always beconformable. We should however acknowledge, that some legislators have by oneregulation discovered great prudence, they have given fathers a great share ofauthority over their children. Nothing contributes more to the ease ofthe magistrates; nothing more prevents the courts of justice from beingcrowded; nothing more firmly establishes tranquility in a state, where moralityalways makes better citizens than laws can make. Of all sorts of authority thisis the seldomest abused: this is the most sacred sort of magistracy; it is theonly one which does not owe its origin to any contract, but has even precededall contracts. It has been observed, that in the countries where the greatestshare of power is lodged in the hands of parents, the families are always bestregulated: fathers are representatives of the Creator of the Universe, who,though he might bind men to serve him through love alone, has thought proper toattach them to him still stronger by the motives of hope and fear. I cannotfinish this letter, without putting you in mind of the capriciousness of theFrench. It is said that they have retained many things in the Roman laws, whichare either useless, or worse; and theyhave not borrowed from them the parental authority,which they represent as the basis of all lawful authority.

Paris

, the 4th day of the moon of the 2dGemmadi,

1719

.

Rica

Rica

LETTER CXXX.

Rica to * * *.

I SHALL in this letter give thee an account of the race of Quidnuncs, whoassemble in a magnificent garden, where their leisure finds constantemployment. They are of no manner of use to the state; and were they to talkfifty years without pausing, their discourse would produce no greater effectthan a silence of the same duration: yet they think themselves men ofimportance, because they harangue upon glorious projects, and talk of grandinterests. A curiosity at once frivolous and ridiculous is the basis of theirconversation: no cabinet can be so mysterious, but they pretend to dive intoits secrets: they will not allow themselves to be ignorant of any thing; theyknow how many wives our august Sultan has, how many children he begets everyyear; and though they are at no expence to hire spies, they are acquainted withthe measures to humble the emperor of the Turks and the Great Mogul. Scarcelyhave they exhausted the present, but they plunge deep into futurity; and takingthe lead of providence, they prevent it in all its conduct towards man. Theylead a general by the hand, and after having praised him for many follies ofwhich he never was guilty, they make him commit a thousand more, which willnever come to pass. They make armies fly like cranes, and the walls of citiesfall as easily as the walls of a card-house: they have bridges upon all therivers, secret roads upon everymountain, immense magazines upon burning sands: infine, they want but one thing, and that is good sense. A man who lodges in thesame house with me, received the following letter from a Quidnunc: as itappeared somewhat extraordinary, I kept it, and shall give it to you in thisplace.

Sir,

I am seldom mistaken in my conjectures upon public affairs. Upon thefirst of January, 1711, I foretold that the emperor would die within the year:it is true, as he was then in good health, I was apprehensive of becoming anobject of ridicule, if I declared my sentiments in express terms; for whichreason I used expressions somewhat enigmatical; but all rational people easilyguessed my meaning. He died of the small-pox in the same year, upon the 17th ofApril. As soon as war was declared between the emperor and the Turks, I wentthrough every corner of the Tuilleries in quest of our gentlemen: I assembledthem near the bason, and prophesied to them that Belgrade would be besieged andtaken. I had the happiness of seeing my prediction fulfilled. It is true, aboutthe middle of the siege, I laid a wager of 100 pistoles, that it would be takenon the 18th of August: it was however taken the day after: is it not provokingto lose when so near the mark? When I saw the Spanish fleet invade Sardinia, Iimagined they would reduce the island; I said so, and my conjecture wasjustified by the event. Encouraged by this success, I added, that thisvictorious fleet would make a descent at Final, in order to reduce theMilanese. As this opinion met with opposition, I was resolved to support itnobly: I laid a wager of 50 pistoles, and I lost a second time: for thatconfounded cardinal Alberoni, in violation of the faith of treaties, sent hisfleet to Sicily, and proved atonce too hard for two great politicians, I mean theduke of Savoy and myself. All this, Sir, has so greatly disconcerted me, that Ihave formed a resolution to foretel henceforward without ever betting. Formerlythe practice of betting was unknown at the Tuilleries, and the count deL would never suffer them; but since a considerable number of petitmatres has mixed with our society, we scarce know what to do. Scarce canwe open our lips to tell a piece of news, but one of these youngsters offers tolay a wager that it is not true. The other day, as I was opening my manuscript,and settling my spectacles upon my nose, one of those flashy gentlemen,catching at the pause I made between the first and second word, told me,Ill hold a hundred pistoles to the contrary. I affected not to havetaken notice of this extravagance, and speaking in more emphatical terms, Isaid, the marshal of * * * having learned that is false, said he, youalways propagate extravagant intelligence; there is not common sense in whatyou say. Sir, you would greatly oblige me by lending me fifty pistoles, forthese wagers have been the occasion of great perplexity to me. I herewith sendyou the copy of two letters, which I have wrote to the minister.

The Letter of an Intelligencer to theMinister.

MY LORD,

I am one of the most loyal subjects the king ever had. It was I thatprevailed on a friend to put in execution the project I had formed of a book toprove to a demonstration, that Lewis the Great was by all means the greatestPrince that ever was surnamed the great. I have been moreover a long timeemployed in another work, which will contribute to raise our national glorystill higher, if your eminence will grant me a privilege; my design is to provethatsince the foundation of the monarchy, the Frenchnever lost a battle; and that what historians have hitherto said of our havingbeen sometimes worsted, is utterly false and groundless. I am obliged to setthem right upon many occasions; and I think I may say, without vanity, that Ihave great talents for criticism.

I am, My Lord, c.

MY LORD,

As we have lost the Count de L we beg you will be so kind asto give us leave to elect a president. Great confusion begins to prevail in ourconferences; and state affairs are not in them treated with as much method andregularity as they have been formerly: our young men live without the leastrespect for the old, and without any subordination amongst themselves; it is atrue council of Roboam, in which the young keep the old in awe. It is in vainfor us to remonstrate to them, that we were in possession of the Tuillerieslong before they were born. I am inclined to think they will at last drive usout of it; and that being deprived of the assylum where we had often called upthe shades of our French heroes, we shall be obliged to assemble in thekings garden, or in some more remote place.

I am, c.

Paris

, the 7th day of the moon of the 2dGemmadi,

1719

.

Rhedi

Rhedi

1719

Venice

Rica

Rica

LETTER CXXXI.

Rhedi to Rica, at Paris.

SINCE my arrival in Europe, nothing has more engaged my curiosity, than thehistory and origin of republics. You are not ignorant that most of theAsiatics have not even an idea of this form ofgovernment, and that the powers of imagination have not yet enabled them toconceive that there can be on earth any other form but the despotic. The firstgovernments of which we have any knowledge were monarchical; it was merely byaccident, and the succession of ages, that republics were at length formed.Greece having been overflowed by a deluge, new inhabitants came to people it:it drew all its colonies from Egypt and the neighbouring countries of Africa:and as those were governed by kings, the people who came from thence weregoverned in the same manner. But the tyranny of these princes becominginsupportable, they shook off the yoke; and from the ruins of so many kingdomssprung those republics which caused Greece so greatly to flourish, and renderedit the model of politeness, whilst surrounded with barbarous nations. The loveof liberty, and the aversion to kings, long preserved Greece in a state ofindependence, and made the republican form of government become every day moreextensive. The cities of Greece made alliances with some cities of Asia Minor,they sent thither colonies as free as themselves, which served them as rampartsagainst the enterprises of the kings of Persia. This is not all; Greece peopledItaly; Italy, Spain, and perhaps Gaul. It is well known that the greatHesperia, so much renowned among the ancients, was at first the Greececonsidered by neighbouring nations as a blissful abode; the Greeks who couldnot find that happy place of residence at home, went in quest of it to Italy;those of Italy to Spain; those of Spain to Bettica or Portugal. So that theseregions went by that appellation amongst the ancients. These Greek coloniesbrought with them a spirit of liberty, which they had contracted in that mildcountry. It is for this reason we do not meet with any example of a monarchy inItaly, Spain, or Gaul, during these ancient ages. It will be soonseen, that the people of the North, and of Germany,were no less free: and if any traces of kingly government are thought to befound amongst them, this may easily be accounted for, as the commanders ofarmies, and the chief magistrates of republics, have frequently been taken forkings. All this happened in Europe, for Asia and Africa have always groanedbeneath the yoke of despotism, excepting only the cities of Asia Minor, whichhave been spoken of above, and the republic of Carthage in Africa. The empireof the world was shared by two powerful republics, I mean those of Rome andCarthage: no part of history is less known than that of the origin of therepublic of Carthage. We are totally in the dark with regard to the successionof African princes, from the time of Dido, as well as of the manner in whichthey were deprived of their power. The prodigious grandeur of the Romancommonwealth would have been an advantage to the world in general, if there hadnot been that unjust distinction between the citizens of Rome and the conquerednations, if the governors of provinces had not been invested with an authorityso considerable, if the just laws, established in opposition to their tyranny,had been always put in execution, and if they had not, in order to render themof no effect, availed themselves of the very treasures which they had amassedby their injustice. Csar destroyed the Roman commonwealth, and made itsubject to an arbitrary power. Europe long groaned under a military and violentgovernment, and the mild sway of the Romans was converted into a crueloppression. In the mean time, an infinite number of nations, never before heardof, poured out of the north, and spread like torrents all over the Romanprovinces; as these found it equally easy to make conquests, and to exercisepiracy, they dismembered the empire, and founded other kingdoms upon its ruins.These people were free; and the authority oftheir kings was so limited, that they could properlybe called only their chiefs, or generals. Thus these kingdoms, though foundedby force, never once felt the conquerors yoke. When the people of Asia,for example, the Turks and Tartars, made conquests whilst under the command ofa single person, they had nothing else in view but to procure him new subjects,and to establish his violent authority by the force of arms; but the people ofthe north, free in their own country, when they seized upon the Romanprovinces, did not allow their chiefs much authority; nay some of these people,as the Vandals in Africa, and the Goths in Spain, went so far as to deposetheir kings, when they were dissatisfied with their conduct; and amongstothers, the authority of the prince was limited in a variety of manners: agreat number of the nobility shared it with him; wars were never waged withouttheir concurrence; the spoils were divided between the chief and the soldiers;no tax was levied in favour of the prince; the laws were made in the nationalassembly, and upon this fundamental principle were formed all the states thatrose out of the ruins of the Roman empire.

Venice

, the 20th of the moon Rhegeb,

1719

.

Rica

Rica

1719

Paris

LETTER CXXXII.

Rica to * * *.

I HAPPENED to be five or six months ago in a coffee-house: there I observeda gentleman tolerably well dressed, who had got an audience about him; he spokeof the pleasure of living at Paris; he lamented the necessity he lay under ofretiring to languish away his life in the country. I have, said he, an estateof fifteen thousand livres a-year in land; and I should think myself much morehappy, if I had one quarterof it in money and portable effects. It is to nopurpose for me to bear hard upon my tenants, and put them to expence byfrequent law-suits, this only makes them less able to pay. I can never see ahundred pistoles at a time. If I was to owe ten thousand livres, all my landwould be seized on, and I should be reduced to an hospital. I went out withoutgiving much attention to all this conversation; but happening to be yesterdayin the same part of the town, I entered the same house, and I there saw a graveman, with a long pale visage, who sat melancholy and pensive in the midst offive or six praters; at length beginning somewhat abruptly, he said, with aloud voice, Gentlemen, I am ruined, I have nothing left to live upon; for Ihave now at home two hundred thousand livres in bank-bills, and a hundredthousand crowns in money: I am in a most melancholy situation; I thought myselfrich, and now I find myself reduced to beggary; if I had but a small estate inthe country to retire to, I should at least be secure of a subsistence; but Ihave not the breadth of this hat in land. Happening to turn my head on theother side, I saw a man who made such grimaces, that one would have thought himpossessed. Who can we trust for the future? exclaimed he. There is a villainwhom I had so good an opinion of, and thought so sincerely my friend, that Ilent him money: he paid me again! what black persidy and ingratitude is this?let him do what he will, he will never be able to retrieve my good opinion.Near him was a man very ill dressed, who listing up his eyes to heaven, said,God prosper the projects of our ministers, may the actions rise to two thousandlivres, and the footmen of Paris be richer than their masters! I had thecuriosity to ask his name. The answer I received was, he is a very poor man,and has a poor trade: he is a genealogist, and he hopes that his art willbecome profitable, if these changes of fortune continue, and that all the newrich will have occasionfor him to reform their names, furbish up theirancestors, and adorn their coaches. He has a notion that he will have it in hispower to make as many persons of quality as he thinks proper, and he exultswithin himself to think, that the number of his customers will increase. Atlast I saw an old man enter, pale and thin, whom I knew to be a coffee-housepolitician before he sat down: he was not one of those who are never to beintimidated by disasters, but always prophecies of victories and success; hewas one of those timorous wretches who are always boding ill. Our affairs, saidhe, are in a very bad situation in Spain, we have no horse upon the frontiers;and it is to be feared that the prince Pio, who has a considerable body, willlevy contributions upon the whole province of Languedoc. There sat opposite tome a philosopher of a tolerably shabby appearance, who seemed to despise thepolitician, and shrugged his shoulders in token of contempt, whilst the otherelevated the tone of his voice. I approached him, and he whispered in my ear,you see how that coxcomb talks of his apprehensions for Languedoc: and I for mypart yesterday perceived a spot in the sun, which, if it should increase, mightcause a general dissolution of nature, and yet I did not say a single wordabout it.

Paris

, the 17th of the moon Rhamazan,

1719

.

Rica

Rica

1719

Paris

LETTER CXXXIII.

Rica to * * *.

I WENT the other day to see a great library at a convent of dervises, whoare in some measure the proprietors of it, but who are obliged to giveadmittance to all comers at stated hours. Upon entering, I beheld a seriouspersonage, who walked amidst a prodigiousnumber of surrounding volumes. I went up to him, andbegged he would be so kind as to inform me what those books were which I saw somuch better bound than the rest. Sir, says he, I am here as theinhabitant of a foreign country, I know nobody. Many besides you have proposedsuch questions to me; but you cannot think it reasonable that I should read allthese books, in order to give them information; my librarian here can satisfyyour curiosity, for he is busred night and day in decyphering what you seehere; he is a very worthless member, and a great burthen to us, because he doesnothing for the convent. But the bell rings to call me to the refectory. Thosewho, like me, are at the head of a society, should be the first to assist atall the exercises peculiar to it. The monk having spoken thus, pushed me out,shut the door, and disappeared, just as if he had possessed the art offlying.

Paris

, the 21st of the moon Rhamazan,

1719

.

Rica

Rica

1719

Paris

LETTER CXXXIV.

Rica to theSame.

I YESTERDAY returned to the same library, where I met with a man verydifferent from him whom I had seen before. His air was simple, his countenancelively, and his address affable. As soon as I signified to him my curiosity, heprepared to gratify it, and even to instruct me, as I appeared to be astranger. Reverend father said I, what are those books with which allthat side of the library is filled? Those are the works of theinterpreters of scripture, answered he. There is a prodigiousnumber of them, replied I; scripture must have been formerly very obscure,but very perspicuous at present. Can there possiblybe any doubts remaining? Can there possibly be any uncontroverted points?Can there possibly! answered he, good God! can there possibly! There arealmost as many doubts as verses. Indeed, said I, what good thenhave the writings of these authors done? These authors, answeredhe, have not searched the scriptures, for what should be believed, but whatthey believed themselves; they did not consider the scriptures as bookscontaining the opinions they were bound to embrace, but as a work which mightgive a sanction to their own opinions: for this reason, they have every wherecorrupted its sense, and put forced constructions upon every passage. Itresembles a country, which men of every sect invade, and to which they go as itwere to pillage; it is a field of battle, where the hostile nations that meethave frequent engagements, where they attack each other, and where they haveskirmishes of various sorts. Not far from these you see the ascetic books, orbooks of devotion; then follow the books of morality, which are of much greaterutility; theological tracts, doubly intelligible, both on account of thesubject there treated of, and the manner in which it is treated; the works ofthe mystics, that is, of such devotees as have hearts addicted to love andtenderness. Hold, reverend father, one moment, said I; let mehear something of those mystics. Sir, said he, devotion warms aheart naturally inclined, and causes the animal spirits to mount up to thebrain, so as to warm it in the same manner: from hence proceed ecstasies andravishing visions. This state may be called the delirium of devotion; it oftenattains to the perfection of, or rather degenerates into quietism: you cannotbe ignorant that a quietist is nothing else but a man that is at once mad,devout, and a libertine. Behold there the casuists who reveal the secrets ofthe night; who form in their imagination all the monstersthat the dmon of love is capable ofproducing, combine, compare them, and make them the constant objects of theirthoughts; happy is it for them if their heart is not catched in the snare, anddoes not itself become an accomplice in so many debaucheries, so exactly and soplainly described. You see, Sir, that I think freely, and that I freelydiscover my thoughts. I am naturally of an open disposition, and more with youwho are a stranger, and who desire to understand things, and know their truenature. If that was my way of thinking, I should speak of all these things witha tone of astonishment; I should every moment use the terms, that is divine,that is excellent; this abounds with the marvellous; and the consequence wouldbe, that I should either impose upon you, or lessen myself in youropinion. There our conversation ended, it was suddenly interrupted bythe dervises being called upon about some business of the convent.

Paris

, the 23d of the moon Rhamazan,

1719

.

Rica

Rica

1719

Paris

LETTER CXXXV.

Rica to theSame.

I RETURNED at the appointed hour; and my new acquaintance conducted me tothe very place where we parted. Behold here, said he, the grammarians,the glossary makers, and the commentators. My reverend father,said I, have not all these a dispensation from having common sense?Yes, answered he, they have, and nobody is ever the wiser: their worksare neither the better nor the worse for it; and this is a great privilege theyare invested with. That is very just, said I, and I know manyphilosophers who would do wisely to attach themselves to sciences of thisnature. Here, continued he, you maysee the orators who are endowed with the talent ofpersuading without ratiocination; and the geometricians who force a man toassent to their arguments whether he will or no, and convince him by downrightforce. Here you see the metaphysical treatises which turn upon interests soimportant, and in which infinity every where occurs; and the treatises uponnatural philosophy, the authors of which can discover no more of the marvellousin the œconomy of the vast universe, than in one of the most simplemachines made by human art. Books of physic, those monuments of the frailty ofhuman nature, and the power of art; which fill us with terror even in treatingof the slightest disorders, they bring death so near our view, but whichrenders us equally secure when they treat of the virtues of remedies, as ifthey could confer immortality upon us. Near them are the books of anatomy,which do not so properly contain the description of the parts of the humanbody, as the barbarous names by which they are called; which can never cure thesick man of his disease, nor the physician of his ignorance. Here are thechymists, who sometimes inhabit hospitals, and sometimes madhouses, which aredwellings equally well suited to them. Here again are the books which treat ofthe occult science, or rather of occult ignorance; such are those which containsomething concerning the magic art: these are execrable in the opinion of many,altogether contemptible in mine. Such likewise are the books of judicialastrology. How can you say that, father, the books of judicialastrology, replied I, with vivacity. These are the very books which are mostesteemed in Persia, they regulate all the actions of our lives, and determineour will in all our undertakings: the astrologers may properly be called ourdirectors: they do more than direct us, they are concerned in the government ofthe state. If that be the case, said he, you live under agovernment muchmore severe than that of reason: this must be themost capricious government imaginable: I greatly pity a family, and much more anation, that suffers the planets to have such powerful influence overit. We use astrology, answered I, just in the same manner as youuse algebra. Every nation has a peculiar science, according to which itregulates its politics. All our astrologers put together never committed somany absurdities in our Persia, as a single algebraist has done here. Can youthink that the fortuitous meeting of the stars is not as sure a rule of conductas all the fine reasoning of your builder of systems? If the votes upon thatsubject were to be reckoned up both in France and Persia, astrology would soontriumph over algebra; you would soon see the calculators greatly humbled, whatterrible inferences might be drawn against them from hence? Our disputewas interrupted, and we were under a necessity of parting.

Paris

, the 26th of the moon Rhamazan,

1719

.

Rica

Rica

1719

Paris

LETTER CXXXVI.

Rica to theSame.

AT our next interview, my learned instructor conducted me into a separateapartment. Here, said he, are the books of modern history. Behold herethe authors of church history, and the lives of the popes; these are bookswhich I read for edification, but which in me often produce a quite oppositeeffect. In that place are those who have wrote concerning the decline of theformidable empire of the Romans, which sprung from the ruin of so manymonarchies, and upon the ruins of which so many new ones were founded; aninfinite number of barbarous nations, aslittle known as the countries which they inhabited,appeared all of a sudden, over-run it, ravaged it, tore it to pieces, andfounded all the kingdoms which you now see in Europe. These people cannotproperly be called barbarians, because they were free, since being universallysubjected to a despotic power, they lost that delightful liberty which is soconformable to reason, humanity, and nature. Here you will see the historiansof the German empire, which is only a shadow of the first empire; but which is,I think, the only power upon earth which has not been weakened by faction; theonly power, I must repeat it, which acquires strength from its losses, andwhich, slow in availing itself of its success, becomes invincible by itsdefeats. Here are the French historians, in which we first see the regal powerform itself, perish twice; then recover itself again, and languish during asuccession of ages; but collecting strength, and being increased in everyparticular, at last arrives at its final period; like those rivers which intheir course lose their waters, or hide themselves under the earth; then,shewing themselves again, and swelled by the rivers which flow into them,rapidly hurry away whatever opposes itself to their passage. There you see theSpanish nation pour itself forth from certain mountains: The Mahometan princessubdued as slowly as they had rapidly conquered: so many kingdoms united intoone vast monarchy, which became almost the only one; till overwhelmed by itsown greatness, and its false opulence, it lost its forced reputation, andretained nothing but the pride with which it was inspired by its former power.Here are the English historians, in which we constantly see liberty rekindledby the flames of discord and sedition, the prince always tottering upon athrone not to be shaken, a nation impatient, but prudent even in its sallies ofpassion, and which, being possessed of the empire of the sea (a thing unheardof till then) unites commercewith power. Not far from thence are the historiansof that other queen of the sea, the republic of Holland, so much respected inEurope, and so formidable in Asia, where its merchants see so many kings fallprostrate before them. The Italian historians represent to us a nation oncemistress of the world, become the slave of all the others; its princes dividedand weak, and having nothing of sovereignty to boast, besides its vain policy.Here are the historians of the republics of Switzerland, which is the emblem ofliberty; of Venice, whose only refuge is in its œconomy; and of Genoa,that has nothing to boast of but its buildings. Here are those of the north,and amongst others, of Poland, which makes so bad a use of its liberty, and theright it is possessed of, of electing its kings, that one would think itsintention is thereby to console the neighbouring nations, which have lostboth. Hereupon we parted till the next day.

Paris

, the 2d of the moon Chalval,

1719

.

Rica

Rica

1719

Paris

LETTER CXXXVII.

Rica to theSame.

THE next day he conducted me into another apartment. These, said he,are the poets, whose chief merit consists in putting good sense in shackles,and in overwhelming reason by a heap of ornaments, as the women were formerlyincumbered by the parade of dress. You are no stranger to them, they are commonamongst the Orientals, where a hotter sun seems to warm the imagination of thenatives. Here are the epic poemsWhat, said I,somewhat surprised, is an epic poem? To deal plainly withyou, answered he, I do not know: the critics tell us, that therenever were more than two, and that the others whichgo by the same name, are by no means worthy of it: I cannot juge of thisneither. They say besides, that it is impossible to compose any more; this tome appears still more surprising. Here are the dramatic poets, who, I think,hold the first place amongst those of their profession, and may be justlylooked upon as the masters of our passions. There are two different species ofdramatic poets; the comic poets, who stir our passions so gently, and thetragic poets, who rouse and agitate us with so much violence. Here are thelyric poets, whom I despise as much as I esteem the others, who convert theirart into an harmonious extravagance. Next in order follow the authors ofIdyllium and Eclogues, who please even courtiers, by exciting in them an ideaof a certain tranquility which they do not possess, which they present to theirview in the condition of shepherds. But here are authors more dangerous thanany you have yet seen: these are they who point epigrams, little sharp arrowswhich make a deep wound that admits of no cure. Here you behold romances, theauthors of which may be in some measure considered as poets who are equallyextravagant in their wit, and in their representations of passion; they passtheir whole lives in seeking after nature, and their research is always equallyvain; their heroes are no more in nature than the winged dragons, and thehippocentaurs. I have, answered I, seen some ofyour romances, and if you had seen any of ours, you would have been still moredisgusted. They are full as void of nature, and lie under great constraints onaccount of our manners: an amorous passion must have lasted ten years beforethe lover can see so much as his mistresss face; yet the authors areunder a necessity of making their readers pass through all these tediouspreliminaries; now as it is impossible to invent new incidents for ever, theseauthors have recourse to an artifice, whichhas a worse effect than the inconvenience they meanto obviate by it; they avail themselves of prodigies. I am convinced that youcannot approve of a sorceress making an army rise out of the earth by the powerof her art; that a single hero should destroy a fleet consisting of an hundredthousand men. Yet in this taste our romances are wrote: these cold adventures,so often repeated, appear to us altogether insipid, and give us the highestdisgust.

Paris

, the 6th of the moon Chalval,

1719

.

Rica

Rica

1720

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER CXXXVIII.

Rica to Ibben at Smyrna.

MINISTERS here succeed to and destroy each other, just as the seasons do:during the space of six years I have seen the system of the finances changedfour times. Taxes are now levied in Turky and Persia, exactly in the samemanner as they were levied by the founders of those empires: this is far frombeing the case here. It must indeed be owned that we do not levy them with somuch address as the inhabitants of the West. It is our opinion, that there isno more difference between managing the revenues of a prince, and the fortuneof a private person, than between reckoning an hundred thousand tomans, andreckoning only an hundred: but this affair is much more mysterious and refinedthan we think it. Geniuses of the first rank must labour night and day, theymust without ceasing, and with the most painful efforts, invent continually newprojects; they must hear the voice of an infinite number of persons, who meddlewith their business without being desired; they must retire and live recluselyin a closet impenetrable to great folks, and aweful to the little; they mustalways have their heads full of important secrets,wonderful designs, new systems; and being quite absorbed in meditation, theymust be deprived of the use of speech, and sometimes even void of politeness.No sooner were the eyes of the late king closed, but it was judged proper toestablish a new administration. It was easy to perceive that the kingdom was ina bad situation, but how to remedy the inconveniences it laboured under, wasthe question. The unlimited authority of former ministers, had not been foundadvantageous to the state; and therefore it was judged proper to divide itamong several. For this purpose, five or six counsels were created, and perhapsFrance was never more wisely governed, than by that ministry: it did not lastlong, no more than the good of which it was productive. France, at the latekings death, resembled a body sinking under a thousand disorders:N took the knife in hand, cut off some of the useless flesh, and applieda few topical remedies. But there still remained an internal vice to be cured:a foreigner who came over, undertook to effect the cure: after the applicationof many violent remedies, he thought that he had restored the state to itsformer vigour, whereas it was only become bloated. Those who were in affluenceabout six months ago, are now reduced to the most extreme poverty; and thosewho were in want of the necessaries of life, are now wallowing in opulence. Thetwo extremities never made so near an approach before. This foreigner hasturned the kingdom with as much ease as a taylor turns a coat; he makes thatwhich was under appear upwards, and what was uppermost he turns down. Suchunexpected fortunes have been made, as appeared incredible to those whoacquired them; God does not with greater ease create men out of nothing. Howmany footmen are now attended by their fellow-servants, and may perhapsto-morrow be attended by their masters? This is sometimes productiveof very odd accidents. Footmen who acquired theirfortunes in the last reign now boast of their birth, they revenge themselvesupon those who have just laid aside their liveries, of all the contempt whichothers expressed for them about six months before: they exclaim aloud thenobility is ruined; what disorder prevails in the state! what confusion isthere in all ranks! none but mean persons now make fortunes! Depend upon itthese will take ample revenge upon those who come after them; and that inthirty years these new people of quality will make a great noise in theworld.

Paris

, the 1st of the moon Zilcade,

1720

.

Rica

Rica

1720

Paris

Ibben

Ibben

LETTER CXXXIX.

Rica to theSame.

THERE cannot be a greater example of conjugal affection, and that not in aprivate woman, but in a queen, than that which I now relate. The queen ofSweden being positively resolved that her husband should be her partner in thegovernment, to remove all obstacles to this her purpose, sent a declaration tothe states, whereby she renounces the regency, provided they elect him.Somewhat above sixty years ago, another queen, named Christina, abdicated thethrone to devote herself entirely to philosophy. I do not know which of theseexamples should excite our admiration most. Though I would by all means haveevery body firmly maintain the post and dignity to which he has been raised byfortune; and though I cannot approve of the weakness of those, who findingthemselves inferior to their station, basely forsake it by a sort of desertion;I am notwithstanding struck with the greatness of soul of these two queens,whenI see that the mind in the one, and the heart in theother, were more elevated than their fortune. Christina aspired to know at atime when others think of nothing but the enjoyment of present pleasures; andthe other desires to enjoy empire only with a view of putting it into the handsof her august husband.

Paris

, the 27th of the moon Maharran,

1720

.

Rica

Rica

1720

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CXL.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

THE parliament of Paris has been just banished to a little town calledPontoise. The council sent orders to it either to register, or approve, adeclaration by which it might be dishonoured, and the parliament has registeredit in a manner that reflects dishonour upon the council. Some other parliamentsof the kingdom are threatened with the same treatment. These assemblies arealways hated: they approach kings only to tell them unwelcome truths; andwhilst a crowd of courtiers constantly represent to them that the people arequite happy by their administration; they contradict the slattery, and bear tothe foot of the throne the complaints and lamentations of a distressed nation.Truth, dear Usbek, is a grievous burden, when we are obliged to carry it intothe presence of princes; they should therefore consider, that those whoundertake the office are constrained to it, and that they would never haveresolved to take a step so invidious and ungrateful, if they had not beenforced to it by their duty, their respect, and even their love.

Paris

, the 21st day of the moon of the 1stGemmadi,

1720

.

Rica

Rica

1720

Paris

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CXLI.

Rica to theSame.

AT the end of the week I will pay you a visit: How agreeably shall I pass mytime with you! I was introduced some days ago to a certain court lady, who hada fancy to see my foreign figure. I thought her beautiful, worthy the affectionof our monarch, and of a distinguished rank in the sacred place where his heartreposes. She proposed me many questions concerning the manners of the Persians,and the sort of life led by the women of Persia. It appeared to me that theseraglio was not to her taste, and that it gave her great disgust to think thata man should be shared by ten or twelve women. She could not think of thehappiness of the men without envy, nor of the wretched condition of the womenwithout the utmost compassion. As she loves reading in general, but chieflypoems and romances, she was desirous to hear some account of ours. The accountI gave her doubled her curiosity: she begged the favour of me to translate afragment of one of those I had brought with me. I did so, and sent her a fewdays after an oriental tale; perhaps you will not be displeased to see it indisguise. In the time of Cheick ali Can, there was in Persia a womannamed Zulima: she had the sacred Koran quite by heart; no dervise couldunderstand the traditions of the holy prophets better than she; the Arabiandoctors never said any thing so mysterious, but she could easily comprehend it,and to such knowledge she joined a certain chearfulness of temper, which put itout of the power of those she conversed with to guess whether she intended toinstruct or please them. One day whilst she was with her companions in one ofthe apartments of the seraglio, one of them asked her what her sentimentswere concerning a life to come; and whether shebelieved that ancient tradition of our doctors, that paradise was made only forthe men. It is the general opinion, said she; they have done all that theycould to degrade and villify our sex. There is even a nation dispersed all overPersia, called the Jewish, that maintain by the authority of their sacredbooks, that women have no souls. These injurious opinions take their riseentirely from the pride of men, who would willingly preserve their superiorityover our sex, even after death, and do not consider, that at the last greatday, all the creatures will appear as nothing before God, and that one shallhave no prerogative over another, but that which it has acquired by superiorvirtue. God will be unbounded in his recompenses: and as the men who have liveda virtuous life, and made a good use of their power over us upon earth, will beadmitted into a paradise filled with celestial and ravishing beauties; beautiesso brilliant, that if a mortal could get a sight of them, he would immediatelyput an end to his life, through impatience to enjoy them; in like manner,virtuous women will enter a delightful abode, where they will be glutted withthe most exquisite enjoyments of all sorts, with men of a divine nature, whowill be subjected to their command: each of them will possess a seraglio, inwhich they will be shut up; and have eunuchs, much more faithful than ours, toguard them. I have read, continued she, in an Arabian author, that a man namedIbrahim, was of a temper most insupportably jealous. He had twelve women of thegreatest beauty, whom he treated with a brutality unparalleled: he would nottrust even his eunuchs, or the walls of his seraglio; he generally kept themunder lock and key in their respective apartments, so that they could neithersee nor speak to each other; for even an innocent friendship roused hisjealousy: all his actions discovered a tincture of his natural brutality: hismouthnever pronounced an obliging word, and his mosttrifling gestures never failed to aggravate the bitterness of their slavery.One day, when he had assembled them all in an apartment of his seraglio, one ofthem, more bold than the rest, reproached him with his ill-nature. Those whotake such pains to make themselves feared, said she, are, generally speaking,successful only in making themselves hated. We are so very unhappy, that wecannot possibly avoid wishing for a change of condition: others would, in mysituation, wish your death, I only wish for my own; and, as I cannot hope to beseparated from you, except by death, it will notwithstanding be a greathappiness to me to be separated from you. This discourse, which should havegiven him some compunction, made him on the contrary fly into a furiouspassion; he drew his poignard, and plunged it into her breast. My dearcompanions, said she, with a dying voice, if heaven has compassion for myvirtue, your sufferings will be revenged. Having uttered these words,she left this unhappy world, and passed immediately into that blessed abode,where such women as have lived virtuous lives, enjoy a never-fading happiness.The first sight that presented itself to her eyes, was a beautiful meadow,whose verdure was set off by an enamel of flowers, whose variegated coloursvied with each other in loveliness; a stream, whose waters were more clear thanchrystal, ran there in a variety of meanders. She then entered into delightfulgroves, where nothing was heard but the harmonious songs of tuneful birds. Thefinest gardens imaginable then offered themselves to her view: nature hadbestowed upon them all its lustre with its simplicity. At last she came to amagnificent palace, which was prepared for her, and filled with men of a divinenature, destined to be subservient to her pleasures. Two of them immediatelyadvanced, in order to undress her: others conducted her to a bath, and persumedher with the most deliciousessences: they then presented her with clothes, muchmore rich than her own: after which they led her into a spacious hall, whereshe found a fire made of odoriferous wood, and a table covered with viands ofthe most exquisite flavour. All things seemed to concur to fill her senses withrapture; she heard on one side musick, so much the more divine, as it was moretender; on the other she saw dances performed by those divine men, whose soleoccupation was to please her, and yet such a variety of pleasure was intendedonly to conduct her, by insensible degrees, to pleasures infinitely greater.They then conducted her to her apartment; having again undressed her, they thenput her into a bed extremely rich, where two divine men immediately receivedher in their arms. She was then completely happy, her ecstacy surpassed evenher desires. I am quite transported, said she to them, I should thinkmyself dying if I was not sure of my immortality. It is too much, leave me; Isink through the excess of pleasure. Yes, you again restore a calm to mysenses; I am beginning to revive and come to myself. Why have they taken awaythe slambeaux? Why am I not permitted still to contemplate your divine charms?Why am I not allowed to see?But why do I talk of seeing? You make meonce more enter into my former transports. Gods, how delightful this darknessis! What, shall I be immortal, and immortal in your company! I shallbutnoI beg a moments rest, for I see you are but little disposed toask it. After reiterated commands, she was at last obeyed, but it wasnot till she appeared to desire it in good earnest. She then gave way to softrepose, and slumbered in their arms. Two moments of sleep restored her wastedstrength: twice they embraced her, and thus the flame of love was rekindled.She opened her eyes, and said, I am quite uneasy to find myselfneglected thus, I fear you have ceased to love me. This was a doubt inwhich she was unwillingto remain long: and indeed she soon receivedconvincing proofs of her mistake. I am conscious of my error, exclaimedshe, excuse me, I now see I may depend upon you. You do not utter a singleword, but your actions prove your love more strongly than it is in the power ofwords to do. Yes, yes, I own it, no love could ever equal yours. But how youvie with each other in endeavouring to convince me! ah, if you vie with eachother, if you join ambition to the pleasure of defeating me, I am lost; youwill both be conquerors, and I the only vanquished party; but the victory shallcost you dear, that you may depend upon. Their pleasures were notdiscontinued till day appeared; her faithful and amiable domestics entered herapartment, and caused the two young men to rise, they were thereuponre-conducted to the places wherein they were kept for her pleasures. She thenarose, and made her appearance at that court by which she was idolized, in thecharms of a simple dishabille, and then richly attired in the most sumptuousornaments. The past night had added new lustre to her beauties; it hadenlivened her complexion, and given a stronger expression to her graces. Thewhole day was divided between dances, concerts, festivals, sports, and otheramusements of that kind; and it was observed, that Anais often stept aside, andflew to the embraces of her two lovers; after having a short interview withthem, she returned to the company she had quitted, always with a countenancemore lively than before. But about evening the company lost sight of herentirely: she went and shut herself up in the seraglio, where she was desirous,as she said, of cultivating her acquaintance with these immortal captives, whowere to live with her for ever. She therefore visited the most retired and themost delightful apartments of these places, where she reckoned fifty slaves ofa most extraordinary beauty: she wandered all day from apartment to apartment,receiving every where a differenthomage, but one that was always of the same nature.It was thus the immortal Anais passed her days, sometimes in all thedissipation and gaiety of pleasure, and sometimes in solitary pleasures,admired by a brillant assembly, or adored by an ardent lover: she often quittedan inchanted palace, to repair to a rural grotto: flowers seemed to springunder her feet, and pleasures offered themselves to her in crowds. She had beenabove eight days in this happy place, in the hurry of a constant round ofpleasure, and without having ever made a single reflection; she had enjoyed herfelicity without knowing it, and without having one of those moments oftranquility in which the soul settles with itself, if I may be allowed theexpression, and attends to its own report in the silence of the passions. Happysouls have pleasures so lively, that they can seldom enjoy that freedom ofmind: wherefore being invincibly attached to present objects, they lose allmemory of things past, and have no longer the least concern about what theyhave loved, or known, in the other world. But Anais, whose mind was of a trulyphilosophical turn, had passed almost her whole life in meditation: she hadcarried her reflections a great deal further than could be expected from awoman left to herself. The close retirement in which her husband had left her,had deprived her of every other advantage. It was that strength of mind whichhad made her despise the fear that filled the souls of her companions withconsternation, as well as death, by which her sufferings were to be terminated,and her felicity to commence. She therefore by degrees quitted the intoxicationof pleasure, and retired to an apartment in her palace. She gave herself up topleasing reflections upon her past condition, and her present happiness; shecould not help compassionating the misery of her companions. We are alwaysaffected with ills which we have partaken of. Anais did not stop within thelimits of simplecompassion: such was her tenderness for theseunfortunate creatures, that she found herself inclined to assist them in theirdistress. She ordered one of the young men that was with her, to assume theform of her husband, to enter his seraglio, to make himself master of it, andto turn the former possessor out of doors, and to remain there in his place,till such time as she should think proper to recal him. Her orders were quicklyput in execution; he cut the air with rapid wings, and quickly arrived at thedoor of Ibrahims seraglio: Ibrahim happened not to be there. The youngman knocked, every door flew open to him, the eunuchs fell at his feet. He flewto the apartments where the women of Ibrahim were shut up; he had as he passedstolen the keys from this monster of jealousy; to him he found means to renderhimself invisible. He entered, and at first surprised them by his mild andaffable air, but soon after surprised them much more by his ardour, and by hisreiterated warm embraces. They were all equally astonished at this event, andthey would have taken it for a dream, had there been less reality in it. Whilstthis extraordinary scene was played in the seraglio, Ibrahim knocked at it,told his name, and made a terrible outcry and disturbance. After havingsurmounted a great many difficulties, he entered, and threw the eunuchs into amost terrible fright. He walked on with great rapidity, but he started backwith great astonishment, when he beheld the counterfeit Ibrahim, his perfectimage, taking all the liberties of master of the seraglio. He calls out forhelp; he calls upon the eunuchs to assist him in killing the impostor; but hewas not obeyed. He has now but one refuge left, and that a weak one; he refersit to the judgment of his wives. In the course of one hour the counterfeitIbrahim had corrupted all the judges. The other was ignominiously dragged outof the seraglio, and would inevitably have suffered death, if his rival had notgivenpositive orders that his life should be spared. In aword, the new Ibrahim remaining master of the field of battle, gave every daynew proofs that he was worthy of such a preference, and signalized himself byfeats unheard of before in the seraglio. You are not like Ibrahim, said thewomen. Say rather, answered the triumphant Ibrahim, that that impostor is notlike me; what must be done to deserve your favours, if what I do isinsufficient? Ah, we shall take care how we doubt, answered thewomen, if you are not the true Ibrahim, it is enough for us that youhave so well deserved to be so; you show yourself more Ibrahim in one day thanhe did in ten years. You promise then, returned he,to declare in my favour, and against that impostor. Doubtnot of that, answered they all with one unanimous voice; we swearto be eternally faithful to you; we have been too long imposed upon; thevillain did not suspect our virtue, all his suspicions were occasioned by hisown impotence: we now see plainly that men are not made alike, it is youdoubtless they resemble: if you but knew how much you make us hate him!Ah, replied the counterseit Ibrahim, I will often give youfresh reasons to hate him, you do not yet know how great an injury he has doneyou. We judge of his injustice by the greatness of yourrevenge, answered they. You are in the right, answered thedivine man; I have proportioned the expiation to the crime; I am gladyou like my manner of punishing. But, said the women,if that impostor should return, what shall we do? Ibelieve it would be a hard matter for him to deceive you, answered he;in the station which I hold with you, no man can support himself byartifice: besides, I will send him so far off, that you will never hear more ofhim. I then will take upon myself the care of your happiness. I will not bejealous; I know how to secure your affections, without laying you under anyrestraint; I have not sobad an opinion of my merit, to think that you willnot be faithful to me: if your virtue is not secure with me, with whom can itbe secure? The conversation lasted a long time between him and thewomen, who, more struck with the difference of the two Ibrahims, than withtheir resemblance, were not in the least solicitous to have so many mysteriescleared up. At last the husband, quite desperate, came again to disturb theirrepose: he found his whole family in joy, and his women more unwilling tobelieve him than ever. It was become now no place for a jealous man; he wentaway in a rage; the very next moment the counterfeit Ibraham followed him,seized him, hurried him through the air, and left him at the distance of twothousand leagues from thence. Gods, how disconsolate were the women in theabsence of their dear Ibrahim! Their eunuchs had already resumed their naturalseverity, the whole family was in tears, they thought sometimes that all thathad happened to them was but a dream; they looked often upon each other, andrecalled to their memories the most minute circumstances of these strangeadventures. At length the divine Ibrahim returned more amiable than ever; itappeared to the women that he had not been in the least fatigued by hisjourney. The new master observed a conduct so opposite to that of the old one,that all the neighbours were surprised at it. He dismissed all the eunuchs,made his house accessible to every body: He would not even suffer the women touse veils. It was something extraordinary to see them at feasts amongst themen, and as free as they. Ibrahim thought, and with reason, that such citizensas he, were not bound to observe the customs of the country. Yet he spared noexpence; he with the utmost profusion squandered the wealth of the jealous man,who returning three years after from the remote countries to which he had beencarried, foundnothing at home but his women, and thirty-sixchildren.

Paris

, the 26th of the moon Gemmadi,

1720

.

Rica

Rica

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CXLII.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

I SEND you herewith a letter, which I received from a man of learning; youwill think it somewhat extraordinary.

1720

Paris

SIR,

About six months ago I succeeded to the fortune of a very rich uncle,who left me five or six hundred thousand livres, and a well furnished house. Itis a pleasure to be possessed of wealth, when one knows how to make a good useof it. I have no ambition nor taste for pleasures; I am almost always shut upin a closet, where I lead the life of a studious man. It is in such a place asthis, that a virtuoso, who loves venerable antiquity, is to be found. When myuncle expired, I would gladly have had him interred with the ceremoniesobserved by the Greeks and Romans, but I had neither antique mourning, urns, orlamps. But since that time, I have provided myself well with those preciousrarities. I not long age sold my plate, to purchase an earthen lamp, that hadbeen used by a stoic philosopher. I have disposed of all the pier-glasses withwhich my uncle had covered his apartments, to buy a little cracked looingglass,that formerly belonged to Virgil: I am highly delighted to see it reflect myface, instead of that of the swan of Mantua. This is not all; I have given anhundred louis dors for five or six pieces of copper coin, which werecurrent a thousand years ago. I donot think I have now in my house, a single moveable,which was not made before the decline of the Roman empire. I have a littlecloset filled with manuscripts, as precious as dear: though by reading them Idestroy my eye-sight, I had much rather use them than printed books, which arenot so correct, and which are moreover in the hands of every body. Though Iscarce ever stir out of my house, I am extremely solicitous to know all theancient roads which were made in the time of the old Romans. There is one notfar from my house, which was made by the orders of a proconsul of Gaul, twelvehundred years ago. When I go to my country-house, I always take care to passit, though it is very inconvenient, and adds almost a league to my journey: butwhat provokes me, is, that in several places, they have fixed wooden posts, toshow the distances of the neighbouring towns. I am quite in despair, to seethese miserable erections, in the room of those military columns which werethere before. I doubt not but I shall cause them to be replaced by my heirs,and shall be able to make a will of such a nature, as will induce them to doit. If you have got ever a Persian manuscript by you, Sir, I would be obligedto you for it; I will pay you your own price for it, and I will give you intothe bargain some works of my own composing, which will convince you that I amnot an useless member of the republic of letters. Amongst others, you will seea differtation, in which I prove, that the crown used in triumphs, was made ofoak leaves, and not of laurel: you will be in raptures with another, in which Iprove by learned conjectures, taken from the greatest Greek authors, thatCambyses was wounded in the left leg, and not in the right: another, in which Iprove that a short forehead was a beauty highly esteemed by the Romans. I willsend you moreover a volume in quarto, which contains an explanation of a verseof the sixth book of Virgil. It willbe a few days before I can send you these; atpresent all I can do is to send you this fragment of an ancient Grecianmythologist, which has not hitherto appeared in print, and which I found in thedust of a library. I must take my leave of you, on account of an importantaffair that I have upon my hands; the business is to restore a beautifulpassage of Pliny the naturalist, which the copyists of the fifth century havestrangely disfigured.

I am, c.

Fragment of an ancientMythologist.

IN an island near the Orcades, a child was born who had olusfor his sire, and for his mother a nymph of Caledonia. It is said of him, thathe, without assistance, learned to reckon upon his fingers; and that even atfour years of age, he distinguished metals so well, that his mother onceoffering him a tin ring instead of a gold one, he perceived the deceit, andthrew it upon the ground. As soon as he was grown up, his father taught him toshut up the wind in buckets, which he afterwards sold to the travellers whopassed that way: but as commerce was not much esteemed in his country, hequitted it, and began to roam the world, in company with the blind god ofchance. In the course of his travels, he had learned, that gold glitters everywhere in Betica, he repaired thither with the utmost expedition. He was veryill received by Saturn, who reigned there at that time; but that god havingleft the earth, he took it into his head to go about the streets every where,crying continually with a hoarse voice, People of Betica, you think yourselvesrich, because you are possessed of gold and silver: your error raises mycontempt. Be ruled by me, quit the country of base metals; enter the empire ofimagination, and I promise youriches, which will fill even you with astonishment.He immediately opened several of the buckets which he had brought with him, andhe distributed his commodity to whoever was willing to take it. The next day heentered the same streets, and cried out, People of Betica, do you desire to berich? Fancy to yourselves that I am extremely rich, and that you are so also:take it for granted every morning, that your wealth has been doubled during thenight: then rise, and if you have creditors, go and pay them with the imaginarytreasure, then bid them imagine in their turn. He appeared again in a few daysafter, and he spoke thus: People of Betica, I see very well that yourimagination is not as lively as it was yesterday; let me regulate yourimagination by mine: I will every day place before your eyes a scroll, whichwill be to you the source of great riches: it will contain but four words; butthese words will be extremely significant; for they will determine the portionsof your wives, the fortunes of your children, and the number of your servants.And as for you, said he, to such of the croud as were nearest to him; as toyou, my dear children (I may call you by that name, for from me have youreceived a second birth) my scroll shall decide the grandeur of yourmagnificent equipages, the sumptuousness of your feasts, and the number and payof your mistresses. A few days after he came into the public streets, quite outof breath, and in a violent passion cried out: People of Betica, I advised youto imagine, and I see that you do not follow my advice: well then, now Icommand you to do so. Thereupon he quitted them abruptly; but reflection madehim soon come back. I hear, said he, that some of you are so detestable as tokeep your gold and silver. For the silver it is no great matter, but gold,goldah! that makes me quite mad. I swear by my sacredbuckets, that if they do not bring it to me, I willpunish them severely. He then added, with the most persuasive air imaginable,do you think I ask you for these wretched metals in order to keep them? A proofof my candour is, that when you brought them to me a few days ago, Iimmediately returned you one half. The next day they saw him at a distance,they perceived that he endeavoured to insinuate himself into their favour, bysmooth and complaisant discourse: People of Betica, I am informed that part ofyour treasure is in foreign countries; I intreat you to send for them, you willgreatly oblige me, and I shall eternally acknowledge the favour. The son ofolus happened then to speak to people, who were by no means in a merrymood; they could not however help laughing, which made him sneak off in greatconfusion. He was not however quite discouraged, he returned again, andventured to make another petition. I know that you have precious stones;dispose of them in the name of Jupiter; nothing can possibly impoverish youmore than keeping such baubles. Dispose of them by all means: if you cannot doit yourselves, I will procure you excellent agents. How you will wallow inriches, if you but follow my advice! I do assure you you shall have the richesttreasures of my buckets. At last he mounted a scaffold, and with a moreresolute voice spoke thus: People of Betica, I have compared the happy state inwhich you are at present, with that in which I found you upon my arrival inthis country; you are now the most opulent people upon earth; but that I maymake your good fortune compleat, permit me to ease you of one half of yourwealth. Having uttered these words, the son of olus soared up into theair, and fled away upon rapid wings, leaving his auditors in a consternationnot to be expressed, which occasioned his coming again thenext day, when he delivered himself in these terms:I perceived yesterday, that my conversation displeased you highly. Well then,suppose all I said, unsaid. It is true, one half is too much. Let us haverecourse to other expedients to attain the proposed end. Let us deposit all ourriches in the same place; it will be easily done, for they will not take upmuch room. At that instant three parts of their wealth out of four vanishedaway.

Paris

, the 9th of the moon Chahban,

1720

.

N. B. Mr. Law is alluded to in this satire, who was agoldsmith in Edinburgh, and many years a professed gamester; by Saturn is meantLewis XIV.

Rica

Rica

1720

Paris

Nathaniel Levi

Nathaniel Levi

LETTER CXLIII.

Rica to Nathaniel Levi, a Jewish Physician at Leghorn.

YOU ask my opinion concerning the virtue of charms, and the power oftalismans; why do you apply to me upon this occasion? you are a Jew, and I am aMahometan, consequently we must both be extremely superstitious. I always carrywith me above a thousand passages of the holy Koran: I tie to my arms a paper,upon which are written the names of above two hundred dervises: those of Hali,of Fatme, and all the personages renowned for their sanctity, are concealed inmy clothes in above twenty places. However, I cannot entirely disapprove of theopinion of those who will not admit of this virtue annexed to certain words. Itis much more difficult for us to answer their arguments, than for them tooppose our experience. I carry all these sacred scrolls about me, merelythrough habit, and in order to conform to areceived custom: I am of opinion, that if they havenot a greater virtue than rings and other ornaments of dress, they cannotpossibly be inferior to them in this respect. But you put entire confidence ina few mysterious letters; and, without that defence, you would be undercontinual apprehensions. Men are indeed unhappy! they constantly float betweenfallacious hopes and absurd fears: and, instead of adhering to the dictates ofreason, they either form to themselves monsters that intimidate them, orphantoms that seduce and mislead them. What effect do you think the placing ofa few letters can produce? What evil can result from their being put intodisorder? What influence have they over the winds, to calm tempests; over gunpowder to resist its force; or over what physicians call peccant humour, or themorbific cause of diseases, to cure them? What is most extraordinary, is, thatthose who puzzle their brains to account for certain events, by occult virtues,are obliged to take equal pains to avoid seeing the true cause. You will tellme, that certain enchantments have caused a battle to be won: but for my part,I cannot help telling you, that you must be blind not to see in the situationof the field, the number, or courage, of the soldiers, or the experience of thegenerals, causes capable of producing this effect, whose real cause youwilfully shut your eyes to. I will grant you for a moment, that there may beenchantments; grant me for a moment that there are none, for that is possible.It will not follow from your concession, that two armies may not engage: willyou then maintain, that in that case neither of the two can be victorious? Doyou think their fate will continue doubtful, till an invisible power comes todecide it? That all their blows will be ineffectual, all their conduct vain,and all their courage fruitless? Do you think that death, rendered present in athousand different ways, cannot produce those panics, which you findit so difficult to account for? Do you think, thatthere may not be one coward in an army of two hundred thousand men? Do youthink that the terror which may seize this one, may not excite terror inanother? That the second, who quits a third, will not make him quit a fourth?Even that would be sufficient to throw a whole army into despair; and the morenumerous the army, the more quickly it spreads. All the world knows, and allthe world is sensible, that men, like all other creatures, who are directed bynature to preserve their being, are passionately fond of life; this is a truthgenerally known; how then can it be asked, how they can be afraid of losing itupon a particular occasion? Though the sacred books of all nations abound withaccounts of such panics, or supernatural terrors, I think there cannot be amore ridiculous notion; for before we should admit that an effect which may beproduced by an hundred thousand natural causes, is supernatural, one shouldbefore have examined, whether none of these causes has operated; which isimpossible. I shall say no more to you upon this subject, Nathaniel; in myopinion it does not deserve to be treated in so serious a manner.

Paris

, the 20th of the moon Chahban,

1720

.

P. S. As I was just concluding, I heard cried about thestreets, a letter from a country physician, to a physician at Paris; (for herethe greatest trifles are printed, published, and bought). I thought I should dowell to send it to you, because it has some relation to the subject we havebeen upon [*] .

A Letter from a Country Physician, toa Physician at Paris.

THERE was formerly a sick person in our town, who never once sleptfor thirty-five days together. His physician prescribed him opium; but he wouldnever consent to take it; and whilst he held the cup, he was as little inclinedto take it as ever. At last he said to his physician, Sir, I beg you will giveme quarter till to-morrow: I know a man who does not practise physic, and yethe has an infinity of remedies against want of sleep. Give me leave to send forhim; and if I do not sleep to-night, I will send for you again to-morrow. Thephysician being gone, the sick man ordered his curtains to be drawn, and saidto his footman, Go to Mr. Anis, and tell him, I should be glad to see him. Mr.Anis came. My dear Mr. Anis, I am in a dying condition, I cannot sleep; haveyou not in your shop the C. of G. or some book of devotion, composed by somereverend father, which still lies upon your hands? for the remedies that havebeen the longest kept are generally the best. Sir, answered the bookseller, Ihave in my shop the Holy Court of father Caussin, at your service; I will sendit to you directly, and I hope you will find yourself the better for it. If youhave a mind for the works of the reverend father Rodriguez, a PortugueseJesuit, they are very much at your service. But take my advice, and stick tofather Caussin. I hope that, with the assistance of God, one period of fatherCaussin will do you more good than a whole leaf of the C. of G. Having spokethus, Mr. Anis went out, in order to search his shop for the remedy. He soonreturned with the Holy Court, after having caused the dust to be rubbed off;the patients son, a school-boy, began to read: he was the first to feelthe effects ofit; at the second page he could scarce pronouncewith an articulate voice, and all present began to feel themselves drowsy: afew moments after they all began to snore, except the sick man, who, afterhaving long continued to listen to it awake, at last was overpowered by sleephimself. Early in the morning the physician arrived. Well, said he, has myopium been taken? To this question he received no answer; but the wife, thedaughter, and the child, in transports of joy, showed him fatherCaussins work. He asked what it was; they answered, O bless fatherCaussin, his book well deserves to be bound. Who would have said it? who wouldhave thought it? It is a perfect miracle. See here, Sir, see fatherCaussins treatise; it was this that made my father sleep. Hereupon theyinformed him of all that had happened [*] . The physician was a subtle man, greatly attached to the mysteries ofthe Cabala, and who had much faith in the power of words and spirits: thisstruck him so, that, upon mature deliberation, he resolved to change his methodof practice. This is a very extraordinary effect, said he, this experiment isworth carrying further. Why may not a spirit have power to communicate to itsworks the qualities which it is itself possessed of? Do not we see this happenevery day? At least the experiment is very well worth trying. I am tired ofapothecaries; their syrups, their juleps, and all their galenical drugs,destroy the sick, and quite ruin their health. Let us change the method ofpractice; let us try the virtue of spirits. With this view, he drew up a newsystem of pharmacy, as you will see by the account which I shall give of thenew remedies which he made use of.

Purgative Ptisan.

Take three leaves of Aristotles logic in Greek, two leaves ofone of the most crabbed theological treatises; as for instance, that of thesubtile Scotus; four of Paracelsus, one of Avicenna; six of Avenoes; three ofPorphyry; as many of Plotinus, as many of Jamblicus. Mix them all together, andlet them stand for four-and-twenty hours; then take four doses of them at atime.

A more violent Purgative.

Take ten A * * * of C * * *, concerning the B and the C of the J * *;cause them to be distilled in balnea marina; put a drop of the sharp humourwhich it produces, in a glass of water to deaden it; then drink off the wholewith confidence.

A Vomit.

Take six harangues; the first dozen of funeral orations that comes tohand; with this one restriction however, that you do not make use of those ofM. de N.; a collection of new operas, fifty romances, and thirty sets of newmemoirs; put all these ingredients into a large glass bottle, with a big bellyand a little neck; leave it to settle during two days; then cause it to bedistilled by a fire of ashes; and if all this should prove ineffectual,

Another more powerfulVomit.

Take a leaf of marble paper, which has served as a cover to acollection of the pieces of J. F. let it be infused during the space of threeminutes; cause a spoonful of that infusion to be made hot, and drink itup.

A very simple Remedy for anAsthma.

Read all the works of the reverend father Maimbourg, heretoforeJesuit; but take care not to stop till the conclusion of each period; and youwill find a freedom of breathing return by degrees, without being under anynecessity of repeating the remedy.

A Preservative from the Itch,Scabs, and other cutaneous Disorders.

Take three categories of Aristotle, thre prdicables of threedifferent degrees in the metaphysical scale, one distinction, six verses ofChapelain, one phrase extracted from the letters of the Abbe de St. Cyran:write the whole upon a bit of paper, fold it up, tie it to a ribband, and carryit about your neck.

Miraculum Chymicum de violentfermentatione, cum fumo, igne et flamm.

Misce Quesnellianam infusionem, cum infusione Lallemanian;fiat fermentatio cum magn vi, impetu, et tonitru, acidis pugnantibus, etinvicem penetrantibus alcalinos sales fiet evaporatio ardentium spirituum. Poneliquorem fermentatum in alembica; nihil ind extrahes, et nihilinvenies, nisi caput mortuum.

Lenitivum.

Recipe Molin anodini chartas duas; Escobaris relaxativipaginas sex; Vasquii emolientis folium unum: infunde in aqu communis, lib. iiij. Ad consumptionem dimidi partis colenturet exprimantur; et, in expressione, dissolve Bauni detersivi et Tamburiniabluentis, folia iii.

Fiat clister.

In chlorosin, quam vulgus pallidos-colores, autfebrim-amatoriam, appellat.

Recipe Aretini figuras iiij. R. Thom Sanchii de matrimoniofolio ij. infundantur in que communis libras quinque.

Fiat ptisana aperiens.

These drugs our physician applied with extraordinary success; hewould not, as he said, for fear of destroying his patients, employ remediesvery hard to come at: as for instance, a dedication which had never made anybody yawn; too short a preface; a bishops order, wrote by himself, andthe work of a janesenist, either despised by a janesenist, or much admired by ajesuit. It was his opinion, that these remedies were calculated for nothing,but to promote quackery, which he professed to hold in the utmostabhorrence.

Usbek

Usbek

1719

Paris

Rica

Rica

LETTER CXLIV.

Usbek to Rica.

YESTERDAY at a country-seat, where I happened to visit, I met with twolearned men, who have a great name in this part of the world. I thought theircharacters somewhat singular. The conversation of the first, well weighed,might be reduced to this; what I have said is true, because it is I that havesaid it. The conversation of the second, seemed to be founded upon anothermaxim; what I have not said, is not true, because I have not said it. The firstI was tolerably well pleased with, for it is nothing to me if another personshows himself to be quite positive and obstinate, but the impertinence ofanother is not so easily borne with. The first maintains hisopinions, they may be considered as his property:the second attacks those of others, that is to say, he invades the property ofall mankind. Dear Usbek, how fortunate are those who have more vanity than isabsolutely necessary for self-preservation! These people aspire to be admired,by means which must make them give offence. They aim at superiority, and theycan scarce ever attain to an equality with others. Oh you modest men approach,that I may embrace you! From you spring all the charms of society. You thinkyourselves destitute of all sorts of merit; but I cannot help saying, thatevery merit is yours. You think you humble nobody, though you humble all theworld. And when I, in idea, compare you to those assuming persons whom I meetwith every where, I immediately pull them from their tribunal, and make themfall prostrate at your feet.

Paris

, the 22d of the moon Chahban,

1719

.

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CXLV.

Usbek to * * *.

A MAN of parts is generally untractable in society. He chooses but fewcompanions; he is disgusted with that numerous body of people, whom he ispleased to call bad company: this disgust he cannot thoroughly conceal, whichbrings upon him the hatred of numbers. Being sure to please, whenever he thinksproper to exert himself, he frequently neglects to do so. He has a turn tocriticising, because he sees many things that escape another, and is moresensibly affected by them. He generally ruins his fortune, because thefertility of his genius furnishes him with a variety of means so to do. Hisenterprises miscarry, because he risks a great deal. His penetration, whichgenerallycauses him to see too far, makes him often giveattention to objects that are extremely remote. Add to this, that at theformation of a project, he is less occupied by the difficulties that grow outof the business, than with the remedies to them, which are of his owninventing. He neglects minute particulars, tho upon them the success ofmost great affairs depends. On the other hand, the man of more confinedabilities endeavours to avail himself in every thing: he is thoroughlysensible, that he must not neglect even trifles. The man of moderate abilitiesoftener meets with general esteem. Every body takes pleasure in raising theone, whilst all are equally delighted to depress the other. Whilst envy fallsfoul upon one, and excuses him nothing, all the defects of the other areoverlooked; the vanity of others declares in his favour. But if a man of geniuslies under so many disadvantages, what must we think of the wretched conditionof the learned? I can never think of it, without recollecting the followingletter, wrote by one of them to his friend. I send it to you herewith:

1720

Paris

SIR,

I am one of those who pass whole nights in contemplating throughtelescopes of thirty feet long, those vast bodies that roll over our heads; andwhen I am disposed to unbend my mind, I take up a microscope, and examine amaggot or a mite; I am not rich, and I have but one room: I dare not even makea fire in it, lest the warmth should make the mercury rise in my thermometer,which I keep there. Last winter the cold almost killed me: and though mythermometor was at the lowest, and though my hands were almost frozen, I stillwent on my own way. Thus I have the pleasure of knowing with the greatestexactness, all the most inconsiderable changes of the weather for last year. Iam very reserved, and scarce know any body that Isee. But there is a person at Stockholm, another at Leipsick, and another atLondon, whom I neither ever saw, nor ever expect to see, with whom I keep up aconstant correspondence; I write to them every post. But though I have noconnection with any body in the street where I live, I have got so bad acharacter all over the neighbourhood, that I believe I must soon change mylodging. About five years ago, I was treated very roughly by a woman in theneighbourhood, for having dissected a dog, which, she said, belonged to her.The wife of a butcher, who happened to be present, took her part; and whilstone poured out a torrent of abuse against me, the other pelted me with stonesas well as Dr., who was with me, who received a terrible blow upon theos frontal and os occipital, by which the seat of reason is very much injured.Ever since that time, if a dog happens to be missing in the street, it isimmediately taken for granted that it has passed through my hands. A worthycitizens wife, that had lost a lap-dog, which, as she said herself, wasmore dear to her than her own children, came the other day, and fainted away inmy room, and not having found her dog, summoned me before a magistrate. Ibelieve I shall be for ever persecuted by the malice of these women, who, withtheir shrill voices, stun me every day, by making funeral orations upon all theautomates who have died these ten years.

Yours, c.

All men of learning were accused of being magicians, some ages past. I amnot at all surprized at it. Every one of them said within himself, I haveacquired as much knowledge as can be attained by the power of naturalabilities, and yet another philosopher has the advantage of me; he mustcertainly deal withthe devil. As accusations of this nature are out ofdate in the present age, other means have been made use of, and a man oflearning can never escape being reproached with irreligion or heresy. It availshim little to be deemed innocent by the people; the wound once made, will neverperfectly close. It remains a sore place ever after. An adversary may comethirty years after, and address him in these modest terms: God forbidthat I should imagine that the accusation against you is just; but you havelain under the sad necessity of vindicating your character. Thus is hisvery justification turned against him. If he writes a history, and discovers anelevation of mind, or integrity of heart, he is liable to a thousandpersecutions. There will not be wanting persons to irritate the magistrateagainst him, on account of a fact which has passed a thousand years ago; and ifhis pen is not venal, they would have it restrained. Their condition is,however, more happy than that of those men who violate their faith for aninconsiderable pension, who by all their numerous impostures hardly gain asingle farthing; who subvert the constitution of an empire, diminish theprerogatives of one power, increase those of another; give to princes, takefrom their subjects, revive antiquated duties, encourage the passions which arein vogue in their age, and such vices as receive a sanction from the throne;imposing upon posterity in the more scandalous manner, as it is not providedwith means to detect their impostures. But it is not enough that an author hasall these insults to suffer, it is not enough that he has lived in constantanxiety for the success of his work. At length the work that cost him so muchpains and trouble comes out; it involves him in a thousand quarrels, and how isit possible to avoid them? The author has an opinion, he maintains it in hiswritings, without knowing that another man of learning, who lives two hundredleagues distan from him, had asserted the reverse. Yet this givesrise to a paper war. It would indeed be someconsolation to him, if he had any prospect of becoming famous. But he has noteven this alleviation of his distress. He is at most esteemed by those who haveapplied themselves to the same studies with himself. A philosopher holdsnothing more in contempt, than a man whose head is loaded with facts, whilsthe, in his turn, is considered as a visionary by the man that has a goodmemory. With regard to those who take pride in their ignorance, they wouldwillingly have all mankind buried in that oblivion to which they are themselvesconsigned. When a man is destitute of any particular talent, he indemnifieshimself, by expressing his contempt for it; he removes that obstacle whichstood between merit and him, and by that means raises himself to a level withthose whom he before feared as rivals. Thus is an author obliged to abstainfrom pleasures, and endanger his health, to acquire a doubtful and precariousreputation.

Paris

, the 26th of the moon Chahban,

1720

.

Usbek

Usbek

1720

Paris

Rhedi

Rhedi

LETTER CXLVI.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

IT is a maxim of long standing, that sincerity is the soul of a greatministry. An individual may avail himself of the obscurity in which he isplaced; his character is lessened only in the opinion of some particularpersons; he keeps himself masked before others; but a minister, who actscontrary to the rules of probity, has witnesses of his bad conduct, and judgesas many in number as the people he governs. Shall I hazard a bold assertion?The greatest mischief done by a minister without principle, does not arise fromhis serving his prince unfaithfully, or from his ruiningthe people, it arises from the bad example he sets.You are not ignorant that I have a long time travelled up and down the Indies.I have there known a nation, by nature generous, debauched in an instant, as itwere, by the bad example of a minister; I have seen a whole people, amongstwhom generosity, probity, candour, and uprightness, had long been considered asqualities natural to them, become all on a sudden the most despicable peopleupon the face of the earth; I have seen the contagion spread, and not spareeven the most sacred members of the community; I have known men famous fortheir virtue, guilty of the most unworthy actions; I have known them violatethe first principles of justice, alledging in excuse, the frivolous pretextthat they had been violated with respect to themselves. They justified thebasest actions by odious laws, and made necessity a plea for their base andperfidious conduct. I have seen faith banished from contracts, the most solemncompacts rendered void, and all the laws of families subverted. I have seenavaritious debtors puffed up with pride, in the midst of poverty, unworthyinstruments of the severity of the laws, and the public distress, pretendpayment, without ever having made it, and plunge a dagger in the breast oftheir benefactors. I have seen others, still more unworthy, buy for a trifle,or rather, as it were, pick up oak leaves from the ground, in order to supplythe place of the substance of widows and orphans. I have known an insatiablethirst for riches spring up on a sudden in the hearts of all men. I have seen adetestable confederacy formed by several persons to enrich themselves, not byan honest industry, but by the ruin of the prince, the state, and their fellowcitizens. I have known a worthy citizen, in these times of distress, never goto bed without saying to himself, I have ruined a family to day, I will ruinanother to-morrow. I am going, says another, with a man in black, who carriesan inkhorn in his hand,to ruin all those to whom I have had an-obligation.Another said, I find I am beginning to thrive; true it is, when I went aboutthree days ago to pay off some money, I left a whole family in tears, that Isquandered the portions of two girls of condition, that I deprived a young ladof the means of acquiring education; his father will die of grief, his motherpines away with sorrow: but I have done nothing but what is allowed by the law.What crime can be greater, than that which a minister commits, when he corruptsthe manners of a whole nation, debases the most noble souls, stains the lustreof dignities, makes virtue itself obscure, and confounds the noblest birth, inthe general contempt? What will posterity say, when it finds itself under anecessity of blushing for the shame of its ancestors? What will the people ofthe next age say, when they compare the iron of their ancestors to the gold ofthose from whom they immediately derived their birth? I doubt not but thenobility will retrench from their coats of arms, an unworthy distinction, whichdishonours them, and leave the present generation in the despicable state towhich it has reduced itself.

Paris

, the 11th of the moon Rhamazan,

1720

.

1717

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CXLVII.

The ChiefEunuch to Usbek at Paris.

THINGS are come to such a pass here, that the state they are in is almostdesperate; your wives have taken it into their heads, that your departure hasleft them entirely at liberty, and that they may do what they please withimpunity: most shocking things are done here, I cannot write the dreadfulaccount of them without trembling. Zelis, as she was the other daygoing to the mosque, let drop her veil, and appearedwith her face almost entirely uncovered before the people. I found Zachi in bedwith one of her female slaves, a thing positively forbidden by the laws of theseraglio. I, by meer accident, surprised the letter which I now send you; Icould not possibly discover who it was intended for. Yesterday a young lad wasfound in the garden of the seraglio, but he made his escape over the walls. Tothis add all that has escaped my knowledge; you must doubtless have beenbetrayed. I wait for your orders, and till the happy moment that I receivethem, shall remain in constant anxiety. But if you do not give me an arbitrarypower over all these women, I cannot answer for any of them, but shall everyday have news equally afflicting to send you.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 1st of themooon Regeb,

1717

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

Usbek to the Chief Eunuch at the Seraglio of Ispahan.

RECEIVE, by virtue of this letter, an unlimited power over the wholeseraglio: command with as much authority as I do myself: let fear and terroraccompany you every where; visit every apartment with correction andpunishment; let consternation seize upon all; let all shed tears in thypresence: question all that belong to the seraglio: begin with the slaves; donot spare even my love: let all be subject to your awful tribunal: discover themost hidden secrets; purify the infamous place, and make banished virtue returnonce more to it. For, from this moment, I will place the smallest faultscommitted there to your account. I suspect that Zelis is the personto whom the letter you intercepted was addressed:pry into that affair with the eyes of a lynx.

From * * *, the 11th of the moon Zilhage,

1718

.

Narsit

Narsit

1718

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CXLIX.

Narsit to Usbek, at Paris.

HONOURED Lord, the chief of the eunuchs is just dead: as I am the eldest ofyour slaves, I have taken his place, till you signify to me whom you havechosen for it. Two days after his death, one of your letters, directed to him,was brought me; I took care not to open it; I folded it with respect, andlocked it up till you think proper to inform me of your sacred pleasure.Yesterday a slave came in the midst of the night, to tell me, that he had founda young man in the seraglio; I got up, made a strict search, and found that itwas the effect of his imagination. Ever honoured lord, I kiss thy feet; and begthou wilt put confidence in my zeal, my experience and my age.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 5th of themoon of the 1st Gemmadi,

1718

.

Usbek

Usbek

1718

Narsit

Narsit

LETTER CL.

Usbek to Narsit, at the Seraglio of Ispahan.

WRETCH that thou art! thou hast in thy hands letters which contain ordersthat require to be carried into execution with the utmost speed; the leastdelay may reduce me to despair, and you remain inactive under a frivolouspretext! Terrible things happen in the seraglio: perhaps one half of my slavesdeserve death. I send you herewith the letter which the chiefof the eunuchs wrote to me upon that subject, justbefore he died. If you had opened the packet which is directed to him, youwould have found bloody orders in it. Read therefore those orders, and executethem punctually, or thou shalt perish.

From * * *, the 25th of the moon Chalval,

1718

.

Solin

Solin

1719

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CLI.

Solin to Usbek, at Paris.

WERE I to keep silence any longer, I should be as guilty as any of thosewicked wretches in the seraglio. I was the confidant of the chief eunuch, themost faithful of your slaves. When he saw himself near his latter end he sentfor me, and addressed me in these terms: I am dying, but the only thing thatgives me uneasiness at leaving the world, is that with my dying eyes I havebeheld the guilt of my masters wives. May heaven preserve him from allthe misfortunes which I foresee! After my death, may my threatening shadereturn, to put these perfidious women in mind of their duty, and intimidatethem even then: here are the keys of those awful places; go, carry them to theoldest of the black eunuchs. But if after my death, he should be deficient indiligence, take care to let your master know. Having uttered these words heexpired in my arms. I am not ignorant of what he wrote to you concerning theconduct of your wives, a little before his death; there is a letter in theseraglio, which would have occasioned general terror, if it had been opened.That which you wrote since, was intercepted, three leagues from hence. I do notknow what it is owing to; but all things turn out unhappily. Your wives howeverno longer keep within the bounds of decency: since thedeath of the chief eunuch, their behaviour isaltogether licentious; Roxana is the only one that does her duty, and continuesto retain her modesty. Their morals grow more corrupt every day. One can nolonger discover in the countenances of your wives, that severe and rigid virtuewhich might so easily be discerned there before: an unusal joy which reigns inthis place, in my opinion, proves some new satisfaction in those who live here.In the most trifling circumstances, I observe, that they take liberties unknownto this place before. There prevails, even amongst your slaves, an indolence inthe discharge of their duty, and a remissness in observing the rules of theseraglio, which I am quite surprised at; they are no longer inspired by thatwarmth of zeal, which seemed to animate the whole seraglio. Your wives havebeen eight days in the country, at one of your most neglected seats. It issaid, that the slave who takes care of it, was gained over by them, and thattwo days before their arrival, he caused two men to be hid in a hollow place inthe wall of the principal chamber, which they came out of in the evening, afterwe had retired. The old eunuch, who is at present at the head of the seraglio,is a dotard, who believes whatever he is told. Such horrid perfidy excites myindignation: and if heaven, for the good of your service, would make you thinkme capable of ruling, I can answer for it, that if your wives did not provevirtuous, they would at least prove faithful.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 6th of themoon of the 1st Rebiab,

1719

.

Narsit

Narsit

1719

Fatme

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CLII.

Narsit to Usbek, at Paris:

ROXANA and Zelis had a desire to go to the country: I thought it would notbe proper to refuse them. Happy Usbek! your wives are faithful, and your slavesvigilant: I command in a place which seems to be the asylum of virtue. Dependupon it nothing is done there, but what you would willingly behold yourself. Anunhappy accident has happened, which gives me great uneasiness. CertainArmenian merchants, lately arrived at Ispahan, brought one of thy letters tome; I sent a slave in quest of it; he was robbed at his return, and the letteris lost. Write to me therefore speedily, for I take it for granted, that inthis change of affairs, you have something important to enjoin me.

From the seraglio at

Fatme

, the 6th of themoon of the 1st Rebiab,

1719

.

Usbek

Usbek

1719

Paris

Solin

Solin

LETTER CLIII.

Usbek to Solin, at the Seraglio of Ispahan.

I PUT the sword into your hand, I entrust you with what is of all thingsmost dear to me, that is my revenge. Enter upon this employment, but enter uponit without either compassion or feeling. I have wrote to my wives to obey youimplicitly; in the confusion which so many crimes have made them obnoxious to,they will not be able to stand even your looks. To you I must be indebted formy happiness and ease. Restore me my seraglio in the condition I left it. Beginby purifying it; destroy the guilty, and make those who propose to become so,tremble. Whatmay you not expect from your master in recompencefor such signal services! It will be in your own power to rise above yourcondition, and all the rewards you could ever have wished for.

Paris

, the 4th of the moon Chahban,

1719

.

Usbek

Usbek

1719

Paris

LETTER CLIV.

Usbek to hisWives, at the Seraglio of Ispahan.

MAY this letter have the effect of thunder, which falls in the midst oflightning and tempests! Solin is now the chief eunuch, but his business is notso much to guard as punish you. Let the whole seraglio humble itself beforehim. He is to pass a judgment upon your past actions; and for the future hewill make you live under so rigorous a yoke, that you will regret your liberty,if you do not regret your virtue.

Paris

, the 4th of the moon Chahban,

1719

.

Usbek

Usbek

1719

Paris

Nessir

Nessir

LETTER CLV.

Usbek to Nessir, at Ispahan.

HAPPY the man, who being fully convinced of the value of a life of ease andtranquility, deposits his heart in the midst of his own family, and never knowsany country but that in which he was born. I live in a barbarous country,whatever offends me being present, whatever I have a regard for being at adistance from me: a deep melancholy seizes upon me; I sink into a most shockingdepression of spirits: I think myself almost annihilated; and I do not becomesensible of my existence, till a dismal jealousy comes tokindle and produce in my heart, fear, suspicions,hatred and regret. You know me, Nessir, you are as well acquainted with myheart as your own. You would pity me, if you knew in how deplorable a conditionI am. Sometimes I am obliged to wait six whole months for news from theseragho; I reckon every moment as it passes, my impatience makes them appear tome of a tedious length; and when the long expected moment is approaching, asudden revolution arises in my heart; my hand trembles at opening the fatalletter; that anxiety which made me despair, I look upon as the happiest state Ican be in, and I dread being forced from it, by a stroke that would, to me, bemore cruel than a thousand deaths. But whatever reasons I may have had to leavemy country, though I owe my life to absenting myself, I can no longer, Nessir,bear this dismal banishment. Must I not die equally a victim to my grief? Ihave a thousand times importuned Rica to quit this foreign country: but hethwarts all my resolutions; he confines me here upon a thousand pretexts: heseems to have quite forgot his country; or rather he seems to have forgot me;so insensible does he seem to my uneasiness. Unhappy wretch that I am, I wishto see my country again, yet perhaps it is to become still more unhappy: Whatcan I do there? I shall expose my life again to my enemies. This is not all, Ishall enter the seraglio; I must there exact an account of what passed in thefatal time of my absence; and if I find my wives guilty, what will become ofme? If the very idea is insupportable to me at this distance, what must theeffect be, when my presence renders it so much more lively? How great must mytrouble be, if I am obliged to see and hear what I cannot even think of withoutshuddering? How dreadful will it be, if punishments, which I must myself causeto be inflicted, should be the eternal marks of my confusion and despair? Ishall go and shut myself up withinwalls, more terrible to me than to the women who arethere confined; I shall carry with me all my suspicions, the ardour of theircaresses will not in the least diminish them; in my bed, in their very arms, Ishall feel all my inquietudes; at a time so improper for reflections, jealousywill be a constant source of the most uneasy ones. Worthless out-casts of humannature, vile slaves, whose hearts are for ever shut to all the sentiments oflove; you would no longer lament your condition, if you knew the misery ofmine.

Paris

, the 4th of the moon Chahban,

1719

.

Roxana

Roxana

1720

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CLVI.

Roxana to Usbek, at Paris.

HORROR, darkness, and terror reign throughout the seraglio, a dismalmelancholy surrounds, a tyger there gives a loose to all his rage at everymoment. He caused two white eunuchs to be tortured, but they did not makeconfession of any crime; he has sold some of our slaves, and obliged us tochange those those that remained among ourselves. Zachi and Zelis have in thedarkness of the night, received in their chamber the most unworthy treatment;the villain has been so audacious as to lay his sacrilegious hands upon them.He keeps us all locked up in our respective apartments; and though we arealone, obliges us to wear our veils. We are not allowed to speak to each other;to write would be deemed highly criminal; we are free in nothing but our tears.A croud of new eunuchs has entered the seraglio, where they watch us night andday; our sleep is every moment interrupted by their real, or feigned distrusts.My only comfort is, that this cannot last long, and that all these troublesmust end with my life: it will notlast long, cruel Usbek; I will not give you time toput a stop to all these outrages.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 2d of themoon Maharran,

1720

.

Zachi

Zachi

1720

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CLVII.

Zachi to Usbek, at Paris.

O HEAVENS! a barbarous wretch has outraged me; in the very manner ofpunishing, he has inflicted upon me that kind of punishment which shocksmodesty; that chastisement which gives rise to the deepest humiliation; thatchastisement which brings us back, as it were, to a state of infancy. My soulat first sinking with shame, recovered sentiment of itself, and began to beseized with indignation, when my cries made the vaults of the seraglio resound.I was heard to beg for mercy, from the lowest of human kind, and to endeavourto excite his compassion as he grew inexorable. Ever since his insolent andservile soul has got the ascendant over mine, his presence, his looks, hiswords, drive me to distraction. When I am alone, I at least have theconsolation of shedding tears: but whenever he appears, I am seized with atransport of rage, and finding my rage impotent, I sink into despair. The tygerdares to tell me, that you are the causer of all these barbarities. He wouldeven deprive me of my love, and profane the sentiments of my heart. When hepronounces the name of the man I love, I can no longer complain; I can onlydie. I have borne your absence, and preserved my love by the force of mypassion. Nights, days, and moments, were all dedicated to you. I even valuedmyself upon my love, and yours for me caused me to be respected here. Butnowno, I can no longer bear the abject condition to which I am fallen.If Iam innocent, return and restore me to yourlove; if Iam guilty, return, that I may expire at your feet.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 2d of themoon Maharran,

1720

.

Zelis

Zelis

1720

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CLVIII.

Zelis to Usbek, at Paris.

THOUGH thirty leagues distant from me, you pronounce me guilty; thoughthirty leagues distant from me, you punish me. If a barbarous eunuch lays hisvile hands upon me, he does it by your orders: it is the tyrant that outragesme, and not the tyrants instrument. You may, if you think proper, add toyour cruel treatment. My heart is quite at ease, now that it loves you nolonger. Your soul degrades itself, and you are grown cruel. Depend upon it, youare not possessed of my affections. Farewel.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 2d of themoon Maharran,

1720

.

Solin

Solin

1720

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CLIX.

Solin to Usbek, at Paris.

HONOURED Lord, I am equally afflicted upon my own account and yours; neverwas faithful servant reduced to so deep a despair as I am. I send you here anarrative of your own misfortunes and mine, which I write with a tremblinghand. I swear by all the prophets in heaven, that since thou didst entrust mewith thy wives, I have watched over them night and day; that I never for onemoment remitted of my vigilance in the least. I began my office withcorrection, and discontinued it, without departing from mynatural austerity. But what am I saying? Whereforedo I boast of a fidelity which has been of no service to thee? Forget all mypast services; consider me as a traitor, and punish me for all the crimes Ihave not been able to prevent. Roxana, the haughty RoxanaHeavens, inwhom can we henceforward place any confidence! you suspected Zelis, and youwere perfectly secure with regard to Roxana, but her fierce virtue was a mostodious impostor; it was only a veil to her perfidy. I surprized her in theembraces of a young man, who, as soon as he saw himself discovered, run at me;he gave me two stabs with a poignard; the eunuchs, who ran together uponhearing the noise, surrounded him: he defended himself a long time, and killedseveral; he would even have re-entered the chamber, in order, as he said, todie in the presence of Roxana. But being at last oppressed by numbers, he felldead at our feet. I know not, honoured Sir, whether I shall wait your severeorders. You have entrusted me with your revenge, and I ought not to deferit.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 8th of themoon of the first Rebiab,

1720

.

Solin

Solin

1720

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CLX.

Solin to Usbek, at Paris.

MY resolution is taken, thy misfortunes will shortly vanish; I am preparingto punish. I already feel a secret joy: my soul and thine will shortly beappeased; we will exterminate the criminal, and even the innocent shallshudder. O you, who seem to be made for nothing but to be ignorant of your ownsenses, and offended at your desires, eternal victims of shame and modesty, whycannot I make you enter this unhappyseraglio, to see your surprize at the torrents ofblood I am going to shed!

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 8th of themoon of the first Rebiab,

1720

.

Roxana

Roxana

1720

Ispahan

Usbek

Usbek

LETTER CLXI.

Roxana to Usbek, at Paris.

IT is true, I have imposed upon thee, I have suborned thy eunuchs; I havemade sport of thy jealousy; and I have found means to make thy frightfulseraglio an abode of bliss and delight. I am upon the point of death; poisonwill soon put an end to my life; for why should I live, when the only man whorendered life desirable is no more! I die: but my shade will be well attended.I have just sent before me the sacrilegious guards, who have shed the mostprecious blood in the world. How couldst thou think me weak enough to considermyself as born only to adore thy caprice? that whilst you allowed yourself thefull indulgence of all your desires, you had a right to thwart mine in everyrespect? No, though I have lived in a state of servitude, I contrived means tobe always free: I reformed your laws by the laws of nature; and my mind hasalways continued in a state of independency. Thou oughtest even to thank me forthe sacrifice which I have made thee; for having descended so low as tocounterfeit a passion for you; for having basely concealed within my breast,what I should have published to thee; in fine, for having profaned virtue, bysuffering my bearing with your humours to be called by that name. You weresurprized at never observing in me the transports of love: had you known mewell, you would have discovered in me all the violence of hatred. But you havelong enjoyed the happy deception of thinking yourself possessed of such a heartasmine: we were both satisfied; you thought medeceived, whilst I deceived you. You must doubtless be surprized at myaddressing you in such a stile as this. Is it possible then, that after havingoverwhelmed thee with my affliction, I should still have it in my power to makethee admire my resolution? But all this is over now, the poison wastes me away,my strength forsakes me, the pen drops from my hand; I find even my hatred growweaker: I die.

From the seraglio at

Ispahan

, the 8th of themoon of the 1st Rebiab,

1720

.

THREE LETTERS OF M. DE MONTESQUIEU TO M. LECHEVALIER DE BRUANT.

LETTER I.

I WAS not at * * * when your letter came; you embarrass megreatly; I shall only answer you for the pleasure of entertaining myself with aman, who is much better able to resolve the doubts which he proposed, than theperson to whom he sent them.

I am not of your opinion with regard to despotism, and despotic princes. Itappears to me horrible and absurd to the last degree, that a whole peopleshould blindly subject themselves to the caprice of one, even if he were anangel. For my own part, I would not live under him a single day. This angel maybecome, in a moment, a monster thirsting after blood. Despotism is, to me, themost abominable and disgustful of all bad governments; man is perpetuallycrushed, debased, and degraded by it. Look into history, ancient and modern, ifever there was one upon earth that was not an insult on mankind, and thedisgrace of human nature. Monarchy would, doubtless, be the best ofgovernments, if it was possible to find such kings as Henry IV. the only onewho ever deserved the homage and veneration of his subjects. Kings shouldalways be brought up in a school of affliction, as this great man was; suchalone are truly great, andthe lovers of mankind. Before we can feel for themisfortunes of others, we must ourselves have been unfortunate. But, on theother hand, the hearts of princes corrupted by prosperity, and the slaves ofpride and folly, are inaccessible to pity, and insensible to true glory.

I am not at all surprized, that in monarchies, and especially in our own,there should be so few princes worthy of esteem. Incircled by corrupters,knaves and hypocrites, they accustom themselves to look upon theirfellow-creatures with disdain, and set no value on any but the sycophants, whocaress their vices, and live in perpetual idleness and inactivity. Such isgenerally the condition of a monarch; great men are always scarce, and greatkings still more so. Add to this, that the splendor of a monarchy is short andtransitory. France is already sunk into misery and disgrace; an age more willannihilate her, or she will fall a prey to the first intrepid conqueror.

The English government has nothing to support it but a delusive outside,extremely flattering to the people, who fancy themselves the sole governors. Ido not know any country where it is more easy to create such open dissensions,as may overthrow the state. A man of sense and generosity may, in ten yearstime, erect himself into a despotic prince with more safety at London than atMoscow; remember Cromwell. Money alone is sufficient to corrupt the wholeparliament.

The great, ever fond of riches and power, and prostrate at the feet offortune, who always attend the throne, will promote the views of their master;and the great once gained over, this phantom of liberty, which appeared atintervals in the convulsive motions of the commons, which awakens, shakesitself, and soon vanishes, will be totally annihilated at the first signalgiven by the supreme ruler.

I know indeed of no monarchy that is fixed, constant, and perfect, thewisest kings oppress their subjects to arrive at despotism. Adieu, my friend;live in freedom and obscurity. Solitude will procure you the best and truestpleasure, self-content. The foolish and the wicked, seen afar off, will onlyexcite your compassion; to look nearly upon them would raise your contempt andindignation.

I write this in haste; we will treat this matter more fully in the freeintercourse of guiltless friendship.

LETTER II.

YOU ask me in what country a man may enjoy the most perfect liberty? Inevery place, my dear Philintus, where there are men and laws. The wise man isfree even in the court of a tyrant, because his happiness depends on himself.Reason and conscience are the throne of his liberty. It is not in the power offortune, injustice, or any thing else, to unhinge his soul, or disturb hisrepose. He rejoices in himself, and his joy is always calm, permanent, anddelightful.

Would you, my friend, because you see violence and iniquity every daycommitted by wicked ministers, by the rich and great, by almost every man inplace and power, would you therefore entirely banish yourself from that societyto which you are indebted for every thing, and for which every honest and goodmember of it should yield up all, without repining at the injuries which hesuffers from it? Because a prince buries himself in sloth and debauchery,because he perfecutes, oppresses and destroys, shall you become an exile fromyour country, leave your friends, and desert the poor and afflicted, who applyto you for relief, and rend your heart with their complaints? No, my friend,you have too much sensibility. Despisethe unjust and cruel prince; but love mankind, and,above all, the unfortunate and distressed. Avoid the impetuous whirlwinds of acourt; forget, if possible, tha your king is surrounded with perverse, wicked,and oppressive men, who laugh at his ignorance, and avail themselves of hisweakness. Fly to retirement, in search of that repose, friendship, andfelicity, which are never to be found in the seats of power and grandeur, or inthe dangerous and delusive tumults of a noisy metropolis. Bring with you a fewfriends, as worthy and sensible as yourself. Read Plato, Montagne, Charron, andRabellais; exercise yourself in acts of kindness to the poor labourers, theonly creatures upon earth who are always miserable, perpetually toiling tosupply the necessities of nature, and victims to the cruel rapacity of thefarmers in general, who grind and oppress them.

Thus will you enjoy the most delicate and lively of all pleasures, thepleasure of doing good, the only consolation that can reconcile us to themiseries of human life. When once you are habituated to a country life, joy andpeace will revive in your disquieted and uneasy mind, which will grow strongand great, raising itself by degrees to the celestial regions of genius andphilosophy. There, free as the air you breathe, throw out your thoughts as theyarise, your soul will then shoot forth such divine flames as shall warm andenlighten even the cold and ignorant. When you have filled your paper, arrangeand correct the whole, and I will tell you with the utmost freedom my opinionof it. Adieu, my dear friend; with a heart of such delicate sensibility asyours is, youth, health, and a tolerable fortune, you must be happy, ifhappiness is the portion of virtue.

LETTER III.

YOU are right, my dear Philintus, in believing and asserting to all yourfriends, that education makes the man. That alone is the parent of everyvirtue; it is the most sacred, the most useful, and, at the same time, the mostneglected thing in almost every country, and in every station of life. But toomany vague and impracticable rules have been laid down on this importantsubject. Even the wise Locke, the great instructor of mankind, is sometimesmistaken, like other writers. All education should have an eye to government,or we lose our aim. The man of patience and understanding will consider wellthe mind he has to form and instruct; he will infuse, by little and little,maxims adapted to his age, and suited to his genius, rank, and capacity. I knowthat there are some soils barren and ungrateful, and which will never answerthe labour of the cultivator. But besides that such are very uncommon, I aminclined to suspect, that frequently the tiller has neither strength nor skillenough to dig into and improve it as he ought.

There is one radical vice in France, which may, perhaps, never beextirpated, because it comes from the women, who, amongst us, interfere inevery thing, and, in the end, ruin and destroy every thing. A child is soonspoiled in their hands, from two years old to six, when he is delivered up,without consideration, to a man whom he has neither seen nor known. The tutor,perhaps a fellow of no character, takes charge of him, not from inclination,but merely for his own interest. For ten succeeding years he vegetates in thenarrow circle of a college, or in the unimproving converse and society ofprating females of quality. These tutors are generally appointed by the women,who seldom look any further than the outside; never considering personal merit,which they have not sense enoughto distinguish, having never habituated themselvesto reflect one moment on any thing serious or useful.

Another circumstance highly prejudicial to education, and which disgusts anddeters men of merit from engaging in it, is the little regard paid to thetutor, or preceptor, who ought to be respected as a father, whose place he isin a great measure intended to supply; he to whom is intrusted the heir of anillustrious name and family; he who is to form the worthy citizen, and the goodsubject; who is to do honour to his rank and character, and become the glory ofhis country. Such are the men, charged as they are with so important an office,who, in the fashionable world, are so often despised and ill treated, and evensometimes suffered to perish for want. Such abuses, if they become general,must point out a shameful and universal depravity of manners. Our nobilityindeed are free from this reproach; if they pay but indifferently, they makeamends by the weight of their interest, and a thousand engaging civilities, forthe small appointment which their fortune will permit them to allow. Your richfinanciers, on the other hand, who are naturally morose, proud, andostentatious, seldom pay a man without affronting him: having nothing but moneyto give, they gorge you with it.

In France the women ruin every thing, because they think themselves fit forevery thing, and the men are weak and childish enough to humour their caprice.Nature, notwithstanding, made them but to obey, and the weakness of theirconstitution every day points out to us the weakness of their sex. With regardto education, it is worse at court than in any other place, the governor havinga despotic power over his pupil, suffers him to grow up in ignorance andidleness, fills his head with the nonsense of fashion, and puffs him up withthe notion of his own rank, and a contempt of the insignificant creatures thatcrawl beneath him. Every thing around him is made subservient to hispleasure and advancement. Every thing is to falldown before him on the first notice. He never talks to him concerning the royalvirtues that adorn a throne, justice, courage, beneficence, intrepidity, andthe love of glory; therefore it is, that, amongst our kings, we never see agreat man; for I call not the conqueror by that name, but rather consider himas the terror, scourge, and disgrace of human kind; one whom the people arebound by their own interest to destroy, as soon as the flame of his ambitionbreaks forth in projects of slaughter and oppression.

Lewis XII. was honest and just, but weak and ignorant. Francis I. a vainboaster, cruel, and a pretender to wit. Henry IV. brave and magnanimous, buttoo much given to women ever to become a philosopher. Lewis XIV. at once thegreatest and meanest of mankind, would have excelled all the monarchs in theuniverse, if he had not been corrupted in his youth by base and ambitiousflatterers. A slave during his whole life to pride and vain-glory, he neverreally loved his subjects even for a moment; yet expected at the same time,like a true arbitrary prince, that they should sacrifice themselves to his willand pleasure. Intoxicated with power and grandeur, he imagined the whole worldwas made but to promote his happiness. He was feared, obeyed, idolized, hated,mortified, and abandoned. He lived like a sultan, and died like a woman. Hisreign was immortalized by the lowest of his subjects.

It is therefore, my dear Philintus, impossible there should ever be a greatman amongst our kings, who are made brutes and fools of all their lives, by aset of infamous wretches, who surround and beset them from the cradle to thegrave.

END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.

*

See the astonishment of Dionysius Halicarnassus, on the aquductsbuilt by Tarquin, Ant. Rom. lib. iii. They are still subsisting.

*

Plutarchs life of Romulus.

This appears throughout the history of the kings of Rome.

*

The senate named a magistrate in the interregnum, who was to make choice ofa king. This election was to be confirmed by the people. Dion. Halicarn. lib.ii. iii. iv.

*

See Polybius, lib. x.

*

The Romans considered foreigners as enemies: Hostis, according to Varro, DeLingua Lat. lib. iv. signified at first a foreigner who lived according to hisown laws.

*

It is not known whether they were originally of that country, or only acolony; but Dion. Halicarnassus is of the former opinion, lib. i.

D. Halicarnass, declares so expresly, lib. ix. and this appears by history:they used to attempt the scalade of cities with ladders. Ephorus relates thatArtemon the engineer invented large machines to batter the strongest wall.Pericles was the first who made use of them at the siege of Samos, as Piutarchtells us in the life of that general.

*

As appears from the treatise entitled Origo Gentis Roman, ascribed toAurelius Victor.

D. Halicarnass.

See in D. Halicarn ss. lib. vi. one of the treaties concluded with thispeople.

*

These Decemviri, upon pretence of giving written laws to the people, seizedupon the government. See D. Halicarnass. lib. xi.

*

Lib. ii. cap. 1.

See in Polybius, and in Josephus, De bello Judaico, lib. ii. a descriptionof the arms of the Roman soldiers. There is but little difference, says thelatter, between a Roman soldier and a loaded horse. They carried (saysCicero) provision for fifteen days, necessaries of all sorts, and whatever theyshould have occasion for in throwing up trenches. As to their arms, they wereno more incumbered with them than with their hands.

*

Lib. ii. cap. 25.

Particularly the throwing up of the ground.

See in Vegetius, lib. i. and in Livy, lib. xxvi. the exercises which ScipioAfricanus made the soldiers perform after the taking of Carthago Nova. Mariusused to go every day to the Campus Martius even in his extreme old age. It wascustomary for Pompey, when fifty eight years of age, to arm himself cap-a-pee,and engage in single combat with the Roman youths. He used to exercise himselfin riding, when he would run with the swistest career, and hurl the javelin.Plutarch in the lives of Marius and Pompey.

Vegetius, lib. 1.

*

Vegetius, lib. i.

Cum alacribus saltu, cum velocibut cursu cum validis rectecertabat. Fragm. of Sallust by Vegetius, B, i. cap. 9.

*

Frontin. Stratagem. lib. i cap. 11.

Lib. x. cap. 8.

*

The Romans used to present their javelins, when the Gauls struck at themwith their swords, and by that means blunted them.

At the time that they warred against the lesser nations of Italy, theirhorse was superior to that of their enemies, and for this reason the cavalrywere composed of none but the ablest bodied men, and the most considerableamong the citizens, each of whom had a horse maintained at the public expence.When they alighted, no infantry was more formidable, and they very often turnedthe scale of victory.

*

These were young men, lightly armed, and the most nimble of all the legion.At the least signal that was given, they would either leap behind a horseman,or fight on foot. Valerius Maximus, hb. ii. Livy, lib. xxvi.

Fragm, of Polybius cited by Suidas in the word [Editor:illegible Greek word].

De bello Judaico, lib. ii.

*

This is the survey mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnasseus, lib. ix. art.25. and which seems to me to be the same he speaks of at the end of his sixthbook, made six years after the expulsion of the kings.

Ctesicles in Athenus, lib. vi.

See Piutarchs life of Cleomenes.

*

Livy, I decad. lib. vii. This was sometime after the taking of Rome, underthe consulshipp. of L. Furius Camillus, and App. Claudius Crassus.

Appian.

*

In his life of Pyrrhus.

Justin. lib. xx.

*

Hannibals presence put an end to all the feuds and divisions whichtill then prevailed among the Romans; but the presence of Scipin irritatedthose which already subsisted among the Carthaginians, and shackled, as itwere, the strength of the city; for the common people now grew diffident of thegenerals, the senate, and the great men; and this made the people more furious.Appian has given us the history of this war, carried on by the firstScipio.

[Polybius tells us, that there was this inconveniency at Carthage in thesecond Punick war, that the senate had lost almost all their authority. We areinformed by Livy, that when Hannibal returned to Carihage, he found that themagistrates and the principal citizens had abused their power, and convertedthe public revenues to their own emolument. The virtue therefore of themagistrates, and the authority of the senate, both fell at the same time; andall was owing to the same causes, the dissolution of principles. LEsprit des Loix, lib. viii. chap. 14.]

*

Flor. lib i.

See Polybius. According to the epitome of Florus they raised three hundredthousand men out of the city and among the Latins.

See Livy, lib. xxxii.

*

See Apian, lib. Libycus.

This punishment which was inflicted on those who had run from their colours,on mutineers, c. was thus: The names of all the criminals being puttogether in a vessel or shield, were afterwards drawn out, every tenth manbeing to die without reprieve. By this means, though all were not put to death,yet all were terrified into obedience. Note by thetranslator,

See what is related by Polybius concerning their exactions.

*

[See more of this hereafter in chap. vi.]

Book vi.

The circumstance which gave the Romans an opportunity of taking a littlebreath in the second Punic war, was this, whole bodies of Numidian cavalry wentover into Scicily and Italy, and there joined them.

*

Hence we may judge of the imperfection of the antient navies, since we havelaid aside a practice in which we had so much superiority over them.

*

See LEsprit des Loix, l. xxi. c. 9.

Lewis XIV.

Spain and Muscovy.

*

Antiq. Rom. lib. viii.

*

[How was it possible for Carthage to maintain her ground? When Hannibal,upon his being prtor, attempted to hinder the magistrates fromplundering the republic, did they not complain of him to the Romans? Wretches,that wanted to be citizens without a city, and to be beholden for their richesto their very destroyers! LEsprit des Loix, l. iii.c. 3. See likewise l. x. c. 6.]

*

It is surprizing, as Josephus observes in his treatise against Appion, thatneither Herodotus nor Thucydides make the least mention of the Romans, thoughthey had been engaged in such mighty wars.

*

The magistrates, to please the multitude, did not open the courts ofjustice: and the dying bequeathed their effects to their friends, to the laidout in feasts. See a fragment of the xxth book of Polybru, in the Extract of Virtues and Vices.

*

[Justin lib. vi. attributes the extinction of Athenian virtue to the deathof Epaminondas. Having no further emulation, they spent their revenues inleasts, frequentius cœnam quam castra visentes. Then it was that the Macedonians emerged out of obscurity. LEsprit de Loix, l. viii. c. 6.]

They were not engaged in any alliance with the other nations of Greece.Polyb, lib. viii.

*

See Polyb. who relates the unjust and cruel actions by which Philip lost thefavour of the people.

*

I have given the reason of this in the xv. chapter, borrowed partly from thegeographical disposition of the two empires.

*

Lewis XIV.

*

They had before observed this political conduct with regard to theCarthaginians, whom they obliged, by the treaty concluded with them, to employno longer auxiliary troops, as appears from a fragment of Dion.

*

See an example of this, in their war with the Dalmatians. See Polybius.

*

See particularly their treaty with the Jews in the 1st book of theMaccabees, chap. viii.

Ariarathes offered a sacrifice to the gods, says Polybius, by way of thanksfor having obtained their alliance.

*

See Polybius on the cities of Greece.

The son of Philopator.

This was Antiochuss case.

*

The order sent to Antiochus, even before the war, for him not to cross intoEurope, was made general with regard to all other kings.

Appian, de Beils Mithridat.

A fragment of Dionysius, copied from the extract of embassies, made byConstantine Porphyrogenneta.

*

To enable themselves to ruin Syria, in quality of guardians, they declaredin favour of the son of Antiochus, who was but a child, in opposition toDemetrius, who was their hostage, and conjured them to do him justice, crying,That Rome was his mother and the senators his fathers.

*

This was their constant practice, as appears from history.

[That is, to save the corporation, but not the city.]

*

After Claudius Glycias had granted the Corsicans a peace, the senate gaveorders for renewing the war against them, and delivered up Glycias to theinhabitants of the island, who would not receive him. Every one knows whathappened at the Furc Caudin.

They acted the same part with regard to Viriatus after having obliged him togive up the deserters, he was ordered to surrender up his arms, to whichneither himself not his army could consent. Fragment of Dion.

*

The presents which the senate used to send kings were mere trifles, as anivory chair and staff, or a robe like that worn by their own magistrates.

Divitiarum tanta fama erat, says Florus, ut victor gentium populus, donare regna conjuetus,socii virique regis confiscationem mandaverit. lib. iii. c. 9.

*

They did not dare to venture their colonies in those countries; but choserather to raise an eternal jealousy between the Carthaginians and Masinissa,and to make both these powers assist them in the conquest of Macedonia andGreece.

*

See Dionys. Halicarn. lib. vi. cap. 95. Edit. Oxon.

*

Frontin. Stratagena. lib. ii. tells us, that Archelaus, lieutenant ofMithridates, engaging against Sylla, posted, in the first rank, his chariotsarmed with scythes, in the second his phalanx, in the third his auxiliariesarmed after the Roman way; mixtis fugitivis Italia, quorumpervicaci multum fidebat. Mithridates even made an alliance withSertorius. See also Plutarch, life of Lucullus.

*

Mithridates had made him king of the Bosphorus. News being brought of hisfathers arrival, he dispatched himself.

See Appian, de Bello Mithridatico.

See Plutarch in the life of Pompey; and Zonaras, lib. ii.

*

The patricians were invested, in some measure, with a character, and theyonly were allowed to take the auspices. See in Livy, book vi. the speech ofAppius Claudius.

As for instance they alone were permitted to triumph, since they alone couldbe consuls and generals.

*

Zonaras, lib. ii.

Origin of the tribunes of the people.

*

The people had so great a veneration for the chief families, that althoughthey had obtained the privilege of creating plebeian military tribunes, whowere invested with the same power as the consuls, they nevertheless always madechoice of patricians for this employment. They were obliged to put a constraintupon themselves, and to enact, that one consul always should be a plebeian; andwhen some plebeian families were raised to offices, the way was afterwards opento them without intermission. It was with difficulty that the people,notwithstanding the perpetual desire they had to depress the nobility,depressed them in reality; and when they raised to honours some person of meanextraction, as Varro and Marius, it cost them very great struggles.

The patricians, to defend themselves, used to create a dictator, whichproved of the greatest advantage to them; but the plebeians having obtained theprivilege of being elected consuls, could also be elected dictators, whichquite disconcerted the patricians. See in Livy, lib. viii. in what mannerPublius Philo depressed them in his dictatorship. He enacted three laws, bywhich they received the highest prejudice.

*

The patricians reserved to themselves only a few offices belonging to thepriesthood, and the privilege of creating a magistrate called interex.

As Saturninus and Glaucias.

[When the people of Rome had obtained the privilege of sharing the patricianmagistracies, it was natural to think that the flatterers of them wouldimmediately become arbiters of the government. But no such thing.It isobservable, that the very people who had rendered the plebeians capable ofpublic offices, fixed, notwithstanding, their choice constantly on thepatricians. Because they were virtuous, they were magnanimous; and because theywere free, they had a contempt of power. But when their morals were corrupted,the more power they were possessed of, the less prudent was their conduct; tillat length upon becoming their own tyrants and slaves, they lost the strength ofliberty to fall into the weakness and impotency of licentiousness. LEsprit des Loix, lib. viii. c. 12.]

The census, or survey of the citizens, was a very prudent institution initself; it was a survey of the state of their affairs, and an inquiry intotheir power. It was founded by Servius Tullius; before whom, according toEutropius, book i. the census was unknown.

*

The reader may see in what manner those were degraded who, after the battleof Cann, were for leaving Italy; those who had surrendered to Hannibal;those who by an insiduous and false interpretation, had forfeited theirword.

The Plebians obtained, in opposition to the patricians, that the laws andelections of magistrates should be made by the people assembled by tribes andnot by centuries. There were thirty-five tribes, each of whom gave its vote;four belonging to the city, and thirty-one to the country. As there were buttwo protessions among the Romans that were honourable, war and husbandry, thecountry tribes were had in greatest consideration; and the four remaining onesadmitted into their body that contemptible part of the citizens, who having nolands to cultivate, were, if we may so say, but citizens by halves; thegreatest part of them did not even go to war, for in the enlisting of soldiersthe divisions of centuries was observed; and those who were members of the fourcity tribes, were very near the same with those who in the division bycenturies were of the sixth class, in which no person was enrolled. Thus, itwas scarce possible for the suffrages to be in the hands of the populace, whowere consined to their four tribes; but as every one committed a thousandfrauds, for the sake of getting out of them, the censors had an opportunity ofreforming this abuse every five years; and they incorporated into any tribethey pleased, not only a citizen, but also bodies and whole orders. See thefirst remark of chapter xi. See also Livy, lib. i. Decad. I. in which thedifferent divisions of the people, made by Servius Tullius, are very wellexplained: it was the same body of the people, but divided in various respects.[In such a manner, that property rather than numbers determinedelections. LEsprit des Loix, lib. ii. c. 2.]

*

Livy, lib. xxix.

Valer. Max. lib. ii.

The dignity of senator was not a public office or employment.

∥

Tit. Liv. lib. i.

Lib. iv. act 15. c.

*

Called turba forensis.

Tit. liv. lib. ix.

Nor even greater power.

*

The freedmen, and such as were called capite censi, (because, being possessed of little or nothing, they were subject to thepoll-tax only) were not at first enrolled among the land forces, except incases of urgent necessity: Servius Tullius had ranked them in the sixth class,and soldiers were levied out of the five first only. But when Marius set outagainst Jugurtha, he enlisted all without distinction. Militesscribere. says Sallust, non modo majorum neque exclassibus, sed, uti cujusque libido erat, capite censosplerosque. De Bello Jugurthin.

*

The qui said in their assemblies, Those in whose power it was tochuse, have preferred their own laws to the freedom of the city of Rome, whichwas a necessary penalty upon such as could not refuse it. Liv. lib. ix.

*

The Asculani, the Marsi, the Vestini, the Marrucini, the Frentani, theHirpini, the Pompeians, the Venusini, the Iapyges, the Lucani, the Samnites andother nations. Appian, de Bello civil. lib. i.

The Tuscans, the Umbri, the Latins. This prompted some nations to submitthemselves; and as these were also made citizens, others likewise laid downtheir arms, so that at last there remained only the Samnites, who wereextirpated.

Let the reader figure to himself this monstrous head, formed of all thenations of Italy, which by the suffrage of every individual, governed the restof the world.

*

[It is an essential point to fix the number of citizens that are to form thepublic assemblies; otherwise it might be uncertain whether the whole body oronly a part of the people have voted. At Sparta, the number was fixed to tenthousand. But at Rome, a city designed by providence to rise from the weakestbeginning to the highest pitch of grandeur; Rome, a city fated to experienceall vicissitudes of fortune; Rome, that had sometimes all its inhabitantswithout its walls, and sometimes all Italy, and a great part of the worldwithin them; at Rome, I say, this number was never fixed, which was one of theprincipal causes of its ruin. LEsprit des Loix, book ii. ch. 2. Our author observes from Cicero, de Leg. lib. i. and iii. thatanother cause of its ruin was, in making, towards the close of the republic,the suffrages secret. The people in a democracy ought always to be public, whoare to be directed by those of higher rank. But when the body of the nobles areto vote in an aristocracy, or in a democracy the senate, as the business inthen only to prevent intrigues, the suffrages cannot be too secret. LEsprit des Loix, ibid]

*

The canton of Bern.

*

The Roman government has been thought defective by some, because it was anintermixture of monarchy, aristrocracy, and popular authority. But theperfection of a government does not consist in its conformity to any particularplan to be sound in the writings of politicians: but in its correspondence tothe views every legislator ought to entertain for the grandeur and felicity ofa people. Was not the government of Sparta composed of three branches?

Cyneas having discoursed of the doctrines of this sect, at the table ofPyrrhus, Fabricius said, He wished the enemies of Rome would all embrace suchkind of principles. Life of Pyrrhus.

*

If you lend a talent to a Greek, and bind him to the repayment, by tenengagements, with as many securities, and witnesses to the loan, it isimpossible to make them regard their word; whereas, among the Romans, whetherit be owing to their obligation of accounting for the public and private money,they are always punctual to the oaths they have taken. For which reason, theapprehensions of infernal torments were wisely established, and it isaltogether irrational that they now oppose them. Polyb. lib. vi.

Polyb. lib. iv. let. 18.

The Curiatian law disposed of the military power, and the edict of thesenate regulated the troops, the money, and officers that were to be allottedto the governors: now the consuls, in order to accomplish these particulars, totheir own satisfaction, contrived a false law and a false edict of thesenate.

*

Ut merito dicatur genitos esse, qui nec ipsi habere possentvos familiares, nec alios pati. Fragment of Sallust [Editor: illegibleword?] cited by Augustin, in his book of the City of God, lib. ii. c. 18.

*

Cic. Offic. lib. i. c. 42. Illiberales sordidiqustus mercenariorum omnium, quorum oper, non quorum artesemuntur: est enim illis ipsa merces auctoramentum servitutis. Themerchants, adds that author, raise no profit unless they falsity their word.Agriculture is the noblest of all arts, and most worthy of a man in a state offreedom.

They were obliged to serve ten years, between the age of sixteen years andforty-seven. Polyb. lib. vi.

Marius in order to obtain a commission for carrying on the war againstMithridates, in prejudice of Syllas pretensions, had, by the concurrenceof Sulpicius the tribune, incorporated the eight new tribes of the people ofItaly, into the ancient, which rendered the Italians masters of the suffrages;and the generality of that people espoused the party of Marius, whilst thesenate and the ancient citizens engaged in the interest of Sylla.

*

See in Catilines conspiracy, the description of Sallust has given usof that army.

Fugatis Marii copiis, primus urbem Romam cum armis ingressusest. A fragment of John of Antioch, in his extract of the virtues andvices.

At the beginning of the wars, the lands of the vanquished enemies wereparcelled among the army; but Sylla made the same division of those whichbelonged to the citizens.

Offices, lib. ii. c. 8.

*

Agreeably to what happened after the death of Csar.

*

Fragment of Sallust.

*

See Plutarch.

*

See Plutarchs life of Pompey.

This is well cleared up in Appians history of the civil war, lib. iv.The army of Octavius and Antony would have perished by sam ne, if their enemieshad not given them battle.

*

Familiar letters, lib. xv.

*

He abolished the office of tribunes of the people.

*

See the letters of Cicero and Servius Sulpicus.

Decanus, Brutus, Caius Casca, Trebonius, Tullius Cimber, Minutius, Basilius,were Csars friends. Appian. De bello civili, lib. ii.

*

See the letter of Brutus, in the collection of Ciceros letters.

*

That action would not have been unprecedented; for when Tiberius Gracehuswas slain, Lucretius the edile, who was afterwards called Vesallo, threw hisbody into the Tyber. Aurel, Victor, de viris illust.

*

Letters to Atticus, lib. xiv. c. 6.

See more on this subject, in the letters of Cicero to Atticus, lib. v. andthe remark of the abb de Mongaut.

Dion. relates that the triumviri, who all expected the same deisication,took all imaginable care to enlarge the honours paid to Csar.

*

Esse quam videri bonus malebat : iatque quo minus gloriampetebat [Editor: illegible word] magis illam assequebatur. Sallust. bell.Catil.

*

He was Csars heir, and his son by adoption.

So inveterate was their cruelty, that they commanded every individual amongthe people to rejoice at the proscriptions on pain of death. Dion.

Eorum qui de se statuebant humebantur corpora, manebanttestamenta; pretium festinandi. Tacit. An. vi.

*

If Charles I. and James II. had been educated in a religion which would havepermitted them to destroy themselves, the one would not have submitted to sucha death, nor the other to such a life.

*

The abb de St. Real.

*

Dion. lib. i.

*

Csar made war with the Gauls, and Crassus with the Parthians, withoutany previous deliberation of the senate, or any decree of the people. Dion.

*

I use this word in the sense of the Greeks and Romans, who gave this name toall those who had subverted a democracy, for in all other particulars Augustuswas a lawful prince, after the law enacted by the people: Legeregia, qu de ejus imperio lata est, Populus ei in eum amnaimperium transtulit. instit. lib. 1.

*

Triumphal ornaments were all the honours now granted to any particulargeneral. Dion. in Aug.

The Romans having changed their government, without sustaining any invasionfrom an enemy, the same customs continued as were practised before thealteration of the government, the form of which still remained though theessentials were destroyed.

Dion in Aug. lib. liv. acquaints us that Agrippa neglected, out of modesty,to give the senate an account of his expedition against the people of theBosphorus, and even resused a triumph; since which time it was not granted toany person of his class; but it was a favour Augustus intended to affordAgrippa, though Antony would not allow it to Ventidius, the first time heconquered the Parthians.

Sueton. in August.

∥

Justin. Institut. lib. i. Suet. in Aug.

*

Dion. in Aug.

Dionys. Halicarnass. lib. iv.

See Tacit. Annal. lib. xiii.

*

He ordered that the prtorian soldiers should have five thousanddrachmas a piece after sixteen years service, and the others three thousanddrachmas after twenty years. Dion. in Aug.

See Tacit. Annal. lib. xiv.

*

Before the time of the emperors, the senate confined their attention topublic affairs, and never decided the causes of private persons in a fullbody.

*

The great men were impoverished even in the time of Augustus, and no longersolicited for the office of dile, or tribune of the people; and many ofthem had not any inclination to have a seat among the senators.

Tacit. Annal. lib. i. Dion. lib. liv. They were afterwards reestablished,and then annulled by Caligula.

*

[Under the reign of Tiberius, statues were erected to, and triumphantornaments conserred on informers, which debased these honours to such a degree,that those who had merited them, disdained to accept of them. Fragm. of Dio,lib. lviii. LEsprit des Loix, lib. viii. c. 7.

*

See Tacitus.

*

See the institutes of Justinian, where they treat of the power of parentsand masters.

The duke of Braganza had an immense estate in Portugal; and when he firstrevolted, the king of Spain was congratulated by his nobility for the richconfiscation he was to derive from that event.

*

The Greeks had games in which it was decent to fight, and glorious toconquer: the Romans had little more than spectacles; and the infamousgladiators were peculiar to them. But for a great person to descend into theArena or mount the stage, was what the Roman gravity did not admit of. Howshould a senated submit to it; he, who by the laws could not contract anyalliance with men who had been disgraced by the disgusts or even the applausesof the people? Some emperors, however, appeared in these places; and this follywhich indicated an extreme irregularity of the heart, a contempt for all thatis, great, decent, and good, historians ever brand with the mark oftyranny.

*

See Tacitus.

*

Tacitus Annal. lib. i.

Ctera senatui servanda, ibid.

See the oration of Germanicus. ibid.

∥

Gaudebat cdibus miles. quasi semet absolveret: Tacitus, ibid. The privileges which had been extorted, were afterwards revoked.Tacitus ibid.

Tacitus, lib. i.

**

Idem, lib. iii.

*

See in Livy the sums distributed in the several triumphs. It was the humourof the generals to carry a great deal of money into the public treasury andgive but little to the soldiers.

Paulus milius, at a time when the greatness of the conquests hadoccasioned there liberalities to be augmented, gave only one hundred denarii toeach private man; but Csar gave two thousand, and his example wasfollowed by Antony and Octavius, by Brutus and Cassius. See Dio and Appian.

Suscepere duo manipulares imperium populi Romanitransferendum, et transtulerunt. Tacit. lib. i.

*

The country did not produce any trees large enough to be wrought intoengines proper for the siege of towns. Plut. life of Antonin is.

*

See Herodians life of Alexander.

*

Augustin. De civit. Dei. lib. iv. c. 23 29.

*

Herodians life of Severus.

This fatality continued in the reign of Alexander. Artaxerxes, whore-established the Persian empire, made it formidable to the Romans, becausetheir soldiers, either through caprice or a libertine disposition, deserted ingreat multitudes to the king of Persia.

Namely, the Persians, who followed their example.

∥

Severus defeated the Asiatic legions of Niger, Constantine those ofLicinius; Vespasian, though proclaimed by the armies of Syria, made war againstVitellius only with the legions of Mœsia, Pannonia, and Dalmatia.Cicero, when he was at his province, wrote to the senate, that they should notreckon on the levies raised in this country. Constantine defeated Maxentius,says Zozimen, by his cavalry only. See hereafter chap. xxii.

Augustus fixed the legions to particular stations in the provinces. Thelevies were originally raised at Rome, after that among the Latins, in Italynext, and last of all in the provinces.

*

Seven thousand myriads. Dion. in Macrinus.

The Attic drachm was the same with the Roman denarius, the eighth part of anounce, and the sixty-fourth part of our maic.

He raised it in proportion as seventy-five is to an hundred.

∥

Annal. lib. i.

Life of Jul. Cs.

**

Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 13. Instead of giving ten ounces of copper for twenty,they paid sixteen. [The author should have said, instead of ten asses of brass of two ounces each, they paid only xvi asses of one ounce each [Editor: illegible]

*

A soldier in the Mostellaria of Plautus, says it wasthree asses; which can be understood only of asses of ten ounces. But if thepay was exactly six asses in the first Punic war, it was not diminished in thesecond a fifth, but a sixth, and the fraction was omitted

Polybius, who reduces the pay to Greck money, differs only by afraction.

See Orosius and Suetonius in Domitian. They say thesome thing under different words I have reduced the terms to ounces of brass,that I might be understood without having recourse to the several species ofthe Roman Money.

∥

Cic. Offic. lib. 2.

*

lius Lampridius in vita Alexandri Severi.

See the abridgment of Xiphil. in the life of Adrian, and Herodian in thelife of Severus.

*

At this time every one thought himself good enough to rise to empire. SeeDial. lxxix.

See Lampridius.

*

Casaubon observes, on the Historia Augusta, that during the period of 160years which it comprehends, there were seventy persons, who justly orotherwise, had the title of Csar. Adeo erant in illoPrincipatu, quem tamem omnes mirantur, comitia Imperii semper incerta. Souncertain, to the astonishment of all, were the elections in that empire. Whichcircumstance sufficiently manifests the difference between the Roman governmentand that of France, where, for the long space of twelve hundred years, no morethan sixty three kings have reigned.

*

See Julius Capitolinus.

*

This may serve for an answer to the famous question, Why the North is nolonger to populous as formerly?

*

An hundred and fifty years after this event, the Barbarians invaded theempire, in the reign of Honorius.

*

See Orosius, lib. vii. and Aurelius Victor.

Expatiantia tecta multos addidere urbes, says Plin.Nat. Hist. lib. iii.

Coin, says Tacitus, was formerly exported from Italy to the distantprovinces, and it is not a barren land now; but we cultivate Africa and Egypt,and choose to expose the lives of the Roman people to danger.

*

Seuton. in August. Oros. lib. vi. Rome often met with these revolutions. Ihave before observed, that the treasures brought hither from Macedonia, suerseded all farther tribute. Cicero in his Offices, lib.ii.

Tacitus, De moribus Germanorum, declares this inexpress terms. Besides, We know pretry nearly the time in which most of themines of Germany were opened. See Thomas Sesreiberus of the origin of the minesof the Harts. Those of Saxony are thought to be less ancient.

*

See Pliny Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 77.

The Carthaginians, says Diodorus, understood very well the art of making anadvantage of them; and the Romans that of hindering others from making suchadvantage.

This account of Constantines proceedings no ways contradicts theecclesiastical writers, who declare they confine themselves to those actions ofthis prince which had any relation to religion, without concerning themselveswith the political transactions in that reign. Euseb. Life of Constantine, libi. c. 9. Socrates, lib. 1. c. 1.

*

Zozimus, lib. ii.

After the establishment of Christianity, the combats of gladiators were veryseldom exhibited, and Constantine prohibited them by his authority; but thisbarbarous custom was not entirely abolished till the time of Honorius. TheRomans retained nothing of their ancient shews, but what tended to emascolatetheir minds, and allure them to pleasure. In former times, the soldiers beforethey took the field, were entertained with a combat of gladiators, tofamiliarise them to the fight of blood and weapons of war, and to inspire themwith intrepidity when they engaged the enemy. Jul. Capit. Life of Maximus andBalbinus.

Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xvi. xvii. and xviii.

∥

Ammian. Marcellin. ibid.

See the noble panegyric made by Ammianus Marcellinus on this prince, lib.xxv.

*

Zozimus, lib. iv.

Jornandes de rebus Geticis. The Miscellaneous Hist. ofProcopius.

*

Vide Sozomen, lib. vi.

Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxix.

Several of those who had received these orders abandoned themselves to abrutal passion for some of the male refugees; others were ensnared by thebeauty of the young barbarians of the other sex, and became the captives oftheir female slaves; a third sort were corrupted by presents in money, linenhabits, and fringed mantles; and all their thoughts only tended to enrich theirhouses with slaves, and to stock their farms with cattle. Hist. ofDexippus.

∥

See the Gothic history by Priscus, who has set this difference of customs ina clear light. It may be asked perhaps, how it was possible for nations whonever cultivated their lands, to be so powerful, when those of America are sovery weak: it is because people who follow a pastoral life are furnished with abetter subsistence than those who live by the chace.

It appears by the account given by Ammianus Marcellinus, that the Hun , in their first settlements, did not manure their lands, andonly subsisted on their flocks and herds, in a country that abounded with richpastures, and was watered with many rivers; such is the practice of theinhabitants of little Tartary, which is part of the same country. And it isprobable that the nations we have been speaking of, having, after theiremigrations from their native land, settled in countries that afforded littleor no pasture for their cattle, applied themselves to the cultivation of thesoil.

*

See Zozimus, lib. iv. Se also Dexippuss Extract of the Embassies ofConstantine Porphyrogenitus.

At first they gave all to the soldiers; afterwards all to the enemy.

*

Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxiv.

Idem, lib. xxvi.

You would willingly be rich, said Julian to his mutinousarmy, there is Persia for your purpose, let us march thither; for, believeme, all the riches of the Roman republic are now no more: our poverty is owingto those who persuaded our princes to purchase peace from the Barbarians. Ourtreasury is exhausted, our cities are in ruins, and our provinces look dreadfulwith desolation. An emperor who knows no riches but those of the mind, is notashamed to acknowledge a virtuous and irreproachable poverty. You may revolt ifyou are so disposed; for my part, either death shall relieve me, for I scorn alife of which the least fever can deprive me as effectually as my sword, or Iwill retire from the world; for I have not passed my days in such a manner, asto be incapable of a private life. Amm. Marcell. lib. xxiv.

*

This observation is made by Vegetius; and it appears from Livy, that if theauxiliaries sometimes exceeded the Romans in number, the superiority was veryinconsiderable.

*

De re Militari, lib. i. c. 20.

*

The cavalry of the Tartars, without observing any of our military maxims,has at all times performed great things. See the histories, and particularlythose of the conquest of China.

*

They would not submit to the Roman discipline. See Ammianus Marcellinus, libxxiii. who relates it as an extraordinary circumstance, that they condescendedin one instance to please Julian, who intended to fortify several placesbelonging to the state.

This was not to be wondered at, in that mixture of nations who had been usedto a wandering life, and had no knowledge of any country of their own, sinceentire bodies of them would frequently side with the enemy who had conqueredthem, even against their own nation. See Procopiuss account of the Gothsunder Viliges.

*

See his whole fifth book, De Gubernatione Dei. See alsoin the account of the Embassy written by Priscus, the speech of a Roman who hadsettled among the Huns, on his happiness in that country.

See Salvian, lib. v. and the laws of the Code, and the Digest on them.

*

Lactantius, De morte persecutor.

Letter of Symmach. lib. x. 4.

*

Of Gods government.

Of the city of God.

*

History of the Goths, and relation of the embassy written by Priscus. Thisemperor was Theodosius the younger.

History of the Goths. H sedes regis barbariem totamtenentis; bc captis civitatibus habitacula prponebat. Thiswas the mansion in which the monarch of all the Barbarian nations resided; thisthe habitation which he prefrered to the stately cities he had conqueredJornandes, De rebus Geticis.

It appears by the account given by Priscus, that the court of Attila hadsome thoughts of subjecting even the Persians.

*

Jornandes and Priscus have drawn the character of this prince, and describedthe manners of his court.

*

The Goths were a very destructive nation, they destroyed all the husbandmenin Thrace, and cut off the hands of every charioteer. Byzantine history ofMalchus, in the extract of the embassies.

See in the chronicles, collected by Andrew du Chesne, the condition of thisprovince, towards the end of the ninth, or beginning of the tenth century.Script. Norman Hist. Veteres.

*

The Goths, as we have intimated, did not cultivate their lands.

The Vandals called them Trulli, which was the name of a small measure,because they once sold them such a measure of corn very dear, in a famine.Olimpiador in Biblioth. Phot. lib xxx.

Priscus relates in his history, that markets were established by treaties onthe banks of the Danube.

When the Goths sent to desire Zeno to receive Theuderic the son of Triariesinto his alliance, on the terms accorded by him to Theuderic the son ofBalamer, the senate being consulted on this occasion, said, the revenues of theempire were not sufficient to support two Gothic nations, and that the allianceof only one of them was to be consented to. Malchuss history, in theextract of the embassies.

∥

This partition of the empire was very prejudicial to the affairs of thewestern Romans. Priscus, lib. ii.

*

Honorius was informed, that the Visigoths had made a descent into thewestern empire, after an alliance with Arcadius. Procop. of the Vandal war.

Lib. ii.

Priscus, ibid.

∥

Procopius, in his war with the Vandal.

Priscus, lib. ii.

**

See Jornandes, De rebus Geticis, c. xxxvi.

This appeared more especially in the war between Constantinus andLicinius.

Priscus, lib. ii.

*

In the time of Honorius, Alaric, who besieged Rome, obliged that city toenter into an alliance with him, even against the emperor, who was in nocondition to oppose it. Procop. War of the Goths, lib. i. Zozim. lib. vi.

Zozim. lib. vi.

*

Precop. war of the Vandals, lib. i.

Ibid. lib. ii.

In the time of Honorius.

∥

Byzantine history, in the extract of the embassies.

See Procopiuss history of the wars of the Vandals, lib. i. and hiswar of the Goths. lib. i. The Gothic bowmen sought on foot and were butindifferently disciplined.

*

The Romans, having suffered their infantry to be weakened, placed all theirforce in the horse, and the more so because they were obliged to springsuddenly to every part, to check the incursions of the Barbarians.

A remarkable passage of Jornandes tells us all these discriminatingcircumstances, having occasion to mention the battle between the Gepidand the sons of Attila.

*

Justinian only granted him a triumph for Africa.

*

See Suidas, under the article Belisarius.

The two empires ravaged each other the more, because they had no hopes ofsecuring their conquests.

*

The empress Theodora.

*

This political distemper was of ancient date; for Seutonius tells us, thatCaligula, because he was attached to the Green faction, hated the people whoapplauded the other.

the reader may form a good idea of the spirit of those times, by consultingTheophanes, who relates a long conversation in the theatre between the emperorand the Greens.

*

See the Institutes of Justinian.

*

Lib. iv. c. 10.

Augustus established nine such frontiers, the number of which increased inthe following reigns, when the Barbarians began to appear in several parts; andDion. lib. lv. says, that in his time, when Alexander was emperor, there werethirty, as appears by the Noritia Imperii, written since the reigns of Arcadiusand Honorius: there were fifteen even in the eastern empire, and the number wasperpetually increasing. Papmhylia, Lycaonia, and Pisidia were made frontiers,and the whole empire was covered with fortifications, till at last Aurelian wasobliged to fortify Rome itself.

*

And the English.

The Huns.

Call d the Caspian Streights.

Procopius of the Persian war, lib. i.

*

Merandas embassies.

*

Zeno greatly contributed to this mean relaxation of justice. See theByzantine history of Malchus, cited in the extracts of the embassies.

See the life of Andronicus Comnenus, compiled by Nicetas.

*

Zozim. lib. iv.

See the account given by Zosimus of the cavalry of Aurelian, and that ofPalmyra. See likewise what Ammianus Marcellinus relates of the Persiancavalry.

*

The greatest part of that country was then covered with water, but the artof man has since made it habitable and commodious.

See Ammiar. Marcellin. lib. xxvii.

Csar represents the German horses as too small, and good forlittle.

∥

Zonarass life of Constantine the Boarded.

*

History of the emperor Maurice by Theophylact, lib. ii. c. iii.

Ockleys history of the conquest of Syria, Persia, and Egypt, by theSaracens.

Life of Lecapena by Zoraras.

∥

Life of John Commenus, by Nicetas.

*

Valens, many years before this events, made a law to compel the Monks toserve the government in the army in times of war, and caused all who disobeyedthat injunction, to be slain

These circumstances relating to the monks, cannot fix any criminalimputation on their order in general; for it would be unjust to represent aninstitution as pernicious, because it may happen to be abused in someparticular countries and at certain periods of time.

Leo the grammarians lives of Leo the Arminian, and Theophilus.Suidas, under the article of Constantine the son of Leo.

*

Lib. iv.

Vide Pachymer, lib. viii.

*

See the lives of Basilius and Leo by Zonaras and Nicephorus.

Pachymer. lib. vii.

Pachymer. lib. vii. c. 29. We have had recourse to the translation of thepresident Cousin.

*

Palologus. See the history of the two emperors of this name writtenby Cantacuzenus, lib. i. c. 50.

*

Cantacuzen. lib. iii. c. 99.

Hist. of the last Palologi by Ducas.

The question in debate was, whether a congregation, who heard mass from apriest who had consented to pacific measures, ought not to have sied from himas if he had been a destructive flame. The great church was accounted aprophane temple, and the monk Gennadius hurled his anathemas against all whowere desirous of peace.

∥

Andronicus Palologus.

*

Pachymer. lib. vii.

*

Epist. ad Attic. lib. iv.

*

They insest the navigation of the Italians in the Mediterranean.

All projects of this nature against the Turks, and particularly such as haveany similitude to that which was formed in the papacy of Leo tenth, by which itwas concerted, that the emperor should march to Constantinople through Bosnia;the king of France through Albania and Greece, whilst the maritime powers wereto embark at their several ports; I say, such projects were never seriouslyintended, or were framed at least by those who were altogether unacquaintedwith the true constitution of Europe.

*

History of Manuel Comnenus by Nicetas, lib. i.

Nicet. History of the eastern transactions, of the taking of Constantinople,c. 3.

*

Cantacuzen. lib. iv.

*

Pachymer. lib. vii.

Catacuzen. lib. 3. c. 96. Pachymer. lib. xi. c. 9.

This circumstance gave birth to a northern tradition related by Jornandesthe Goth: that Phillimer, king of the Goths, having made an inroad into theCeltic territories, found several women who were sorceresses and drove them toa great distance from his army; after which, those female magicians wandered inthe deserts, where that species of Dmons called Incubi, consorted withthem, and by their amorous familiarities, produced the nation of the Huns. Genus ferocissimum, quod fuit primum inter paludes, minutum,tetrum, atque exile, nec aliud vcce notum, nisi qu humani scrmonisimaginem assignabat. i. e. A fierce and savage people, who livedsequestered from the rest of mankind, among sens and marshes, ghastly andhaggard in their persons, and whose voices were only an imperfect articulationof human speech.

∥

Michael Ducass hist. of John Manuel, John and Constantine, c. b.Constantine Porphyrogenitus observes, at the beginning of his extract of theembassies, that when the Barbarians came to Constantinople, the Romans ought tohave been very cautious of shewing them the grandeur of their riches, and thebeauty of their wives.

*

See the history of the emperors John Palologus and John Cantacuzenus,written by Cantacuzenus.

*

The Persian women are much more closely kept than those among the Turks andIndians.

*

A Mahometan tradition.

*

This is likewise a Mahometan tradition.

*

These are probably the knights of Malta.

*

The Persian women wear four.

*

Ispahan.

*

Lent.

*

The Persians are of a more tolerating spirit than the other Mahometans.

*

This may be true according to the absurd ideas of them which Mahometismteaches; but by no means so with respect to that idea which the Christianrevelation gives of them.

*

Hagi signifies one who hath been on pilgrimage to Mecca.

*

A Turk.

A Jew.

An Armenian.

*

An order which they publish in Persia, when women of quality are removed, toforbid any mans being in the way.

*

M. de Montesquien speaks of himself here in the person of Usbek.

*

These customs are altered.

*

A sect of fire-worshippers among the Persians. The curious reader may see afarther account of them in Prideauxs Connection, and CalmetsDictionary.

*

This letter is not only a satire on the French academy, but on all others,who pretend to fix the standard of a living, and consequently a fluctuatinglanguage.

The author means the great French dictionary, published by that academy.

The dictionary of Mr. Nuretiere, which he stole from the academy, andpublished before theirs came out; for which base action they expelled him.

*

This is supposed to allude to Mr. Granier, another member of the academy,who defrauded an orphan of a large sum of money: for which they likewiseexpelled him.

*

The Mahometans have no desire to take Venice, because they would not havewater there proper for their purifications.

*

This letter, not in the former edition, seems to be added by the author, inanswer to the sormer, in which he appears as a defender of suicide.

*

Juan de Castro.

*

Las Batuecas.

*

The porters at the noblemens houses in France being generally Swiss.

*

Louis XIV, who died September 1, 1715.

*

A kind of Mahometan monk.

*

He means the quarrel of Ramus.

*

A. D. 1610.

*

Cardinal Mazarine was an Italian by birth.

The Cardinal being to pronounce the edict of the Union, he called it, beforethe deputies of the parliament, the edict of the Onion, which made the publicvery merry.

The fin of his being born a foreigner.

*

The former editions bad here as follows:We must not thereforepretend to count the years of the world; the number of the grains of sandupon the sea-shore, is no more to be compared to them than oneinstant.

*

Peculium (from peculum, a littlestock): this was among the Romans the stock of him who was in subjection toanother, as a child of the family, or a slave; it consisted of what he was ableto acquire by his own industry, without any assistance from his father, ormaster, but with his permission only.

*

I suppose he means monks and nuns.

*

I suppose he means that small portion of Latin necessary to say mass.

*

The original is very obscure; ancantes:dans leTyen. As by Tyen, the Chinese not only mean theSovereign Lord of all things, but also call the father of a family Tyen; perhaps the sense of the passage is this;they believe that their parents souls extinct in the Tyen, that is, in the father, refume a newlife. I hazard this conjecture, and if mistaken, should be glad ofbetter information from any intelligent reader.

*

The author perhaps means the island of Bourbon.

*

Cardinal Alberoni, who persuaded the king of Spain to fall upon the emperor,A. D. 1717, when he was engaged in a war with the Turks.

*

Baron Gortz.

*

A former edition had here as follows: There are many things in itwhich I do not understand; but you, who are a physician, must be acquaintedwith the language of your brethren.

*

See the last note.

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CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CAUSES OF THE GRANDEUR AND DECLENSION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAP. I.: The Infancy of Rome. The Wars it sustained.

CHAP. II.: Of the Science of War, as practised by the Romans.

CHAP. III.: The Methods by which the Romans raised themselves to Empire.

CHAP. IV.: Of the Gauls. Of Pyrrhus. Parallel between Carthage and Rome. The War of Hannibal.

CHAP. V.: The State of Greece, of Macedonia, of Syria, and of Egypt, after the Depression of Carthage.

CHAP. VI.: The Conduct which the Romans observed, in order to subdue all Nations.

CHAP. VII.: How it was possible for Mithridates to resist the Romans.

CHAP. VIII.: Of the Divisions which always subsisted in the City.

CHAP. IX.: Two Causes which destroyed Rome.

CHAP. X.: Of the Corruption of the Romans.

CHAP. XI.: Of Sylla, Pompey, and Csar.

CHAP. XII.: Observations on the State of Rome after the Death of Csar.

CHAP. XIII.: AUGUSTUS.

CHAP. XIV.: TIBERIUS.

CHAP. XV.: Remarks on the Emperors, from Caius Calicula to Antoninus.

CHAP. XVI.: Considerations on the State of the Empire from Antoninus to Probus.

CHAP. XVII.: Changes in the STATE.

CHAP. XVIII.: An Account of some new maxims received by the Romans.

CHAP. XIX.: Some Particulars of the Grandeur of Attila. The establishment of the Barbarians accounted for. Reasons why the Western Empire was overturned before that in the east.

CHAP. XX.: The Conquests of Justinian. Some Account of his Government.

CHAP. XXI.: Disorders in the Eastern Empire.

CHAP. XXII.: The weakness of the Eastern Empire.

CHAP. XXIII.: The Duration of the Eastern Empire accounted for. Its Destruction.

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN SYLLA AND EUCRATES.

PERSIAN LETTERS. by M. DE MONTESQUIEU.

PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS ON THE PERSIAN LETTERS, By M. DE MONTESQUIEU. Prefixed to the Quarto Edition.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST FRENCH EDITION.

CONTENTS TO THE PERSIAN LETTERS.

Usbk to his Friend Rustan at Ispahan.

Usbek to the First Black Eunuch, at his Seraglio in Ispahan.

Zachi to Usbek, at Tauris.

Zephis to Usbek at Erzeron.

Rustan to Usbek, at Erzeron.

Usbek to his Friend Nessir, at Ispahan.

Fatme to Usbek, at Erzeron.

Usbek to his Friend Rustan, at Ispahan.

The Chief Eunuch to Ibbi, at Erzeron.

Mirza to his Friend Usbek, at Erzeron.

Usbek to Mirza, at Ispahan.

Ushek to the Same, at Ispahan.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

The first Eunuch, to Jaron, the Black Eunuch, at Erzeron.

Usbek to Mollak Mehemet Ali, Guardian of the Three Tombs, at Com.

Usbek to the Same.

Mollak Mehemet Ali to Usbek, at Erzeron.

Usbek to his Friend Rustan, at Ispahan.

Usbek to Zachi, his Wife, at the Seraglio at Ispahan.

Usbek, to the chief White Eunuch.

Jaron to the first Eunuch.

Usbek to his Friend Ibben, at Smyrna.

Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Usbek to Roxana, at the Seraglio at Ispahan.

Usbek to Nessir, at Ispahan.

Rica to * * *.

Rica to Ibben at Smyrna.

Rica to the Same, at Smyrna.

Rhedi to Usbek, at Paris.

Rica to * * *.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Usbek to Gimchid, his Cousin, Dervise of the shining Monastery of Tauris.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Hagi * Ibbi to the Jew Ben-Joshua, a Mahometan Proselyte, at Smyrna.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

The Chief black Eunuch to Usbek.

Pharan to Usbek, his Sovereign Lord.

Usbek to Pharan, at the Gardens of Fatme.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Zachi to Usbek, at Paris.

Usbek * to Rhedi, at Venice.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

Rica to * * *.

Nargum the Persian Envoy residing at Muscovy, to Usbek at Paris.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

Zelis to Usbek, at Paris.

Rica, Usbek at * * *.

Rica to Ibben at Smyrna.

Usbek to Ibbin, at Smyrna.

Usbek, to Rhedi, at Venice.

Rica to Rhedi, at Venice.

Rica to Usbek, at A * * *.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Zelis to Usbek, at Paris.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

The Chief of the Black Eunuchs to Usbek at Paris.

Usbek to his Wives, at the Seraglio at Ispahan.

Rica to * * *.

Ibben to Usbek, at Paris.

The History of Apheridon and Astarte.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Zelis to Usbek, at Paris.

Usbek to Zelis.

Rica to Ibben, at * * *.

Rica to * * *.

Usbek to Rica, at * * *.

Uskek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Usbek to his Friend Ibben, at Smyrna.

Ibben to Usbek, at Paris.

Rica to Usbek, at ***.

The Chief black Eunuch to Usbek, at Paris.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Nargum, Envoy from Persia in Muscovy, to Usbek at Paris.

Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Rica to * * *.

Usbek to Mirza, at Ispahan.

Rica to * * *.

Rica to * * *.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Usbek to the same, at Smyrna.

Usbek to Rustan, at Ispahan.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Usbek to his Brother, Santon * in the Monastery of Casbin.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Usbek to the Same.

The Chief Eunuch to Usbek at Paris.

Usbek to Hassein, Dervise of the mountain of Jaron.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Rica to Rhedi, at Venice.

Rica to the Same.

Usbek to * * *.

Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

Redi to Usbek, at Paris.

Usbek to Redi, at Venice.

Rica to Ibben at Smyrna.

Usbek to * * *.

Rica to * * *.

Rica to * * *.

Usbek to * * *.

Rhedi to Esbek, at Paris.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to the Same.

Usbek to Mollak Mahomet Ali, Keeper of the Three Sepulchres, at Com.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Rica to * * *.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

Rica to * * *.

The Letter of an Intelligencer to the Minister.

Rhedi to Rica, at Paris.

Rica to * * *.

Rica to * * *.

Rica to the Same.

Rica to the Same.

Rica to the Same.

Rica to the Same.

Rica to Ibben at Smyrna.

Rica to the Same.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

Rica to the Same.

Rica to Usbek, at * * *.

Fragment of an ancient Mythologist.

Rica to Nathaniel Levi, a Jewish Physician at Leghorn.

A Letter from a Country Physician, to a Physician at Paris.

Usbek to Rica.

Usbek to * * *.

Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice.

The Chief Eunuch to Usbek at Paris.

Usbek to the Chief Eunuch at the Seraglio of Ispahan.

Narsit to Usbek, at Paris.

Usbek to Narsit, at the Seraglio of Ispahan.

Solin to Usbek, at Paris.

Narsit to Usbek, at Paris:

Usbek to Solin, at the Seraglio of Ispahan.

Usbek to his Wives, at the Seraglio of Ispahan.

Usbek to Nessir, at Ispahan.

Roxana to Usbek, at Paris.

Zachi to Usbek, at Paris.

Zelis to Usbek, at Paris.

Solin to Usbek, at Paris.

Solin to Usbek, at Paris.

Roxana to Usbek, at Paris.

THREE LETTERS OF M. DE MONTESQUIEU TO M. LE CHEVALIER DE BRUANT.