"be evident that they speak of me maliciously; if "I mifs my aim, they will fay true in affirming that "I am mad.” No fooner had he spoken, than he bent his bow, and ftruck the young man. man. When he fell, the king ordered his body to be opened, and the wound to be examined. He was rejoiced to find that the arrow had penetrated his heart; and turning to the father with a malicious fmile, "You "obferve," faid he, "that it is not I that am mad, "but the Perfians who are foolish. Tell me," he continued, "if you ever faw a man send an arrow "furer to its mark?" Prexafpes, feeing he was mad, and fearing for himself, replied, "I do not "think, Sir, that even a deity could have aimed "fo well."-Such was his treatment of Prexafpes. At another time, without the smallest provocation, he commanded twelve Perfians of diftinction to be interred alive. a Swifs of fome importance, for a pretended offence, to place an apple on the head of one of his children, and to hit it, on pain of death, with an arrow. He was dexterous enough to do fo, without hurting his child. Grifler, when the affair was over, took notice that Tell had another arrow concealed under his cloak, and asked him what it was for? "I intended," replied Tell," to have fhot you to the heart, if I had killed my child." The governor ordered Tell to be hanged; but the Swifs, defending their countryman, flew to arms, deftroyed their governor, and made themfelves independent. See this hiftorical anecdote referred to by Smollet, in his fublime Ode to Independence. Who with the generous ruftics fate On Uri's rock, in clofe divan, And wing'd that arrow, fure as fate, Which ascertain'd the facred rights of man.-T. XXXVI. Whilft he was pursuing these extravagancies, Crofus gave him this advice: "Do not, * Sir, yield thus intemperately to the warmth of your age and of your temper. Restrain yourself, and "remember that moderation is the part of a wife man, and it becomes every one to weigh the confequences of his actions. Without any adequate "offence you destroy your fellow-citizens, and put “even children to death. If you continue thefe "exceffes, the Perfians may be induced to revolt " from you. In giving you these admonitions, I do "but fulfil the injunctions which the king your "father repeatedly laid upon me, to warn you of "whatever I thought neceffary to your welfare." Kind as were the intentions of Crofus, he received this anfwer from Cambyfes: "I am aftonished at your presumption in speaking to me thus, as if "you had been remarkable either for the judicious 66 government of your own dominions, or for the "wife advice which you gave my father. I cannot "forget that, instead of waiting for the attack of the "Maffagetæ, you counfelled him to advance and "encounter them in their own territories. By your "misconduct you lost your own dominions, and by your ill advice were the cause of my father's ruin. "But do not expect to escape with impunity; in"deed I have long wifhed for an opportunity to "punish you." He then eagerly fnatched his bow 43, intending to pierce Craefus with an arrow, Dave & Moani's de to Jan's but 43 Snatched his bow.]-The mental derangement under which Saul laboured, previous to the elevation of David, bears fome 17 4 but by an expeditious flight he escaped. Cambyfes which when his attendants perceived, they told him XXXVII. Many things of this kind did he per petrate against the Perfians and his allies, whilft he ftayed at Memphis: neither did ha hefitate to violate the tombs, and examine the bodies of the dead. He once entered the temple of Vulcan, and treated the fhrine of that deity with much contempt. The ftatue of this god exceedingly resembles the Pa of 217 taici which the Phoenicians place at the prow 417 56 e277 refemblance to the character here given of Cambyfes; and the 44 Cabiri.]-Concerning these fee book ii. chap. li. Ab Jo 1.516 Plutad 5.187 HALIA 45 burned their ftatues, after exercising upon them his XXXVIII. For my own part I am fatisfied that Cambyfes was deprived of his reafon; he would not otherwise have disturbed the fanctity of temples, or of established customs. Whoever had the opportunity of choosing for their own obfervance, from all the nations of the world, fuch laws and customs as to them feemed the beft, would, I am of opinion, after the most careful examination, adhere to their own. Each nation believes that their own laws are by far the most excellent; no one, therefore, but a madman, would treat fuch prejudices with contempt. That all men are really thus tenacious of their own customs, appears from this, amongst other inftances: Darius once fent for fuch of the Greeks as were dependent on his power, and asked them what reward would induce them to eat the bodies of their deceased parents; they replied that no fum could prevail on them to commit fuch a deed. In the prefence of the fame Greeks, who by an interpreter were informed of what paffed, he fent alfo for the Callatiæ, a people of India known to eat the bodies of their parents. He asked them for what fum they would confent to burn the bodies of their parents. The Indians were disgusted at the queftion, and intreated him to forbear fuch language.-Such is the force of custom; and Pindar +5 feems to me to have fpoken with pe culiar 45 Pindar.]The paffage in Pindar which is here referred to, 53 culiar propriety, when he obferved that custom 46 was the universal fovereign. XXXIX. Whilft Cambyfes was engaged in his Ægyptian expedition, the Lacedæmonians were profecuting a war against Polycrates, the fon of Æaces, who had forcibly poffeffed himself of Samos. He had divided it into three parts, affigning one feverally to his brothers Pantagnotus and Sylofon. He afterwards, having killed Pantagnotus, and banished Sylofon, who was the younger, seized the whole. Whilft he was thus circumftanced, he is preserved in the Scholia ád Nem. ix. 35. It is this:—Noμoç & πάντων βασιλεος θνατον τε και αθανατων ανει δικαιῶν το βαιοτατον υπερTary Xig." Custom is the fovereign of mortals and of gods; with its powerful hand it regulates things the moft violent." T. 46 Cuftom.]-Many writers on this subject appear not to have difcriminated accurately betwixt custom and habit: the fovereign power of both must be confeffed; but it will be found, on due deliberation, that custom has reference to the action, and habit to the actor. That the Athenians, the moft refined and polished nation of the world, could bear to fee human facrifices reprefented on their theatres, could liften with applause and with delight to the mifery of Edipus, and the madness of Oreftes, is to be accounted for alone from the powerful operation of their national customs. The equally forcible sway of habit, referring to an individual, was never perhaps expreffed with so much beauty as in the following lines of our favourite Shakespeare: How use doth breed a habit in a man! And to the nightingale's complaining notes T. |