LETTER CLXI.

CRATTIPPUS to CLEANDER.

THERE is no prejudice more frequent, CLEANDER, nor at the same time more unjust or ungenerous, than that we are apt to conceive against the characters of those who have been active in opposition to us, either on national or on personal accounts. The most consummate abilities and integrity, in such circumstances, are never secure from the most virulent reproach; and the partiality of mankind, as it often bestows reputation for ridiculous or absurd reasons, so it denies it for self-interested or false ones. Thus precarious is the good opinion of the world; thus contemptible the passion for it!

I am led into these thoughts by what occurred to me the other day, as I was surveying the temple of MINERVA CHALCIECUs in this city.. Pray, (said I to my companion,) did not ARISTO"MENES, the Messenian, dedicate a shield here to the goddess, with "an inscription signifying it was taken from the Spartan spoils ?" It surprised me a good deal to find him backward in answering a question of meer heedless curiosity, which, I declare to thee, carried no other meaning in it, than the words imported. "I do not "see any such ornament (continued I, with my former inadvertence) among the offerings." No, (cried my grave friend,) "it would have been a disgrace to Sparta, and an injury to MINERVA, "not to have destroyed the smallest memorial of that rebel's The epithet of rebel bestowed on one, whose family

vanity."

had

had been royal, while Messenia was a kingdom, and the impu327 tation of vanity on him who was an unaffected lover of his country, and the humblest of all great men in his general deportment, made such an impression on me, that I could have been very eloquent in his defence, if the place and season would have permitted it, or the man had been capable of feeling it. At last I determined in my own mind, to appeal from the narrow and opinionated understanding of a Lacedæmonian, to the enlarged and penetrating judgment of CLEANDER. Perhaps you may think, that a spirit of extreme good nature, or surly contradiction, has drawn me into an unreasonable panegyrick; and if you have heard but little of the history of this extraordinary genius, or unfavourably of it, you may ima-. gine, that while other people unite in admiring THESEUS, CYRUS, LEONIDAS, OF THEMISTOCLES, I would earnestly contend for an hero of my own chusing, for a portrait of my own painting. But I beseech you to despise these prejudices, at least to suspend them for a moment.

The Messenians are a people of the best natural sense and courage I have ever been acquainted with, and even in slavery give continual proofs of their capacity for enjoying liberty, as well as the justice of their claim to it. I have conversed with many of them, who are descended of a noble race, and are so harassed by the Spartans, as to be constrained to the drudgery of Helots. Under all these sions they still retain a magnanimity, which may break out one day or other to the ruin of this state. They respect the memory of oppresARISTOMENES as much as their masters can detest it, and are careful to inform their youth in all the circumstances of his life and actions, that when a fair opportunity offers, they may be excited: to an emulation of him. For this reason they celebrate his birthday with joy, lamenting, at the same time, the unhappy issue of his endeavours.

endeavours. About forty years after the entire reduction of Messenia, (when the inhabitants were annually constrained to bring half the produce of their lands to Sparta, and to attend, without any distinction of age or sex, at the funeral of the Lacedæmonian kings and senators,) in the thirty-fourth Olympiad, ARISTOMENES shone out to the honour of his country, and of human kind. With every good quality, that could engage the attention of his fellows, and every improvement, that the strength and quickness of his parts, though little cultivated, could acquire, he raised the spirit of the people of Messenia, and, as soon as it was ripe for a revolt, communicated his designs to the Arcadians. They were old allies of the Messenians, had sent them aids in their former wars against the Spartans, and received the intimation with pleasure. ARISTOMENES lost no time he put himself at the head of such troops as he could bring together, and with equal intrepidity and skill, stood his ground against the enemy. His little army entitled him their king, but he forbad them to give him any name, except that of general. And though it is affirmed, that he shewed amazing instances of his military genius in the first battle near Deræ, yet he was so industrious in distinguishing the merit of inferior officers, and imputing the victory to them, that he at once removed all envy from himself, and inspired his soldiers with new vigour. Immediately after this he came to Sparta, by night, and gave his shield to MINERVA, praying for the prosperity of an injured people. The Lacedæmonians in the mean time consulted the oracle, doubtful of the event, on which both their honour and security depended. They were ordered to seek a general from Athens. The Athenians commissioned the blind poet and schoolmaster TYRTAEUS to go to them, in contempt of this request, as well as in consummation of the oracle. They thought nobody could assist them less, at a season when they never wanted a commander more. But the conjecture of that jealous republick was a mistaken one.

It is said, the eulogies of TYRTAEUS roused the valour of the Spartans, and that they were not so much indebted to the experience and conduct of their officers, as to the fire and numbers of his poetry. For my own part, I have always looked upon this part of the story as fabulous; since the necessity of the times must operate more strongly on the minds of that brave and illiterate people, than the raptures of the finest verse; and because in fact it appeared, that TYRTAEUS neither retarded the progress, nor prevented the victories of ARISTOMENES. It would be endless to recite the difficulties this great man struggled through; the complete triumphs he gained; the several acts of personal valour he performed; the turn that fortune took at last in favour of the Spartans; the dispersion of many exiled Messenians into different parts of the world; the colonies they founded; and, after all, the tranquillity, with which he closed the evening of his days at Rhodes, in the palace of his sonin-law, DEMAGETUS.

There are, however two or three accidents of his life, which deserve a particular enlargement. During the course of the war, he frequently made excursions into Laconia, with small bodies of men, and one day fell into an ambush, which might probably have put an end to his life, and been fatal to the liberties of his countrymen. He had no less than half the troops of Lacedæmon to encounter, which he did with surprising dexterity and presence of mind; but in the middle of the engagement he was stunned to the ground by a stone aimed at him from a sling, and fifty of his men were taken prisoners with him. The Spartans soon determined what to do with them; and accordingly they were all thrown into a deep cave, not as honourable enemies, but rebellious traitors. All his companions were killed in the fall: he alone escaped; the guardian deity of Messene protected a life so important to the interests of his native

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place. He lay there three days on the dead heaps of his friends, covered round in his garments, and expected a lingering death with his usual magnanimity. On the third day he was waked out of a gentle sleep by a noise he heard, that caused him to rise and look about him. He saw a fox coming in through a small passage to prey upon the carcasses. When it stood within his reach, he sud

denly caught hold of its tail, and as it offered to bite him, put his cloak into its mouth. Then he suffered the creature to drag him through the narrow way, and after some time finding the light to come in, let it go, and got out of the dungeon, to the inconceivable joy of the Messenians. Thou seest this story is rather to the credit of his good fortune, than of his virtue; but the next is a memorable instance of the last.

Some virgins of Carya were employed in ceremonies of religious duty to DIANA. ARISTOMENES, with one of his foraging parties, took them, because he thought the price of their ransom would be considerable, as they were of rich and noble families. In their way to Andania, where his residence was, they lay one night in a petty village. His comrades, heated with wine and lust, offered great rudenesses to them, and attempted to violate their chastity. The confusion this occasioned alarmed him, and he went immediately amongst them; but perceiving that neither his arguments nor authority had any weight, he drew his sword, stabbed the most furious with his own hand, marked the rest with infamy, and asserted the honour of the women; so great was the severity of his manners, and such were his exalted notions of continence. Nor was the lenity of ARISTOMENES inferior to his justice. After the enemy had taken Ira, and were plundering it, (which was a fatal blow to the Messenians,) this unwearied general chose five hundred men out of his army, and determined to attack Sparta itself in the night.

He