and have it in their power to fay, Sic volo, fic jubeo, ftet pro ratione voluntas. i. e. "Let my strength be the law of justice*;" only that their fubjects may become their flaves. Unaccountable ambition! that a prince should choose rather to be feared than loved; dreaded than revered; the object of abhorrence than the object of delight! that a fovereign fhould wish rather to reign over the bodies, than in the minds of his fubjects; over base and abject flaves, rather than over generous freemen. This pleasure, fuch as it is, must foon lofe its sweetness. It has univerfally been experienced and acknowledged that our happiness depends not on poffeffion, but on our profpects and pursuits. "Man never is, but always to be bleft." When the fovereign has established a defpotic power, difappointed, he must endeavour to extend his empire, and, if he cannot exalt his throne, he must depress his fubjects till he has reduced them to the most abject ftate of vaffalage. But

Wisdom ii. 11.

will his happiness be increased thereby ? Can any prince imagine that the Emprefs of Ruffia is happy in proportion to the extent of her boundless empire, and the boundless authority fhe exercises in that empire? No doubt Lewis the fifteenth of France thought he fhould be happier, when the authority of his parliaments fhould be abolished, and his power as monarch fhould be completed and eftablished; but can any man, unless a stranger to the very nature of human happiness, imagine that his happiness was increased thereby? Had he lived, he might have found fome Mordecai in his own dominions, or if not, at least he would have been equally anxious to have extended the bounds of his empire, and increase the number of his flaves, as he had been to extend his authority in his own dominions. Could a fovereign, in pursuit of happiness, extend continually the bounds of his dominion, till he remained in peace the abfolute and fole monarch of the world, from that moment he would be miferable,

miferable*, unlefs his happiness fhould be diverted into fome other channel. As all human happinefs depends on our profpects and pursuits, fuch noblemen as are intrufted with the education of the heir apparent to the crown, fhould be very careful to give him prospects and purfuits worthy of a great prince. If such noblemen have any regard for their own honor, the happiness of their royal pupil, or love for their country, they should endeavour to inftil into his mind fentiments of true dignity, and teach him to purfue his own glory, by promoting the happiness of his fubjects. In this pursuit he must be happy, fupremely and permanently happy; as the longest life could not bring him to the end of his enjoySuch a prince would reign in the

ment.

The afcent to greatness, however steep and dangerous, may entertain an active spirit with the consciousness and exercise of its own powers: but the poffeffion of a throne could never yet afford a lasting fatisfaction to an ambitious mind. This melancholy truth was felt and acknowledged by Severus. Satiated with power, all his profpects of life were clofed. Gibbon, Fall of Rom. Emp. ch. 6.

affections

affections of his people, would be the delight of his fubjects, the admiration of all mankind; and the noble philofopher, who had formed his infant mind, would be had in everlasting remembrance*.

The preceptor who fhall teach his royal pupil, that power and happiness are connected, and, under the idea of being his own minister, fhall lead him to establish an arbitrary power, will be an enemy to his prince, a traitor to his country, and the execration of all honeft men.-How much more glorious is the memory of that prince, whofe ftudy was to be the father of his people, and to establish their liberties on a firm foundation; than of those whose only aim was to fap that foundation, and be the abfolute lords and masters of dependent vaffals! The name

The mind of Dion was formed by Plato; this philofopher bestowed much pains alfo in humanifing the younger Dionyfius, even at the hazard of his life, and would have taught him to find his own happiness in making a free people happy by his wife and equitable government. On the godlike Dion his pains were well beftowed, on Dionyfius his labor was in a great measure lost.

of

of Alfred will be revered, I had almoft faid adored, long as the world endures. While the memories of Edward II. Richard II. and all the Stuart family, must rot and ftink in the noftrils of pofterity.Have fovereigns no confcience of right and wrong, of juftice and injuftice? or do they look upon themfelves as free from every bond, not accountable for their conduct to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords? Do they never confider for a moment, that they must one day ftand at the dread tribunal, where there is no refpect of perfons, where they will be upon a level with the meaneft of their fubjects? Whence is it then that they have been fo ready to violate their oaths? Whence is it, that, while punishing robbery in others, they have been guilty of robbery themselves? Whence is it, that, condemning facrilege, they have robbed the people of their most facred rights? Whence is it, that in their most unjust pursuit they have fhed the blood of their beft fubjects and most virtuous citizens? In every part of the globe have been seen Rachaels