SECT.

h

24 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

fufpend the profecution of his plan, he was farfrom relinquifhing it To exhibit a general viewof the meafures which he adopted for this purpofe,and to point out their propriety and probablefuccefs, is not foreign from the fubjedt of thisDifquifition , and will convey a more juft ideathan is ufually entertained, of the original geniusand extent of political wifdom which diftinguifhedthis illuftrious man.

When Alexander became mafter of the Perfianempire, he early perceived, that with all the powerof his hereditary dominions, re-inforced by thetroops which the afcendant he had acquired overthe various ftates of Greece might enable him toraife there, he could not hope to retain in fubjec-tion territories fo extenfive and populous ; that torender his authority fecure and permanent, it muftbe eftabbfhed in the affedtion of the nations whichhe had fubdued, and maintained by their arms;and that in order to acquire this advantage, alldiftindtions between the vidtors and vanquifbedmuft be aboliflied, and his European and Afiaticfubjedts muft be incorporated , and become onepeople, by obeying the fame laws, and by adopt-ing the fame manners, inftitutions, and difcipline.

Liberal as this plan of policy was, and welladapted to accomplifh what he had in view, no-thing could be more repugnant to the ideas andprejudices of his countrymen. The Greeks hadfuch a high opinion of the pre-eminence to whichthey were railed by civilization and fcience, thatthey feeip hardly to have acknowledged the reft