24 AN historical disquisition

SECT, suspend the prosecution of his plan, he was farI, from relinquishing it. To exhibit a general viewof the measures which he adopted for this purpose,and to point out their propriety and probablesuccess, is not foreign from the subject of thisDisquisition , and will convey a more just ideathan is usually entertained, of the original geniusand extent of political wisdom which distinguishedthis illustrious man.

When Alexander became master of the Persianempire, he early perceived, that with all the powerof his hereditary dominions, re-inforced by thetroops which the ascendant he had acquired overthe various states of Greece might enable him toraise there, he could not hope to retain in subjec-tion territories so extensive and populous ; that torender his authority secure and permanent, it mustbe established in the affection of the nations whichhe had subdued, and maintained by their arms;and that in order to acquire this advantage, alldistinctions between the victors and vanquishedmust be abolished, and his European and Asiaticsubjects must be incorporated , and become onepeople, by obeying the same laws, and by adopt-ing the same manners, institutions, and discipline.

Liberal as this plan of policy was, and welladapted to accomplish what he had in view, no-thing could be more repugnant to the ideas andprejudices of his countrymen. The Greeks hadsuch a high opinion of the pre-eminence-to whichthey were raised by civilization and science, thatthey seem hardly to have acknowledged the rest