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riches, the poffeffion of which only increafes your avarice. You increase your hunger, by what fhould produce fatiety; fo that the more you have, the more you defire. But have you forgotten how long the conqueft of the Bactrians detained you? While you were fubduing them, the Sogdians revolted. Your victories ferve to no other purpose than to find you employment, by producing new wars; for the bufinefs of every conqueft is twofold, to win, and to preferve. Though you may be the greatest of warriors, you must expect that the nations you conquer will endeavour to fhake off the yoke as faft as poffible for what people choose to be under foreign dominion?

If you will cross the Tanais, you may travel over Scythia, and obferve how extenfive a territory we inhabit : but to conquer us is quite another bufinefs. You will find us at one time, too nimble for your purfuit; and at another, when you think we are fled far enough from you, you will have us furprise you in your camp: for the Scythians attack with no lefs vigour than they fly. It will therefore be your wisdom to keep with ftrict attention what you have gained catching at more, you may lofe what you have. We have a proverbial faying in Scythia, that Fortune has no feet,and is furnished only with hands to distribute her capricious favours, and with fins to elude the grasp of those to whom he has been bountiful.-You profefs yourfelf to be a god, the fon of Jupiter Ammon; it fuits the character of a god to bestow favours on mortals, not to deprive them of what they have. But if you are no god, reflect on the precarious condition of humanity. You will thus fhow more wisdom, than by dwelling on thofe fubjects which have puffed up your pride, and made you forget yourself.

You fee how little you are likely to gain by attempting the conquest of Scythia. On the other hand, you may, if you please have in us a valuable alliance. We command

the borders both of Europe and Asia. There is nothing between us and Bactria but the river Fanais; and our territory extends to Thrace, which, as we have heard, borders on Macedon If you decline attacking us in a hostile manner, you may have our friendship Nations which have never been at war are on an equal footing; but it is in vain that confidence is repofed in a conquered people. There can be no fincere friendship between the oppreffers and the oppreffed; even in peace, the latter think themfelves entitled to the rights of war against the former.

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'will, if you think good, enter into a treaty with you, ac cording to our manner, which is not by figning, fealing, and taking the gods to witnefs, as is the Grecian custom but by doing actual fervices. The Scythians are not used to promife, but perform without promifing. And they think an appeal to the gods fuperfluous; for that thofe who have no regard for the esteem of men will not hesitate to offend the gods by perjury. You may therefore confider with yourself, whether you would choose to have for allies or for enemies, a people of fuch a character, and fo fituated as to have it in their power either to ferve you, or to an noy you, according as you treat them.

SECTION III.

Q. CURTIUS.

Speech of the Earl of Chatham, on the fubject of employing Indians to fight against the Americans.

I CANNOT, my lords, I will not, join in congratulation on misfortune and difgrace. This, my lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment: it is not a time for adulation; the fmoothness of flattery cannot fave us in this rugged and awful crifis. It is now neceffary to inftruct the throne in the language of truth. We mult, if poffible, difpel the deJufion and darkness which envelop it; and difplay, in its full danger and genuine colours, the ruin which is brought to our doors. Can minifters till presume to expect support in their infatuation? Can parliament be fo dead to its dignity and duty, as to give their fupport to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them? measures, my lords, which have reduced this late flourishing empire to fcorn and contempt! But yesterday, and England might have food against the world; now, none fo poor as to do her reverence! The people, whom we at firft defpifed as rebels, but whom we now acknowledge as enemies, are abetted against us, fupplied with every military ftore, their intereft confulted, and their ambaffadors entertained by our inveterate enemy; minifters do not, and dare not, interpofe with dignity or ef fect. The defperate ftate of our army abroad is in part known. No man more highly efteems and honours the English troops than I do; 1 know their virtues and their valour; I know they can achieve any thing but impoffibilities; and I know that the conqueft of English America is an impoffibility. You cannot, my lords, you cannot conquer AmeriWhat is your prefent fituation there? We do not

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know the worst: but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing, and fuffered much. You may fwell every expense, accumulate every affistance, and extend your traffic to the fhambles of every German defpot; your attempts will be forever vain and impotent ;-doubly so, indeed, from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates, to an incurable refentment, the minds of your adversaries,to overrun them with the mercenary fons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their poffeffions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty.

But, my lords, who is the man, that, in addition to the difgraces and mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorife and affociate to our arms, the tomohawk and scalping knife of the favage?-to call into civilized alliance, the wild and inhuman inhabitants of the woods?-to delegate to the merciless Indian, the defence of difputed rights, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. But, my lords, this barbarous measure has been defended, not only on the principles of policy and necelity, but alfo on thofe of morality; "for it is perfectly allowable," fays lord Suffolk, "to ufe all the means which God and nature have put into our hands." I am aftonished, I am shocked, to hear fuch principles confeffed; to hear them avowed in this houfe, or in this country. My lords, I did not intend to encroach fo much on your attention; but I cannot repress my indignation-I feel myself impelled to fpeak. My lords, we are called upon as members of this houfe, as men, as chriftians, to protest against fuch horrible barbarity!" That God and nature have put into our hands!" What ideas of God and nature, that noble lord may entertain, I know not; but I know that fuch deteftable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What to attribute the facred fanction of God and nature to the maffacres of the Indian fcalping knife ! to the favage, torturing and murdering his unhappy victims! Such notions fhock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every fentiment of honour. Thefe abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decifive indignation. I call upon that right reverend, and this most learned Bench, to vindicate the religion of their God, to fupport the justice of their country. I call upon the bifhops to interpofe the unfullied fanctity of their lawn-upon the judges to interpofe the purity of their

ermine, to fave us from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your lordships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the fpirit and humanity of my country, to vindicate the national character. I invoke the genius of the conftitution. From the tapestry that adorns thefe walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble lord frowns with indignation at the difgrace of his country. In vain did he defend 'the liberty, and estab. lifh the religion of Britain, against the tyranny of Rome, if thefe worfe than Popish cruelties and inquifitorial practices are endured among us. To fend forth the merciless Indian, thirsting for blood! against whom?-your proteftant brethren!-to lay waste their country, to defolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name, by the aid and inftrumentality of thefe ungovernable favages!-Spain can no longer boat pre-eminence in barbarity. She armed herfelf with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico; we, more ruthlefs, loose those brutal warriors against our countrymen in America, endeared to us by every tie that can fan&tify humanity. I folemnly call upon your lordfhips, and upon every order of men in the state, to ftamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible ftigma of the public abhorrence. More particularly, I call upon the venerabie prelates of our religion, to do away this iniquity; let them perform a luftration to purify the country from this deep and deadly fin.

My lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to fay more; but my feelings and indignation were too strong to have allowed me to fay lefs. I could not have flept this night in my bed, nor even repofed my head upon my pillow, without giving vent to my steadfast abhorrence of fuch enor mous and prepofterous principles.

CHAP. VIII.

PROMISCUOUS PIECES.

SECTION I.

The voyage of Life; an allegory.

"LIFE," fays Seneca, "is a voyage, in the progrefs of which, we are perpetually changing our fcenes. We first leave childhood behind us, then youth, then the years of ripened manhood, then the better or more pleafing part of old age." The perufal of this paffage having excited in

me a train of reflections on the state of man, the inceffant fuctuation of his wifhes, the gradual change of his difpofition to all external objects, and the thoughtleffness with which he floats along the ftream of time, 1 funk into a flumber amidst my meditations, and, on a fudden, found my ears filled with the tumult of labour, the fhouts of alacrity, the fhrieks of alarm, the whistle of winds, and the dath of waters. My aftonifhment for a time repreffed my curiofity; but foon recovering myself fo far as to inquire whither we were going, and what was the cause of such clamour and confufion, I was told that we were launching out into the ocean of life; that we had already paffed the ftraits of Infancy, in which multitudes had perished, some by the weakness and fragility of their veffels, and more by the folly, perverfenefs, or negligence, of those who undertook to fteer them; and that we were now on the main fea, abandoned to the winds and billows, without any other means of fecurity than the care of the pilot, whom it was always in our power to choose, among great numbers that offered their direction and affiftance.

I then looked round with anxious eagerness; and, first turning my eyes behind me, faw a ftream flowing through flowery iflands, which every one that failed along feemed to behold with pleasure; but no fooner touched them, than the current, which, though not noify or turbulent, was yet irrefiftible, bore him away. Beyond these islands, all was darknefs; nor could any of the paffengers defcribe the fhore at which he first embarked.

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Before me, and on each fide was an expanfe of waters violently agitated, and covered with. fo thick a mist, that the most perfpicacious eyes could fee but a little way. It appeared to be full of rocks and whirlpools; for many funk unexpectedly, while, they were courting the gale with full fails, and infulting thofe whom they had left behind. numerous, indeed, were the dangers, and fo thick the darknefs, that no caution could confer fecurity. Yet there were many, who, by falfe intelligence, betrayed their followers into whirlpools, or by violence pushed those whom they found in their way, against the rocks.

The current was invariable and infurmountable; but though it was impoffible to fail against it, or to return to the place that was once paffed, yet it was not fo violent as to allow no opportunities for dexterity or courage; fince, though none could retreat back from danger, yet they might often avoid it by oblique direction.

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