of the same nature. It will also be found that the principles of war are equally subversive of moral virtue, and tend equally to multiply crimes, increase human depravity, and spread corruption and violence through the land.

Is it not indeed a melancholy truth, that crimes of every description are invariably multiplied in a nation, in proportion as that nation devotes itself to the principles of war? And if the same warlike policy, attended with the same moral depravity, will produce the same effects, what can save this nation, or indeed any nation, which maintains the principles and cultivates the arts of war, from the frowns of Divine Justice, at the present day? Have they any greater assurance of Divine favor or protection than the ancient pagans had? Do they not pursue the same practices? Nay niore-do they not in practice violate their own better light, and reject the pacific doctrines of the Prince of peace, whose divine authority they profess to acknowledge? Do they not also violate the best principles of the christian religion, in which they profess to believe? This the ancient pagans did not do: for the christian religion had not then been revealed to man.

In the destruction of Babylon, the advocates of war may find a powerful lesson of instruction. It affords a most striking instance of the short-sighted policy-nay, the madness and folly of a nation's relying on military forces, martial skill, or any of the warlike preparations or means of defence generally resorted to, either in war or peace, for protection and safety against invading armies. Why then will warring rulers and military chieftains never learn wisdom? Why will they exhaust the treasures, and sacrifice the lives of nations in support of a fallacious principle which, in the event, has always proved their ruin.

In Babylon, this favorite principle of the warrior was fully tried, and utterly failed. Here military power and art -preparations and defences-strength and fortifications walls and ramparts-pomp and splendor, were all carried to the highest pitch-to the very zenith of human abilities; yet what was the result? Was Babylon protected or defended by these means? Did not her confident, but foolish reliance on these means prove her destruction, instead of her defence? This certainly cannot be disputed. And such has ever been the fate of nations who have cultivated wars, and put their trust in military defences.

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

The Persians were originally called Elamites, from Elam, the grandson of Noah. Tho an ancient nation, they do not appear to have been much distinguished in the scale of nations, previous to the time of Cyrus, when they began to distinguish themselves, in feats of war, under that celebrated leader. In the commencement of their military career, they are represented as a hardy race of people, inured to toil, simple in their manners, virtuous in principle, trained to obedience, and faithful in the discharge of their duty to their friends, their leaders and their laws.

Being trained and disciplined to arms, under skilful and active leaders, they became successful in war; and by associating with the Medes, and a few other allies, they soon acquired great reputation in their wars with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and other powerful nations, vastly superior to them in numbers. In consequence of these successes, under skilful generals, their military power greatly increased, and their martial fame was extended far and wide. Their military pride and ambition now rose to the highest pitch, and their passion for war and conquest became unbounded. In their military career, they overran a vast extent of country, and conquered many powerful nations.

But the ravages of war, and the spoils of conquered nations, tended only to exalt their pride, inflame their ambition, and increase their military excesses and savage cruelties, till at length they considered themselves masters of the world, and felt fully authorised by their vast military strength, and uniform success in war, to bring all other nations into subjection to their tyrannical power. The most numerous armies, perhaps, ever raised by any nation, were brought into the field.* Here we may see another striking proof that military ambition knows no bounds.

These immense armies, strengthened with a numerous and formidable fleet, hurried on by a boundless ambition for conquest, produced their natural consequences. Blood and

*The armies raised by Xerxes, in his expedition against the Grecians, amounted to 2,100,000 land forces, and upwards of 300,000 fighting men employed in his numerous fleet, consisting of 1,357 large gallies, besides a vast number of transport ships and smaller gallies for various other uses, which made the number of vessels amount to 3,000 in all. So that when Xerxes arrived at Thermopyle, his land and sea forces together, were estimated at 2,641,610 men, without including servants, eunuchs, wo men, and other people of that sort, who usually follow an army, of which the number at this time was considered equal to that of the forces: so that the whole number of souls that followed Xerxes, in his expedition, was estimated at 5,283,220. See Rollin's ane, hist. vol. iii, p. 187.

slaughter, destruction and misery, confusion and ruin, followed in their train. Not only the countries through which they passed, but even the ill-fated soldiers of these mighty armies, had to share in the general calamity, and drink deeply of the cup of affliction and misery which they occasioned. A vast portion of these huge armies lost their lives, their fleets were destroyed, and the remainder of their land forces hastily driven back to their own country. This adverse fortune of the Persians was evidently owing to the frowns of Divine Providence, combined with the efforts of a few small forces of the Grecians, comparatively insufficient in numbers to contend with the twentieth part of this mighty Persian army.

Tho the Persians had maintained their warlike character for many years, they at length lost their power, and fell by means of the very wars which they had excited. The vast treasures which they had amassed in their wars, from the spoils of other nations, were the means of introducing luxury and effeminacy into the nation. The long period in which they had been engaged in supporting and maintaining their wars, had sunk them deep in moral depravity. The incalculable injuries they had inflicted on other nations, had excited the implacable enmity of those nations, and led them to watch the first favorable opportunity to avenge themselves upon their Persian oppressors. All these circumstances combined to prepare the way for the destruction of that haughty nation.

From the time that the Persians invaded Greece, under Xerxes, their power began to decline. That expedition greatly weakened their forces, tarnished their military fame, and struck the first death blow to their power. Their allies soon began to desert them, and their enemies turned upon them; so that in their turn, they were compelled to suffer, in their own country, the same horrors of war which they had inflicted on other nations. By a successive train of disasters, their power was destroyed, their empire dissolved, and their immense treasures, the fruits of their military robberies, with the richest treasures of their own country, became the spoil of their conquerors. The city of Persepolis, the famous capital of the empire, one of the most splendid and magnificent cities ever built, after being despoiled of its immense riches, was burnt by its conqueror, Alexander the Great. That extensive country, through various revolutions, has been a theatre of blood and carnage, war and rapine, misery and wretchedness; so that, for ages, the real

descendants of that ancient and once powerful nation, have been unknown.

Thus, in the fate of this mighty empire, we may see another awful example of the fatal tendency of the spirit and principles of war, and a striking evidence that the higher a nation rises in military power and martial fame, the more certain she is to fall by the same means.

THE GRECIAN EMPIRE.

The ancient Grecians were once a powerful and warlike nation, who gloried in their military prowess, and evidently excelled most of the neighboring nations in the science of war. Their ambition, pride and lust of power, involved them in frequent and bloody wars, both foreign and domestic. Their mighty hero and madman of renown, Alexander the Great, to gratify his boundless ambition, and insatiable thirst for military fame, rushed, like an infuriated demon, through the world, conquering wherever he came, laying waste the fairest portions of the globe, and committing such shameful acts of barbarity and devastation, as would have forever disgraced the most notorious pirates and robbers. He obtained, indeed, the character of a famous conqueror; but his career of violence and wickedness was of short duration. In the midst of his conquests, and before he had reached the age of thirty-three years, he died by drunkenness, at Babylon.

Such was the fate of the greatest military hero known on ancient record, and supposed by many to be the greatest the world ever produced. His vast conquests were divided among four of his principal generals, into four great kingdoms. These followed the barbarous and savage example of their famous predecessor. War was their profession, military glory their passion, and conquest their object.Acting upon the principles of warring rulers, they considered a military attitude as indispensable to maintain their honor and independence, and the only means of protecting and defending a nation. Of course they were continually cultivating the art of war, and rendering themselves obnoxious to each other, by their military preparations and warlike achievements. Ambitious of power themselves, and jealous of the power of others, they were incessantly seeking opportunities to circumvent, harrass and destroy one another; and such were the horrid scenes of sanguinary battles, treacherous murders, carnage and spoilation, with

which they filled their own and each other's dominions, that they rendered the most populous parts of Europe and Asia, for a long period of time, almost a constant field of carnage and devastation.

These destructive wars produced their natural effects; distress and misery to millions, probably, of the suffering poor, the aged, and women and children; death or incurable wounds, to many hundreds of thousands of poor soldiers but haughtiness, pride and luxury, to the surviving rulers and officers, the wealthy contractors, and all who were left to fatten on the spoils and treasures of the conquered cities. and kingdoms; and we may add, a base depravity of morals, the natural effects of war, to all concerned in them. These things engendered in Greece the seeds of destruction, which sprung up in her own bowels, spread through all ranks and classes, corrupted every faculty of the soul, and extinguished every principle of real goodness that ever existed among them.Increasing in depravity and sensual indulgence, some of their diversions were cruel and inhuman in the highest degree; others base, ridiculous and shamefully degrading. Their principles of religion and religious ceremonies were filled with ridiculous and obscene fables, and acts of shameful debauchery, which rendered their sacred temples, like so many brothels, the most filthy scenes of pollution and obscenity. These things finally sunk the whole nation to the lowest state of depravity and moral infamy, drew upon her the vengeance of her enemies, and paved the way for her de

struction.

Thus fell the once famous nations of Greece, so renowned in history for arts and arms, so valiant in war, so skilled in science, and so enlightened in philosophy; a people whose improvements in philosophy, poetry, history, oratory, architecture, and all the fine arts, have resounded through all the world, and been the envy of aspiring nations to this day.

Here we have another proof of the fatal effects of war and military science, and of the utter inability of these pursuits to render a people prosperous and happy, or even to protect and defend a nation against an invading foe. No nation was ever more renowned for heroic bravery, and none before them ever carried the art of war to so high a pitch, and made it so regular a science. But so far from saving the nation, it proved the very means of blasting her power, destroying her character, and completing her ruin : so that these once noble Grecians have, for ages, been in a most degraded state of slavery."