are the most cultivated plains converted into folitary deserts; while the bare neceffaries, to support a lingering life of mifery, are depofited in the principal cities only. Befides the numberless hardships, which are undergone at Athens, while the whole people of Attica are pent up within the narrow bounds of that fingle metropolis, with these and many more circumftances of their diftrefs, the plague, which daily increases, muft, among fuch a fwarm of unhappy families, make a far more terrible havock here than it has elsewhere done. These miseries, though I myself by leave of our most gracious monarch enjoy a securer ftation at Salamis, yet fill my mind with that confufion and medley of paffions, as if from a rock I beheld the toffings of a tempeftuous ocean, and faw the fhattered barks breaking in pieces amidst the merciless shelves and waves. But fay, O most venerable SMERDIS, who in those sequester'd shades facred to everlasting peace, enjoyest the friendly intercourse of fuperior beings! O thou, whofe hallowed foul, unruffled by the ftorm of paffions, and pure from every guilt, is a manfion for the great OROMASDES; OROMASDES, whofe calmeft influence raises there no frantick transports; no unnatural emotions: fay, O thou wise and good! why is ARIMANIUS permitted to difturb and invert the order of OROMASDES's works? Whether from his influence, that the mind of man is fo eafily perverted, and refufes to be under the guidance of those principles, which alone could direct it aright. Is it, alas! by the inftigations of this evil demon, that it turns afide from the paths of virtue, and neglecting the true scheme of rational life, perplexes itself with many vain and painful defires, till it is at length bewildered in an endless labyrinth of hurtful pursuits? And is it then, that in consequence of this depravity fo far owing to his own malignant influences, that the curft ARIMANIUS is afterwards permitted to exhauft his utmoft malice in punishing those by all kind of natural evils, whom he himself hath feduced

and rendered obnoxious to them? Will the good and gracious OROMASDES fuffer this to be? Teach me, O thou holy fage, to folve thefe difficulties; inftruct me better, if it be lawful, in the circumftances of our nature, and fhew me how amidst all these intricacies, to maintain the power and justify the goodness of OROMASDES. Thefe indeed are fpeculations, which ill befit me, and to which I have little time to attend in my prefent fituation and employment. But the miferies, which are daily represented to me, poffefs my mind with fuch folemn gloom, that I cannot forbear often to indulge the anxious wandrings of my own thoughts therein. It is in thofe peaceful manfions, where you, O venerable SMERDIS, inhabit, that the mind is at liberty to examine into thefe abftrufer doctrines; and enlightened by the eternal OROMASDES, may reflect upon itself the lively image of his beloved emanation, truth. Happy were thofe minutes, and I fhall always rank them among the happiest of my whole life, which I spent with you in divine conversation, when I travelled into Bactria. How transported do I call to mind the hours, when I was permitted to mingle among the learned crowd, and lay at your feet, while you prefided in the schools of the Magi! But O! how inexpreffible is the remembrance of some few happy times, when with you I wandered in those blissful paths, which heavenly contemplation feems before all others to have chofen for her peculiar abodes. It grieves me, faithful SMERDIS, that any anxiety fhould difcompose you amidft thofe delightful fcenes, much more any about my fafety. A true zeal for the service of the Pertian monarch, to whom I am bound in the strictest allegiance from the perfonal regards I owe him, has more than any other confideration attach'd me to his interefts. Whatever then be ordained my fate, I fhall endeavour with the greatest compofure to fubmit to it. For that being, whom I have learnt among you to adore with a purer worship, that

immaterial and invifible, call him OROMASDES or whatever other name fhall beft exprefs him to us, however clouds and darkness at prefent are about him, or at least involve our weaker understandings, cannot, I am perfuaded, but be both powerful, juft, and good; neither will I believe, that he, who fincerely feeks to please him by acting virtuously, will in the event of things be neglected by him. In the midst of these calamities at Athens, the famous HIPPOCRATES is arriv'd there, a man fo eminent for his excellent skill and fuccefs in phyfick, that the greatest king thought no price too high to purchase him at ; a man, whose upright integrity, undaunted constancy, and love of the Grecian name endears him to the Athenians beyond their greateft benefactors, as his forementioned excellencies raise their efteem and veneration for him, like as if their god APOLLO or ESCULAPIUS was come down among them. And though it were prefumption almost in any thing to differ from thee, (and fure thy zeal for the Perfian glory, and extreme veneration of the great king can never be two much applauded,) yet fay, O gentle SMERDIS, fuch a man deferve fo fevere a cenfure? The refufal is indeed astonishing; fuch wealth, fuch power, fuch intereft with the greatest monarch of the world, were a bribe almost for the ftricteft virtue. But HIPPOCRATES can all this withstand: amazing obftinacy a Perfian would call it, fince the subjects of the great king have learnt to fall before his throne, and proftrate themselves at his footstool as to the fhrine of fome god; and I doubt not but cuftom has fo well reconcil'd to them a government, which the Greeks call flavery, that they do this with the heartieft veneration for their fovereign; and where fo excellent a prince prefides, this may be perhaps the most perfect form of government. But as the genius's and customs of countries vary, of course the manners of men muft differ; and a diverfity of circumftances will make that in one inftance laudable,

can

which were quite otherwife in another. To be born, educated, and converfe in the free ftates of Greece must neceffarily form the mind to principles of liberty, and fettle in it very oppofite notions of what is great and virtuous, to those a Perfian will from his education imbibe. It has done fo all along while Greece retain'd its priftine glory; and can there then be a more illuftrious example of Grecian virtue, can the love of one's country be carried higher, or can inflexible honour and unbiass'd greatness of foul be fhewn in any inftance that exceeds this?

From Salamis.

L.

LETTER XXI.

ORSAMES to CLEANDER at Salamis. From Saba in Arabia.

LEAVING Babylon we fell down the king's river into the Tigris, the cataracts in this part of it being lately removed at the representation of some eminent merchants; and were conducted in one of the royal galleys to the Perfian gulf, and landed upon Arabia the happy at the Portus Itamus, the first haven beyond the mountains, which divide that district from the fandy deferts. As foon as we came into the Sabæan territories, the whole country seem'd one universal altar ever breathing forth spontaneous incense to the heavens. The fweet effluvia are wafted by the winds, and fpread a grateful Fragrance for many miles beyond the coafts. And even the fhores are covered with caffia and other odoriferous plants, that perfume the air with a strange variety of healthful and pleasant scents.

The rich product of this happy land brought to my mind the fable of MYRRHA's transformation, and her deteftable paffion for her father CINYRAS. The fictions indeed of a poetical fancy are commonly as arbitrary as the ftories of the vulgar are incredible and ridiculous; and yet many traditionary fables, however wild and improbable they appear, are capable of being traced up to fome very diftant origin of truth. And thus, I was not a little furprized being told by a native of this country, that there is a people in the fartheft limits of the other Arabia bordering upon Syria, whose descent is by the most ancient and beft warranted records of hiftory, deduced from an unnatural mixture of the fame kind; they inhabit upon the river Arnon, and their chief city is Areopolis. The country, as we entered it farther and came nearer to Saba, ftill grew more ravishing, as well to the eye as the other senses. *We saw in our way feveral wild affes and oftriches of a large fize though both are more common in the deserts beyond the mountains. The first are exceeding fleet, but the way of hunting them is by horsemen placed up and down in different parts of the chafe; for the creature, after having run fome time, will ftop and ftand ftill, but regains ground again so fast, that no fingle horse can keep up after it. Their flesh is efteemed by the luxurious in eating much nicer than that of venifon. The oftrich is not to be taken, because when her feet fail her, fhe can use her wings to escape. The fpacious plains, that lie between the mountains, are garnifhed with the frefheft herbage, and laid out by nature in the most beautiful garden, where the fertile foil teams with aromatic gums and the partycolour'd bloffoms of odoriferous fpices. The fides of the mountains ftill exceed the valleys in plenteoufness. There rife the clearest springs, which, after they have run among

Xenoph. de Exped. Cyri. Ed. Francof. Lib. prim. p. 256.