1 made a treaty of alliance with Amafis, king of Ægypt, which was cemented by various presents on both fides. His fame had so increased, that he was celebrated through Ionia and the reft of Greece. Success attended all his military undertakings; he had a hundred fifty-oared veffels, and a thousand archers. He made no discrimination in the objects of his attacks, thinking that he conferred a greater favour 47 even on a friend, by restoring what he had violently taken, than by not molefting him at all. He took a great number of islands, and became master of several cities on the continent. Lesbians, who with all their forces were proceeding to affift the Milesians, he attacked and conquered in a great fea-fight. Those whom he made prifoners he put in chains, and compelled to fink the trench 48 which furrounds the walls of Samos. The XL. The great profperity of Polycrates excited both the attention and anxiety of Amafis. As his 47 A greater favour.]-This fentiment is false, and Libanius. seems to me to have spoken with truth, when, in a discourse which is not come down to us, he fays, " An instance of good fortune never gives a man fo much fatisfaction as the lofs of it does uneafinefs."-Larcher. : 48 Sink the trench.]-It would be an interesting labour to inveftigate, from ages the most remote and nations the most barbarous, the various treatment which prifoners of war have experienced from the period, and from those who put in practice against their unfortunate captives every species of oppreffion and of cruelty, to the present period, when the refinement of manners, and the progrefs of the milder virtues, foftens the afperity, and takes much from the horrors of war.-T. fuccefs fuccefs continually encreased, he was induced to write and fend this letter to Samos. "AMASIS to POLYCRATES. THE fuccefs of a friend and an ally fills me "with particular fatisfaction; but as I know the "invidioufnefs of fortune 49, your extraordinary prosperity 49 Invidiousness of fortune.]Three very diftinét qualities of mind have been imputed to the three Greek hiftorians, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, with refpect to their manner of reflecting on the facts which they relate. Of the first it has been faid that he seems to have confidered the deity as viewing man with a jealous eye, as only promoting his fucceffes to make the catastrophe of his fate the more calamitous. This is pointed out by Plutarch with the fevereft reprehenfion. Thucydides, on the contrary, admits of no divine interpofition in human affairs, but makes the good or ill fortune of those whose hiftory he gives us depend on the wifdom or folly of their own conduct. Xenophon, in distinction from both, invariably confiders the kindness or the vengeance of heaven as influ encing the event of human enterprizes. "That is," fays the Abbé Barthelemy," according to the firft, all sublunary things are governed by a fatality; according to the fecond, by human prudence; according to the laft, by the piety of the individual."The inconftancy of fortune is admirably described in the following paffage from Horace, and with the sentiment with which the lines conclude every ingenuous mind muft defire to be in unifon, Fortuna fævo læta negotio Ludum infolentem ludere pertinax Laudo manentem: fi celeres quatit Virtute profperity excites my apprehenfions. If I might determine for myself, and for thofe whom I rere gard, I would rather have my affairs fometimes flattering, and fometimes perverfe. I would wish "to pass through life with the alternate experience " of good and evil, rather than with uninterrupted good fortune. I do not remember to have heard « of tr σε any man remarkable for a constant fucceffion of profperous events, whofe end has not been finally calamitous. If, therefore, you value my coun"fel, you will provide this remedy against the excess "of your profperity:-Examine well what thing "it is which you deem of the highest consequence "to your happiness, and the lofs of which would *most afflict you. When you fhall have ascertained this, banish it from you, fo that there may be no poffibility of its return. "fortune ftill continue, If after this your good without diminution or "change, you will do well to repeat the remedy re * I propofe." XLI. Polycrates received this letter, and feriouf Virtute me involvo, probamque Pauperiem fine dote quæro. ly It would be inexcufable not to infert Dryden's verfion, or ra ther paraphrafe, of the above paffage. Fortune, that with malicious joy Does man her flave opprefs, VOL. II. E Promotes, ly deliberated on its contents. The advice of Amafis appeared fagacious, and he refolved to follow it. He accordingly fearched among his treafures for fomething, the lofs of which would most afflict him. He conceived this to be a fealring ", which he occafionally wore; it was an emerald 50 Promotes, degrades, delights in ftrife, And makes a lottery of life. I can enjoy her while fhe's kind, But when the dances in the wind, And shakes the wings, and will not stay, I puff the proftitute away: The little or the much the gave is quietly refign'd. And virtue, tho' in rags, will keep me warm. 4. A feal-ring.]-This ring has been the subject of some controversy amongst the learned, both as to what it represented, and of what precious ftone it was formed. Clemens Alexandrinus fays it reprefented a lyre. Pliny fays It was a fardonyx; and that in his time there exifted one in the temple of Concord, the gift of Auguftus, affirmed to be this of Polycrates. Solinus afferts alfo, that it was a fardonyx; but Herodotus expressly tells us, it was an emerald. At this period the art of engraving precious ftones must have been in its infancy, which might probably enhance the value of his ring to Polycrates. It is a little remarkable that the moderns have never been able to equal the ancients in the exquifite delicacy and beauty of their performances on precious ftones. Perhaps it may not be too much to add, that we have never attained the perfection with which they executed all works in miniature. Pliny fays, that Cicero once faw the Iliad of Homer written fo very finely, that it might have been contained 'in nuce', anht fhell. Aulus Gellius mentions a pigeon made of wood, which imitated the motions of a living bird; and Ælian speaks of an artift, who wrote a diftich in letters of gold, which he inclosed in the rind of a grain of corn. Other inftances of a fimilar kind are emerald fet in gold, and the workmanship of Theodorus the Samian, the son of Telecles. Of this determining to deprive himself, he embarked in a fifty-oared veffel, with orders to be carried into the open fea when he was at fome distance from the island, in the presence of all his attendants, he took the ring from his finger and caft it into the fea this done he failed back again. XLII. Returning home he regretted his lofs, but in the course of five or fix days this accident occurred :-A fisherman caught a fifh of fuch fize and beauty, that he deemed it a proper prefent for Polycrates. He went therefore to the palace, and demanded an audience; being admitted, he prefented his fish to Polycrates, with these words : "Al though, fir, I live by the produce of my industry, "I could not think of expofing this fish which I "have taken, to fale in the market-place, believing "it worthy of you to accept, which I hope you "will." The king was much gratified, and made him this reply: My good friend, your prefent "and your speech are equally acceptable to me; " and I beg that I may fee you at fupper "." The fisherman, are collected by the learned Mr. Dutens, in his Enquiry into the Origin of the Discoveries attributed to the Moderns.-T. 51 See you at fupper.]-The circumftance of a fovereign prince afking a common fisherman to fup with him, seems at first sight fo entirely repugnant, not only to modern manners but allo to confiftency, as to justify disgust and provoke fufpicion. But let it be remembered, that in ancient times the rites of hofpitality were paid without any distinction of perfon; and the fame fim. plicity of manners; which would allow an individual of the |