Chalcidians, under the joint command of three officers, XENOPHON and two others. Upon their arrival near Spartolum (a town of the enemy's) they found a faction within the walls ready to furrender and receive them as friends, but were oppofed by a contrary party, who had in the interim sent to beg fuccour of the Olynthians, which accordingly came and engaged the Athenians near Spartolum. The Chalcidian and auxiliary heavy armed foldiers were worsted, and fled into the town; but in another part of the action, their horse and light armed men routed those of the Athenians. A referve in the town, being reinforced by another small party from the Olynthians, made a fresh attack upon the Athenians; upon which they retreated to their baggage, and joined two companies left there. From hence they annoy'd the enemy with their miffive weapons, who gave ground, and the Athenians advanced forward, and they continued to retire. The Athenians through the warmth of purfuit being drawn out into an inconvenient fituation, the Chalcidian horfe attacked them, broke their ranks, and put them to flight. The three commanding officers and confiderable part of the men are cut off, and the remnant of the defeated army took refuge in Pontidæa. I have fent thee this fhort account of the engagement, as it is brought by an express just arrived from Thrace, not doubting but thou wilt have a more particular one by a nearer conveyance.

Thus do the foes of Perfia continue to waste each other, and prevent by their own animofities that vengeance, which they have reason to dread from thy councils and the arms of ARTAXERXES. I don't know, whether the shame and lofs of this defeat will fo much affect the minds of this people, as another lofs they are like to fuftain; I mean that of PERICLES himself, whose health fenfibly decays, which, I am perfuaded, ought to be more dear to them than the

lives of thousands. The plague, which raged here fo lately amongst all the ranks of men, fpared not PERICLES; that active minister struggled with his diftemper, without remitting any thing of his concern for the public. But alas! how could a frail diftemper'd body, keep pace with such a foul? its efforts are too ftrong for the bands, which united it; like a fierce lion in the toils, whofe activity is restrained, it has almoft burft through its confinement, and will foon leave its unworthy concomitant, and fly to the abodes, which are allotted to thofe, who have spent a life of toil and danger in the fervice of their country.

From Athens.

H.

LETTER XXXVII.

SMERDIS to CLEANDER.

* THOUGH thou art by extraction a Greek, yet I no more fufpect thy attachment to the religion, than our generous monarch does thy fidelity to the government of Persia. I know thou must alike disapprove the unsteadiness of thy country's polity and philofophy. The fcruples thou haft imparted to me, I receive as an inftance of tenderness to our faith, which you wish to see purged of all doubts. But this cannot be, CLEANDER; the origin, power, and dealings of ARIMANIUS with the fons of men are mysterious and unaccountable; they puzzle the ableft speculatist with gloomy apprehenfions and inexplicable difficulties; while the contemplation of OROMASDES refreshes the foul with agreeable truths, and branches out into innumerable paths

Vide Letter XX.

of delightful knowledge. Wonder not at this, and expect not to have all thy doubts removed concerning the nature of that evil one, whose beft emblem is darkness; rather withdraw thy attention, and place it where it may ever be employed with delight and fatisfaction. How fweet is the view of an expanded lawn, or the azure field of heaven, after the eye has been fatigued with prying into a difficult scheme, or narrowly viewing fome complex piece of machinery? Such is the refrefhment the foul feels, when it turns from + ARIMANIUS to beloved YESDAN, from confufion to order, from difcord to peace, from the author of ill to the ever beauteous fource of all good. I am unwilling to blame thy anxiety for man; yet thy knowledge of our holy prophet makes it blameable: he, one would think, fhould have difperfed the cloud, that hung over us, when he debased the enemy of our nature, the vile ARIMANIUS, who afpired to equal the higheft, and had infused an opinion of his equality into the minds of deluded mortals. The enlightened fage was confcious of his ufurpation; he queftioned his fovereignty, he dethroned the impoftor, and pronounced him impotent. From that hour a sweet ferenity poffeffed the heart of true believers; an ineftimable folace from the affurance, that we are altogether in the hands of benign YESDAN; a confolation envied us by curfed AHRIMAN, which even now he labours to fubvert, and leave thy bofom deftitute of peace. But let not the dignity of OROMASDES fuffer in thy opinion, who can as arbitrarily difpofe of ARIMANIUS, as of the meaneft of his creatures; and will not fail to plunge him in everlasting misery, for his rebellious attempts to withdraw his adorers, when all the evil he delights in and is permitted to exercife, will prey upon himself. These are truths, CLEANDER, taught

+YESDAN and AHRIMAN are two different names for OROMASDES and ARIMANIUS,

by the wisdom of ZERDUSHT, and are a purer emblem of the divinity, than the holy flame depofited in the temple of BALCH. Reft fecure, that mankind, whom thou haft fuch a tender regard for, will find juftice; every action will be weighed in the balance of thofe angels, who guard that bridge, which all mortals must pass. Our own deeds will determine our happiness, or doom us to the kingdom of AHRIMAN. What! fayeft thou, fhall the wicked AHRIMAN be permitted to punish those whom he has feduced? Doubt it not, CLEANDER; they, who listened to his fuggeftions, will have their lot with him. To inflict ill is an imperfection; the great OROMASDES cannot do it; those therefore, whose lives call for punishment, are affigned over to that being, who is the parent of all ill. OROMASDES only draws his protection from the unhappy wretches, and ARIMANIUS ftrait perceives, that his dominion is enlarged; he takes poffeffion of thein, as quickly as darkness takes the place of light, when the lovely MITHRAS finks beneath the western mountains.

Is it not enough, that we know AHRIMAN is our foe? that he triumphs in our weaknefs? Is not this all the knowledge of him, that is ufeful to us? Muft we also enquire into his origin, and the reafon of his power? Shall we not trust the counfels of heaven, unless we be made privy to them; which, like a dazzling beam of light upon the feeble eye-ball, would confound inftead of enlightning the human mind? When we make any real progress in science, how flow and short are our steps? Yet we suffer ourselves to grasp at immensity, to ftretch the imagination beyond the limits of time, and enquire into the nature of eternity, whether good and evil be of equal duration, and whether in confequence their power must be the fame; whether if AHRIMAN had a beginning, he can without impiety be number'd amongst the works of Oro

MASDES; or whether the elements (from whence the frame of nature was call'd forth by the voice of OROMASDES) are not of a generative power, and in the confufion of chaos in their utmoft difcord, during their most impure mixture and defilement, produced this evil one. A thoufand volumes have been employed on these fubjects without fuccefs; for fome truths can never be disclosed, because providence has purposely thrown a veil over them. AHRIMAN cannot, fay the learned, be part of the creation, because he partakes nothing of the divine original. It is moft certain, that hateful and malignant being, fo repugnant to the deity in his will and actions, could not receive fo deteftable a form of nature from fo pure a cause. It is not long fince (as thou knoweft) the thrice venerable OSTANES dwelt amongst us, whose wisdom, as grateful as a refreshing dew to the parched earth, funk into the bofom of his thirsty hearers. He was deeply skilled in the invariable laws of nature, and judged foberly of the motives of providence itself. He would often say, the elements, and whatever is merely of their compofition, have the arbitrary will of YESDAN as a law; they are governed by neceffity, and know no choice. Where God has given reason, he has made the actions of that being free and the refult of reafon; man therefore is free, and the most exalted heavenly spirits are free as man, and may choose amifs like him, until by a steady perfeverance in right they render themselves habitually good, and make a nearer approach to their maker, who cannot do ill. Such a one as thofe I can fuppose the curfed AHRIMAN once to have been, a refined spirit full of excellence and beauty, when he arose from the creating hand of OROMASDES, fit to prefide over and regulate the frame of nature, and perhaps employed in that glorious service, happy in the powers of his nature, in his eminence of station and the contemplation of his immortality. I can conceive him venturing even to doubt, whether there be a