SECT. III. The wrong education of their princes, another caufe of the declenfion of the Perfian empire.

Tis Plato (p) ftill, the prince of philofophers, who makes this reflection; and we thall find, if we narrowly examine the fact in question, how folid and judicious it is, and how inexcufable Cyrus's conduct was in this refpect.

Never had any man more reafon than Cyrus to be fenfible, how highly neceffary a good education is to a young prince. He knew the whole value of it with regard to himfelf, and had found all the advantages of it by his own experience. (7) What he most earnestly recommended to his officers, in that fine difcourfe he made to them after the taking of Babylon, in order to exhort them to maintain the glory and reputation they had acquired, was to educate their children in the fame manner, as they knew they were educated in Perfia, and to perfevere themselves in the practice of the fame manners, as was practised there.

Would one believe, that a prince, who spoke and thought in this manner, could ever have entirely neglected the education of his own children? Yet this is what happened to Cyrus. Forgetting that he was a father, and employing himself wholly about his conquefts, he left that care entirely to women, that is, to princeffes, brought up in a country, where vanity, luxury and voluptuoufnefs reigned in the highest degree; for the queen his wife was of Media. And in the fame tafte and manner were the two young princes, Cambyfes and Smerdis, educated. Nothing they afked was ever refused them: Nor were their defires only granted, but prevented. The great maxim was, that their attendants fhould cross them in nothing, never contradict them, nor ever make use of reproofs or remonstrances with them. No one opened his mouth in their prefence, but to praife and commend what they faid and did. Every one cringed and ftopped, and bent the knee before them: And it was thought effential to their greatnefs, to place an infinite diftance between them and the reft of mankind, as if they had been of a different fpecies from them. It is Plato that informs us of all thefe particulars: For Xenophon, probably to fpare his hero, fays not one word of the manner in which thefe princes were brought up, though he gives us fo ample an account of the education of their father.

What furprizes me the most is, that Cyrus did not, at least, take them along with him in his laft campaigns, in order to draw them out of that foft and effeminate courfe of life, and

(p) Lib. iii. de Leg. p. 694, 695.

(9) Cyrop. 1. vii. p. 20

to inftruct them in the art of war; for they muft needs have "been of fufficient years: But perhaps the women oppofed his defign, and over-ruled him.

Whatever the obftacle was, the effect of the education of thefe princes was fuch as ought to be expected from it. Cambyfes came out of that fchool what he is reprefented in history, an obftinate and felf-conceited prince, full of arrogance and vanity, abandoned to the most scandalous exceffes of drunkennefs and debauchery, cruel and inhuman, even to the caufing of his own brother to be murdered in confequence of a dream; in a word, a furious, frantick mad man, who by his ill conduct brought the empire to the brink of destruction.

His father, fays Plato, left him at his death a great many vaft provinces, immenfe riches, with innumerable forces by fea and land: But he had not given him the means for preferving them, by teaching him the right ufe of fuch power.

This philofopher makes the fame reflections with regard to Darius and Xerxes. The former, not being the fon of a king, had not been brought up in the fame effeminate manner, as princes were; but afcended the throne with a long habit of induftry, great temper and moderation, a courage little inferior to that of Cyrus, and by which he added to the empire almost as many provinces, as the other had conquered. But he was no better a father than him, and reaped no benefit from the fault of his predeceffor, in neglecting the education of his children. Accordingly, his fon Xerxes was little better than a fecond Cambyfes.

From all this Plato, after having fhewn what numberlefe rocks and quickfands, almoft unavoidable, lie in the way of perfons bred in the arms of wealth and greatnefs, concludes, that one principal caufe of the declenfion and ruin of the Perfian empire, was the bad education of their princes; because thofe firft examples had an influence upon, and became a kind of rule to, all their fucceffors, under whom every thing till degenerated more and more, till at laft their luxury exceeded all bounds and restraints.

SECT. IV. Their breach of faith, or want of fincerity.

(r) Wath of the great corruption of manners among

WE are informed by Xenophon, that one of the caufes,

the Perfians, and of the destruction of their empire, was their want of publick faith. Formerly, fays he, the king, and thofe that governed under him, thought it an indifpenfible

duty

duty to keep their word, and inviolably to obferve all treaties, into which they had entered with the folemnity of an oath and that even with refpect to thofe, that had rendered themfelves most unworthy of fuch treatment, through their perfdiousness and infincerity: And it was by this true policy and prudent conduct, that they gained the abfoluce confidence, both of their own labjects, and of all their neighbours and allies. This is a very great encomium given by the hiftorian to the Perfians, which undoubtedly belongs to the reign of the great Cyrus; (s) though Xenophon applies it likewise to that of the younger Cyrus, whofe grand maxim was, as he tells us, never to violate his faith, upon any pretence whatsoever, with vegard either to any word he had given, any promife made, or any treaty he had concluded. Thefe princes had a just idea of the regal dignity, and rightly judged, that, if probity and truth were renounced by the reft of mankind, they ought to find a fanctuary in the heart of a king; who being the bond and center, as it were, of fociety, fhould alfo be the protector and avenger of faith engaged; which is the very foundation whereon the other depends.

Such fentiments as thefe, fo noble, and fo worthy of perfons born for government, did not last long. A falie prodence, and a spurious artificial policy foon fucceeded in their place. Inftead of faith, probity and true merit, fays Xenophon, (t) which heretofore the prince ufed to cherish and dif tinguish, all the chief officers of the court began to be filled with those pretended zealous fervants of the king, who facrifice every thing to his humour and fuppofed intereft; * who hold it as a maxim, that falfhood and deceit, perfidioufnefs and perjury, if boldly and artfully put in practice, are the hortest and fureft expedients for bringing about his enterprizes and defigns; who look upon a fcrupulous adherence in a prince to his word, and to the engagements into which he bas entered, as an effect of pufillanimity, incapacity, and want of understanding; and whofe opinion, in fhort, is, that a man is unqualified for government, if he does not prefer reafons and confiderations of ftate, before the exact obfervation of treaties, though concluded in never fo folemn and facred a

manner.

The Afiatick nations, continues Xenophon, foon imitated their prince, who became their example and inftructor in douN 4 ble

(1) De exped. Cyr. 1. i. p. 267.

Επὶ τὸ κατεργάζεσθαι ὧν ἐπιθυχοίη, συντομωτάτην ὅδον ᾤετο εἶναι διὰ τῷ ἐανορπεῖντε, και ψεύδεσθαι, καὶ ἐξαπα

(t) Cyrop. 1. viii. p. 239. τῶν τὸ δὲ ἀπλύντε καὶ ἀληθὲς, τὸ αὐτὸ τῷ ἐλιθίῳ εἶναι. De exped. Cyr. 1. 4. ρ. 292.

ble-dealing and treachery. They foon gave themselves up to violence, injuftice and impiety: And from thence proceeds that ftrange alteration and difference we find in their manners, as alfo the contempt they conceived for their fovereigns, which is both the natural confequence and punishment of the little regard princes pay to the moft facred and awful folemnities of religion.

Surely the oath, by which treaties are fealed and ratified, and the Deity brought in not only as prefent, but as guarantee of the conditions ftipulated, is a moft facred and auguft ceremony, very proper for the fubjecting of earthly princes to the fupreme Judge of heaven and earth, who alone is qualified to judge them; and for the keeping all human majefty within the bounds of its duty, by making it appear before the majesty of God, in respect of which it is as nothing. Now, if princes will teach their people not to ftand in fear of the fupreme Being, how fhall they be able to fecure their refpect and reverence to themselves? When once that fear comes to be extinguished in the subjects as well as in the prince, what will become of fidelity and obedience, and by what ftays or pillars fhall the throne be fupported? (x) Cyrus had good reafon to fay, that he looked upon none as good fervants and faithful fubjects, but fuch as had a fenfe of religion, and a reverence for the Deity: Nor is it all aftonishing, that the contempt which an impious prince, who has no regard to the fanctity of oaths, fhews of God and religion, fhould shake the very foundations of the firmest and beft-established empires, and fooner or later occafion their utter deftruction. Kings, fays (w) Plutarch, when any revoluion happens in their dominions, are apt to complain bitterly of their fubjects unfaithfulness and difloyalty: But they do them wrong; and forget, that it was themselves who gave them the first leffons of their difloyalty, by fhewing no regard to juftice and fidelity, which on all occafions they facrificed without fcruple to their own particular interefts. (w) Plut. in Pyrrh. p. 390.

(~) Cyrop. 1. viii. p. 204.

BOOK

O

F all the ancient nations, fcarce have any been fo highly celebrated, or furnished hiftory with fo many valuable monuments and illuftrious examples, as Greece. In what light foever fhe is confidered, whether for the glory of her arms, the wifdom of her laws, or the study' and improvement of arts and sciences, all thefe fhe carried to the utmost degree of perfection; and it may truly be said, that in all these refpects fhe has in fome measure been the school of, mankind.

It is impoffible not to be very much affected with the hif tory of fuch a nation; efpecially when we confider that it has been tranfmitted to us by writers of extraordinary merit, many of whom diftinguished themselves as much by their fwords, as by their pens; and were as great commanders and able ftatefmen, as excellent hiftorians. I confefs, it is a vast advantage to have fuch men for guides; men of an exquifite judgment and confummate prudence; of a juft and perfect tafle in every refpect; and who furnish not only the facts and thoughts, as well as the expreffions wherewith they are to be reprefented; but, what is more, to furnish all the proper reflections that are to accompany thofe facts; and which are the most useful im- . provements refulting from history. Thefe are the rich fources from whence I fhall draw all that I have to fay, after I have previously enquired into the firft origin and establishment of the Grecian ftates. As this enquiry must be dry, and not ca