prince by any of those indirect methods, or base insinuations, which are too often the practice of a court. He never professed friendship where he was not cordially sincere, much less to any person whom he would secretly have betrayed. Nor did he ever express a zeal in any cause to which he was not by honour and principle most firmly attached. In his address and behaviour he shewed a becoming ease, a manly gracefulness; nothing effeminate, nothing fantastical. Gay without levity, and polite without affectation, he was perfectly skilled in the minutest exactnesses, and all the most circumstantial forms of a court, yet without looking upon those things as of any consideration, abstracted from their place and time. The benevolence of his disposition involuntarily shewed itself in that perpetual serenity of temper, and natural cheerfulness, which could only flow from a good mind. Sure, CLEANDER, such a man does an honour to his nation, while he shines among the principal ornaments of the court. Embassadors of foreign states, by being introduced by him to the royal presence, received a more heightened idea of the Persian grandeur and politeness, than from all that dazzling show which surrounds our monarch's throne. By an happy address, an agreeable condescension, and engaging affability, he had the art to reconcile strangers to our customs, however different from their own. To thee, who hast conversed and corresponded with him, I need not mention the elegance with which he entertained his friends. Possessed of these virtues and accomplishments, he died lamented by his royal master, and by all who knew his worth. For my own part, so highly do I prize the reputation of his friendship, that if my name shall chance to go down to posterity, I desire no other memorial to remain of me than this, that INTAPHERNES once lived the friend of HYDASPES.

L

MY

LETTER CLXXIII.

CLEANDER to HYLLUS.

brother has had, I find, a regard to the Satrap's recommendation; he has paid the price demanded for thee, and placed thee in my Tmolian villa. It will become thee, by thy diligence and fidelity, to shew thou hast deserved this advancement, from a laborious employment in the old gardens of CROESUS, to the command over the peasants of three villages, and the care of those works, which will be the delight of thy master

Ever since the passing of the king's grant to me, the inhabitants, no longer in fear of the royal collectors, have been remiss in bringing in the accustomed portion of their produce. This thou art by no means to allow; and if any neglect thy summons, let them know that the governor of Sardis is ready at any time to supply thee with a number of soldiers, to be quartered at thy discretion upon the defaulters, till satisfaction is made. There is another irregularity, which gives me more uneasiness; the last season of the gold fishery, just before the tents were pitched for the officers of the treasury, some from the neighbouring farms were seen at work in the river*. Use all possible means to discover these offenders; thou knowest the severity of the laws; and let the officers in their next journey find them impaled upon the spot. What an unworthy return to my gra

*The Pactolus. CLEANDER's villa seems to have been situate upon this river, near the foot of Mount Tmolus, famous for its saffron.

cious lord to suffer his revenue to be pillaged upon the very lands which I owe to his bounty!

as

When TELEPHANES arrives, see that he be entertained becomes my friend. He will give orders for several alterations in the villa, and lay the foundation of a fire-temple: let him be supplied with such materials and workmen as he demands. The quarry on the other side the mountain will furnish stone; for I will not have the tomb of ALYATTES any more defaced. On the contrary, intend that venerable monument shall be restored: TELEPHANES will make good the base, and the five rude pyramids, with the inscriptions; and thou must plant a large circular grove of beech in the middle, and clumps of pines at proper distances round it. A double avenue of plane trees must join the house to the temple; and the banks of Gyges's lake are to be repaired, and all the variety of trees that the soil will bear, encouraged to grow upon them. The marble busts of the King, MEGABYZUS, and GOBRYAS, are designed for the summer portico, which looks towards the north. The statues and vases TELEPHANES will dispose amongst the plantations.

There will be sent from Ephesus twelve Spartan dogs: the Helot, who brings them, is to feed and train them: such provisions and conveniencies as he wants, must be allowed him. Prepare a strong inclosure by the river-side for the horses of the old Persian race, out of the royal stud in Nisæe; and another for the camels, and the asses for stallions, which ORSAMES promised me from Arabia. Thou

* HERODOTUS calls this a prodigious work, inferior only to those in Egypt and Babylon. It was a mound of earth raised upon a basement of huge stones; and seems to have been a circle of 1300 feet diameter. Those rude pyramids were entire in the historian's time. Near this monument was the lake of Gyges.

VOL. II

3 E

wilt

wilt also receive from that lord some Scythian bows and huntingspears of Damascus: let them be carefully laid up. Send back by his messengers ten measures of saffron, and take care it be of the finest growth of the mountain.

Trusty HYLLUS, I envy thee the business I now charge thee with. I long to be employed myself among my buildings and plantations. Fear not, however, to lose thy office, preserve the character that is given of thee, and thy master, when he comes, will be only thy fellow-labourer.

W.

LETTER CLXXIV.

CLEANDER to TERIBAZUS.

THE regular remittances thou hast made to me for a considerable time past, noble Satrap, would scarcely have claimed my particular acknowledgements, without the honour of thy letter, which has added the grace of private friendship to what might otherwise have seemed an ordinary effect of thy care in the execution of a publick trust. I foresaw and regretted long since, that the ill designs of TIMOCLES, the Euboean, would not be limited by the exercise of his unwearied malice against me, but would end in the basest ingratitude to his master. The loss of twenty talents out of thy coffers, and the villain's flight, are sufficient to convince thee of it; and, like a generous enemy, thou art not ashamed to descend from thy dignity to do an act of justice to the meanest of the slaves of ARTAXERXES. The promise thou hast given me of protection relieves me from the apprehension of court artifices; and I shall enjoy my fields of saffron, and the springs at the foot of Tmolus, in security, while I know, that my conduct is approved by every minister in the king's palace. There is something too in the reconciliation of a potent adversary that flatters our vanity more than the continued affection of a friend: the one is often the effect of long acquaintance, prejudice, and habitual partiality: the other, even against prejudice, seems founded on the maturest result of conviction. I cannot persuade myself that the greatness of thy mind, or the lowness of my condition, could suffer thee to make any advances towards me, but on the most honourable motives.