candidates for places of power and truft, before and after their obtaining them. They folicit them in one manner, and execute them in another. They fet out with a great appearance of activity, humility, and moderation: and they quickly fall into floth, pride, and avarice. It is, undoubtedly, no eafy matter to difcharge, to the general fatisfaction, the duty of a fupreme commander in troublefome times. I am, I hope, duly fenfible of the importance of the office I propose to take upon me, for the service of my country. To carry on, with effect, an expenfive war, and yet be frugal of the public money; to oblige those to ferve, whom it may be delicate to offend; to conduct, at the fame time, a complicated variety of operations; to concert measures at home answerable to the ftate of things abroad; and to gain every valuable end, in fpite of oppo-fition from the envious, the factious, and the difaffected; to do all this, my countrymen, is more difficult, than is generally thought. And, befides the difadvantages which are common to me with all others in eminent stations, my cafe is, in this refpect, peculiarly hard; that whereas a commander of Patrician rank, if he is guilty of a neglect, or breach of duty, has his great connections, the antiquity of his family, the important fervices of his ancestors, and the multitudes he has by power engaged in his intereft, to fereen him from condign punishment: my whole fafety depends upon myfelf; which renders it the more indefpenfibly neceffary for me to take care, that my conduct be clear and unexceptionable. Befides, I am well aware, my countrymen, that the eye of the public is upon me; and that, though the impartial, who prefer the real advantage of the common wealth to all other confiderations, favour my pretenfions, the Patricians want nothing fo much, as an occafion against me. It is therefore, my fixed refolution, to use my beft endeavours, that you be not

disappointed in me, and that their indirect defigns against me may be defeated. I have, from my youth, been familiar with toils and dangers. I was faithful to your intereft, my countrymen, when I ferved you for no reward, but that of honour. It is not my design to betray you now that you have conferred upon me a place of profit. You have committed to my conduct the war against Jugurtha. The Patricians are offended at this. But where would be the wifdom of giving fuch a command to one of their honourable body, a perfon of illuftrious birth, of ancient family, of innumerable ftatues, but-of no experience? What fervice would his long line of dead ancestors, or his multitude of motionless ftatues, do his country in the day of battle? What could such a general do, but, in his trepidation and inexperience, have recourse to some inferior commander, for direction in difficulties, to which he was not himself equal? Thus, your Patrician general · would, in fact, have a general over him; fo that the acting commander would still be a Plebian. So true is this, my countrymen, that I have my felf known thofe, who have been chofen confuls, begin then to read the hiftory of their own country, of which, till that time they were totally ignorant; that is, they firft obtained the employment, and then bethought themselves of the qualifications neceffary for the proper difcharge of it. I fubmit to your judgment, Romans, on which fide the advantage lies, when a comparifon is made between Patrician haughtiness, and Plebian experience. The very action which they have only read, I have partly feen, and partly myfelf achieved. What they know by reading, I know by action. They are pleased to flight my mean birth: I defpife their mean characters. Want of birth and fortune is the objection against me: want of perfonal worth against them. But are not all men of the fame fpecies? What can make a difference between one man and another, but the endow

ments of the mind? For my part, I fhall always look upon the bravest man as the noblett man. Suppose it were enquired of the fathers of fuch Patricians as Albinus and Beitia, whether, if they had their choice, they would defire fons of their character, or of mine; what would they anfwer, but that they thould with the worthiest to be their fons? If the Patricians have reafon to despise me, let them likewife defpife their ancestors, whofe nobility was the fruit of their virtue. Do they envy the honours bestowed upon me? Let them envy likewife my labours, my abstinence, and the dangers I have undergone for my country; by which I have acquired them. But thofe worthless men lead fuch a life of inactivity, as if they despised any honours you can beltow; whilst they aspire to honours, as if they had deserved them by the most industrious virtue, They arrogate the rewards of activity for their having enjoyed the pleasures of luxury. Yet none can be more lavith than they are, in praise of their ancestors. And they imagine they honour themselves by celebrating their forefathers. Whereas they do the very contrary. For, as much as their ancestors were diftinguished for their virtues, so much are they disgraced by their vices. The glory of ancestors cafts a light, indeed, upon their posterity but it only ferves to fhow what the defcendants are. It alike exhibits to public view their degeneracy and their worth. I own, I cannot boaft of the deeds of my forefathers: but I hope I may answer the cavils of the Patricians, by ftanding up in defence of what I have myself done. Obferve, now, my countrymen, the injustice of the Patricians. They arrogate to themselves honours on account of the exploits done by their forefathers, whilft they will not allow me the due praise for performing the very fame fort of actions in my own perfon. He has no statues, they cry, of his family. He can trace no venerable line of ancestors.-What then! Is it matter of more praife to dif

grace one's illuftrious ancestors than to become illuftrious by his own good behaviour? What if I can fhow no statues of my family? I can show the standards, the armour, and the trappings, which I have myself taken from the vanquished; I can fhow the fcars of those wounds, which I have received by facing the enemies of my country. These are my ftatues. These are the honours I boast of; not left me by inheritance, as theirs; but earned by toil, by abftinence, by valour, amidst clouds of duft, and feas of blood; fcenes of action, where those effeminate Patricians, who endeavour, by indirect means, to depreciate me in your esteem, have never dared to fhow their faces.

SALLUST.

CHAPTER IV.

CALISTHENES' REPROOF OF CLEON's
FLATTERY TO ALEXANDER.

Ir the king were prefent, Cleon, there would be no need
of my answering to what you have juft proposed. He would
himself reprove you for endeavouring to draw him into an
imitation of foreign abfurdities, and for bringing envy up-
on him by fuch unmanly flattery. As he is abfent, I take
upon me to tell you in his name, that no praife is lafting,
but what is rational; and that you do what you can to
leffen his glory, inftead of adding to it. Heroes have ne-
ver, among us, been deified, till after their death. And
whatever may be your way of thinking, Cleon, for my
part, I wish the king may not, for many years to come
obtain that honour. You have mentioned, as precidents
of what you propofe, Hercules and Bacchus. Do you
imagine, Cleon, that they were deified over a cup of wine?
And are you and I qualified to make gods? Is the king,
our fovereign, to receive his divinity from you
and me,
who are his fubjects? First try your power, whether you

can make a king. It is furely easier to make a king, than a god! to give an earthly dominion, than a throne in hea ven. I only wish, that the gods may have heard without offence, the arrogant propofal you have made, of adding one to their number; and that they may fill be so propitions to us, as to grant the continuance of that success to our affairs, with which they have hitherto favoured us. For my part, I am not ashamed of my country; nor do I approve of our adopting the rites of foreign nations, or learning from them how we ought to reverence our kings. To receive laws, or rules of conduct from them, what is it, but to confefs ourselves inferior to them?

CHAPTER V.

QUINTUS CURTIUS.

THE SCYTHIAN AMBASSADORS TO

ALEXANDER.

Ir your person were as gigantic as your defires, the world would not contain you. Your right hand would touch the eaft, and your left the west, at the same time. You grafp at more than you are equal to. From Europe you reach Afia: from Afia you lay hold on Europe. And if you fhould conquer all mankind, you feem difpofed to wage war with woods and fnows, with rivers and wild beafts, and to attempt to fubdue nature. But have you confidered the ufual courfe of things? Have you reflected, that great trees are many years in growing to their height, and are cut down in an hour. It is foolish to think of the fruit. only, without confidering the height you have to climb, to come at it. Take care left, while you firive to reach the top, you fall to the ground, with the branches you have laid hold on. The lion, when dead, is devoured by ravens : and ruft confumes the hardness of iron. There is nothing fo ftrong, but it is in danger from what is weak. It will