such fleets as the sea could hardly contain: and, on the other hand, two weak cities, Athens and Lacedemon, abandoned by all their allies, and left almost entirely to themselves; have we not reason to believe, that these two little cities are going to be utterly destroyed and swallowed up by so formidable an enemy; and that there will not be so much as any footsteps of them left remaining? And yet we shall find that they prove victorious; and by their invincible courage, and the battles they gained, both by sea and land, made the Persian empire lay aside all thoughts of ever turning their arms against Greece any more.

The history of the war between the Persians and the Greeks will illustrate the truth of this maxim, that it is not the number, but the valour of the troops, and the conduct of the generals, on which depend the success of military expeditions. The reader will admire the surprising courage and intrepidity of the great men at the head of the Grecian affairs, whom neither all the world in motion against them could deject, nor the greatest misfortunes disconcert; who undertook with an handful of men to make head against innumerable armics; who, notwithstanding such a prodigious inequality of forces, durst hope for success; who even compelled victory to declare on the side of merit and virtue; and taught all succeeding generations what infinite resources and expedients are to be found in prudence, valour, and experience; in a zeal for liberty and our country; in the love of our duty; and in all the sentiments of noble and generous souls.

This war of the Persians against the Grecians will be followed by another among the Greeks themselves, but

of a very different kind from the former. In the latter, there will scarce be any actions but what in appearance are of little consequence, and seemingly unworthy of a reader's curiosity, who is fond of great events. In this he will meet with little besides private quarrels between certain cities, or some small commonwealths; some inconsiderable sieges, except that of Syracuse, one of the most important related in ancient history, though several of these sieges were of considerable duration; some battles between armies, where the numbers were small, and but little blood shed. What is it then that has rendered these wars so famous in history? Sallust informs us in these words: "The actions of the Athenians doubtless were great, and yet I believe they were somewhat less than fame is for having us to conceive of them. But because Athens had noble writers, the acts of that republic are celebrated throughout the whole world as the most glorious; and the gallantry of those heroes who performed them, has had the good fortune to be thought as transcendent as the eloquence of those who have described them."

Sallust, though jealous enough of the glory the Romans had acquired by a series of distinguished actions, with which their history abounds, yet he does justice in this passage to the Grecians, by acknowledging that their exploits were truly great and illustrious,

Atheniensium res gestæ, sicuti ego existimo, satis ample magnificæque fuerunt: verum aliquanto minores tamen, quam famâ feruntur. Sed quia provenere ibi scriptorum magna ingenia, per terrarum orbem Atheniensium facta pro maximis celebrantur. Ita eorum, quæ fecere, virtus tanta habetur, quantum eam verbis potuere extollere præclara ingenia. Sallust in bell. Catilin.

though somewhat inferior, in his opinion, to their fame: What is, then, this foreign and borrowed lustre which the Athenian actions have derived from the eloquence of their historians? It is that the whole universe agrees in looking upon them as the greatest and most glorious that ever were performed. Per terrarum orbem Atheniensium facta pro maximis celebrantur. All nations, seduced and enchanted, as it were, with the beauties of the Greek authors, think that people's exploits superior to any thing that was ever done by any other nation. This, according to Sallust, is the service the Greek authors have done the Athenians by their excellent manner of describing their actions; and very unhappy it is for us, that our history, for want of the like assistance, has left a thousand bright actions and fine sayings unrecorded, which would have been put in the strongest light by the ancient writers, and have done great honour to our country.

But, however this be, it must be confessed, that we are not always to judge of the value of an action, or ' the merit of the persons who had shared in it, by the importance of the event. It is rather in such little sieges and engagements, as we find recorded in the history of the Peloponnesian war, that the conduct and abilities of a general are truly conspicuous. Accordingly, it is observed, that it was chiefly at the head of small armies, and in countries of no great extent, that our best generals of the last age distinguished their capacity, and behaved with a conduct not inferior to the most celebrated captains of antiquity. In actions of this sort, chance has no share, and does not cover any oversights that are committed. Every thing is

conducted and carried on by the prudence of the general. He is truly the soul of the army, which neither acts, nor moves, but by his direction. He sees every thing, and is present every where. Nothing escapes his vigilance and attention. Orders are seasonably given, and seasonably executed. Finesse, stratagems; false marches, real or feigned; attacks, encampments, decampments; in a word, every thing depends upon him alone.

On this account the reading of the Greek historians, such as Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polibius, is of infinite service to young officers; because those historians, who were also excellent commanders, enter into all the particulars of the military art, and lead the reader, as it were, by the hand, through all the sieges and battles they describe; shewing them, by the example of the greatest generals of antiquity, and by a kind of anticipated experience, in what manner war is to be carried on.

Nor is it only with regard to military exploits, that the Grecian history affords such excellent models. We shall there find celebrated legislators, able politicians, magistrates born,for government, men that have excelled in all arts and sciences, philosophers that carried their inquiries as far as was possible in those early ages, and who have left us such maxims of morality as many Christians ought to blush at.

If the virtues related in history may serve us for models in the conduct of our lives, their vices and failings, on the other hand, are no less proper to caution and instruct us; and the strict regard which an

historian is obliged to have for truth, will not allow him to dissemble the latter out of fear of eclipsing the lustre of the former. Nor does what I here advance contradict the rule laid down by Plutarch," on the same subject, in his preface to the life of Cimon. He requires, that the illustrious actions of great men be represented in their full light: but as to the faults which may sometimes escape them through passion or surprise, or into which they may be drawn by the necessity of affairs, considering them rather as a certain degree of perfection wanting to their virtue, than as vices or crimes that proceed from any corruption of the heart; such imperfections as these he would have the historian, out of compassion to the weakness of human nature, which produces nothing entirely perfect, content himself with touching very lightly; in the same manner as an able painter, when he has a fine face to draw, in which he finds some little blemish or defect, does neither entirely suppress it, nor think himself obliged to represent it with a strict exactness; because the one would spoil the beauty of the picture, and the other would destroy the likeness. The very comparison Plutarch uses, shews that he speaks only of slight and excusable faults. But as to actions of injustice, violence, and brutality, they ought not to be concealed or disguised on any account; nor can we suppose, that the same privilege should be allowed in history as is in painting, which invented the Pprofile, to represent the sideface

• Έλλειματα μάλλον αρετής τινος η κακίας απονηρεύματα.

▸ Habet in pictura speciem tota facies. Apelles tamen imaginem Antigoni latere tantum altero ostendit, ut amissi oculi deformitas lateret. Quintil. I. ii. c. 13.