thou considerest, that from the earliest ages the artful and designing have concurred to keep the credulous multitude in the darkness of religious ignorance.

THOU 'HOU wilt be surprized to hear, that ORSAMES, whom thou supposest still engaged in the mysterious learning and stupendous works of Egypt; or whom perhaps thou flatterest thyself to be preparing for a visit to thee, in order to crown his observations with the more humane studies and finished arts of Greece; that the contemplative, the inquisitive ORSAMES has put an end to his curious voyage, and is returned to Susa. Such was the will of the wise ARTEUS, whose commands our young friend has always been accustomed to obey, from a readiness arising not only from a principle of duty, but from a constant experience of their being the kindest, as well as the most reasonable. Accordingly he flew back to court with such speed, as if he had known that the most accomplished princess there, and the greatest succession in the empire, waited his arrival.

The friendship which has long subsisted between the families of ARTÆUS and SISAMNES, gave ORSAMES frequent opportunities of seeing the beauteous PARMYS, before he went upon his travels. He saw and admired her; but intent on the pursuit of science, he formed no other than the distant hope of qualifying himself one day to deserve her. SISAMNES, in the mean time, descended from a long line of Hyrcanian satraps, which, by the loss

of

of two noble sons, he saw ready to end in himself, turned all his views upon his beloved PARMYS; and was looking round, among the great families of Persia, for a youth to adopt into his own, and make happy in his daughter. Nor could he long be in suspense; the heir of ARTEUS Soon fixed his choice. Educated under a father whose virtues have placed him at the head of the supreme tribunal, and whose eloquence prevails in the council of the great king, as thou tellest us that of PERICLES did in the Athenian assembly, ORSAMES steadily kept his eye, not on the dazzling honours which are to descend to him, but on the glorious methods by which they were acquired; and while he attended only to the improvement of his mind by the conversation of the wise, was not conscious that he was observed and admired by the great. But as soon as ever this alliance was known, the publick had but one voice about it; and the universal approbation it meets with, is a testimony to virtue and good sense worthy of a less degenerate age. mighty ARTAXERXES has indeed led the way, by breaking through that frugality in bestowing honours, which, thou knowest, he so wisely observes, and continuing the dignities of SISAMNES to his son-in-law.

The

It was the day before the marriage, that, accompanied by the polite Mage TEASPES, (whom the good taste of ORSAMES had distinguished early among the sages in the Bactrian schools,) I found him not at all elated at this near prospect of greatness, but engaged, as usual, in those studies which form the patriot and the statesman. The archives of the empire lay open before him; he proposed several questions with that ingenuous vehemence which so well becomes him; nor would he suffer us to leave him, without one of those friendly debates which I have often described to thee among the chief pleasures of my Bactrian retirement.

Let

Let us not imagine, my dear CLEANDER, that a young man, who comes into the world with such dispositions, comes into it too early. It might be a fatal experiment in most great families; but how few at his age have lived and thought like him? We should rather esteem it a peculiar felicity, that he is at once carried over that dangerous term of life, wherein such numbers of our noble youth lose all the fruits of their education, and receive a taint which affects their whole future conduct. It is surely very unaccountable, that a course of luxury and riot should be held a necessary preparation to a life of virtue and honour; and the instructions and company of philosophers be considered as an impediment to our knowledge of the world. But ORSAMES will be a striking instance of the absurdity of these maxims. Nor need his learned friends apprehend that the man of letters will be lost in the man of the world. Instead of abandoning the arts he loved, he will shew how much they adorn the highest stations; nor will his increasing acquaintance among the great drive from his heart the companions of his studies., He will not be the less their friend, because he is in a situation to be their patron.

May the power which watches over the fate of the empire inspire our rising generation with an emulation of these virtues! So shall the honour of the Persian discipline be restored; and we shall be able to oppose an equal band of heroes to those shining genii among the Greeks, who make thee tremble sometimes for the throne of Asia.

W.

LETTER CXVI.

CRATIPPUS to CLEANDER.

From Sparta.

WHEN
HEN we were at Thebes together, my CLEANDER, our conver-

*

sation turned very much on the states of Greece, and thou wert particularly inquisitive after the policy and manners of Lacedæmon. I related to thee at that time some observations I had made, and promised to send them, on my return to Sparta, more accurately drawn up in writing. It is indeed an unhappy circumstance, that thou art prevented from visiting this seat of military virtue and unadulterated good sense, as well by the laws of the republick, as by that jealous and inhospitable temper which is the offspring of civil war. I parted from thee with uncommon reluctance, as I knew that the discovery of one of my letters last year in Athens, had reduced us from an open, cheerful, and improving conversation, to a dry, timorous, and reserved correspondence. I shall write to thee indeed at present with more freedom, not only because the city where thou now residest enters not into the feuds and politicks of Greece, but because the subject, on which thou desirest to be enlightened, requires an explicit perspicuity. Whilst thou informest thyself of the most curious circumstances attending the most celebrated oracle in the world, let me entertain thee with the institutions and commonwealth of that lawgiver, whom the same oracle pronounced a god. So great was either the reputation of LYCURGUS to command this testimony, or so great his art in procuring it.

The country of Laconia has often changed its name and its posIt was called Lelegia, from king LELEX; Oebalia, from

sessors.

* See Letter xci.

OEBALUS,

OEBALUS, the father of CASTOR and POLLUX, (whose amicable and united government produced the known fable concerning them,) and obtained the appellation it now has from king LACEDÆMON, It was held first by the Achæans, with PELOPS at their head; next by the Sparti, who were governed by CADMUS; then by the descendants of the Argonauts; and lastly by the race of HERCULES, from whom the inhabitants of our days are derived. There is something, methinks, ridiculous enough in the tedious and grave histories recorded of these men. Doubtless the craggy territory of Laconia fared like other parts of Greece, when wild and uncultivated. During the early ages, the lands that lay near the sea-coasts were an harbour for pirates, who put themselves under the guidance of a general or petty prince, and plundered the more fruitful, and consequently the more inhabited, parts of the earth, with the greater resolution, as they imagined no man would pursue them to the barren rocks that protected them. Such were the Achæi and Heraclidæ, the first lords of the soil, and boasted ancestors of so polished a posterity; savage robbers in their original, improved by foreign colonies, and civilized by a strange concurrence of whimsical events.

The city of Sparta (they say) owes its rise to king LACEDEMON. It is of a round figure, without walls or a citadel. The houses are built with singular simplicity; for the only tools allowed by law for building, are an axe and a hand-saw. The Eurotas runs along the east side of the plain in which it is situated, and often lays waste the country by its inundations. It is surrounded by hills, on one side rough and inaccessible; on the other, varied by cascades and torrents, which fall into the river, that winds impetuously, through the valley. The very manner of the place is suited to the hardy temper of the people.

VOL. II.

L

No