whelps the tyranny of Tarquinius nurses up for your destruction, behold the action of one of them, the eldest of the three.

This lady is the daughter of Spurius Lucretius, whom the tyrant, when he went to the war, appointed gover. nor of the city; and the wife of Tarquinius Collatinus, a relation of the tyrant's, who has undergone many hardships for their sakes. This lady, who desired to preserve her virtue, and loved her husband, as becomes a good wife, Sextus being last night entertained at her house, as a relation, and Collatinus then absent, and in the camp, could not escape the ungovernable insolence of the tyranny; but, like a captive, under the power of necessity, submitted to those things that ought not to be offered to a woman of free condition. Resenting this usage, and looking upon the abuse as intolerable, she acquainted her father, and the rest of her relations, with the necessity she had been reduced to; and having intreated and conjured them all, in the most earnest manner, to revenge the indignity she had suffered, she drew the dagger she had concealed in her bosom, and, in her father's sight, citizens, plunged it in her own bowels! O thou admirable woman! great are the praises you deserve for your generous resolution! You are gone-you are dead; you were unable to bear the tyrannical insult, and despised all the pleasures of life, to avoid being any longer exposed to the like abuse. After this, Lucretia, when you, who were formed a woman, have shewn the résolution of a brave man, shall we, who were born men, shew less courage than women? "To you, after you were deprived of your spotless chastity, through force, by the tyranny of one night, death appeared more amiable, and 'to promise greater happiness than life; and shall not we adopt the same sentiments, whom Tarquinius, not by a tyranny of one day only, but of twenty-five years, has deprived of all the pleasures of life, in depriving us of our liberty? We cannot live under these miseries, citizens; we, who are the descendants of those men who thought themselves worthy to give laws to others, and exposed themselves to many dangers for the sake of power and fame: so that we have all no other choice, than that of life with liberty, or of death with glory. For the opportunity we wished for now presents itself: Tarqui

nius is absent from the city, the patricians are the authors of the enterprise,-and no want of any thing, if we enter upon the action with alacrity; not of men, money, arms, generals, nor of any other military preparation; for the city is full of all these. Consider, then, what a shame it would be for us, whọ aim at giving laws to the Volsci, the Sabines, and several other nations, to suffer ourselves to be the slaves of others; and to undertake many wars, to gratify the ambition of Tarquinius, and not one to recover our own liberty.

What support, therefore, what assistance can we promise ourselves in this enterprise? This remains to be explained. Our first support is derived from a depen dance upon the gods, whose religion, temples, and al tars, Tarquinius pollutes with hands stained with blood, and defiled with all the crimes he has committed against his subjects, every time he begins the sacrifices and libation. The next flows from our dependance upon ourselves, who are neither few in number, nor unskilled in war. Besides these advantages, we may expect the assistance of our allies; who, while they are not called upon by us, think it improper to enter into our affairs; but, if they see us acting the part of brave men, will cheerfully assist us in the war: for tyranny is odious to all who desire to be free. But, if any of you are afraid, lest the citizens who are in the, camp with Tarquinius, should assist him, and make war upon us, they have no reason for that fear: for the tyranny is grievous to them also; and the desire of liberty is implanted by nature in the minds of all men, and every pretence for a change is sufficient for those who are compelled to bear hardships; and if you, by your votes, order them to assist their country, neither fear, nor favour, nor any other motives, that compel or persuade, men to commit injustice, will retain them with the tyrants. But if the love of tyranny is rooted in any of them, through an evil disposition, or a corrupt education, as they certainly are not many, we will apply, even to these men, motives of so great force, as to transform them from wicked to good citi zens for we have here their children, wives, and pa rents, as hostages, which are dearer to every man than his own life: by engaging to restore these to them, if they will desert the tyrant, and by passing a vote for the

impunity of the crimes they have been guilty of, we shall easily prevail upon them to join us. March, therefore, citizens, with confidence, and hopes of success, to this action, the most glorious you were ever engaged in. To your assistance, therefore, O gods of our ancestors! the propitions guardians of this land;-to yours, O genii ! to whom the care of our fathers was allotted; and to yours, O Rome! the most favoured by the gods of all other cities, in which we received our birth and educa tion, we dedicate our counsels, our words, our actions, and our lives; ready to suffer every thing that heaven and fate shall decree. But I foresee that glorious enterprise will be crowned with success. May all here present, emboldened with the same confidence, and united in the same sentiments, both preserve you, and be preserved by you!

IL. From the funeral Oration of Lysias, in praisė of the Athenians, tho fell in assisting the Corins thians, during their tour with Lacedæmon.

If it were within the reach of éloquence to do justice to the merit of those who lie here interred, the state, doubtless, would be blameable in allowing to the orators only a few days for their preparation. But since it is altogether impossible to compose a discourse adéquaté to so glorious a theme, I must rather admire the pené. tration of our magistrates, who by assigning a short time for the execution of a task which could never be completely accomplished, have thus endeavoured to save the reputation of the speakers, and to cover them from a multitude of reproaches. It is my ambition, therefore, to rival, not the glory which your warriors have acquired, but the eloquence with which your orators have displayed it. The actions of the former afford a subject of pane gyric which all the praises of the latter can never fully exhaust; in every age, over seas and land, wherever mankind, subject to calamity and affliction, stand in need of tender sympathy and generous assistance, the virtues of the humane and the brave will be admired; their exploits will be recorded, and their name and glory will ·

remain. But before I endeavour to do justice to such as have lately aspired at so distinguished a renown, I must, according to custom, relate the ancient dangers of our forefathers, not drawing my information from written record, but from venerable traditionary fame, trea sured in the heart and memory of every good citizen. It is the duty of all mankind to be mindful of our ances tors, to celebrate them with odes, to extol them with panegyrics, to honour them especially on such occasions as the present, that by praising the actions of the dead they may excite the virtues of the living.

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But it is difficult for one speaker to do justice to soextensive a subject, or properly to describe in one day the accumulated glory of ages. For what time, what orator, or what panegyric is sufficient to display the vir tue of those who lie interred here? By the most daring and splendid attempts, and with infinite fatigue and dan. ger, they acquired liberty to Greece, and preeminenco for Athens, During seventy years in which they continued masters of the sea, the fruits of their superiority were most conspicuous. No seditions in the Grecian cities; no attempts on the liberty of their allics; no state, I may say no individual, was allowed to domineer over his neighbour, but all were compelled to enjoy equal freedom and independence. They pursued no narrow scheme for augmenting their relative strength, but invigo rating the absolute and common strength of Greece, displayed it before the tyrant of Asia, now no longer intoxicated with his plans of ambition, but resigning part of his dominions, and trembling for the remainder. During all this period no Persian vessel appeared in our seas; no tyrant reigned in Greece, no city was enslaved by the barbarians. Such was the moderation or respect with which the virtue of the Athenians inspired their neighbours; and so well did their justice deserve that superiority which their valour had acquired.

Even their misfortunes afford additional evidence of their merit. The loss of the Athenian fleet in the Hellespont, whether through the fault of the commanders, or by a fatality of circumstances, was equally felt over all

Greece, the general safety of which seemed inseparably connected with the fortune of one state: for, soon after this miscarriage, the command of Greece was committed to other hands, and new leaders were appointed. These were worsted in a sea-engagement by an enemy who formerly had been compelled to abandon that element. The barbarians pass over, without opposition, into Enrope; the face of Greece is changed and disfigured; its citizens carried into slavery, or subjected to tyrants at home. It becomes Greece to wear ensigns of mourning, and to pour forth her lamentations at this tomb. Here was her liberty interred with these victims. How unfor tunate was she in losing them? How happy was the Persian monarch in having new leaders to contend with? Deprived of such friends, Greece had nothing left but the gloomy prospect of servitude; delivered from such enemies, the monarch of Persia saw his views of ambition open before him, and he was once more elevated with the proud hopes of executing his father's designs,

Nor, as citizens or as men, must we forget that band of patriots, who reviving our political constitution at the peril of their lives, re-established the democracy. Not compelled by law, but persuaded by reason, they marched forth into the Pireum, and maintaining the cha racter of their ancestors, by preferring freedom and death, to life and slavery, they rendered the government, then engrossed by a few, a common good in which all the citizens were concerned. The injustice of their adversaries did not more excite their resentment, than their own wretched condition roused their indignation; and deprived of the first right of humanity, they determined to regain it, or to perish in the attempt. Virtuous oaths and engagements were their only allies, but added to their ancient and inveterate foes they had their fellow citizens to contend with. The sepulchres of the Lacedæmonians still remaining on the spot, are monuments of that victory, by which union and tranquillity were restored to a state, torn by seditions; by which a city, naked and defenceless, was fortified and secured; by which Athens, who had sunk into contempt, reassumed her former rank, and made good her former pretensions.

The same generous principles which had engaged the Athenians to undertake this expedition, still actuated