reasoning with justice and method; all the treasures of eloquence were imbibed there, and the method taught of treating the greatest subjects with propriety, force, elegance and perspicuity.

A Cicero, already the admiration of the bar, conceived he wanted something, and did not blush to become the disciple of the great masters Greece then produced. Pompey, in the midst of his glorious conquests, did not think it a dishonour to him, in passing Rhodes, to hear the celebrated philosophers, who taught there with great reputation, and to make himself, in some measure, their disciple.

Nothing shows better the respect retained for the ancient reputation of Greece than a letter of Pliny the younger. He writes in this manner to Maximus, appointed governor of that province by Trajan. "Call to mind, dear Maximus, that you are going into Achaia, the true Greece, the same Greece where learning and the polite arts had their birth; where even agriculture was invented, according to the common opinion. Remember that you are sent to govern free cities and free men, if any such there were; who, by their virtues, actions, alliances, treaties and religion, have known how to preserve the liberty they received from nature. Revere the gods, their founders; respect their heroes, the ancient glory of their nation, and the sacred antiquity of their cities, the dignity, great exploits, and even fables and vanity of that people. Remember it is from those sources that we have derived our law; that we did not impose our laws upon them, after we had conquered them, but that

they gave us theirs, at our request, before they were acquainted with the power of our arms. In a word, it is to Athens you are going; it is at Lacedemon you are to command. It would be inhuman and barbarous to deprive them of that faint image, that shadow which they retain of their ancient liberty."

Whilst the Roman empire was declining, that em pire of genius, of the mind, always supported itself, without participating in the revolutions of the other. Greece was resorted to for education and improvement, from all parts of the world. In the fourth and fifth centuries, those great lights of the church, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Johannes Chrysostom, went to Athens to imbibe, as at their source, all the profane sciences. The emperors themselves,' who could not go to Greece, brought Greece in a manner home to them, by receiving the most celebrated philosophers into their palaces, in order to their being intrusted with the education of their children, and to improve themselves by their instructions. Marcus Aurelius, even whilst he was emperor, went to hear the philosophers Apollonius and Sextus, and to take lessons from them, as a common disciple.

By a new kind of victory unknown before, Greece had imposed its laws on Egypt and the whole east, from whence she had expelled barbarism; and introduced a taste for the arts and sciences in its room; obliging, by a kind of right of conquest, all those nations to receive her language and adopt her customs; a testimonial highly for the glory of a people, and which argues a much more illustrious superiority,

! Tit, Antonius, M. Aurelius, Lucius Verus, &c.

than that not founded in merit, but solely upon the force of arms. Plutarch observes some where, that no Greek ever thought of learning Latin, and that a Roman who did not understand Greek was in no great estimation.

ARTICLE III.

IT seems, that after the subjection of Macedonia and Greece to the Romans, our history, confined for the future to two principal kingdoms, those of Egypt and Syria, should become more clear and intelligible than ever. I am, however, obliged to own, that it will be more obscure and perplexed than it has been hitherto, especially in regard to the kingdom of Syria, in which several kings not only succeed one another in a short space, but sometimes reign jointly, and at the same time, to the number of three or four, which occasions a confusion difficult to unravel, and from which I find it hard to extricate myself. This induces me to prefix in this place the names, succession and duration, of the reigns of the kings of Egypt and Syria. This small chronological abridgment may contribute to cast some light upon facts which are exceedingly complex, and serve as a clue to guide the reader in a kind of labyrinth, where the most clear sighted, will have occa sion for assistance. It enlarges the work a little; but it may be passed over, and recourse be only had to it when it is necessary to be set right; I insert it here only with that view.

This third article contains the space of one hundred years for the kingdom of Egypt, from the twentieth

of

year of Ptolemy Philometor, to the expulsion of Ptolemy Auletes from the throne, that is, from the year the world 3845, to 3946.

As to the kingdom of Syria, the same article contains also almost the space of one hundred years from Antiochus Eupator, to Antiochus Asiaticus, under whom Syria became a province of the Roman empire; that is, from the year of the world 3840, to the year

3939.