CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.

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of mankind to be of the fame fpecies with them-felves. To every other people they gave thedegrading appellation of Barbarians , and in confe-quence of their own boafted fuperiority , theyafferted a right of dominion over them, in the famemanner as the foul has over the body, and menhave over irrational animals. Extravagant as thispretenfion may now appear, it found admiffion,to the difgrace of ancient philofophy, into all thefchools. Ariftotle, full of this opinion, in fupportof which he employs arguments more fubtle thanfolid 37 , advifed Alexander to govern the Greekslike fubjedts, and the Barbarians as flaves ; toconfider the former as companions, the latter ascreatures of an inferior nature 38 . But thefentimentsof the pupil were more enlarged than thofe of hismatter, and his experience in governing men taughtthe monarch what the fpeculative fcience of thephilofopher did not difcover. Soon after the victoryat Arbela, Alexander himfelf, and by his perfua-fion many of his officers , affumed the Perfian drefs,and conformed to feveral of their cuftoms. At thefame time he encouraged the Perfian nobles toimitate the manners of the Macedonians, to learnthe Greek language, and to acquire a relifh forthe beauties of the elegant writers in that tongue,which were then univerfally ftudied and admired.In order to render the union more complete, herefolved to marry one of the daughters of Darius,

,T Ariftet. Polit. i. c. 3—7. 38 Plut. deFortuna Alex.

Orat. i. p. 302. vol. vii. edit. Reifke-. Strab. lib.i. p. n< 5 . A.

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