The moft oppofite extremes were united in his character: his paffions were violent, and his temper tincontroulable; yet how faithful and ardent was his friendship for Hephæftion, and what a fcene of generofity, and even of affection, was exhibited in the tent of Darius, after the battle of the Iffus, when he treated the mother, the wife, and the family of that unhappy Prince, as his own relatives, rather than as captives. In the courfe of his expeditions, he built twenty cities; and Alexandria, in Egypt, which afterwards became the centre of eaftern commerce, ftill exifts as a monument of his name and his extenfive conquefts. His race of glory was indeed fhort, but he outftripped all other heroes in his fuccefs, as well as his enterprises. His character, above all others in antient profane hiftory, is calculated to excite efteem and admiration. His life, written by Quintus Curtius, has the air of a Romance; yet the moft authentic accounts are fufficient to prove that his excellent understanding, his patronage of the arts, his perfonal ftrength and courage, his military talents, his unbounded ambition, and his rapid and extenfive conquefts, rank him among the inoft extraordinary perfonages recorded in the annals of the world.

1

After the death of Alexander the Great, the Hiftory of Greece ceafes to be interefting. The Achæan league was formed to fecure the freedom of the fmaller against the encroachments of the larger ftates. Aratus of Sicyon, exafperated at the oppofition of the Spartans to his project of B b 4 liberating

liberating Greece from the government of Macedon, courted the protection of that country, and rivetted the chains he had at firft determined to break. The Romans conquered Macedon; Paulus Emilus led Perfeus, its laft king, in triumph; and they proceeded, partly by artifice and partly by arms, to gain the dominion of Greece, and enrolled it in the lift of their tributary provinces, under the name of Achaia. Submiffive and even obfequious as he was, Greece obtained a diftinction which placed her far above all other conquered countries, for fhe could boaft of refining her conquerors, and introducing a tafie for elegant literature and the arts, among the unpolished warriors of Latium.

During the civil wars of Rome, the Athenians, actuated by their ancient love of liberty, efpoufed the cause of Pompey, and afterwards of Brutus and Caffius. They experienced the clemency of Julius Cæfar, and the liberality of Antony, who was gratified by being cailed an admirer of the Greeks. About this time Athens was frequented as an univerfity by the Roman youths. Here Horace completed his education, and to this place Cicero fent his fon to be inftructed by Cratippus, an eminent Stoic Philofopher; and here likewise Pomponius, his accomplished and virtuous friend, refided, and from that circumftance, and his pro

a B. C. 50.

ficiency

ficiency in Grecian literature, obtained the honourable appellation of Atticus.

When St. Paul preached the gofpel at Athens, he found it still frequented by philofophers of different fects, and well understanding the character of the people, he adapted his eloquent difcourfe to their love of novelty, and their tafte for poetry. They found in the Emperor Adrian a generous benefactor; he bestowed upon them new privileges; and the city under his patronage reflected a faint ray of her former glory. It continued to be the favourite abode of philofophers; and when Synefius of Alexandria, an elegant writer of the fifth century, vifited it, he remarked, that the celebrated colonade or porch, from which the Stoic philofophers had taken their name, had been ftripped of its elegant pictures, and was deferted by the followers of Zeno.

Alaric, the leader of the Goths, when they revolted from the Emperor Arcadius, A. C. 395, began his conquefts by the invafion of Greece. He paffed the ftraits of Thermopylae, from which the Greeks were ordered to retire without oppofing him. He marked his march through Phocis and Boeotia with ruin and fire. As foon as the voice of his herald was heard at Athens, the gates were inftantly opened, and the timid inhabitants delivered up their wealth, as a ransom for their city. Corinth, Argos, and Sparta, yielded to the barbarians; and their inhabitants, loaded with chains, beheld, the

flavery

flavery of their families, and the conflagration of their cities. When we remark fuch inftances of the change of fortune, and of manners, we may atk whether we are ftill perufing the hiftory of Greece? Could men fo pufillanimous, be the defcendants of thofe heroes who, devoting themfelves to the honour and independence of their country, conquered at Marathon, Salamis, and Platea? Much as we may wonder at, and regret their degeneracy, the authentic records of hiftory forbid us to doubt the fact. The events of the fubfequent times are barren and uninterefting. In the fifteenth century, Greece yielded to the. victorious arms of Mahomet the fecond, and continues in poffeffion of the Turks at this day.

1. The prefent State of Greece.

The ravages of fucceffive conquerors have affifted the flow but certain hand of tiine in haftening the deftruction of ancient Athens. The Turks have exerted a wanton induftry, and fhown the natural hoftility of ignorance to taste, by mutilating statues, demolishing temples, and defacing the elegant forms of fculpture. The curious traveller, however, has ftill fufficient fcope for the indulgence of his pleafing melancholy, and for giving way to thofe mixed fenfations of forrow and delight, for which no language can fupply an adequate name, Such are his feelings when his imagination prefents to him the Genius of ancient Greece, bound in the

iron fetters of defpotifm, reclining his head amidst broken walls and proftrate columns, while liberty, the mufes, and the arts, are fpeeding their flight from these unhappy regions. On an actual furvey of the ruins of Athens, the traveller may be furprised that the fight of fuch objects did not open the eyes of the barbarian conquerors to admire the beauties of architecture. Every colonade, portico and pillar he beholds, nay, every step he takes, cannot fail to carry back his fancy, without any violent effort to diftant periods, and lead him to combine remote events with prefent appearances. On the fteep and craggy rock of the Acropolis was erected the Parthenon, a magnificent temple dedicated to Minerva, famed for the ftatue, which was one of the choiceft productions of Phidias. The temple is now imperfectly reprefented only by huge maffes of marble. From this fpot may be distinctly feen, when the fun gilds the horizon with his evening rays, the white column erected to commemorate the battle of Salamis. The Piræus, the renowned port of Athens, to which the triumphant fleet of Themiftocles returned with the fpoils of the Perfians, is now diftinguished only by the traces of a fmall theatre, and a monaftery of mean architecture. The ruins of temples and theatres, intermixed with cottages, and marble tablets infcribed with characters, which neither the ignorant Turks nor the modern Greeks can decipher, are memorials of a more noble and a more refined people." The marble fragments found among the ruins of the fchools atteft the diligence of the ancient philofo

phers,