THE EPISTLES OF PHALARIS. Translated into English from the Original Greek.  
By S. Whately, late of Magdalen College in Oxford. M. A.  
To which is added Sir W. Temple's Character of the Epistles of Phalaris.  
Together with an APPENDIX Of some other Epistles lately Discovered in a French MS.  
LONDON, Printed by Fr. Leach in Grey Friars, Newgate-Street, for the Author. 1699.   

The Honourable Sir William Temple's Character of the Epistles of Phalaris.  
IT may perhaps be further affirmed, in favour of the Ancients, that the oldest Books we have are still in their kind the best. The two most ancient that I know of in Prose, among those we call Profane Authors, are Aesop's Fables and Phalaris' Epistles; both living near the same time, which was that of Cyrus and Pythagoras. As the first hath been agreed by all ages since for the greatest Master in his kind; and all others of that sort have been but Imitators of his Original: So I think the Epistles of Phalaris to have more Race, more Spirit, more force of Wit and Genius than any others I have ever seen, either Ancient or Modern. I know several Learned men (or that usually pass for such, under the name of Critics) have not esteemed them Genuine, and that Politian and some others have attributed them to Lucian: But I think he must have little skill in Painting that cannot find out this to be an Original: such diversity of passions upon such variety of actions and passages of Life and Government, such Freedom of Thought, such Boldness of Expression, such Bounty to his Friends, such Scorn of his Enemies, such Honour of Learned men, such Esteem of Good, such Knowledge of Life, such Contempt of Death, with such Fierceness of Nature and Cruelty of Revenge, could never be represented but by him that possessed them. And I esteem Lucian to have been no more capable of Writing than of Acting what Phalaris did. In all one writ you find the Scholar or the Sophist: In all the other the Tyrant or the Commander.  
Essay of Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 58   

A more indifferent Character of the same Author given by another Hand.  
THat some of the oldest Books are the best in their kinds, is no new Observation: but the choice of Phalaris and Aesop, as they are now extant, for the two great inimitable Originals, is a piece of Criticism of a peculiar Complexion, and must proceed from a Singularity of palate and Judgement. Dr Bentley's Appendix to Mr Wotton's Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 7. The censures that are made from stile and language alone, are commonly nice and uncertain, and depend upon slender notices. So that if I had no other Argument but the stile to detect the spuriousness of Phalaris Epistles, I myself indeed should be satisfied with that alone, but I durst not hope to convince every body else. Ibid. p. 14. To pass by therefore the Arguments from words and language, to me the very matter and business of the Letters sufficiently discovers them to be an Imposture. What force of wit and spirit in the stile, what lively painting of humoursome fancy they discern there, I will not examine nor dispute. But methinks little sense and judgement is shown in the groundwork and subject of them. What an Improbable and Absurd story is that of Epist. 54. Stesichorus was born at Himera, etc. p. 55, 56. It would be endless to prosecute this part, and show all the silliness and impertinency of the matter of the Epistles. For take them in the whole Bulk; If a great Person would give me leave, I should say, they are a fardel of Common places, without any Life or Spirit from Action or Circumstance. Do but cast your eye upon Cicero's Leters, or any Statesman's, as Phalaris was: What Lively Characters of men there! what descriptions of Place! what notifications of Time! what particularity of Circumstances! what multiplicity of Designs and Events! When you return to these again, you feel by the emptiness and deadness of them, that you Converse with some dreaming Pedant with his elblow on the Desk; not with an active Ambitious Tyrant, with his hand on his Sword, commanding a million of Subjects. All that taker or effects you is a Stiffness, and Stateliness, and Operoseness of Style: but as that is improper and unbecoming in all Epistles, so especially it is quite alien from the Character of Phalaris, a man of Bisiness and Dispatch. Ibid. p. 62, 63.   

TO THE READER.  
THe brisk Debates with which the World hath been of the late so pleasantly Entertained concerning the Author of the following Epistles gave me the Curiosity of viewing in the original the Things Themselves which had proved the occasion of so vigorous a Contest. That was what within the narrow compass of my Conversation I met with few that had done, and yet scarce a man that made the least Hesitation for which of the Antagonists in this Critical War to declare. This made me imagine that I should perform no unacceptable service to the English Reader, if I presented him with a Phalaris in his own Language, and let him see What it is about which he hath both Herd and Made so free Discourses, What my Opinion is as to the matter in Dispute, I shall not here Discover. Some little Intimations of it the Observing Reader may collect from the short Notes here and there subjoined to some of the Epistles ● which will also show him how Mistrustful I am of my own Performance, and how sensible of the Exceptions may be made against it. But as for the mere English Reader, he may save himself the Labour of looking upon them. They were not designed for him, nor are they for his use. I know this piece is like to fall into severe hands, which ought to have Discouraged an unpractised Pen from meddling with it. But if any man be minded to be Quarrelsome, I shall venture to give him this Advice, That he be sure he understand the Original before he pass his Judgement upon the Translation: and after all perhaps he will find more Labour and less Glory in the Undertaking than he Expects. For either I am very slow of Apprehension, or else this Author requires a closer Application of Thought either to be Understood in his own Language, or Translated into another, than upon a Transient view of some of the shorter Epistles an Hasty Reader would imagine. Some kind of Defence I were about to have made for the Licentionsness of the Translation. But something of that Nature is already offered in the Notes, and to Apologise farther in so Trivial a cause would run me upon a Vanity not admitting of Apology, and expose me to the Suspicion of valuing myself upon performances of this Nature; which I assure the Reader I am so far from doing that I can scarce answer to my own Thoughts, the having thrown away any part of my Time so Insignificantly. As for the Elegancies of Style, I cannot bring myself to effect them. If the English Phalaris bears any tolerable Resemblance to the Greek one, I have my end: if I have failed in That, 'twas because I could do no better. For though I own myself not so mighty an admirer of my Author, as a Translator ought to be, and as some persons professedly are, yet I have no where willingly Abused him, but all along endeavoured to make the best of him that I could. And let Envious Critics say what they will, there is in these Epistles (whether True or Counterfeit) a Spirit and Vigour, which will keep them above Contempt; though I confess I think Tully's much better. The Copy I followed, was that of the late Theatre Edition: and what Light I received from the Annotations joined with it, I have not unwillingly acknowledged, as appears by the often Reference to them under the Title of Not. Ox. i. e. Notae Oxonienses. To whom we are beholden for them every one knows. Nor were I for Sullying so Honourable a Name by making it a mere Marginal Ornament to a Trifle which could not Grace it. As for those two little pieces of Lucian, from the Relation they bear to Phalar is and the use that hath been made of them in the Controversy concerning him, I judged them not improper to be printed together with him. Being now at a Distance from the Press, and so not having the opportunity of seeing or Collating them with the Original, I ordered them to be printed verbatim from the Edition of Lucian's Works already published in English, which as I have never perused, so I have no reason to Mistrust.   

ERRATA.  
PAg. 1. l. 13. deal can: p. 2. l. 21. for 25. r. 52. p. 28. l. last deal for: p. 43. l. 18. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: p. 60. l. 11. r. Sacra se inst: l. 13. for se r. sc: p. 61. l. 11. for Fears r. Years: p. 62. l. 25. for Shares r. Sharers: p. 80. l. last. r. afford to see the public Moneys Embezel'd as if you had enough and to spare, and cannot afford to pay. p. 81. l. 18. r. Upon the one or the other of these two Points therefore you must Resolve: p. 119. l. 1. r. yet I: p. 161. l. 1. r. who can: p. 179. l. 7. deal ●.  
The Reader is also desired to observe these following Scapes. Ep. 147. in the Margin for 138. r. 108. in the same place after the words, I have had should have been added ...... as a Note of Deficiency in the text. In the Notes to the same Epistle for Tran r. Chain.  
The Omission of some References from the Text to the Notes the Critical Collator, to whom only they can be of any use, will readily supply.  
The Reader may all along if he likes it better, for Agragas and Agragamines read Agrigent and Agrigentines.  
There is also something of Heedlessness, but not affecting the sense; in the last Epistle, and the like might be said of Ep. 38. for which not the Printer, but the Translator is answerable. In notis ad Ep. 119. post verba 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, add. vel fortè pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substituendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit Atticè pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Sed (ut in loco perquam difficili) plane haerto.   

PHALARIS.  
An Harangue of Phalaris his Ambassadors to the Priests of Delphos, for the obliging them to receive the Brazen Bull, which that Prince sent as an Offering to Apollo.  

* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  RIght Reverend, Phalaris has sent us hither to consecrate this Offering to Apollo, and begs of you not to judge of him by the rumours of Fame. For he particularly desires to maintain his Repute with you, who are as the Councillors, and the Assisters of the God, and he believes your sentiment will be of great weight throughout all Greece. We take the Gods to witness, whom there's no deceiving nor corrupting, that we shall now declare nothing but the truth. And to begin with telling you something of our Prince, before we speak to you of his Oblation: Phalaris was born in the City of Agrigentum in Sicily, of a most Illustrious Family; and being first educated in all the civil exercises of his contemporaries and equals, he was admitted to the Government as well as others, wherein he behaved himself so well, that there was never any complaint of his Administration. But being informed, that his Enemies and Envyers were laying secret Abushes against him, and contriving all manner of means to be his ruin, he was constrained, for his own safety, to make himself the Master of the State, as well to free himself from their Tyranny, as to put a period to the Divisions, which reigned at that time, to the great prejudice of the Commonwealth. His design, though bold, was approved by several Persons of Honour and good Quality, (who contributed thereunto with all their Power) and was not followed by any murder, or banishment, and other such like violences, which are usually practised at the establishment of a new Empire. Nay, he did not so much as revenge himself on those that had conspired against him, but thinking to win them by softness and lenity, after having overcome them by force and power, he pardoned 'em what was passed, and admitted several of them to his Counsels, and his Table, after certain Pledges of Fidelity and Allegiance. Then for the reforming the disorders which had slipped into the State, he regulated the public Revenues, which were ill dispensed, through the malice or negligence of those who had the Administration, and did it so effectually, that there was no overplus of money for such things as only serve for Magnificence or Ornament. He then took care for the instruction of Youth, and so contrived, that the Old men should enjoy in Peace, an undisturbed repose and tranquillity of Life; he kept the people within their duty, by Bounties and public Sights, without any thing of force or violence. At length he deliberated about quitting the Throne, and restoring freedom to his Citizens, when he learned that his enemies and his envyers conspired against him, made Levys of Men and Money, fortified themselves with the Alliance of their Neighbours, and had sent Deputies as far as Lacedaemon, and Athens. As the thing was upon the point of execution, he had notice of it in a Dream, by the assistance of the Gods, and afterwards discovered the Conspiracy by several tokens. Be pleased now, Right Reverend, to reckon his Case your own, and consider what became him to do in so fatal a Conjuncture. Ought he to have pardoned a second time such ingratitude, such Traitors, and lay his Throat open to them, (as a man may say) or rather secure his Life and his Empire, as he did, by the punishment of the Criminals? Wherefore he sent for them, and having first convicted them by their own Confession, he punished them according as their Crimes deserved. From that time forth, he was obliged to keep Guards, and secure his Life by the punishment of those whom he had reason to suspect, and who were ever hatching Treason against him. In the mean while, the People, who only mind the effects, without enquiring after the Cause, call his Justice Cruelty, as if the punishment of Malefactors was not rather an Action of Clemency, since it preserves the Innocent, and secures the Lives of Honest men. But the aversion people have to ill Princes, makes 'em even often hate the Good, such as Greece has seen several, that have governed with all manner of Equity and Justice. Thus it is not by his severity, that a man ought to judge of a good or a bad Governor, but by the reason he has to be severe, otherwise you yourselves would be unjust in punishing the Impious and Sacrilegious. You see how much time Legislators employ in speaking of Penalties and Punishments, as if the rest were nothing without this. Now if they are necessary to any, 'tis without doubt to them, who have none about them but treacherous Friends or private Enemies, and command people which only obey by force. For Rebellion is like a Hydra, one of whose Heads are no sooner cut off, than that there arises several in its place, unless you put fire to't, after the example of jolas', for the gaining the Victory. In a word, when you have once begun to exercise severity, you must continue it, if you mean not to be undone. But nought but necessity can drive a man to that extremity, and I do not believe there's any Prince so barbarous as to take delight in hearing Clamours, Bawl and Invectives, rather than Blessings and Praises. How often have we seen ours weep and groan in the punishment of Offenders, and deplore his condition, because he was constrained to suffer every day, what he made them suffer once; and to be all his life long under continual apprehensions of Death. For otherwise he is so far from desiring to destroy the Innocent, that he would rather be his own destruction, by suffering Criminals to live. Besides, it's no less painful to a Noble Spirit to do ill, than to suffer it; and I know not whether it be better to die, though unjustly, than to be every day in pain for our own defence and security: however, I believe, every man would rather preserve his own life, than those of his Enemies, especially when he cannot preserve them but to his own ruin, and against himself. Yet Phalaris has preserved several, after having manifestly convicted them. I call to witness Acanthus, Timocrates, and Leogoras, whom he loved when he might have destroyed them. But if you would know our Prince, you must not inquire about him of those whom he is constrained to be harsh withal, but of others that he uses with all manner of humaniy. For there are people all along the Coast, who give him notice of those who arrive, that he may receive them according to their merit; and the Sages of Greece have not disdained to come and see him, and Court his Friendship. Witness Pythagoras, who now abides with him, having as much esteem for his Virtue, as he had heard Blame and Clamours of his Cruelty; and he is filled with compassion to see him constrained to exercise justice so severely. Do ye think a man that uses Strangers so well, taketh delight in oppressing his own Citizens without any reason; This is what we had to represent to you for his justification. As to what concerns his Offering, you are to know how Perillus, like you, only knowing him by hear-sayes, imagining he could not render him a more acceptable piece of service, than by inventing some new sort of punishment, and as he was an excellent Artisan, he made a Copper Bull of admirable contrivance, so as that the Prince cried out as soon as he saw it, that it was an Offering worthy of Apollo. But Perillus in reply said, if you knew for what purpose I made it, you would talk at another rate. Shut up a Malefactor in it, and put fire to it, and thou wilt hear him 
* An instrument was put in for that purpose.  Bellow like a Bull, which is the only thing it wants to imitate Nature to perfection. Upon these words, the Prince, having in abhorrence so detestable an Invention, made Perillus himself to be put into the Bull, to make a trial of the truth, and causing him again to be taken out alive, that so he might not pollute by his Death, an Offering which he meant to Consecrate to the Gods, he destined it to Apollo, and caused this History to be engraven thereupon. Wherefore, receive this Present, Sacred Sirs, and set it in the most conspicuous Place of the Temple, for a Monument of the Piety and Justice of our Prince: He will make still more presents, if Apollo preserves him long, and delivers him as has done from the ambushes of his Enemies; but the greatest kindness he can do him, is to exempt him henceforward from seeing so many executions and punishments. This (Right Reverend) we had to tell you on his behalf, and on our own, which we assert for truth. Now if Subjects be allowed to intercede for their Prince, we conjure you, most Holy Fathers, by virtue of an Alliance, (for we, as well as you, are originally of the Dorians) not to displease a Sovereign who Courts your Friendship, since he has given you divers testimonies thereof, as well in public, as in particular, wherefore receive this Offering; and Consecrating it to Apollo, make Vows for Him and for Us, since you cannot refuse it without doing an injury to Phalaris and your God.   

A Continuation Of the former DISCOURSE:  
In an Oration of one of Apollo's Priests to the rest, to persuade them not to refuse Phalaris his Present.  
THough I have neither Friendship nor Alliance with Phalaris, and with the Agrigentines, nor any private reason to embrace their Interests, I do not think (my Brethren) we can refuse their oblation, which is a Masterpiece of Art, and the pledge of a Prince's Piety and Justice, as well in its Consecration, as in the punishment of the Delinquent. Wherefore I fancy on this occasion a longer deliberation would be Criminal and that it's no less a Crime to refuse the offerings which are made to the Gods, than to take away those they hold already in possession. For my own part, who in the Quality of a Priest and Citizen of Delphos, partake in the Glory of Apollo, and his Temple, I hold we neither aught, nor can hinder the token of zeal and acknowledgement of any Person, without exposing ourselves to Calumny, and making it blurred about, that we mean to render ourselves Arbiters of the Consciences of Men. In a word, if we reject this offering, no body will ever make any more. For who would expose himself to a refusal, or run the risk of passing for Impious, in giving testimonies of his Piety? Ye will wholly Condemn Phalaris of the Crimes whereof he is accused, if you send back his Present. Never theless, ye know we are yet altogether unacquainted with them, and there's no judging by hear-say of Princes, and great Men. I know very well that he who spoke before me has bitterly exclaimed against the Cruelties, and other vices of that Prince, but he cannot know them of himself, but by reports, which may be false or uncertain, since he never saw the Person he speaks of, nor was he in his Country. And though they were true, it is not for us to lay aside the Quality of Priests, to take upon us that of Judges, nor to inquire whether Sicily be well or ill governed, but to receive the offerings which are made us. Let us leave to the Gods the Conduct of Mankind, and only take care of what concerns ourselves there's no need of quoting Homer, to prove we dwell among Rocks and Precipices, and that all this Country would be a sad Desert without the Piety of Men, who come hither to make Vows and Sacrifices. These are our Vintages and our Harvests, and which makes us enjoy without trouble all the Riches of the Earth, as if we inhabited a fruitful Country, or lived in the Poets golden Age. This precious Treasure let us preserve to our Children, as if we received it from our Parents, and let's not diminish by a surplusage or scruple, the glory and revenues of a Temple, where there's no mention made in the memory of man, that Presents or Victims were ever refused. It only appertains to the Gods to judge of the Consciences of Men, since none but they know all the doubles and foldings of the mind: the Question here is neither of Phalaris nor his Bull, but of all the Vows, and all the Offerings that ever will be made in all Ages. You see the immense Riches this Temple has heaped up since People have had liberty of coming hither? I am afraid that by turning Censurers, you'll have no Subject for your Censures. So that I am of advice, that you receive this Offering (my Brethren) according to the Custom of our Ancestors, which is conformable to our own interest, and to that of our God.   

Phalaris his Epistles.  

Ep. 1. To Alcibous.  
Vide Ep. 21, 70.  
I Know the good news which I send you will cut you to the heart, and be welcomed with tears. Polyclitus of Messana, whom, for his attendance upon me, you accuse as a Betrayer of the Public, hath recovered me out of a despeperate sickness. But you are sick of a Disease, out of which, neither can Asclepius the God of Physic himself, nor all the Gods in Heaven can recover you. The Distempers of the Body may be removed by the Physician, but for a Diseased Soul, there's no other Remedy but Death. That Remedy therefore expect you from my hands, as your many unjust and villainous practices require: And those, not such which you were Forced upon by any necessity, (as 
a V. Ep. 3, 23 29, 80, etc.  were the things you lay to my charge Forced upon me) but the pure effect of your own deliberate Choice: Nor for the putting you to the End I design, will any man say I am too Cruel, or call me Tyrant upon your account. 
'Tis an unlucky thing offendere in limine. I wish this Epistle had stood in some other place. I have endeavoured (as far as I could) to satisfy all parties, but am scarce less satisfied with myself in any other part of the Book than in this Entrance. I have done my English Reader no wrong; and I beg the Critics to let me pass both here and elsewhere without too rigorous a Trial. I do not pretend to a literal Translation: if I do not lose the Thought of my Author, and preserve somewhat of his Genius; 'tis all I aim at.    

Ep. 2. To the Megareans.  
V. Ep. 252  
I Do not find fault with you for your Ingratitude, who after having received at my hands so many obligations, yet in the late dispute between me and my Neighbours about the Limits, gave in a false Evidence against me, but I find fault with myself for my own Insensibility; who, after so many Indignities offered to me from the same persons, have yet learned no more Wit. You remember none of the good services 
* V. Ep. 52.  I have done you; and I continue still to serve you, as if you never forgot any of them.   

Ep. 3. To Tyrrhenus.  
IF even those whom Necessity puts upon Criminal practices, must needs be filled with dismal expectations of what's to follow, as you were pleased to preach to the Aegestaeans; advising them to submit with Patience to the Decrees of Providence, and leave it to Divine Justice to take vengeance on me: then what may you yourself expect, so loaded with guilt as you are, and whose Crimes cannot be charged upon the score of Necessity, but are all of them purely owing to the free Choice of a malicious heart? 
I confess this Epistle doth sound somewhat more Christianly in the Translation than in the Original. But as I make no doubt of its being written since the time of the Apostles, so I conceive that I have not Paraphrased, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, beyond the intention of the Text. Vid. Not. Ox.    

Ep 4. To Lucinus.  
'TWas but poorly done of you in that Harangue you made upon me before the Leontines, to Insult me with your malapert questions, as if I had been present to answer them: What am I? and whence came I? and what is the name of my Father? Well Sir, I'll tell You then both what I am, and what you are. I am Phalaris, the Son of Leodamas; by my Birth, an Astypalaean; by my Fate, first a Fugitive out of my own Country, now a Sovereign at Agragas; the 
* I must desire the Reader to take notice, that I am often forced to depart from the Letter of my Text, to preserve (as well as I can) the Spirit of it. As here: The Jingle of Football and Favourite humours the Vein of my Author, keeps the Composition on the same foot, and bears proportion to his meaning. This observed once for all, I shall not need to repeat. The chosen Epithets in the following paragraph are too nicely distinguished to be exactly matched in the Translation. God be praised our language is too Poor for them. Vide & Not. Ox.  Football of Fortune, but still her Favourite: And that am I. Now I'll tell you what Lucinus is; An Infamous Debauchee, a Rascally Pimp, a Lecherous Whoremaster, a Turbulent Knave, a Factious Declamator, a Coxcomb in the City, and a Coward in the Camp. And that are you, Sir. And this Character of you I shall make good, if not before, yet at least then, when the Leontines shall be glad to purchase their Peace, by delivering you up into my hands. And then may I take occasion to call you to account, as for all your other Doings, so among the rest for these your choice Orations.   

Ep. 5. To the Leontines.  
IF you would put an end to the War, you must without more ado deliver me up Lucinus, and the vengeance I shall take on him, shall atone for you all. Nor shall he suffer more at my hands, than what I am sure you all wish he may.   

Ep. 6. To Zeuxippus.  
I Pardon your Son because of his Youth, and you because of your Old age; though indeed both of you Unpardonable. If ever you repeat the like Insolences, neither shall his Youth secure Him, nor your Grey hairs You: but the same which now pleads your Excuse, shall then aggravate your Punishment. Vid. Not. Ox. in loc.   

Ep. 7. To Euenus.  
HAving taken your Son Prisoner, I had resolved to have put him to death, for the Affront he offered to my Sea Commanders: but upon second thoughts I spared him; choosing rather to punish you by Giving him his life, than him by Taking it away. Fare you well.   

Ep. 8. To Sameas.  
V. Ep. 85.  
COnsidering the 
* Vid. Not. Oxon. in. loc.  Make of your Nature, and what is the Common affection you bear toward all mankind, and knowing that no Misfortune befalling yourself could more sensibly afflict you, than do the Happy successes of your neighbours; I thought it worth my while to give you a short account of my affairs: which with all possible speed take as follows. Both in my Controversy at Law, and in my Engagement at Sea, and in my Battle at Land, and in my Horses at the Course, I am come off Victor. Such a Glut of good news at once I hope may break your heart; and to that end and purpose do I send it you.   

Ep. 9 To Cleostratus.  
'TIs really a strange thing that I hear of you, and whether I should more admire or laugh at it, I know not; that you should set up for a Reformer of Manners. For certainly one would expect that He who takes upon him to correct others, should be altogether Spotless himself. But where can you find The man to reprove, whose very Self same faults you yourself have not in the first place, and together with them an Accumulation of all others. And yet can you Reprove and Censure as boldly, as if Cleostratus were a man Censure-proof.   

Ep. 10. To Lacritus.  
THat you should so grievously regret the loss of your Son, is what no man can blame you for; not I, I am sure, who am your Fellow-sufferer in it, and who, looking upon myself as part of the Mourning Family, share the deepest in its sorrows: though otherwise of a Spirit somewhat resolved and hardened against such kind of Impressions; as having often reflected upon it, how Insignificant a thing it is to indulge the Excesses of a Dolorous passion, from which I have never yet seen any good effect proceed. Though as to the present case, the misfortune itself carries in it many Arguments of Comfort. As first, that he made so glorious an Exit, expiring in the Bed of Honour, and breathing out his last in the Defence of his Country. Then that he Conquered as he Died; and what more could the Fates have done for him than to Crown his Death with Victory. And lastly, that as he lived Honourably, so by his having died such a Death, his Honour is secured and Sealed up to him. For he that lives on, how 
* I chose rather to express my Author in general terms (no less, if not more agreeable) than to do as he he here seems to do; give Fortune the command over our Choice, and lay even our Virtues at her disposal. As to the rest of this Epistle I hope I have taken his meaning.  Honourably, soever he may have behaved himself in his life past, yet is not exempt from the hazard of a future 
* I chose rather to express my Author in general terms (no less, if not more agreeable) than to do as he he here seems to do; give Fortune the command over our Choice, and lay even our Virtues at her disposal. As to the rest of this Epistle I hope I have taken his meaning.  Miscarriage. Fortune having a greater hand in the disposal of Us 
* I chose rather to express my Author in general terms (no less, if not more agreeable) than to do as he he here seems to do; give Fortune the command over our Choice, and lay even our Virtues at her disposal. As to the rest of this Epistle I hope I have taken his meaning.  than our own Choice. But he that hath made a glorious End of his life, hath his Honour irrevocably confirmed unto him, and rendered Inviolable. Take therefore your Son's having persisted in Virtue to the Last, and been such an Ornament to his Family, as a competent requital for all the cares he hath cost you: and do you, in requital to so Deserving a Son, by the moderation of your Sorrow, testify the sense you have of his Merits, and show to the world with what Satisfaction you can think of him   

Ep. 11. To Megacles.  
I Have both sent you the Horses completely Caparisoned for the Course, and have ordered Teucrus to supply you with Moneys. If your occasions require any thing else, fail not to let me know; you cannot desire that Thing of me, which I shall not gladly grant.   

Ep. 12. To Aglaus.  
YEs! I have out of that share of Wealth with which Providence hath blest me, laid in a stock against the Vicissitudes of Fortune: not lodged indeed (as you advised me) in dark Holes, and Buried in the Earth, but dispersed abroad among such of my Friends as would Honour me with the acceptance of it. But this is more than You would ever vouchsafe to do, who, by refusing to receive a gift from my hands, deny me (as much as in you lies) the liberty of placing (should my present Independance fail me) a Reserve of Hope in my Friends. But though you have stood out hitherto, yet do it no longer. Admit of what I now send you, and by suffering me to Lodge it in your hands, give me an Assurance of your friendship. For in what place of the Universal world shall I be able to give a sure footing to my Hopes, if I must past by you the best of my friends, for no better than a tottering foundation? in whose fate I count my own involved, whose Prosperities (how different soever my own condition may prove) will be sufficient to sweeten my Misfortunes, and who while they are Happy, I shall never think myself Miserable. 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I guess I come near to his meaning.    

Ep. 13. To Herodicus.  
ANother man having received an injury, would, instead of discovering to his Enemy his intentions of Revenge, labour to stisle his Resentments, and keep himself Unsuspected. But as for my part, I think it an Ungenerous thing to take a man at Unawares. And therefore since you have Affronted me, I give you fair warning, and plainly tell you beforehand, that I am resolved upon Satisfaction; and so look to yourself. And thus doing I doubly punish you; first with the Fright before the Stroke, and then with the Stroke after the Fright.   

Ep. 14. To Eumelus.  
THat he that begins an Affront should be called to Account for it, neither is a thing Unjust, nor can he be Censured for such. Since therefore you have done the Former, expect from me the Latter.   

Ep. 15. To Teucrus.  
V. E. 31. 33.  
REturn to the Tauromenites the Ransom Money they 
* Ep. 85.  paid me for their Prisoners, letting them know that 'tis not me they are to thank for it, but Stesichorus. For as for him, who procured of me this Grace on their behalf, though buried in the Dust of the Grave, they find him still Alive to them: but as for They themselves; all the kindnesses bestowed on such Ungrateful creatures, I shall find but thrown away, and 
* 'Tis no great matter whether I have kept to the strict words of my Author; I have kept (and I think somewhat improved) his Quibble. In Antithetis nimius & interdum frigidior. Praes. ad Edit. Oxon.  buried in the Grave of forgetfulness.   

Ep. 16. To Ariphaetes  
I 
* I knew not how to introduce the following Clauses of this Epistle, without the addition of the first. But I shall not trouble my Reader with many more of these Impertinent Notes.  Send you Money, not News:] Your Merits well deserving this and much more; and my Circumstances being such, that the best I can do for you is to let you know nothing of them.  
Vid. Ep. 50, & 43.   

Ep. 17. To Amphinomus.  
WHen I bestow a Gift upon a deserving person, I think I rather Receive an obligation from him, than Lay one upon him. Since therefore you have been pleased to Accept of the things I sent you, set it down in your Books, Phalaris your Debtor, not you his. Farewell.   

Ep. 18. To Erythia.  
I Thank you heartily, my dear Erythia, for your Love and Goodness both to Me myself, and our dear Child, whom I left in your hands. To Me; in that though I have been long since forced to fly my Country, and still remain an Exile: yet you choose rather to continue in a state of Widowhood, than to accept of any other Husband, though importuned by many. To my Child; in that you are to him a Father, Nurse, and Mother, all in one; refusing to be a Wife to any Husband but Phalaris, or Mother to any Son but Paurolas. Continue your care, I beseech you, and finish the Work both for your Husband and your Son, till being come of years to know what it is to Live in the World, he may be able to stand upon his own Legs, and no longer want either Father or Mother for a Tender. 'Tis not as if I disinherited the care of a Mother (especially of such a Mother) over her own Child, that makes me thus solicit you: but the Concern which a Father cannot but have for his only Son. By Yourself judge of me. If a Mother be so solicitous for the welfare of her Child, think not a Father less so. And if I seem too importunate, let that plead my Excuse. Farewell.   

Ep 19 To Paurolas.  
'TIs your duty, my Son to love and honour both your Parents; nor nor can a Child too much Reverence them from whom he derives his Being, and to whom he stands so deeply indebted. But of the two, 'twere more pardonable to neglect the Father than the Mother. For the Father claims upon his Children, do not near amount to those of the Mothers. Besides her Bearing you in the Womb, her Bringing you into the World, her Nursing you at her Breasts; a Thousand more are the cares and toils which she hath sustained for you: while the Father, without any of the Labours which the Mothers undergo in bearing and breeding up their Children, shares in all the Comforts of them. And if this be the case of all Children toward their Parents, there is something Singular in yours, who by reason of my Exile, being left Wholly to your Mother's care, Doubled her work, and made her both in one to you, both Father and Mother. So that you owe to One parent all the obligations, which with other Children are divided between Both, and by a grateful behaviour toward your Mother, may acquit yourself of all your debt to your Father. Yes! do but discharge the Duties of a Child to her, and I'll demand nothing of you for Myself; nay more, I'll own myself your Debtor. You see what an Advantage you have gotten over me, since by paying the many Obligations you owe to your Mother, you may lay as Many upon your Father.   

Ep. 20. To Paurolas.  
V. Ep. 67.  
IN nothing that a Father is bound to do for a Son, have I been wanting to you, Paurolas. That you do not (when it lies in your power) answer the Cares of a Father, with the Duties of a Son; is a fault lying at your door. For I hear that you still neglect (though so often reproved for it) the applying your mind to Learning. If you deny me this One thing, Nothing else that your can do will please me. And so Valuable a prize is Learning, that if you will oblige me herein, it cannot be a greater Satisfaction to me, than it will be of Advantage to yourself.   

Ep. 21. To the Messanians.  
V. Ep. 1. & 70.  
I Hear you have conceived a mighty displeasure against your Countryman, Polyclitus the Physician, upon my account; charging him with being an Enemy to the Public, and a Betrayer of the Liberties of the Agragantines: since in my late sickness, when he had me lying at his mercy, and might fairly have Dispatched me out of the World, he brought me back from the Brink of the Grave. Nor are you ashamed to urge against him the Evidence of his intregrity as a Conviction of his injustice. Well! you plainly show what Notions of things you have. 'Twas the Duty of the Physician (say the Messanians) to have Murdered his Patient. But as for my part, how much soever I am beholding to his Art, I value him more for his Probity than for his Skill; that having my Life put into his hands, he would not Murder me for a Tyrant, but Save me as his Patient. And as for your displeasure, he suffers nothing by that; but by my Gratitude he is able to vie wealth with the greatest Lords in Sicily. And I dare engage for you, that upon the like Consideration there's not a man of you would not be content rather to be called a Betrayer of Agragas, than a Destroyer of Phalaris.   

Ep 22. To Androcles.  
V. Ep. 73 & 147  
I Have with my own hands written very particularly to Stesichorus not to be concerned at Eubulus and his Complices having accused him to me. I must desire you to be my Second herein, and vouch for me to him that I harbour not the least evil thought concerning him. For I should rather believe that there never was any such thing as a Plot against me, (though the Conspirators themselves have confessed it) than I should believe that they were put upon it by his Poems, and not by the malice of their ownhearts   

Ep. 23. To Pythagoras.  
V. Ep. 74.  
THere cannot be any two things in the world that seem to stand in greater opposition the one to the other, than the Tyranny of Phalaris, and the Philosophy of 
* For Pythagoras was such an abhorrer of Cruelty, that his Principles admitted not the shedding the blood of even Brute Creatures. Not. Oxon. in loc.  Pythagoras. And yet why may we not look one another in the face, fairly meet and compare ourselves together? Distance shows things under false shapes, a nearer view would give a surer judgement. Conversation might reconcile the seeming Antipathies, and show that you and I are not Creatures so mightily unlike one another. The opinion that I have of you, is that you are a very Extraordinary Man, and Common Fame is my Author for it. But do not you judge of me by the same Rule: For Common Fame hath taken part with my Enemies, and strangely misrepresented me to the world. My circumstances (such is the hard fate of envied Tyrants) will not admit me to visit you. I cannot with safety to my person travel without my Guards and Soldiers, and to put myself upon the road with them would give Jealousies. But you are not so tied up; you may safely come and go as you please. Let me have your company therefore, and spend some time together with me. And when you shall have made the Trial of me, You will be able to pass a true judgement upon me. But when you come to that, if you Try me as a Tyrant, you will find more of the private man in me, than of the Tyrant; but if as a private man, you will find in me something of the Tyrant: though not in my nature, but as forced upon me by necessity. For Absolute power cannot be maintained by him that will never be Cruel. Or if you think otherwise; that it is a thing not impossible for a Tyrant to be gentle and yet safe: for that very reason among others, do I the more earnestly desire your presence. For I will certainly follow your directions, and use softer methods; if you can bring it to pass that the 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Sc. rei ipsius veritas.  Nature of the thing shall be able to bear it, and show me the way how to reconcile Lenity and Security, the Necessities of a Tyrant with the Sweetness of a Philosopher, and the 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Sc. rei ipsius veritas.  Practices of the world with the Precepts of Pythagoras.   

Ep. 24. To Thorax  
WHether I Write so blindly as not to be understood, or whether you are Resolved not to understand me, I know not: but this I know, that you fall two Millions short with me. If you know not how to do it yourself, I'll take care to send some certain persons to you, to Teach you how to Calculate your Accounts: And that in such a manner as you would not be willing to Learn, and sooner than perhaps you expect. Farewell.   

Ep. 25. To Leontiades.  
AS I have often told you before, so I tell you again, I expect no other Thanks of you for my having holpen you to so good a Wife (if you think that such a kindness) than that you should Love the person for whom you think yourself obliged to thank me, and by whom you have the Happiness (for so you call it) of that Relation to our Family, with which you seem so well satisfied.   

Ep. 26. To Ariphrades.  
THe juvenile Audacity and Heedlessness of Young persons, their Adventurous and Inconsiderate Attempts, have often proved Fatal to them. In both these respects your Son hath rendered himself very Obnoxious. Yet, though sufficiently provoked by his Insolent behaviour toward me, I have hitherto Spared him. But 'tis for Your sake, not his Own, that I have done so. For as for You Yourself, every one gives you the Character of a right Honest man; which made me unwilling to punish the offences of the Son upon the Innocent Father. For though he be a very Rascal, yet being an Only Son, and the last Stay of your Family, you cannot but retain a Fondness for him: the Affections of a Father being too strong to be overruled by the Vices of the Son. But if he doth not mend his Manners, but continue to show himself equally Disobedient to his Parent, and Disloyal to his Prince, you must not think it strange if I call him to an account for Both of us, and give him that Correction which his behaviour both to You and Me requires. And that he may not when he comes to feel the Smart of it, (which if he goes on as he begins, I assure him he shall) pretend to be surprised, show him these lines, and let him take what is Written to you as meant to him. Farewell.   

Ep. 27. To Antimachus.  
IF you have wherewithal to pay your Debts, and do not do it, you Wrong me, and that Willingly: but if you have not wherewithal, though even so you Wrong me, yet, it being against your Will that you do so a Reasonable man would Forgive you it. But when I say Forgive it, Mistake me not: he that Forgives the Time of payment, doth not Forgo all hopes of ever having his own again.   

Ep. 28. To Aristomenes.  
MY having received several Wounds in the late Engagement, is not a matter requiring your Condolements. I thank you however, and take it as a proof of the Affection you bear me. But so far am I from accounting such Casualties a Misfortune, (though I were within an Hairs breadth of dying upon the Spot) that I could be well content, even before the Term that Fate hath set me, (were it never so long an one) to give up my life in the Field of War. For what greater Wish could a Generous Soul make, than to breath out his last in the Bed of Honour, and Dye fight for Glory and Victory.   

Ep. 29. To Xenopithes.  
V. Ep. 139  
I Value not what ignorant persons, and such as are not able to make a true judgement of things, say or think concerning me. They may Accuse me of some things, from which I shall not pretend to Vindicate myself. But this I know, that when other men venture upon Unjustifiable actions, 'tis of their own Choice and Malice that they do so. If I Transgress, 'tis Necessity (whose power is above the Gods) that forces me to it. The only difference is this, that as I am Absolute and have the Law in my hands; what I do, I Own and stand to: but you private persons, as you are under Command, and in fear of being called to an Account, instead of plainly Showing yourselves to be what you are, are forced to take shelter in Dissimulation and Denial.   

Ep. 30. To the Catanaeans.  
THose Prisoners of yours that are fallen into my hands, when they had not the least grain of hope left, I have given them their Lives. And that because I knew you did not much care for them, nor matter it whether they Lived or Died. For I would not have you think me the less your Enemy for this, or that I begin to forget old Scores. I should be a very forgetful man indeed, if ever I left you till I had made you feel the Weight of my Displeasure, and that in full Proportion to the Cause of it. What that is, if you know not, I shall not tell you. The time is coming when your Sufferings shall call to mind your Deservings.   

Ep. 31. To Stesichorus his Daughters.  
V. Ep. 15. 85.  
AS for the Tauromenites, on whose behalf (according to the last Command, as you tell me, of your Dying father) you have written to me; they do not deserve the least Mercy at my hands; who without any manner of Provocation in the world began an unjust War upon me. But I will not measure my Respects to Stesichorus, by the Merits of the Tauromenites. They shall, according to your Letter, have the Ransom-money which they paid for their Prisoners, returned to them. Nor do I in This only readily Obey when Stesichorus Commands, but there could not have been That thing which he should have asked of me in vain. For Though Dead to the rest of the World (who think 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. verbatim. For though he seem Dead to some (which no wise wan would say).  Dying and being Buried the same things he shall always be Alive to me. Nor shall my passion against the Tauromenites so far Transport me as to suffer Stesichorus to be Denied any thing that Phalaris can Grant. A Deference due to him from all the World, but more especially from me, who, out of the vast Multitudes of men my occasions have led me to know and observe, have never yet met with so Illuminated a Soul. I have therefore ordered them their Moneys again: and in so doing, I do not think the Memory of your Father so much Honoured by me, as I think myself Honoured by answering his Desires.   

Ep. 32. To Critophemus.  
THe large Encomiums which you and my other friends bestow upon me for my Bravery in the Field, I interpret as the Testimony of your good Affections. But you have somewhat too high an Opinion of me, if you ascribe my Victory over the Leontines to my own Courage and Conduct. I myself have a different Notion of the matter: for as I avow my Cause against them to be just, so I receive my successes as the gift of Fortune. For be it in greater Affairs, or be it in lesser, when all comes to all, let us Mortals do what we can, 'tis Fortune turns the Scales.   

Ep. 33. To Ctesippus.  
V. Ep. 15, 31, 85.  
AS it was not for their own Sake that I formerly Released to the Tauromenites their Prisoners taken in that unjust War they made upon me, but because I would not violate the Common Law of Greece (a), 
V. Not. Ox. in loc.  so neither was it to Caress and soften my Enemies (as you reproach me) that I have since restored to them their Ransom-money; but because I could not deny Stesichorus his Request, who sent his Daughters in an Embassy to me, on purpose to procure this Favour for them. So that the Tauromenites are beholding to even Dead Stesichorus, for what they have gotten of me, and Stesichorus to his own Merits. I am indebted to Stesichorus upon many Accounts, but upon none more than for his having sent me such an Embassy upon such an Errand: since his Making such a Request to me, and my Granting it, hath done some service indeed to the Tauromenites in saving them their Money; but a far Greater to me, in affording me the Opportunity of showing to the World (what it is so unwilling to believe) how ready I am to Forgive an injury, and Do a kindness.   

Ep. 34. Io Polluz.  
YOu seem to wonder in your Letter what should have made such a change in me, that whereas heretofore I were used to venture my Person abroad somewhat too fearlessly for a Tyrant, I should now become so Shy and Reserved, as not to admit so much as even the nearest of my Relations to the sight of me. And yet, let me tell you, with all this care I am but 
* Yes, I have; I have had Regard to Sense as well as for MSS.  too little Shy and Reserved. Such cause have I to shun the Approaches of all Mankind, since by Experience I have found that there is no such thing as Faith and Truth in Man, my very Friends themselves not excepted. So that all things considered, one would rather choose to Sojourn in the lybian Deserts, and pass one's life with the Wild Beasts of the Wilderness, than among the Race of Mankind. I might more safely lodge in the Lion's Den, and play with Serpents, than trust myself to the men of this Generation. So many repeated Experiments have the Varieties of my Fortune, and the Trials I have passed, given me both of my own Dangers and their Baseness.   

Ep. 35. To Polignotus.  
Well Polignotus! I'll give over sending to you any more either Gifts or Letters: and pray do you give over your Magnifying me at that Rate I hear you do in all Companies. For since you still refuse to Accept of any of those things I send you; you do more Condemn me by your Actions, than you can Commend me by your Words. 
* The Original runs thus.— By your Words— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Not considering that Wisemen take Words for the Shadows of things: that is, as the shadow is not alone without the presence of the Body, so Words are accompanied with the Action. Dissert. upon Phalari:, etc. P. 33.  'Tis not the Shadow makes the Substance, but the Substance the Shadow. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, say the Wise men, Words are the Shadows of Deeds.   

Ep. 36. To Cleomenides.  
I Have sent you all necessary Provisions for your Exhibition of the Public Exercises; Two hundred 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Measures of Oil, 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Four hundred Medimni.  a proportionable quantity of Wheat: and for the Young men, a Quantity of Wine to your Son, with some Young Gentlemen to be his Scribes, and Stesichorus his Poems. But I am afraid some of your Wise Syracusians will smell out a Plot in this too; and cry, ‛ Beware the Gifts of a Tyrant.   

Ep. 37. To Gorgias.  
ALL the rest of your Epistle I like very well; but the Exhortation you are pleased to bestow upon me; not to Amuse myself about the Future might have been spared. I am not of so Weak an Understanding as to be dismayed, either at the thoughts of Death itself, or at the Manner after which I may Die. The Decrees of Fate fall not under the Cognizance of men, nor change their Course at our Arbitrement. So that upon all Accounts, I cannot but conclude it a great folly, for a man to be Prying into them, or giving himself any Anxious thoughts concerning the Future, whether it be for the better or for the worse: whether he conceive it, either in the first place a thing possible to foreknow the Future, or in the next foreknowing it, a thing possible to avoid it. If he think the Foreknowing it indeed possible, but the Avoiding it impossible; why then should he be curious to know that, which Known or Unknown remains still the same; but if a man shall think, that together with the Foreknowing the Future, he may be also able to Avert it, so as to New-make the Order of things, putting Good in the place of Evil, and causing that which Should have been Not to be: how That is to be effected, is what I cannot conceive. For this I should think to be the work of God only, not of Man. And while a man shall consider that the 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Forte, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And so I render it.  Offspring of Jove himself, (b) Aeacus, Minos, 
V. Not. Ox. in loc.  and Rhadamanthus, with the other Demigods, were neither born to Immortality, nor came to any other Death than what every ones Fate had allotted him; must he not (think you) have lost the common Reason of a man that shall complain of Fate, or Tremble at the Thoughts of Dying. Do you Yourself put on the same Resolution you direct me to, and trouble not your head about the Uncertainties of unknown Futurity. As for my own part, I assure you they give me no Disturbance.   

Ep. 38. To Demoteles.  
V. Ep. 61.  
I Forgive you your good Advice. You that have never been a Tyrant yourself, counsel Him that is one, to lay aside his Usurped power, and return to the condition of a Private Man. Had some of the Gods joined with you, and offered me their Bond to save me Harmless, then perhaps I might have been tempted to have harkened to you. But when you think your own single word a Security sufficient for me in a matter of this Consequence, you show how little you Understand the World; who know not how much greater Hazard a man runs in Laying down such a Power, after once he hath taken it up, than he did in first Assuming it. For as a Private man is safer while he still keeps himself a Private man, than when he makes himself a Tyrant: So he that hath once made himself a Tyrant, can never be Safely any other than a Tyrant. So that upon the whole, by the same Rule we may judge of the Fate of being a Tyrant, as we may of the Fate of all Mankind in respect of their being Born into the world, and leading their lives in it. For as, had it been possible for a man to have foreseen 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I have but one Copy by me, and it may be a escape of the Press. I doubt not but the true Lection is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  before his Birth, the miseries he must have run through in this World, he would never by his good will have been born into it; so neither could a private man Foresee the Unhappiness of being a Tyrant, would he ever covet to change his Private condition for that of a Sovereign. Thus, Demoteles, I think it had been Better for every man never to have been Born, than to have been Born, and for every private man never to have been a Tyrant, than to have been a Tyrant. Had therefore your Counsel came in Time, and given me beforehand a True Knowledge of the many Mischiefs I should find in being a Tyrant, I had been ruled by you, and never quitted my private Station. But since I now unhappily am a Tyrant, and have thereby (as it is impossible it should be otherwise) ran into some excesses, and made myself 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But I have taken in both senses.  many Enemies; neither shall You, nor Any man else, 
Vid. Not, Ox. in loc  nor all the Gods in Heaven persuade we to strip myself of my power, and so lie at the Mercy of them who now lie at mine: which, when once I do, I well know how short a time I have to Live, and how Cruel a death to Die.   

Ep. 39 To Polystratus.  
I Have Summoned all the rest of my Friends to repair forthwith to Agragas, and I desire you to be here before the Olympics. For within that time I design to hold a Grand Council, and therefore would willingly have together a sufficient number of such of my Friends upon whom I may depend, and by the joint advice of whom (which upon the like Occasions I always desire) we may take the Necessary Measures for the present Exigencies, and come to some Resolutions upon Affairs of the greatest Importance, and of very doubtful Consequence. Not that I would lay any Difficulties or Odium upon you, (all that I'll take upon myself) but only to receive your Directions. That so if I still maintain my Ground, and hold the Sovereignty of which I am possessed, I may have the oftener Opportunity of meeting you, and expressing the Esteem I have for you. But if it be otherwise Decreed, and this should prove our last Meeting, you may always retain in mind a grateful Remembrance of the good Services I have done you. Delay not therefore the affording me your Presence, and by your wont Readiness upon such occasions, show how much better Phalaris is known to you, than he is to the rest of the World.   

Ep. 40. To Paurolas.  
THe Golden Crown you sent me (and 'tis of a noble size) is come safe to my hands: which for the 
* This Crown was probably the Prize of Victory gained by Paurolas in some or other of the Public Exercises. Not. Ox.  Omen sake, as well as for the Donor's, I gladly received. I wore it myself one day when I Sacrificed to our Patron Gods my Conquest-Offerings for my Victory over the Leontines: after which I sent it a Present to Erythia, as judging it too precious an ornament for any other Head than your Mother's. But You yourself will be a Crown of greater Glory to your Parents, if, Living up to the Laws of Virtue and Honour, you answer the Wishes we make for you.   

Ep. 41. To Hippolytio.  
V. Ep. 43.  
I Admit you, since you desire it, to appear before me in Person, and Speak for yourself. But I shall not give you my Oath not to offer any Violence to you. I give you my Word. And if you distrust my Promise; whether those Other things objected against you be true or not, Now I am sure you do me Injustice: Since, though you cannot Allege against me one Instance that ever I have been guilty of Breach of Faith, yet by your Demanding an Oath, you Condemn me for a man whose Word is not to be taken. And what Difference is there, as to the Reason of the thing, whether a man Violate his Word or his Oath, since the Conscience is bound by the One as well as by the Other? Fare you well.   

Ep. 42. To Polytimon  
IF Measuring other men by Yourself, your own Consciousness makes you suspect my Sincerity; 'tis my Wisdom, not my Honesty that you are Jealous of. But if you simply suspect me for my Own sake, 'tis because you Know me not. So far am I from Breach of Faith myself, that I scarce know how to suspect others of it. So that (as the best Natures are always the least Mistrustful) my too forward Belief in this respect hath often betrayed me into many Inconveniencies. Fear not therefore, but come on Boldly. There are no Traps nor Snares in the way. The worst you shall suffer by the Visit, is to be made a Witness to the World, That Phalaris is a man of his Word.   

Ep. 43. To Teucrus.  
YOur friend Aristomenes is restored to his Estate, and Hippolytio discharged of the Prosecution. I expect to see you here according to your promise. I am well: if a man may be said to be so, who having Adventured much, and Succeeded in most of his Adventures, 
* viz. Happy in his Successes, which gained him the Sovereignty. Unhappy (as he often complains) in the Possession of it.  yet for the sake of the Unhappiness cleaving to his Happiness, reputes of even his Happiness.   

Ep. 44. To Nicias.  
THe same Reason which makes you Hate your Son, that is, his not Taking after his Father, makes all others Love him. And by this you may know what Opinion the World hath of you: All that Love him, Hate you.   

Ep. 45. To Adimantus.  
I Hear there is a great Controversy between you and your brother, which of you Twain is the greater Rogue; you saying that he is, and he that you are. Now to give you my sense of the matter, 'tis this: I believe, nay, I am sure of it, that of all other Mortals he is the greatest Rogue, but a greater than you, neither is he, nor any man upon Earth.   

Ep. 46. To the Aegestaeans.  
I Warn you not to harbour any more of my Fugitives. None can do either a good Office or a bad one to Phalaris, without being outdone by him in the same kind. For a proof of this, take the example of the Melitaeans and the Leontines. To me the Melitaeans owe the enjoyment of their Liberty, and to the same hand the Leontines the loss of theirs: the one for having sunk one of my Galleys, the other for having endeavoured to save one of them from sinking. Fare ye well.   

Ep. 47. To Antisthenes and Theotimus.  
OF the gifts which I sent to them, Antisthenes hath taken his part, Theotimus hath refused to take his; for which I thank the one, and find no fault with the other: for the one hath made me never the poorer by receiving, and the other's not receiving, hath left me somewhat the richer. 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Antitheta minime distincta. Not. Oxon.    

Ep. 48. To Menecles.  
DO not fall back from good beginnings, nor think yourself obliged not to be an honester man than your Father. Lose not the Reputation you have gained, nor suffer the Camarinaeans to say, 'Twas not in his Nature, 
* I have added this Proverb. But I suppose it answers to the thought of my Author; and a particular reason brought it readily to my mind.  (What's bred in the bone will never on't of the flesh) 'twas only to serve a Turn.   

Ep. 49. To Epistratus.  
YOu seem to congratulate me for an happy man. I shall give you therefore in few words, the History of myself. An Orphan almost as soon as born; scarce a man, when by an unlucky Adventure forced to fly my Country; despoiled of my Fortunes; the best of my years spent amongst Uncultivated Barbarians; persecuted from Nation to Nation, and no where secure; betrayed not only by my Enemies, but by my Friends, that is, if kindness could have made 'em such; at last a Tyrant, and at the same time an 
* These Epistles all along make the best of Phalaris, and therefore I take him here in the best sense the words will bear, and that which I believe they intent.  Abhorrer of Tyranny, and wishing that I could be any thing else than a Tyrant; if this be to be an Happy man, then am I an Happy man.   

Ep. 50. To Onetor.  
V. Ep. 16. 43.  
THe greatest favour you or any of my other friends can do me is, neither to inquire farther into my Affairs, nor to concern yourselves farther about them, than as I shall desire you. For such are my circumstances, that it must be a greater Joy to my Enemies to know what they are, than Trouble to my Friends to know nothing of them.   

Ep. 51. To Eteonicus.  
V. Ep. 18.  
'TIs indeed a wise saying that you put into my head, Since men must die, so should their anger too.  
But suppose I were able to follow your Advice, and could forget and forgive all my other enemies, and all that ever they have done against me; yet that Carsed Python neither can I, neither will I, neither ought I ever to forgive. Death buries all Injuries, but Death itself shall not bury his: No, I'll hate him even after Death, and persecute him beyond the Grave. Of all that all the men in the world have either done or attempted to do against me, nothing comes near to him: who, because my Erythia proved true to her first Vows, was resolved to follow her Banished husband, and rejected his Courtships (Execrable Villain!) gave her a dose of Poison, and murdered her. 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Not. Ox. The Critical Collator will be less able to bring the English and Greek together here than in the first Epistle. But I the less crave pardon: Since I cannot think that I have expressed my Author worse, than he himself hath expressed the passion here supposed.    

Ep. 52. To the Megaraeans  
V. Ep. 2.  
'TIs not in expectation of any Requital that I have released to you your three Galleys, though manifestly designed against myself: Since had you known how to be Grateful, you would not have forgotten that I had more than once or twice saved you from perishing, when you were ready to starve for want of Bread.   

Ep. 53. To the Leontines.  
YOur Spy, Leonidas, being fallen into my hands, I might have put him to death; but I have spared him: not out of any kindness to you, but to save myself the trouble of finding out some other Messenger to give you a full and true Account of my Preparations against you. For as for the state of your Affairs, he hath (without forcing us to put him to the Rack) very faithfully informed me of them; as that you are in want of every thing else but Hunger and Fear: 
* Very Plentifully stored with hunger; is an odd kind of expression indeed; but 'tis my Author's, not my own. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— and I were not for losing any of his Flowers.  but with these two Conveniencies, he saith, you are very plentifully stored.   

Ep. 54. To the Himeraeans.  
V. Ep. 103.  
THere is nothing which I would not gladly do for Stesichorus. Were it his Life that lay at stake, I would have Fought not only all the Men on Earth, but even 
* I know not which the most to Admire in this Epistle; the Sublimity of its beginning, the Subject of the whole, (vid. Dissertation upon Phalaris, etc. p. 56.) or that Noble Thought with which it is concluded. But he that would see the true Beauties of it must consult the Original. The Soaring Flights of my Author in this place being but faintly Mimickt by a low-stiled Translator: though according to the best of my Understanding, I have neither added nor diminished one Grain of his Thought or Matter. V. Not Ox.  Fate itself in his defence, rather than let her Unresistedly deprive you, nay all mankind of that Heavenly man, that Adored master of inspired Hymn; whom alone out of all their Worshippers the Sacred Muses chose to set melodious Anthems to the Dance. But as for the Bones of Stesichorus; what cause of War for that? wherever Stesichorus his Ashes be enshrined, Stesichorus is still an Himeraean. His virtues reach throughout the Universe, and give all Nations a claim to him; but he Himself is Yours. And why should you Quarrel about the Corpse of Stesichorus? Stesichorus is Still Alive. His Fame, his Wit, his Verse, Live throughout the World. Be satisfied therefore, ye Himeraeans, and take it as a special favour of Heaven; That with You Stesichorus was born, with you he grew up to an Hero, with you he spent the vigour of his Muse, with you his head grew Grey in Heavenly Verse. Since therefore you have enjoyed the Glory of Stesichorus his having spent his days with you, envy not the Catanaeans the privilege (which they themselves wished for, and which you see they are ready to fight for) of his having laid down his Carcase with them. But let me Compound the matter between you. Do you, Himeraeans, to perpetuate the Memory of his having been born with you, erect a Temple to Stesichorus: and let the Catanaeans, to perpetuate the Memory of his having Died with them, erect a Monument over him. I should take this to be a fair Medium in this Dispute. But I will not Prescribe to you. If you are resolved to Fight it out for the Bones of Stesichorus; so long as I have either Men or Money, you shall want neither. And yet I would have you consider twice before you begin. For to me your Undertaking seems neither Honourable nor Safe. If you beat the Catanaeans, and take their City (as without that you lose you end, for the Catanaeans will rather lose themselves, City and all, than the Bones of Stesichorus) yet for Sicilians to destroy a Sicilian City will not redound to your Honour: or if you take not Catana the Catanaeans may take Himera. A weighty Point this, and I would have you well consider of it, whether it be worth the while to run the risk of all for Dry Bones. But as for Stesichorus himself, let him sleep quiet in his Grave, and disturb not his Ghost with your unreasonable Lamentations. 'Tis only the Body of Stesichorus is Dead. Renowned 
† I cannot say but that I may have flourished this Paragraph a little too Lavishly; but I am in haste, the Press calls upon me, and I have not time to Retrench. Yet I must tell the Critic, that I knew what I did when I bestowed so many words upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. for as I grant some little words to be put in only for supplement sake, and to Humour my own ear; so I purposely gave the whole that Turn, for which I have already Apologized in my Note upon Epist. 3. And though I dare not say my Author alludes to that Expression of the Psalmist, yet I very confidently presume that he alludes to Customs and Phrases not in use till long after Phalaris was dead and rotten: Monumental Inscriptions, I mean, and perhaps the Memoriae Sanctorum. I know this may be more easily denied, than defended. But 'tis my thought, and so I leave it.  in Life, Blessed in Death, his name shall live for ever in the Hearts of men, and Consecrated to an Everlasting Remembrance, outstand the Ruins of time. But his Odes, his Hymns, and all his other Poems of what kind soever, them I would advise you to have Inscribed both publicly in your Temples, and every one of you on the Walls of his own house. For then, and not till then will Stesichorus die, when 
a The Text hath it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— when any of these—  these are Lost. Nor keep them among yourselves only, but let them be from you dispersed over the whole Universe; as knowing, 
b This is my Authors own Genuine Sentence, and well deserving the Italic.  That the World will more admire the City which produced the Author of such Heavenly Raptures, than it will the Author of them himself.   

Ep. 55. To Thrasenor.  
THe Castle which you Besieged in vain, Teucrus in his Incursion took by Storm; and that in less time than I write this Letter. 
Here's Dispatch! True Laconism both in Word and Deed. Vide tamen Not. Ox. in loc.    

Ep. 56. To Abaris.  
I Understand your desire of acquainting yourself with the Illustrious Heads of Wisdom in Greece hath brought you from the distant Regions of the North, into these Parts of the World. The Conversations of Pythagoras the Philosopher, Stesichorus the Poet, and some other of our Renowned Greeks you have already enjoyed; and from them made fresh Additions to the large stock of knowledge you before had of your own. You are still (I hear) upon the same Quest, and seeking to enlarge your Acquaintance with persons of the like Character. If you are praepossessed with the Reports of Common Fame, and really believe me to be the man my Enemies every where Represent me; 'tis in vain for me to invite you to Agragas, as being before hand sure of a Denial. But if you are not for taking things at second hand, but suspend your faith till you have thoroughly informed yourself, and that of Capable judges: then Come to me yourself, and spend some time together with me; which is no more than many persons of known worth and wisdom have done. And you will find upon Trial that there is more of Virtue and Moderation, nay, I shall not fear to say it, of Goodness and Humanity in Phalaris, than Fame allows him. And that though as a Tyrant he is 
* The words of my Author here may bear another sense, but that which I give is Agreeable, and I believe His.  engaged in Affairs seemingly Inconsistent with this Character; yet that he is in these very Qualities themselves no way Inferior to those who make them their proper Profession, and claim them as their peculiar Excellencies.   

Ep. 57 Abaris to that Tyrant Phalaris.  
THou Bloody Monster! Thou showest what thou art, and of what thou art made. Thou art not born of Human Race, but engendered between a Lioness and a Wild Boar. Thy hands are full of violence, and Died in Human gore. Thou Gloriest in being excessively 
* Vide Note on Ep. 3.  wicked, Might is thy Boast, and the Cruelty of a Wild Beast thy Pride. Dost thou invite Abaris to Agragas? but Abaris is not a man like thee. Where Malice, Cruelty, Revenge and Folly have taken their Abode; there is no Room for Abaris. If you would make me willing to see your face, lay down your Lawless power, Levelly yourself with your Equals, and submit to the Common Laws of Greece. Let me hear that you have done this, and then you may freely invite me. With a man of pure hands and a 
* Vide Note on Ep. 3.  Pure heart, 
† I know I change my Author's construction: but it runs as well my way as his, and comes to much the same.  whether Friend or Stranger, whether Greek or Scythian, I will sit down at the same Table. And till you are so Qualified, fare you well for Abaris.   

Ep. 58. To Polystratus and Daiscus.  
TO Arms forthwith, and take the Field against me. For since 'tis an enterprise like to be Crowned with such Glories as in your Speeches to the Leontines you ensure them of, I can neither envy you your share in it, nor dissuade you from pursuing it. 
I am not positive that I have exactly taken my Author in this short Epistle, though I fancy I have. But in the two following I found myself at greater uncertainties, and therefore have even passed them by. For that I thought the better way, than either to give a sense which I cannot suppose to be my Author's, or else set down a parcel of words which neither myself nor any body else would understand.    

Ep. 59 To Nausicles. *** Ep. 60. To Aristolochus. *** Ep. 61. To Epicharmus.  
V. Ep. 38.  
THe good Advice which you and Demoteles jointly offer me; that I should lay down my usurped Power, and return to the condition of a Private man, I do not interpret as proceeding from Ill will in either of you, but from Simplicity in both of you. The first Assuming a Tyrannic power is owing to a man's own Choice, but he is not at the same Liberty of Divesting himself of it again. What Ambition engaged him to Seize, Necessity will oblige him to hold. For he is certainly a Lost man that shall render himself Accountable as a Private person, for the Actions committed by him when a Prince: Nothing but the same Power which enabled him to Commit them being able to Defend them. When once the Arrow is fled from the Bow, in vain may the Archer wish it back again. Were it a thing Possible for you to undo what is done, and make me never to have been a Tyrant, I should thank you for it; but if that be an Impossibility, as Impossible is it for you to persuade me that the following your Advice would be for my own Good.   

Ep. 62. To Timosthenes.  
LEt the one half of the Soldiers be kept at the Castle, and Demolish the Works, the other half be employed in casting up Banks to keep out the Sea; that so, the Fens being Drained, we may gain so much waste ground: and let the Encouragement proposed be given to them that shall first have done their work.   

Ep. 63. To Aristolochus.  
IF because Stesichorus could be my Prisoner, and fare never the worse for it, that emboldens you to make Tragedies upon me, as if I could not find in my heart to punish a Poet; I must tell you, you are under a mighty mistake. I am not in love with all Poets, but with good Poets; nor shall I forgive every Enemy, but a Generous Enemy. And canst thou, as Wretched a Poet as thou art a Despicable Enemy, either in Generosity or Poetry pretend to compare with Stesichorus? But I know how to distinguish; and of that to your cost I shall speedily convince you: not for your Scribbling against me, (for I am not so Insipid a fool as to regard thy dull Lampoons) but because such a Dunce of a Poet and Rascal of an Enemy pretends to stand upon the same terms with Stesichorus.   

Ep. 64. To Amphidamas and Thrasybulus.  
YOu tell me that you have paid in the Money I lent you to Teucrus; but he denies that ever he Received it. In good faith I know not what to say to it. I am not willing to suspect you of a Falsehood, nor would I willingly Disbelieve him. He challenges you to produce your Receipt; you Reply, that thinking you had a Friend and an Honest man to deal with, you paid it without demanding a Receipt. Well! since it is as it is, rather than be thought to call the Honesty of either of you into Question, though I have not Received it, yet I will count it as Received. And may the truth for ever lie concealed, rather than I know at whose door the Cheat lies. For I had rather lose many a sum of Money, than one Friend. And should the matter be brought to Light, he of you that hath put this Abuse upon me, must of necessity from that time forward become my Enemy.   

Ep. 65. To Pelopidas.  
V. Ep. 78.  
NEither can I request that of Stesichorus which you desire, neither should I Request it would he Grant it; to write a Poem upon any person now living. I am sufficiently indebted to him already for the Ode which at my desire he composed upon the Wife of Nicocles; nor can I importune him any further. If you can think of any thing that lies in my Own power to do for you, not at the discretion of another man; let me know it.   

Ep. 66. To Teleclides.  
V. Ep. 1 22.  
'TIs the good Opinion you have of yourself, makes you take such care to let my Friends know (on purpose, I suppose, that they should, as they have done, bring it to me) how much you disapprove of my proceedings; especially as to the matter of the Brazen Bull: alleging that I ought not after the Maker of it, Perilaus, to have put any other to that kind of Death; destroying by these After Executions the Applause I had gained by the Former. But neither do I value myself upon the Applause, it seems, I have gained for my Justice upon Perilaus (for I do not Punish to be Applauded for it) nor fear the Censures of my Severities exercised upon oaths. The Executions of Justice are Independent upon the Good or Bad opinions of men. But as to the present case, had Perilaus been as the first, so the last that died in the Belly of his Bull, even he himself had suffered unjustly. For 'twas not the Curiosity of the Art, but the Cruelty of the Artist that I punished: but there had been nothing of Cruelty in it, had I kept his Bull only for a Show, and not applied it to the use he designed. So that this whole Accusation of Cruelty terminates in the Inventor of this horrid Instrument of it, and in those Desperate Wretches whose unhappy Destiny carries them to such Extremities. But if the whole he causelessly charged upon me, I matter it not, so long as I can show that those that die this death have done things deserving it. For beginning with the first that suffered this kind of Death, by burning whom in his own Bull I Avenged the cause of all Mankind, or rather of Humane Nature itself, by the same Rule let us judge of all that followed after. For if ye allow Perilaus his Sufferings to be Just, and Applaud me for inflicting them upon him; ye cannot Disallow of my having given to other Offenders their Just deserts, and made them suffer for the Injuries they offered to their fellow Creatures. Much less can you blame me for having made Examples of those Implacable Wretches that plotted even my own Destruction. If in punishing Perilaus as a Common Enemy to Mankind, I have done Justice to all of You, and in so doing I am by all of you approved: I hope you will give me leave by the punishing my own Enemies to do Justice to myself. For if I take care to bring them to punishment who commit injuries upon other men, though having never offered any thing but kindness to me; I may well be counted a man strangely incautious, to let those who have been taken manifestly designing upon my own Life, escape scot-free; and while to avenge the Cause of other men, in which I am not at all interested, I can be content to be called Cruel and Tyrannical, yet I must be afraid of incurring the like censure in providing for my own security. But as for your part, you need not give yourself any further trouble to let me know how you stand Affected: you have done that sufficiently already. Take your ease therefore, and let me hear no more of you 
This Epistle is notably Argumentative. Vide Notas Oxon. in loc.    

Ep. 67. To Paurolas.  
V. Ep. 20.  
MY necessary occasions having led me to Himera, I heard there the Daughters of Stesichorus warbling over their Odes to the Lyre. Some of them were of Stesichorus his penning, and some of them of the young Ladies own making. His Daughter's Compositions were inferior to Stesichorus his own, but incomparably (could any have stood a Comparison with them) excelling those of all other men. Happy then, thought I, the Father who bred up such Daughters, and happy the Daughters, who by the vast Attainments of Learning have so far surpassed the common stint of their Sex. And now Paurolas, let me Expostulate the matter with you. What mean you by Exercising your Body in Arms, Hunt, and other such like Toils and Labours, to show the care you have for That? but suffer still the Rational faculties of your Soul (which should have been your first and chiefest care) to lie Unexercised to Ingenuous Studies and the Literature of Greece? The care of the Body ought to terminate in the establishment of it in a state of health and strength, fit for the common actions of Life. All beyond that is superfluous; unless a man design to set up for an 
* I do not suppose Athlete to be here included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Latin Translation hath fully expressed the Author, nisi quis ad sacra— se— instruat certamina; my Paraphrase is only for Illustration sake.  Athlete, and be ambitious of making part of a Show at the Sacred Agons. But the mind cannot be too Richly cultivated by him, who being to live in a Free State, would maintain a just Dignity to his person, without aspiring to excel his Equals in any thing but Virtue. But you perhaps (for that I hear some suspect you of) have your thoughts set upon a Sovereignty, as thinking your 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jure Legitimo; se Paterno & Haereditario. As the version gives it. For I know not how here to understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any other sense.  Relation to me gives you a just Claim and Title to it. And for that reason (it may be) the more addict yourself to those Robust exercises, that you may have a body timely enured to such a course of life, which the possession of a Power, not to be maintained but by mere Strength of Arm, will oblige you to. If this be your Aim, you make an ill choice: and for that you may take my word, who have found sad cause to repent of my ever having taken into my hands the Sole Dominion; though not so much Courted by me, as forced upon me. He that hath tried both would much rather choose to Live under the Tyranny of another, than be a Tyrant himself. The one hath only One man to fear; the other fears Every man: and more his Nearest Friends than his Declared Enemies: for safer is the Tyrant in the Field than in his Bedchamber; and amidst all his Dangers and Terrors, nothing is he more afraid of than his own Guards. As therefore no man can wish you better than your own father, conclude he gives you good Advice when he bids you keep yourself within the compass of a Private Station. Choose rather to be with Safety a part of the People with whom you live, than violently to make yourself the Head of them; and wish to your Enemies, and the Children of your Enemies, the possession of a Power surrounded with endless and incessant Fears and Dangers. But if you still admire the outside Splendour and Felicity of a Tyrant's fortune, and are blind to the hidden miseries and calamities that attend it; 'tis from the Ignorance and Inexperience of your youth, that you make so mistaken a Judgement. But, Paurolas, take my word for it: and pray to Heaven for yourself, as I pray for you; That you may never Experimentally know, what 'tis to be a Tyrant.   

Ep. 68 To Paurolas.  
BY Heavens not I! I do not think your demands Extravagant, or that you cost me too much Money. Nay, on the contrary, I think I have been but too Sparing a Father to so Liberal a Son. No, Paurolas; since I find how well you know how to bestow your Money, you shall sooner weary out your Friends with Giving, than your Father with Ask. 
* I dare no more justify the truth of my translation in this place, than I dare the truth of my Author's Sentences; unless some MSS. should come in to his relief, and turn Sentences into Sense.  For to him that giveth bountifully, bountifully should be given; and where Nature hath led the way with a Generous Inclination, 'twere a shame for Fortune not to follow after with as Liberal an Allowance. Be free with me therefore, my Son; away with your excuses, and ask boldly. I shall never think I part with too much to him, for whose sake I have all that I have. And so far am I from disliking your Free-heartedness to your Companions, that I am overjoyed to see you of so happy a Disposition, and pray that you may always persist in it. Go you on as you begin, and let not the increase of your ●ears lessen the Goodness of your nature, but so long as the same Fortune shall serve you, depart not from the same Generous Resolutions. I shall joyfully give you the most that you can ask, my Brave Paurolas; ay, and thank you too for making so good use of it. Now you make me hope I have a Son like his Father.   

Ep. 69. To Erythia.  
IF it be the Apprehension you have of the danger we Tyrants live in, makes you unwilling to venture Paurolas his coming to Agragas, I can easily pardon both the fearfulness of a Woman, and the carefulness of a Mother over her only Child. But if you think Paurolas all your own, and therefore are for keeping him all to yourself, as if I had no share in him; You are too partial a Judge of a Parent's Right. For according to the Rigour of Law, the Father's Title to his Son is stronger than the Mother's; but in the Fairness of equity both alike. Or if you look upon the Lending of your Son to his Father but for a Season only a Loss to yourself, then what must I think of it, to be denied him even for a Season only? Nay, prithee be not so selfish; but spare him to me some little time, and you shall speedily receive him again; and together with him such a Cargo, as one might expect Erythia's Son should carry from his Father Phalaris. For since we cannot enjoy the happiness of living all together, I will take care that however divided we may be by distance of place, you two may come in Shares with me in the Plenties of my Fortune. For who can be nearer to a man than a Wife and a Son? and for the sake of whom would a man wish to himself the Abundances of wealth, if he could forget them? As therefore I am a most Affectionate, both Husband and Father, so shall I empty into your Bosoms no small part of my Treasures, as not knowing where better to bestow them. But send him to me forthwith; as for other reasons so more especially upon consideration of the Encroachments that Old Age makes upon me, and the Dangerous distemper of body that hath lately seized me, which puts me in mind of the Fatal Point we are all hasting to, and makes me begin to look upon every day as my Last. As for his Safe passage from Crete to Agragas, and from hence thither again, I shall effectually provide: nor can his Mother's fears of danger be greater than are his Father's cares for his security.   

Ep. 70. To Policlitus.  
V. Ep. 1. 21.  
I Know not for which the most to admire you, Polyclitus, for your Art or for your Honesty: Your Art which Conquered the Disease that would have destroyed the Tyrant, or your Honesty which Conquered the Temptation of destroying him yourself. Assaulted thus by a double danger, to your Justice I owe my Deliverance from both; the violence of a Disease, which threatened to have taken away my life, and the baseness of my Enemies, who offered a price for my Death. So that on both sides it lay in your Breast; either to have let Nature alone to have finished her work with me, and yet you to have gained by my death the Reputation of a Deliverer: or would Nature have spared me, yet under the colour of Administering Antidotes for the saving of my life, you might unsuspectedly have taken it away. And as on the one side the very opinion of your having murdered me would have gained you the Reward; 
* So on the other) This clause is added. But I cannot but suspect the Copy to be here imperfect: both the vein of our Author's writing seeming to require a Supplement somewhat like to that which I have added to complete the Antithesis, as also that single sentence foregoing, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. as it now stands, wanting something to perfect its Construction; unless striking out the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we read it thus: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. but I rather suppose some words wanting.  (so on the other, your actually having done it, would have exposed you to no danger) But you scorned to prefer the Reward of an Unjust action, before the duty of your office, or Popular Applause before an 
† Unaccusing Conscience gives in this place so very Agreeable a sense, that I was resolved to make way for it. And I question whether I have overshot my Author, and not given the very sense he intended. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, opinioni (de se) justae (non iniquae.) This, I confess, in other Authors might seem a forced Construction; but I think I can parallel it with like instances in this.  Unaccusing Conscience. And [a] though perhaps you may be in your Principles an hater of Tyrants, yet you could not think any Cause sufficient to justify a breach of trust, or make a Physician's murdering his Patient because a Tyrant, a Lawful Act. As therefore I lay entirely at your mercy, and you might have made your bargains of me which way you had pleased; I must confess myself unable to express my Acknowledgements in words equal to your worth. All that I can say is this, You show of whom Physicians are Taught, having yourself Acted as would the God of Physic himself. But though no Requital can answer your deservings, yet something more I must pay you than mere Words. I have sent you therefore, in Testimony of your Skill and Fidelity, and as a lasting Memorial to whom I owe my life, together with this Letter four Beakers of the purest Gold, two Silver Bowls of a workmanship not to be matched in our Age, ten couple of Thericlaeans, twenty comely young Slaves, and 50000 Atticks. I have also written to Teucrus, the Steward of my House, to make you the same Annual Pension as is paid to my Sea Commanders, the Gentlemen of my Bedchamber, and the principal Officers in my Army. A small Recompense I confess for so great a service. But where the Debtor is Insolvent, payment in part must pass for the whole, and the rest be made up in Confession. And that's my case with you; who have laid me under an Obligation beyond the possibility of Requital. 
* The wide Paraphrase of this Paragraph (and the like might I say of many others) is designed rather for an Interpretation of my Author's meaning (if I understand it) than a Translation of his words.    

Ep. 71. To Polyclitus.  
I Have for your sake discharged Calleschrus, though so manifestly taken in a Design upon my Life, that he confessed not only himself, but his Complices, the place where, the time when, and the manner how they were to have Dispatched me. But it had been Ungrateful in me to have refused the Gift of another man's life to him who had given me my own. And as I thought myself obliged to give a Life when he that gave me mine demanded it, so I thought no person more proper to receive such a Grant than he, who as the Prince of Physicians, is the Arbiter between Life and Death, and who never denied a life to the man that sought to him to save it. In the mean time, let Calleschrus observe the strangeness of his Fortune, who is forced to be beholding to you for his own Life, when he was basely seeking the Life of him whom you had saved from Death. For as for his part, I were already a dead man, had not fortune stepped between and prevented his Intentions.   

Ep. 72. To Peristhenes.  
V. Ep. 73  
THe Prisoners you sent me, Peristhenes, the Wives, I mean, of those Conspirators Eubulus and Ariphantus, I had fully resolved (nor could you or any man else expect otherwise) to have put to death: yet I have spared them. You will wonder, considering the Just Indignation I had conceived against them, how they can have escaped. But you will wonder more when you shall have heard the Reason of it; that Brave and Masculine Spirit which upon this occasion they discovered. I asked them whether they were Privy to the Designs of their husbands against me: they owned themselves not only Privy to, but Assisting in the Design of Destroying a Tyrant. Why, said I, what wrong have I ever done to any of you? No wrong, replied they, to us in particular, but wrong to the Public; for to enslave a Free people we think a Common wrong, and such as every one ought to resent as his own. And what Satisfaction, said I, can you give me for so insufferable an Attempt? Our lives said they. No, said I, since you can Die so Resolvedly, you shall not Die but Live. I may not punish Virtue though in an Enemy; your generous Resolution hath conquered my Revenge. Thus, Peristhenes, I have (as I thought myself in Honour bound to do) given them their Lives: and I desire you upon the receipt of this Letter to send for some of their nearest Relations, and deliver into their hands all those things of theirs, which you seized when you Apprehended their persons; and be sure take care that they may not be able to complain, that we have in the least matter whatsoever wronged them.   

Ep. 73. To Evandrus.  
V. Ep. 22. 147.  
I Hope both you yourself, and all the Himeraeans, nay, and I might add, all Sicily, are satisfied now who is the juster person, Phalaris, or those that Conspire against him. By my happy Escape at Himera Heaven itself hath, I think, determined that Point: that is, if you will admit 
* 〈◊〉. Might not the Himeraeans have retorted to this Argument, That 'twas not the Regard that Jupiter had to Phalaris, but the Regard he had to the Sacredness of his own House, not to be Polluted with the Blood of even the Guilty? Or was it not till after Phalaris his days that Temples were Sanctuaries?  Jupiter for a Competent Judge; in whose very Temple the bloody Fact was to have been perpetrated; and who certainly, were I a person Justly deserving such a Death, would not before his own Altars have delivered into my hands those that were (upon that supposition) Justly seeking my Life. That had been to have protected the Guilty, and betrayed the Innocent. A thought none of you will entertain concerning your God. But whereas I hear Stesichorus is deeply afflicted at it, that Eubulus and the rest of the Conspirators should pretend to have been Put upon this horrid Attempt by means of his Poems; he may set his heart at ease, and assure himself that I believe nothing of the matter. The Poems of Stesichorus (had they paid that regard to them which they pretend) would have directed them a different Course, and instead of loading them with the Infamies of Punishment, have Crowned them with the Rewards of Virtue.   

Ep. 74. To Orsilochus.  
V. Ep. 23.  
IF the Philosopher Pythagoras his refusing to come near me (though often invited) was a manifest Condemnation of me in the sight of the whole world; as you were pleased to express it, in the Panegyric you made upon him for his Renouncing my Friendship: then, by the Rule of contraries, his being come to me, and having for now five months together to our mutual satisfaction continued with me, gives me as ample a Recommendation. For this you may be sure of, Pythagoras would not have born me company one quarter part of a day, had not he found in me a Spirit agreeable to his own.   

Ep. 75. To Leontides.  
V. Ep. 101.  
YOu cannot give over teizing the Camarinaeans with your Speeches, to make War upon me. Now to show you how poor a Politician you are, and to let them see what they would have gotten by following your advice; I shall begin with yourself: not falling upon you (as you do upon me) with Noisy words only, which do no Execution, but with Substantial Deeds; and those such, which they who have once tried, have never after given me any Disturbance. That's my way of dealing with my enemies: and that the Camarinaeans well know: and therefore have no mind to have the Experiment made upon themselves; having already found how much better it is to have Phalaris their Friend than their Enemy.   

Ep. 76. To Demaratus.  
ARe you surprised at the Cruelty of the Execution of Alcinus and Dorymenes, and think it too Tyrantlike? I'll tell you what may surprise you more: They died not till after having been once, twice and thrice pardoned by the Tyrant.   

Ep. 77. To Hegesippus.  
V. Ep. 95. 110.  
'TIs not till now at last, when he hath nothing left him but Repentance, that you and the rest of his Friends too sadly see what false Measures Clisthenes took, when his Ambition of becoming a Patriot put him upon those Methods of serving (as he thought) his Country, which his grateful Countrymen have rewarded with Banishment: But even then when he was in the Height of his Glories, and swum with a full Stream, I truly pitied him, and wrote a Letter to him on purpose to let him know that I foresaw where it would end. But my Words were Wind with him: bewitched with Popular Applause he was Deaf to the Reason of them: thinking Me, I suppose, a very Improper person to direct a man how to behave himself in a Popular Government; or perhaps imagining that the Jealousies a Tyrant must needs have against a Free State could not suffer him to be much a Friend to the Man that so studiously promoted (as he fancied himself to do) its Welfare. Thus puffed up with his own Vain imaginations, he Swells till he Bursts, and knew not the ground he stood on, till Fatal Experience hath at last convinced him, That Phalaris was not so much a Stranger to the Methods of Popular Government, because a Tyrant, as Clisthenes a Stranger to the Humours of the Multitude, because he had the Lucky hit of Taking with them for a moment. Popular Applause is but a flattering Bait to draw a man into the Crowd, and when it hath him there scarce ever fails (in the Conclusion) to Betray him to an End far different from the Promising Beginnings. As for my own part (and any man of sense, I should think, would be of the same mind) I had rather be the Hissing of the unthinking Multitude than their Idol. For as for their Hatred, 'tis as soon Laid as Raised. Their Passions, as they take fire at nothing, so 'tis but letting them alone, and they die of themselves: a mere Clap of Thunder, a Flash and a Noise, and all's over: or if the Grumbling hold for some little time, there's no great danger in it. But Banishment, Death, Confiscation, or something else as bad or worse, is the Consequence of the very Opinion of one's being Deep in their Affections. To tell you what I think of the People, Hegesippus, 'tis plainly this. The People! That is, a Number of Fools joined together in one Herd; Senseless, Helpless, Faithless; Fickle, Fierce, False; a Voice and that's all; good for just nothing in the world; puffed forward backward with the Blast of a man's Breath; Pleased they know not why, and Displeased at they know not what; in their Aversions and in their Fondnesses equally Unreasonable. This is what I think of the people; and no more do I say of them than what I have found by them. So that to take the Measures of one's conduct from the Humours of the people, and strive to Please the Multitude, is but Inviting them the more Scornfully to Insult one. And yet this is what some are so Mad upon, there's no Holding them in, but, like 
* I am not Antiquarian enough to know whether Bull-baitings were in use in Phalaris his days. I incline to suppose the Negative. There is nothing of it in my Text. But I made bold to give my English Reader the Thought of my Author in an English Emphasis. The Original is only, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. a Senseless and Irrestrainable Eagerness, or rather the heat and fierceness of a Mad dog.  a Dog at a Bull-baiting, they Break through all to get into the Middle of the Ring, and be the Shouting of the Mob. Neither can a Child be so Doted on by its fond Mother, nor a Wife by her Admiring Husband, nor Gold by the Miser, nor Battle by the Brave, nor Conquest by the General, nor Victory by the Olympic, as do these Patriots Dote on the Humms and Caresses of the Multitude, which in the End do but Shout them to their Ruin; while their Friends cannot but Pity their short-lived Glories, and their Enemy's Triumph over their Approaching Fate. But as for poor Clisthenes, do you that are his Friends afford him the best Consolations you are able, advising him to bear a Common calamity with the Spirit of a Man: and withal Admonish him, that since to his cost he hath found his Mistake, he should lay aside for the future all thoughts of Mending his Fortunes by the same Methods by which he hath Ruined them.   

Ep. 78. To Stesichorus.  
V. Ep. 79. 144.  
NIcocles the Syracusian (no new name to you, I suppose, for he is of too Illustrious a Family to be unknown to Stesichorus) having lately lost his Wife, Groans under the load of an Unexpressible grief. And not without cause; for she was endeared to him under a Double Relation, both his Niece and his Wife. This Nicocles therefore (understanding, it seems, the Intimacy that was between us) hath sent to me his brother Cleonicus on purpose to desire me to be his Solicitor to you, and procure from you the favour of bestowing a Poem upon the Memory of his deceased Wife. And by the Eulogies I hear given to her by the Syracusians, as for all her other Virtues, so especially for (that Ornament of the Sex) her Modesty, she is a Theme not unworthy of even Your Muse. I know the Vow you have made not to write upon any person of this present Age, lest you should seem to prostitute your Pen for Reward. But she hath left the World, and is no longer of the present Age. Make not this therefore your pretence to deny me, since I desire nothing of you inconsistent with your Resolution. And I hope you will not let it be said, that Stesichorus refused Phalaris his Request. Not that you are any way Indebted to me, but that you may Confirm to the World the Opinion they have that you are my Friend. Envy me not this Honour; but according to your wont Goodness, Gratify my Ambition, who shall receive the Obligation to Myself, though the Gift to my Friend. Supposing therefore my Request granted, Cleariste, you must know, was by birth a Syracusian, her Father Echecratidas, the Niece and Wife of the Person beforenamed; with whom she lived sixteen years a Wife, in All Thirty; the Mother of two Children; she died of a Consumption. Here's the Ground of the Work; the Management of the Particulars must be left to you. And may those Deities, whose Inspired Prophet you are, assist you in it. The Blessings of all the Muses be upon you, and Crown the Sacred Head of their Darling Favourite with the Glories of Immortal Verse; as upon other subjects, so upon this, concerning which I now write to you, the Praises of Cleariste.   

Ep. 79. To Stesichorus.  
Vid. Ep. 78  
FOr your Poem upon Cleariste I return you now my most hearty Thanks, and shall wait the Opportunity of making my farther Acknowledgements. You have Effectually fulfilled my desire, and in the whole, and every part, Nobly answered the Dignity of the Subject. Besides which, the Artfulness of the Composure appeared Admirable, I will not say to me (for I Admire every thing that comes from Stesichorus) but to all the Agragantines that heard it; before a Numerous Assembly of whom I caused it to be Rehearsed. Nor will the Admiration it hath gained you stand confined within a single Auditory, or Dye with the men of this Generation, but carry your Name throughout all the Ages that shall follow. As 'tis upon my Request that you Composed this Divine Poem, so I take the whole Debt upon myself: though at the same time by granting my Request you have bestowed a Blessing upon all Mankind, both of the present and future Generations. But as for what you Hint in your Letter concerning Myself, etc. by all that's Sacred I conjure you, whatever your thoughts may be concerning me, whether Good or Bad, not a word of me in any of your Writings. writings Alas! Fortune hath Blackened my Name, and rendered it unfit to be a Poet's Theme. Be I Better than Common opinion makes me, or be I Worse, let me be but written in the Heart of Stesichorus, I desire not to be written in his Verse.   

Ep. 80. To Cleaeneta and Theano.  
Vid. Ep. 79. 146.  
I Very kindly accept of your friendly Intentions, who so Affectionately offer the Inserting the name of Phalaris into your Poems. But that's an honour, which though I covet, yet Fortune will not admit of. From my Ancestors indeed I derive a Spotless and Unblemished Name. But the necessities of a Cruel fate have forced me upon many Actions, which (Heaven knows!) I do not pretend to justify. Though after all, the only thing that renders me Incapable of being the subject of Panegyric is, That I stand above the Command of the Laws, myself a Law to my Subjects. The Honour therefore you designed me of inserting me into your Poems, I must desire you to change into the Kindness of not so much as once naming in them the Name of Phalaris.   

Ep. 81. To the Ennaeans.  
Ep. 137, 148.  
DO not think that I write this to you O ye Ennaeans, as if I repented of my having forgiven you the Moneys you owed me; but that by making you force Periander to give in his Accounts, you may enjoy the Benefit of my Grant. For that your City was not in 
* 'Tis true the Lection of my Copy gives a just sense but I should rather read the Text thus; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Reality unable to pay her Debts, but only made use of that pretence to defraud her Creditors, I must take for granted, if what you gave out concerning Periander's having Defrauded the Public prove a false Accusation, and you are not able to make good your Charge against him For 'tis a thing Inconsistent that the same persons should appear one while like Bankrupts, with Petitions in their hands, craving Forbearance▪ and Pleading their Poverty; and yet that at the same time, as if they had More Money than they knew what to do with, they should stand still, and see Cheats running away with the Public Cash, without so much as offering to stop them. You ought either to be Rich to your Creditors, or Poor to your Devourers. But if you can afford to pay your Creditors their own, as if you had not wherewithal to do it: then in the First place (which an Honest man would in the first place consider) you are manifestly Unjust, and grossly impose upon the Good nature of your Friends, who, though they may be willing to be Kind to you, yet cannot design to be Abused by you: and in the Next, 'tis much more Reasonable, that (since be it which way it will you are never the better by it) you should pay your Just Debts, and let every one have his own again; than that Phalaris, in consideration of your Necessities, having freely forgiven your Debt, Periander should fairly come and Take up all that Phalaris Laid down. One of these two therefore you must Resolve upon; either to Recover your own Rights, and thereby at the same time to Confirm to yourselves my Grant: or if you are so Able to lose your Own Money, than you must Resolve to pay me Mine.   

Ep. 82. To Timander. ***  
I have omitted this Epistle for the same reason as I have the 59th and 60th.   

Ep. 83. To the Melitaeans.  
I Have, upon the Representation of your Ambassadors, agreed to lend you the sum required, though by reason of my long and expensive Wars, I am not at present over full of Money. But that's not my way, to answer my friends with Excuses instead of Performances. And I hope you will not let me find the same of you as most men do of their Debtors, who Bless when they Borrow, and Curse when they Pay. When we are to lend we are the best men in the world with them; but when to receive our own again, the hardest names they can find are too good for us. A thing equally Unjust and Ungrateful. All Lender's, how different soever in other Respects, are of one and the same kind to the Borrowers, that is, Benefactors, and aught by them to be treated as such; at least till they are paid. If they dislike their Creditor, let them Pay him first, and Rail at him afterward. If he be an Honest man, they ought the more readily to pay him because he is an Honest man; if he be a Knave, let them make haste to come out of a Knave's Debt. For whether I be a Good man, or a Bad man, 'tis but just I should receive my own. As for my own part, whether Lending, or calling in my Debts, I am the self same man, as much a friend when I do the one as when I do the other. But Borrowers (as they say the Chameleon doth his Colours) change both their Style and their Thoughts with their occasions. When I lend, I am a Benefactor, a Blessing, a God to them: when I put them in mind of Payment; an Oppressor, an Accursed wretch, not fit to Brach upon Earth, or enjoy the common Rights of Mankind. I know withal that 'tis much better to lose a Debt by a Private person than by a Community. For he that is Defrauded by a Private person makes himself but One Enemy, and him no very Dreadful one: but he that is Abused by a whole City, as his Loss is not less, so the Damage is far greater, gaining himself, instead of One, a Multitude of Enemies. Not that I would imagine any such thing of you. When I lend to you, I lend without Suspecting. I know you to be a People as Grateful upon all occasions, so particularly most Exact observers of your Covenants, and Jealously maintaining the Honour of the Public Faith. 
* I suppose I have taken the true meaning of my Author in this last Paragraph, though possibly it might bear an Interpretation somewhat different from what I have given.  Nor are you Ignorant that when Controversies of this nature arise between a single Adversary and a Multitude, and the Question lies, Who hath offered the Wrong, the One or the Many; Common Opinion gives the Advantage to the Former: for it will be much sooner believed that a Multitude should think themselves able to Outface a Single person in an unjust action, than that a Single person should think himself able to Outface a Multitude.   

Ep. 84. To the Messanians.  
V. Ep. 140.  
I am not surprised to hear what is become of the Delphic Tripods, the Golden Crowns, and the many other Costly oblations, which I sent to the Tutelar * Deities of your Country, to have been placed in their Temple at 
a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Messana, for a lasting Mowment of the protection I received from them in my late 
b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. This seems to be designed to refer to some particular Deliverance, viz. from the Conspiracy of Eubulus, etc. which he so often speaks of, as, Ep. 22, 73, etc.  Deliverance. One of these two things I knew you would 
c For there was a Third, sc. to have returned them.  do with them; either that you would (as in Duty you were bound) Dedicate them to the Gods for whom they were designed, and give them a Standing in their Temple: or else that Detaining them from the Gods you would share them among yourselves. Which latter you have done. And thus under pretence of fixing a mark of Infamy upon me, as if the Gifts were polluted by the Gild of the Offerer, you have committed Sacrilege upon your Gods. For when once a thing is Devoted to the Gods, what difference is there whether you steal it before the Consecration or after? whether you take it out of the Temple, or will not let it go in? So that 'tis the Gods you have plundered, not Me: For what I once gave to them, was no longer Mine but Theirs: and both my Devotion and your Impiety needs no other Proof: For they know both who sent them the Gifts, and who stole them. 'Tis sufficient for me that I have made my Oblations, though they have not Received them. And as for you, I have my Satisfaction; in that I have exposed you to the wrath of those Gods whose Rights you have Invaded, and who are Able to Avenge their own Cause. Besides, by the Applying them to your own Uses you declare there was nothing of Impurity in the Gifts themselves; unless the same things can be at the same time of a different nature, Pure and Impure: Pure, 
d A Latin word in an English Translation! I'll not Apologise for it.  Quatenus you have occasion for them yourselves; Impure, 
e I somewhat question whether I have taken my Author exactly in these Lines. 'Twas the best sense I could readily strike out, and I am in Haste.  Quatenus the Gods have any thing to do with them. Again; by your own Plea you Convict yourselves of Impiety. For if one ask your Magistrates, how they could Confiscate to the Public, the things offered to the Gods; they lay it upon the People, The People, say they, demanded to have them Condemned for Lawful Prize, as being the Effects of an Enemy: but if one ask the people the same question, they discharge it from themselves, and cast it upon the Magistrates. Nay, (which is an Impudence beyond all the rest) ye stick not to Arraign even the very Gods themselves, and speak it openly of them (and what worse could you have said of the worst of men) that should your Gods accept of the Gifts of a Tyrant, your Gods were no better than Traitors. And yet those very Patriots of yours, to whom you commit the Administratiou of all your Public affairs, though they have more than once or twice directly offered me their service (if I would but Pay them for it) to make me as Absolute a Tyrant over Messana as I am at Agragas; these your Patriots, I say, Honest men as they are, you have nothing to say against them. And good reason for it; since in that matter you know yourselves to be all alike; and therefore dare not call others to an account for a Crime which they could so easily Retort upon their Accusers: for were that Cause to be brought under Examination, it would appear that (how straight soever you confine your Gods) you yourselves have all of you been but too willing to Receive gifts. But 
e I somewhat question whether I have taken my Author exactly in these Lines. 'Twas the best sense I could readily strike out, and I am in Haste.  do not think that I speak this of your having Intercepted my oblations. 'Tis no such matter, such losses are beneath my Concern. Neither doth the Miscarriage of those I have already sent, nor the stop put to my sending the Rest, which I had Devoted to the same Use, at all affect me.  
But as for what You have done, I leave it to the Gods whom ye have spoiled to Avenge the Injury offered both to me and to Themselves. Adieu 
f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  But this word, Adieu, may be Construed to a bad meaning as well as to a good, and you may be sure I design it in the worst.   

Ep. 85. To Timonax.  
V. Ep. 8.  
I Have ended my War with the Leontines by Conquest. But that I may not quite break the heart of you, and Dispatch you out of your pain in a moment by telling you all in a breath; I shall say nothing of my having, together with them, made a Conquest also over the ●a●r●menites and Zancleans, their Confederates, nor of my having received an Hundred Talents for the Ransom of their Prisoners. To have loaded you with the News of all my Successes at once, would have been present Death to you: and I were not willing to be counted the Murderer of a Thing that is called a Man.   

Ep. 86. To Hiero.  
I Had a great deal to say to you, both as to your Person and Conduct; those Blessed Orations of yours, I chiefly mean, with which you Caress the Mob of Leontium. But to dispatch al●m a word; The Indian Elephant despises the Gnat.   

Ep. 87. To Aristenetus.  
' 'tIs no Troublesome thing to me to think that I am an Old man (I am not yet, nor ever shall I be too Old to hold the Reins of Government and make my Enemies tremble) but those Frights you are in upon my account are very Troublesome to me. Fate will take its Course, nor can all Aristenetus his fears put a stop to it. And therefore to give you my sense in the words of the Poet; 
Since Fear doth not prevent our Fate,  
But double every ●ll,  
I'd rather Feel before I Fear,  
Than Fear before I Feel.    

Ep. 88 To the Himaereans.  
V. Ep. 93, 108, 121.  
YOu have sufficiently declared your Inclinations, and fairly given me to Understand that you look upon it as a matter Indifferent to you, whether Phalaris be your Enemy or your Friend. Heaven be praised, that put it into your mind to make so plain a discovery of yourselves! Having received this Assurance of its favour, I doubt not of my after Successes. Conon, as I wrote to you in my Last, I ordered to be forthwith put to death, as knowing him to be a very Villain, 
* I have added these words as supposing the Emphasis of the Thought, if my Copy be true, to lie in them. Vide Not. Oxon.  and a Ringleader of all mischief among you; and withal, that he had neither Parent nor Relation in your City; So 
† I have added these words as supposing the Emphasis of the Thought, if my Copy be true, to lie in them. Vide Not. Oxon.  that 'tis purely upon his own Account and Yours that he suffered, nor in his Death do I punish any Innocent person. To Drepid●s I have paid the Regard he deserved, and remitted him safe to your hands; an Honest man, and one that hath neither Done you, nor Designed me any Hurt. How to dispose of Stesichorus I shall take time to consider.   

Ep. 89. To Neolaidas.  
I Do not design you any hurt: for I find that your Good Actions are more than your Bad. To the number of your Good, farther add the not forcing me upon Harsher thoughts concerning you than I would willingly admit.   

Ep. 90. To Mnesicles.  
I Heartily congratulated your happiness when I heard that you had a Daughter born to you, though I knew how desirous you were of a Son. And I believe you yourself will be well pleased with what you have, when you shall find what a Gainer you are by the Loss of your Wish; in having a Girl instead of a Boy. For Daughters are Naturally more tenderly affected toward their Parents than Sons. I shall think my Presents meet with a kind Reception at your hands, when you shall not only readily entertain what I send, but let me know what you want. And now I am sure you will every day find yourself in a wanting condition. For Daughters are Chargeable.   

Ep. 91. To Alcander.  
I imagine that (without my telling you so) neither you nor any man else supposes me a man that can be Frighted with Words only; and as little, let me tell you, by more than Words only. I can with the same Indifference hear that men Act against me, as I can that they Talk against me. I very well know what a thing War is; and therefore never undertake one without both a Cause to Justify it, and Strength to go through with it. The Difference of Times, the Doubtfulness of Events, the Suddenness of Change, and the Fickleness of Fortune, I am fitter to Teach than to be Taught. Nor can any man in the World have greater Reason to Depend upon himself, than I have. But I depend more upon the 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Blessings of Heaven, the 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I might say the same here as mutatis mutandis in Note upon Ep. 3.  Assurances of whose favour my constant Successes have given me; and to the same Goodness I still 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Trust, that no man shall begin with me, without being himself a Loser by the Adventure. For if I may judge of 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I might say the same here as mutatis mutandis in Note upon Ep. 3.  what's to come by what's past, I have reason to expect to see all my Enemies under my Feet.   

Ep. 92. To Stesichorus.  
I Hear that you have been at Aluntium, and at Alaesa, going and sending about from City to City to collect Moneys and raise Soldiers; and that all these preparations are against me. Fie, Stesichorus, an Old a man as you are, never have done with Politics? Is it not time for you to give over busying your head with State Affairs? Have you no Regard to those Sacred Deities whose peculiar Adorer you Profess yourself? No more Wit than to pick Quarrels with them that are above your Match, and make the Muses the tools to your follies? Have you no Compassion on your Sons, now almost men, on your Native Country, while (like a Rash man, or rather Doting Old Fool) by Raising Moneys and Levying an Army against Phalaris, you draw upon them an Enemy that will in the end most certainly 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Root and Branch confound them? And I hear you are at this very time writing the Returns of the Greeks, and therein showing (very pertinently) the Mistakes of which some of the Heroes were guilty. But how you yourself shall Return from Alaesa to Himera, That you think not of. But assure yourself you will meet with Cepharidan Rocks, Floating Islands, a Devouring Charybdis, and a Nauplian Fleet in your way. Nor shall you escape me, no not though (as you Poets have it) a God should descend to wrap you up in a Cloud, and snatch you out of my hands.   

Ep. 93. To the Himeraeans.  
V. Ep. 88, 92, 108, 109.  
I Have dismissed Stesichorus, O ye Himeraeans, and forgiven him all his Practices against me: Not upon your Petitioning for his Life (that should have procured him more Deaths than one) but out of the Veneration I bear both to those Sacred Deities in particular, whose Inspired Prophet he is, and to all the rest of your Himeraean Gods and Heroes. For I have no cause of Quarrel against them, though much against you. How studiously he pursued my Ruin, you yourselves know. But I durst 
* For Stesichorus he looked upon as a Sacred person, and under the protection of the Muses, and therefore durst not offer him any violence.  not join a person so Sacred by his Profession, so Venerable for his Wisdom, in the same Fate with that Execrable Villain, that Infamous Debauchee, Conon, nor suffer the Devoted Client of the Muses to die by my Hands. How much rather do I wish, that it lay in my power to rescue such persons from the stroke of Fate? So should they never die. And let me Conjure you, ye Himeraeans, no more to twist Stesichorus into your Broken Interests, nor push him upon those desperate Attempts, so disagreeable to his Spirit, and Unbecoming his Profession. For what have Poets to do with Politics? Nor did he (as I am informed by those that have been at Alaesa) voluntarily intrude himself, but unable to withstand your Imporunities was forced to comply with your Follies. Put not the like violence upon him for the future; but making choice of more proper Tools for the work you have to employ them upon, let Stesichorus alone, and leave him to his Muse and Lyre. Create not to me any more Enemies like him; or if you do, they are not sure of meeting with the like treatment. But if you must of necessity have some or other to Head the Cause against me; choose out from among yourselves some such persons, whom, when they fall into my hands, I may (according as I shall see cause, and according to the Obligations you shall lay upon me) dispose of at my own discretion, 
* For Stesichorus he looked upon as a Sacred person, and under the protection of the Muses, and therefore durst not offer him any violence.  without having upon me any scruple of Conscience.   

Ep. 94. To Stesichorus.  
Vid. Ep. 121.  
'tIs true, Stesichorus, I am a Tyrant: but 'tis over the Agragantines, not the Himeraeans that I am so. ●nd therefore you have done me a singular kindness, who, by pretending to Break my Power, have Enlarged it, and instead of depriving me of my Sovereignty at Agragas have given me the like over Himera. For of this you may assure yourself, That by the same power by which I am able to teach my own Subjects their Duty at home, I am also able to Right myself upon my Enemies abroad. And so shall the Himeraeans shortly find it. 
* The sense of this Epistle is not so Determinate in the Original. but that my version of it may be excepted against: but I knew not how to fix a meaning upon it more likely to be the Authors.    

Ep. 95. To Autonoe.  
Vid. Ep. 77, 110.  
I No sooner received your Letter, but that I forthwith remitted to you the sum demanded, as knowing that the occasion required not only Money but Dispatch. I have therefore, according to your desire, supplied you with the three Talents, to pay off your Sons Fine, and purchase his Restoration to his Country. I know by my own Experience, what a Miserable thing it is to be Banished ones Country, and forced to spend one's life in Rambles. I have withal of my own accord added three Talents more, to buy off the Confiscation, and redeem his Estate. And let me advise Clisthenes not to be dabbling any more in Politics, but keep himself clear of having any thing to do in those kind of Affairs; wherein if they succeed well, all the Benefit goes to the Public in Common; but if there be any Miscarriage, all that is Charged upon the Managers in particular. And if that full Experiment now made upon himself be not sufficient to teach him more Wisdom, let him learn it from the Fate of our Family, and add my Example to his own. For I too (young Fool 
* V. Ep. 49.  as I were) must needs be meddling with the Public, till the Public forced me to fly my Country. And though I have been able to oblige Strangers to receive me for their Lord, yet I have never been able to oblige my own Countrymen to receive me for their fellow Citizen. Nor do the thoughts of my being a Sovereign in a Foreign Country so much Satisfy me, as my being an Exile from my own afflicts me. I do not write this (Heaven knows) as grudging you the Moneys I now send you, but as Condoling your Misfortunes: nor as fearing lest I should have the same Occasion offered me of Giving again, but as Desirous that you may never be brought under the same Necessity of Ask again. For much more Joyfully, and more Magnificently should I give to support the Prosperities of our Family, than to relieve their Distresses.   

Ep. 96. To Nicophemus.  
AS for the large Catalogue of those unhappy wretches, whose miserable Sufferings you so pathetically represented in your Speech upon me to the Leontines; let me tell you, that not One of the whole number Died undeserving Death. They only felt themselves what they were designing for me. For All and every one of them were in a Conspiracy against my own Life. And let me farther observe to you, how indiscreet an Orator you are. For while you produce these Instances of those of whom I have (and that with so good reason) made examples of Justice, and Urge their Sufferings as an Argument against me; in the first place you plainly discover yourself to be one of their Complices, and so give me fair notice how to use you when you shall fall into my hands: and then you Disanimate the Leontines from (which was the very Design of your Oration) Engaging themselves in a War against me, by showing them what an Enemy they have to deal with, and how much better it were to let me alone. For at the same time that you Represent me to them as so Cruel a man, to engage their Hatred against me; you also Represent me to them as a Not Despicable Enemy, which will cool their Courage, and make them unwilling to begin with me, without a good cause for it. 
* V. Ep. 58.  But if the Success be so certain as you assure them it is, I neither envy you the Glory of Entering them upon so Grand an Undertaking, nor Dissuade you from pursuing it.   

Ep. 97. To Lysinus.  
THou incorrigible Blockhead, Lysinus! Wilt thou never be a Man? Thirty year old, and a Fool still? For how else wouldst thou have dared to pull upon thy back an Enemy for whom neither thou thyself, nor Armies more of such like Impotent Creatures as thyself are an equal match? But you must still go on writing Copies of Verses and making Tragaedies upon me; little thinking in how Tragical a 
* One would imagine that Tragedy was reduced into much the same form in which it now stands, when this Epistle was written.  Catastrophe your Mirth and Wit will end.   

Ep. 98. To Epicharmus.  
SInce single You declare me to be a Just person, I am satisfied though not One else should join with you in it. For One such man to me outweighs all Sicily. But as for the indiscriminating Multitude, I look upon them only as so much Land stock, good for nothing but just to People the Ground, and keep the Wild Beasts from overrunning us. And perhaps it may be but necessary for me to have them misunderstand me, and think me a worse man than I am. And yet you are not so Singular in your Judgement, but that there are Many others like yourself (Many I call them, because I count men not by number but by their worth) who are ready to afford me the same Character, that Phalaris is in very Deed a Just and Virtuous man. Though were you Singular in this matter, I should be proud of even your Single Testimony, and Court no other Approbation.   

Ep. 99 To Cebron.  
THey who are so much amazed at the Unnaturalness of my Temper, and Cruelty of the Punishments I inflict; why do they not make that an Argument to Affrighten their Neighbours from Plotting against me? But you, while you spend yourselves in Lamenting the Fate of them that fall into Phalaris his hands, never think of Cautioning your Friends not to provoke that Phalaris, whom to provoke is so dreadful a thing. It had been my Happiness never to have been forced upon so severe Methods, and your Interest to have been more wary in your Conduct toward me. But since I am what I am, and yet with all my Rigour I find you so Untractable; what would you have been to a man less Vindicative? Since you venture so boldly where there is no Hope of Mercy, what would you have done where there had been no fear of Punishment? Know ye therefore that I will Cease my Severities, when you shall cease your Provocations.   

Ep. 100 To Euctemon.  
YEs Euctemon; All the Stories you have been telling the Syracusians concerning me are True, nor do I deny any part of the Accusation. But if you would show yourselves as ready to forbear your Furious practices, (more Destructive to yourselves than to me) as I have showed myself ready to forgive those that have even to an Unpardonable degree provoked me; there would be no room left for you to complain, either of my Severities or of your own Sufferings.   

Ep. 101. To Cleobulus.  
V. Ep. 75  
YOu put yourself, as I am told, to a great deal of unnecessary trouble upon my account. The Camarinaeans can never have a Public Assembly but that you are Speeching them into a War against me. But all you Speechings are hitherto in vain. The Camarinaeans well know that War is to be managed with other Instruments than the Tongue, and that good Speakers may make but poor Generals. So that if you would have them begin a War upon me; First Demonstrate to them the Grounds you go upon, and what Assurance you can give them of the Issue. And when you shall have done this, if they will not hearken to you then neither, change your Note, and Preach Peace to them, and so perhaps you may carry your Point, and enter them into a War. For as the Case now stands with you, 'tis plain that 'tis one of these two things they stick at: either that they think the Counsel you give them dangerous, or that they think the Counsellor of it a Fool. As for my part I think both alike. In the mean time (to tell you what I am at) I am resolving to come upon you not with Weaponless Words, as you begin with me, but with substantial Deeds, and those such, which they who have once Tried, have never after given me any Disturbance. That's my way of dealing with my Enemies, and that the Camarinaeans well know, and therefore have no mind to have the Experiment made upon themselves. For they are not now to Learn how much better it is to have Phalaris their Friend than their Enemy.   

Ep. 102. To Cleodicus.  
YOu have been carrying on Grand Designs against me, Cleodicus, but much above your Reach. Shall the Stallion of that Thracian Tanner's Niece (the Wife of that Slave Autander, who got his Estate by murdering his Patroon) think himself a Match for Phalaris? that Beast, that Buggerer, that Unnatural— but I will not suffer my Pen to foul itself by naming thy Filthy Actions. Were it worth my while to Chastise thee, (as whether it be or no I shall take time to consider) I would do it with Blows, not Words, and to the utter Confusion of yourself, and the whole Generation of you, turn the mischief you designed against me upon your own head.   

Ep. 103. To Stesichorus his Sons.  
V. Ep. 54  
What more proper Consolation can one Administer to you, Young men, under your present Sorrows, than to put you in mind of the Glories of that Father, whose Death is the Cause of your Grief? Stesichorus his Hearse is not to be attended with Tears but Hymns. And indeed when I bid you cease those Sobs and Smitings of the Breast, 'tis not as if I supposed it a thing possible for a man to be insensible to the Resentments of Grief, (a Passion inseparable from our Nature) but because I think them better bestowed upon more proper Objects; upon those, I mean, the miseries of whose Life require our Compassions, not their Death: though the Death of even the Miserable too may justly be Lamented: but not so the Death of Stesichorus, who attained to so Honourable an old Age, spent so many years in the service of those venerable Deities the Sacred Muses; past all his days in the Delights of Verse, and has left behind him a Name crowned with Immortal Glories. For certainly to be a Poet 
a I must own myself here obliged to the Latin version, without which in this place I should have been perfectly Nonplussed. Though I somewhat suspect the Greek Copy.  is a Glory greater than which neither could I myself nor any man else Aspire to: to stand so nearly Related to the Deity as Poets do. For that Immortal Spirit which Diffuses itself throughout the Universe, and Animates the whole Mass of Nature, seems to me nothing else but Measure and Harmony. Do you therefore, the Sons of that Great and Admirable man, entertain thoughts worthy of such a Father. You have a great Task set before you, to support the Honour of your Name, and bear some tolerable Proportion to him that beg●t you▪ But weep not over him, nor let the Happy Fate of that Hero, whose name will be had in 
b V. Not. on Ep. 54.  everlasting Remembrance, be to you a matter of Lamentation. Despoil not you your Father of the Honours the Himoraeans have done him: Since they have 
* V. Ep. 54.  Decreed him to be Adored for a God, do not you destroy the 
c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Opinionem fidem.  Belief they have of him by Mourning over him as over a man that is Dead. For neither did he himself (and so much I know of him) unwillingly submit to the Common Fate, or Grieve at the Thoughts of Dying. But as in his incomparable Poems, (that Treasure of Wisdom to which you are more nearly Entitled, and from whence all Mankind may learn to Copy after the Examples of virtue) he celebrated the Fame of those Renowned Heroes who laid down their Life for Glory: so when his own Period was come, he quietly submitted to the stroke of Fate, and yielded up his breath without a Trembling thought. And when before that he fell 
† V Ep. 33, 92, 108▪  into my hands as then his Enemy, and lay under the expectation of a most Cruel End, by his undaunted behaviour, he plainly showed that he did not conceive of what was coming upon him as a Dreadful thing; but on the contrary, discovered a more Resolved Spirit when my Prisoner and in Chains, than when in Arms against me in the ●ield. Thus wisdom Triumphed over Might, and Disabled the Tyrant from hurting the Poet. For 
d I have ventured to add all this Paraphrase upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  so I found it: Life or Death, Liberty or Torture were to him one and the same thing. And therefore could I not Hurt him, because I could not offer any thing to him, with which he was not well pleased. Surprised with so generous a Resolution, my Anger turned into Adoration, and I who had been at such a world of pains to get him into my hands, when I had him (as if I had been his Prisoner, not he mine) could do nothing else but supplicate him to accept of some Tokens of my Favour, and thank him for doing me that Honour. Nor do I think I hereby made him my Debtor, for having given him Twelve years of Life, (for so long after was it before he died) but I shall always own myself his; as for that strength of Spirit with which he Inspired me in General, so particularly for his having placed me (which only he could have done) above the Fear of Dying. 
This Epistle to him that shall peruse the Original, will appear in several places so Intricate both as to the Thought and Style, that if I have (as I fear I have) in some passages mistaken my Author; a favourable Critic would pardon an hasty Pen.    

Ep. 104. To the Catanaeans.  
FOr the insufferable injuries committed by you upon myself and my Subjects, you may think perhaps that you have already paid enough, and more than enough to make Satisfaction: for the Thirty of my men whom you impiously cast into the Flames, having lost five hundred of your own, and for the seven Talents of which you plundered me, being despoiled of the best Branches of your Revenues. But let me tell you, what you have hitherto suffered is but a praelude to what's to follow. 
a What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I confess I know not. The Latin Version seems to design a sense somewhat like that which I have given, by its rendering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pacisci. In the following part of the Epistle my Author is in his Altitudes, where I always find it an hard matter to keep pace with him, without either overdoing or underdoing him.  And that you may not charge all the Calamities that have overtaken you, upon my being Confederated with your Enemies, and therefore think to salve the matter by making peace with them; assure yourselves that shall not do your work. Be you at Peace with all the world besides, yet I am still your Enemy: And sooner shall Natures forget its Course, and that 
* i e. The Sun. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, V. Not▪ Ox. in loc.  Soul which Animates the Universe expire, than Phalaris cease to be an Enemy to the Catanaeans. Nor is it upon my own account so much that I make War upon you, as upon the Account of the Gods themselves, who are able to Save, and who are able to destroy, and whose vengeance you have incurred. Unless we can suppose that Divine Spirit which runs throughout all the Elements of Nature, and maintains the Harmony of the Universe, to have nothing to do with those Treasures of Fire lodged in Aetna: whose Flames you having polluted with the blood of disarmed Innocents'; 'tis that [b] Eye of the Universe and Fountain of Life you made your Enemy, rather than Phalaris.   

Ep. 105. To Nicenaetus.  
V. Ep. 26.  
PErhaps my having so often written to your Father concerning you, admonishing him to curb your Insolency, hath made you so much the more Presuming; as imagining that I should not have employed him to take you off from your hotheaded Designs against me, had I not been afraid of them, and looked upon you as an Enemy to be dreaded. That 'tis no such matter, I shall not spend words to prove. But understanding him to be an Honest old man, and you his only Son; in Compassion to his Grey hairs, and making Allowances for the Follies of your youth, I have hitherto forbore you. But you have no Compassion either on him or on yourself, who, without any sense of the danger, of which you have had so fair warning given you, still proceed in your wont Petulancy. And that perhaps because I having hitherto let you alone, and contented myself with only Admonition, you may imagine that you have still time enough before you to think of making your Retreat. But this is what far greater persons than yourself have not been able to do. Consult your safety therefore while you may, and make your choice before it be too late. Tread not in the steps of Timander; but rather follow the advice of an Enemy which would save you, than that of a Friend, which will certainly be your Ruin.   

Ep. 106. To Pollux.  
THe Indignities I suffer, Pollux, are far more Outrageous than the Revenges I take: So that you do not state the Case fair, when you make both the one and the other equally Excessive. I have many times Once, Twice, and Again pardoned the self same persons Conspiring my Death: but not one of them who have been over and again pardoned by me have been ashamed of Repeating over and again the same Practices against me. Farewell.   

Ep. 107. To the Angyines.  
I Think I want neither cause to demand Satisfaction of you, nor Power to take it were I so minded: And that I must do, unless you do me Right, and release to me those men, whom you have (without any Reason in the world for it, but that That Beast of a man, that Flagitious Instrument of your Lust, Papion, would have it so) detained Prisoners for now three months' time.   

Ep 108. To the Himeraeans.  
V. Ep. 88, 92, 93, 103  
THese are to inform you, that Stesichorus, Conon and Dropidas, as they were passing from Pachinum to Pelopo●nesus, have lost their Course, and instead of reaching Corinth, whether you sent them, are arrived at Agragas. Dropidas perhaps I may return to you, Conon I dispatched out of the world at first sight; Stesichorus is yet alive, till I shall have considered what death to put him to.   

Ep. 109. To Stesichorus.  
Vid. Ep. 88, 103, 108.  
I Understand you are in a dreadful Fright at what is like to become of you; as well you may, lying absolutely at the mercy of him, your Practices against whom are but too well known to yourself. But I wonder that the Fright should take you but now, and that you did not Then begin your Fears when you ventured upon that (as you yourself forebodingly expressed it) 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) The cohaerence of this Paragraph necessarily requires the Interpretation I have given it; which would be farther cleared, if for the [b] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a line or two following any MS. should afford 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Desperate Undertaking, of engaging the Himeraeans in a Quarrel against me, and putting yourself at the Head of them: and yet at the same time your own thoughts told you that things might possibly fall out as unluckily to the Himeraeans as your † Ominous Expression employed. If therefore you were Then (as a Professor of Wisdom ought to be) above the fear of Death, Thou Old Fool, what makes thee shake and tremble now? Since you were so Daring at a Distance, when yet you foresaw what was like to follow; what breaks your Courage, when the no Surprising Event is come? But if you were (as in your heart you always were) a Coward, and did even then in your own Thoughts quake at the approaching vengeance I should take upon you: thou Mad man, what bewitched thee to make that Bellowing against me? What meanedst thou (by those Outcries to the Mob upon that Cruel, Cursed and Abominable Wretch, by the exhortations 
* V. Ep. 147.  of thy Verse to Destroy the bloody Tyrant) to draw upon thyself an Enemy, the very thoughts of whom shook thee with fear? And why must you, a Poet and Musician, put on another Garb, and push yourself upon Affairs too hot for Poets to handle? You might, had you been so pleased, have lain still, and slept in a whole skin. But since of a Poet you must needs set up for a Politician, expect the Fate not of Poets and Musicians, but of those Demagogues who begin Quarrels they cannot maintain, when once they fall into the hands of their Enemies.   

Ep. 110. To Clisthenes.  
V. Ep. 77. 95.  
AS most men are apt to conceive it for an Affront to have their Counsels rejected, so they are well enough pleased to see the Wisdom of them justified, and the Neglect punished by the Event: and therefore in such cases are generally more forward to Insult their Unfortunate Friends than to Commiserate them. But 'tis not so with me: Nor is it the Design of these Lines by my Upbraid, to make myself an Addition to that Misfortune, which (contrary to your Expectation, but not contrary to my Forewarnings) hath now at last Overtaken you. I see not to what such Upbraid tend, but to prove a man a greater Admirer of himself, than Lover of his Friend; whose Sufferings, while he charges upon him as the fruit of his own Folly, in neither having been Wise enough to choose what was best himself, nor to hearken to them who could have taught him better: What else doth he do, than make the Miscarriages of his friend the Theme of his own Glory, from the Mistakes of the One the more to Magnify the Greater Wisdom and Foresight of the Other? But as to the present case, as foreseeing (and would to Heaven I had been a false Prophet) the unhappy Consequences of the Methods you took, I were most Passionately desirous to have prevented them: So since they are now fallen upon you, I make both the Mistake and the Misfortune my own. 'Twas to have saved you from ever feeling what you now feel that I forewarned you; but since 'tis now (whether by your Fate or your Fault) come upon you, I share in your sorrows. No, Clisthenes, I do not Upbraid your Sufferings, but am doing all that possibly I can to Remove them. Of this you may be more fully informed of your Mother, who can tell you how zealous I have been to Serve you. But you, methinks, show yourself somewhat to Peevish and out of Humour toward me, who, though now a Banished man, and forced to shift from place to place, yet will not vouchsafe to give a visit to me. You have not a Friend in the world from whom you would meet with a kinder Reception, or where you might better take up your Rest. If your Shyness of me proceed from any worse cause, you do me Injustice▪ justice: but if it be your Shame to see the Face of him whose Admonitions you Despised; I must confess I am pleased with it, and glad to see you on the mending hand. For 'tis to be hoped, that he who is ashamed of his past Errors, will not be found Repeating them.   

Ep. 111. To Nic ippus.  
FOr your having accepted the Present I made you, I return you my Thanks. And 'tis well you have. For as for that excuse which you pretended, that you were afraid of the Mischief it might bring upon you, should the Syracusians discover that you received Money at my hands; I'll tell you how I had laid the Plot. Should you have persisted in your Refusal to receive it, I would have charged you with having received it. So that Receiving it or not Receiving it, the case should have been the same with you on both sides. Nay, rather the danger should have been much more in your Refusing, than in your Admitting it. For though you had Refused to Receive it, yet my declaring that I had sent it, would have laid you under the suspicion of your having Received it. And now you have in Fact Received it, yet I declaring that I never sent it, will beyond peradventure discharge you. For this is Demonstration, if no Moneys were sent, no Moneys were Received.  
Phalaridan Generosity. V. & Ep. 145.   

Ep. 112. To Hieronymus.  
SInce in your Letter you ask me, whether I think I shall not meet with my Match in the Leontines, who have openly declared against me, and already commenced their Hostilities by Ravaging my Territories; and what I have left me to Depend upon now: I might Answer, That as they Begin with me, not I with them, so that I am not Invading the Rights of other men, but Defending my own, I might Depend upon the Justice of my Cause; But that's a thing I know you matter not. I shall tell you therefore, what though you will not own, you cannot but know, That I have Arms, and Money, and Men, and Horses, and Shipping, and all this in Abundance; and in the hands of one that knows how to use them; to which I might add, that Fortune hath hitherto always Declared on my side. And these are some of those things I Depend upon; especially having to do with an Enemy, as Unprovided in all Respects, as I am Provided.   

Ep. 113. To Lamachus.  
YOu are always telling the Camarinaeans, when you can get them together to give you a Hearing, of my Barbarous inhumanity in having Entombed no less than Seven and Thirty men in the Belly of my brazen Bull. Most heartily could I wish (hear me Almighty Jove!) never to exceed this Number. But I find there are some certain persons in the world will not give me leave to stop here. As for instance, I see that you yourself and that Mad man Epiterses are pushing on upon me, and will force me to advance the sum to Thirty nine. 
* ● question whether I lose my Author's Thought: 〈◊〉 lest I preserve something of his Quibble; which, where● he is upon that s●●ain, is twice worth his Thought.  Do you go on and I'll go on, and let the World call me Cruel still. Till such Desperate Wretches as you are shall cease their unjust clamours against me, I shall not cease to give such as you are their Just Rewards.   

Ep. 114. To Nicarchus.  
YOu are not able, with all your Declamations, to force the Camarinaeans to make War upon me; but you may force me to make War upon them should they have the Patience to hear you. And this (as they are wise men) they foresee; and therefore both knowing you to be a Fool, and Weighing Things above Words, and from the Beginnings looking through to the End, have for a long time stopped their Ears to all your Exhortations. And yet (as you have not sense enough to be ashamed) you cannot leave off your old Trade of Speech-making upon me, till you are now become as 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Importunus, odiosus. molestus, as the Latin Version hath it. Impertinent, troublesome. Tho 'tis true, both this word and the whole Paragraph depending upon it, might bear a different Interpretation.  Ridiculous an Orator to them, as you have always been a Despicable Enemy to me.   

Ep. 115. To Nicaeus.  
MY Bull (I find) and the other Engines I keep by me for the same use, are no Terrible things in your eyes. If they were so, you would never by beginning a Quarrel with me, have thrown away all hopes of Escaping them.   

Ep. 116. To Cleomedon.  
AS I understand you make it your whole business to expose me to the Public hatred, and to that purpose are every where Declaiming upon the Tragical Story of Cleombrotus: So shall I make it mine, Cleomedon, to get you yourself (an Enemy far more Insolent and less Powerful) into my hands. And then Cleomedon shall be as Tragical a Story as Cleombrotus.   

Ep. 117. To the Melitaeans.  
'tIs not because I despise the Honours you designed me, O ye Melitaeans, that I return to you by the hands of your Ambassador those Marks of your Esteem sealed up as you sent them; but because my Fortune will not admit me to Receive your Encomiums. You, indeed, may suppose other men as ready to Entertain a good Opinion concerning me, as you to give me your Testimonial. But I know that's a thing never to be expected. Being already condemned by the Common Vogue of the world for a Cruel and Unrighteous man, though the contrary known to you, yet your Single Dissent will stand for nothing against a General Mistake. Fame having once begun a false Cry, will not be put out of her Note; and I despair of ever seeing the Just Judgement of the few Wise able to turn the Stream of Popular prejudice. On the contrary, your Approbation of a man so Universally condemned will be Interpreted to proceed from a Likeness of Manners; so that while you pretend to vindicate me, you yourselves will incur the like heavy Censure. Since therefore by the Honours you designed me, you would have Shipwrackt your own Reputation, but could not have Redeemed mine, I thought it an Unreasonable thing to admit them.   

Ep. 118. To the Camarinaeans.  
AS I have already sent to Gella, and to the Leontines, I thought fit to send to you also upon the same account; that is, to assist me as my present occasions require, not with Arms, Horses, or Men, (of which you say your City is Unprovided) but with Money. The Leontines have at first speaking sent me five Talents, the Gelloans promised me ten▪ I hope I shall not find you either Slower than the I contines, or more Sparing than the Gelloans.   

Ep. 119. To the Astypalaeans.  
V. Ep. 49, 95.  
NEver do I remember myself to have been in all my Life time either more afflicted with Grief (though I have run through vast variety of Trials) or more Ravished with Joy (for neither have I wanted my Rejoicing hours) than I were, my Dear Countrymen, at the Receipt of your Letter: With Grief, at the bitter Remembrance of the day when I were unjustly forced to fly my Native Soil; an Unhappiness hard to be born even by him that hath deserved it: With Joy, to see that my Country had not forgotten me, nor thought me a person Unworthy of whom to crave an Assistance. For this is certain, I should never have heard from you in such a manner, had you still looked upon me as your Enemy, and not your Friend. The Assurance with which you Apply yourselves to me, sufficiently declares the Opinion you have concerning me. And perhaps 'twas not because the Necessities of my Country required that Assistance that made her send me this Embassy, but her desire to give this Public Testimonial to my Innocence, and condemn the unjust Authors of my Exile. So that indeed you did not so much Petition, as Acquit me. For neither would any man willingly Request a favour but of a Friend, nor Accept of one from an Enemy. As therefore your 
a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. the present occasion. sc. of your making a Request to me.  present Action will not permit me to own you 
b Suspicicor timide tamen) legendum esse in textu. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.—  under any other Character than that of Friends: So instead of Upbraiding you with 
c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Proculdubio legendum cum omnibus Codicibus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  past Disobligations, I must thank you for the greater present 
d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Obligation you now lay upon me; who by vouchsafing to Request a favour at my hands, do a greater Honour to me, than Service to yourselves. Nor did I less joyfully bestow the Grant than I received the Petition. For what greater Ambition could a Generous Soul conceive, than to be looked upon as the prop of his Country, and wear the Title (which your Letter gives me) of a Public Benefactor? That what I send you comes later to your hands, than you could have wished, lay not the blame either upon me or upon your Ambassadors, but upon the season of the year. There was no diligence wanting on my part to have dispatched them away sooner: but this Winter hath been so exceedg Tempestuous, that the most daring Sailor that is, would not have ventured himself too Sea. When the Moneys and what other Effects I have sent you shall have escaped the dangers of so hazardous a Voyage, and come safe to your hands, return your thanks in the first place to Heaven for its preservation of them at Sea, and in the next to your Ambassadors, of whose Faithfulness in making a true Delivery of the whole. I have not the least Suspicion. Yet I have sent along with them the Bearer hereof, Eubulus, as Super-cargo. From whom, having received an account of both the Species and number of the several Particulars; all the rest you may dispose of at your pleasure: but the Moneys I would have employed in the Repairing and Beautifying your City, as I suppose your own wisdom and care of the Public, without my Direction, would have led you to have done: For Honest men need not be taught their Duty. But if (a thing I would not so much as I magin concerning you) what I designed for the Real and lasting Service of my Country, you should fling away upon useless and unnecessary extravagancies; the Abuse of the Gift will fix a greater Reproach upon the Receivers of it, than the having given it can add Glory to the Donor. For if it may well seem a strange thing that a man unjustly Banished his Native City, and never like to see it again, should yet take care to repair its Breaches, and restore the ruinated foundations in it to their ancient Splendour: much stranger will it seem, that the very Inhabitants themselves, whose home it is, should suffer the Foundations, as yet standing, to fall into Ruins, for want of bestowing upon them Necessary Repairs; especially when they might do it at the Expenses of not their own, but another's Purse: But if you consider that what I have sent you was not designed only for the present use of you into whose hands it is to be Delivered, but for the use of your Posterities to come, and of the Gods you Adore; and accordingly bestow it upon your Public Aedifices and Sacred Temples: You will be more Admired for your Wisdom and Probity, than I for my Liberality. The giving away Money is what every Fool can do that hath it to give, but to manage it aright is the Talon of only Wise and Good men. The Gift may serve to Recommend the good Inclinations of the Giver; the use of the Gift proves the true worth of the Receiver. And I had rather have my Bounty be made the Testimony of your Merits, than of my Wealth: Virtue being the Beauty of the Soul, and the true commendation of a man; Riches only the Gift of Fortune, and no Praise to the Possessor. I'are ye well. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— locus obscurus, & continuis Antithetis nimis implicatus: nec mihi, ruri jam agenti, nisi unius codicis usus. Sensum qualem qualem potuimus, eruimus.    

Ep. 120. To Axiochus.  
A Man may have some kind of reason to value himself, as upon the other Advantages of Fortune, so upon that of being Nobly born. But as for my part I think no man Nobly born, but he that is born to virtue. All else is the Lottery of Chance. A Brave Man born of Obscure Parents may Outshine the Nobility of Princes and Emperors: And a Rascally Son of an Honourable Parent levels himself with the Dregs of Mankind, and is the Scandal of his own Name. Boast yourself therefore to the Syracusians of the Virtues of your own Soul, and not of the Glories of your Ancestors, which are all buried in a Degenerating Offspring.   

Ep. 121. To the Himeraeans.  
I Commanded you forthwith to send to me Stesichorus, Conon and Hermocrates. But you, instead of Hermocrates, Conon and Stesichorus have sent me Sameas and Nicarchus. Were I the man you suppose me to be, I should have known how 
a Sc, By detaining your Ambassadors, I might have forced you to Redeem them by surrendering into my hands the persons I demanded. That this is the sense of my Author is little▪ to be doubted; but how to make this, or indeed any thing else, out of his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. I know not. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I presume bears its force upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ following, not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 going before.  to have Managed you; and Stesichorus, Conon and Hermocrates had not been long after Sames and Nicarchus. Unless that Beast of a man, Conon, be such a Jewel you cannot part with: Sameas and Nicarchus, two persons, both for their Worth and Quality, the very Best of your City, be of no consideration with you. But neither would I offer any violence to persons of their Merit, who have neither done me nor you any wrong; nor would I, to revenge the Affront you have put upon me, violate the 
b By which the persons of Ambassadors were Sacred and Inviolable.  common Law of Greece. Though you in your Conduct toward me have not stuck at violating any of the Common Laws of Greece, and that not once nor twice, but many and many a time. How and when you know as well as I, and therefore I may spare the Labour of telling you. But herein neither have I imitated you, neither will I. No! bloody Monster as I am, Abominable and Accursed Wretch, or whatever else the world may call me, yet it shall never be said of me, that I am like you. And therefore though I might either have forced you to have redeemed Sameas and Nicarchus, by sending to me Stesichorus, Conon, and Hermocrates, or else have executed upon those I had in my hands the vengeance due to the others: yet I scorned to take my Advantage against you, and have suffered your Ambassadors to return in Safety. Though such are the Circumstances of my Fortune, and the necessity I am brought under of Trespassing upon the ordinary Rules of Justice, that should I have put your Ambassadors to death, I should not have been thought much the Worse for it, than what I am thought already, nor much the Better for my having spared them. For as to Fame, I am long since lost: My Name is already too deeply Sullied to receive a fresh Stain. Be what I do Right or Wrong, Just or Unjust, it returns to much the same Account with me: I cannot be one either side either much less Loved, or much more Hated than I am. And 'tis You, ye Himeraeans, and those Demagogues of yours, to whom I am chiefly obliged for the Character I bear. All the other mischiefs they have done me, I could forgive and bury in Forgetfulness: But for their having forced me out of my own Inclinations, and constrained me to make use of such violent methods, which I myself condemn, how can I give them their Just Rewards? Who can be more deservedly Sufferers by that Unjustice of which I am accused, than they by whose means I have been necessitated to be so unjust? Yet, all this notwithstanding, O ye Himeraeans, though Provoked as I am, and a Tyrant, and having in my hands, if not the very persons I desired, at least those whose Death would have been no less a punishment to you; I have both spared them, and dismissed them with the Honour's due to their Character. If therefore you will deal with me as I have done with you, and answer my Reasonable Demands, you will consult your own Interests. And I leave it to yourselves to consider which were better for you to do; 
c Here again 'tis little to be doubted but that the Copy is defective. The least alteration I can think of to make it consistent would be to read it thus; [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] or [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ Reputantes quod cum liceat vobis omnem viram in du●m aut triûm hominûm capita [effundi] permittere, universae civitati impendentia avertetis mala. My Paraphrase takes in the whole Sense.  either to suffer me to discharge the whole weight of my Displeasure upon two or three persons, and thereby Avert the Danger which threatens you All: or else by resolving still to protect that common Instrument of your Infamous Lusts, Conon, to Abide the utter Subversion of your whole State, and see your City levelled with the Ground. For if you will force me upon extremities, I will take care that you shall effectually find me no more merciful than you suppose me.   

Ep. 122. To the Athenians.  
'TIs some time since, O ye Athenians, that your Statuary 
a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Perilaus came to Agragas, and presented me with some of the Performances of his Art, which were indeed extraordinary in their kind. The Entertainment he received at my hands, and the Rewards with which I dismissed him, were a sufficient Proof of the Regard I had to him, both upon the Account of his own Ingenuity; and more especially of his Relation to You. Not long after he returns to us again, bringing with him a Bull made in Brass, and of a Size far exceeding the Natural. I were mightily taken both with the Curiosity of the Workmanship, and the subject upon which it was bestowed, that laborious Animal so serviceable to the Uses of man, and so contentedly bearing the Yoke. 'Twas indeed a noble Spectacle, and proper 
b What my Author designs by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do not certainly know. I have given it a Turn not foreign to the purpose.  Ornament for the Palace of a Tyrant. And as such I received it. For as yet he had not discovered to me the Murderous use for which it was designed. 
c The Original expresses it in other words: It comes to the same meaning.  But when he opened to me the Side of it, and exposed to naked view the 
d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Hell of Torments lodged within its Bowels; I were equally smitten with Admiration at the Artificialness of the Contrivance, and Abhorrence of the Cruelty of it▪ and therefore forthwith resolved to have the first Proof of his new Engine made upon himself, as not being able to find out a person more Deserving with whom to begin the Experiment of such an Invention, than the Inventor of it. Into the Belly of his own Bull therefore we force him to go, and having disposed the fire about it, according to the Directions he himself had before given, it answered our expectations, and fatally verified upon the Artist the exactness of his Art. For neither did we see the person tormented, nor hear any of his Out-cries, but the Shrieks and Groans of the Dying Wretch within were Tuned by the Brass into the Natural Lowing and Bellow of a Bull, so that they came forth rather a Divertisement than Horror to the Spectators. But that you, O ye Athenians, should be so mightily displeased, as I hear you are, at my putting the Author of his Invention to this kind of Death, is what I am much surprised at, and what I cannot yet believe. If it be that you think I have given him too Gentle a Punishment; my answer is, that I could not find out any more Terrible. But if it be the thing itself of my having put him to any Death at all that you complain of; then do you yourselves, who Glory so much in your Humanity, incur the Censure of the Deepest Cruelty, and while you pretend to Vindicate your Citizen, Condemn your City. For either it was the Fact of that one single person, or else the Fact of you All: and which of these two we must take it to be, your behaviour towards me upon this occasion will declare. For if you grant that he died Deservedly, and hath not left behind him amongst all the Athenians, the like Example of a Cruel Nature, what should make you Resent my having put him to Death? Since the example of his Punishment cannot in the least Affect any of you so Unlike him in his Qualities. But if you say he died Undeservedly; then do you plainly declare yourselves to be of the same Stamp with Perilaus, and by defending his Act, make it your own. Or however, say you what you will, I shall not think myself guilty of Injustice, in putting to death such persons only as I myself in the first place know justly to deserve death: and so long as 
d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  I satisfy my own Conscience, I little value whom else I dissatisfy. For though we Tyrants are commonly supposed very Improper Judges of Right and Wrong, making all other Considerations stoop to that of Securing ourselves: yet I am not so ignorant as not to know, that Justice is the Support of Power, and that whenever I shall forsake her Laws, and show myself a man that Rewards and Punishes not by Rule but by Humour; I shall at the same time forsake my own Security, and undermine the very prop of Authority. But that the Projector of new Inventions of Cruelty should have his own Engines tried upon himself, is what I presume neither any of you yourselves, nor any of all the Greeks will call an Unjust Execution; it being but giving to him the same that he designed to others. Which to me myself seemed a thing so exactly Reasonable, that I cannot conceive any one else to be of a different Opinion. For though the Horrid Instrument was by the Contriver of it designed for my service, and to have been exercised upon none but those who should Plot my Destruction: Yet as by his presenting it to me he made me his Judge, I were obliged to proceed upon him by the Laws of Universal Justice▪ and therefore laying aside all partial Regard to my own Private Interests, and considering what was Simply and in itself Just or Unjust; I sentenced him not by what he had deserved of me, but by what he had deserved of all Mankind. For as for my own part, I knew very well, both that the greater Barbarity of other men would 
e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  serve to take off part of the General Odium against myself, and that therefore it was for my Interest not to have punished such a Savage Nature▪ but rather to have encouraged it; and also that for me to appear more averse to Cruelty than Common Opinion supposes me, would but expose me to greater hazards, by giving a greater boldness to them that conspire my Ruin; and that this Example of my Seventy against one who designed only my service, will keep back others from the like forwardness to espouse my Interests; and that considering the desperateness of my Enemies, 'tis Force not Mercy I must depend upon. All this, though I knew very well, and though I wanted not other matter to have Recommended my name to Posterity: yet I could not allow such an Enemy to all mankind as the Inventor of this New Torture, to escape Unpunished. And therefore in the same Engine, which he most Inhumanly contrived for the Roasting of others to Death, (by whom he could never pretend himself to have been any ways Injured,) most Justly did I, (the person whom he pretended to oblige by such a Gift) cause himself to be Enclosed. But if, may some of you say, this be my Rule; that the Inventor of Cruelty against others, ought himself to suffer the same which he invented against them; what then will become of Phalanis? Or how can all the Furies in Hell give that single Soul the full of his Deserts? So that by the Law of my own making I stand Condemned. But if you would consider things without prejudice, you would find that neither have I been willingly Guilty of those things of which I stand Accused, nor if my unhappy Fate hath violently forced me upon some Extremities, ought they to be charged upon me as Crimes. For though my Absolute Command gives me the Power of exercising what Rigours I please, yet I myself condemn such methods: and not being able to undo what is done, [and 
e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  return to that state of life in which a man may live Innocent,] that many of my Actions are Unjustifyable, I own; 
f This clause I have added by way of Explication of what I suppose is my Author's meaning. V. Ep. 38, 61.  that they are voluntary I deny: And Oh that Fate had not laid me under this sad Necessity! Then should no man have been called more Humane and Merciful than myself. But who of you yourselves, O ye Athenians, or what man else soever, would not take a Just Revenge upon his Enemies, and secure his own safety by the Destruction of those that conspire his Ruin? 
g This clause is also added. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, seeming to require a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after it, to this purpose, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Since therefore Phalaris hath done no more than what under the like Circumstances any of you would do, why should he be so Abhorred a Creature? So that the Comparison between Perilaus and Phalaris is not a Parallel Case. Nothing could have put him upon so Cruel a thought but the Savageness of his own Nature: I own myself to have been guilty of some Excessive Severities, but then I have this to plead on my own behalf (which is more than any of those who have suffered by my hands can pretend to) that 'twas much against my own will that I did what I did. But while I, a Tyrant, study, Most Wise and Noble Athenians, to Imitate your Manners, [So renowned for the Goodness of your Nature, and the Easiness of your Government]: Your Citizen must be Employing his Art upon matters proper only for us Tyrants, that is, the Inventions of Cruelty. Justly therefore did I prove myself to him not what in my own Nature I am, but what in his Thoughts he Imagined me to be. Upon the whole you may conclude, That neither should I, had I been a private man, 
h That the Copy is imperfect here and in the following paragraph is little to be doubted. Vid. Not. Ox. I have patched up as consistent a sense as I could think of.  have been a 
i An Inventor of Cruelty.  Perilaus, nor would Perilaus, had he been a Monarch, have been a 
k] An Abhorrer of Cruelty.  Phalaris. And as for you, it will be a Reproach to you not only to show your selves Displeased with the Punishment I have given to him, but also should you yourselves suffer any persons like him to go Unpunished. All mankind, 
l It is in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I should rather read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  against whom in Common he hath invented such a new Death, may justly have him in abhorrence: but none more than you, upon whom, as your Countryman, he hath fixed the Imputation of Cruelty, and defaced the Glory of Athens, which was the Humanity of her Natives. I doubt not therefore but that you will all of you (as in a Common Cause) by your Approbation of the Justice I have done upon him, vindicate your own Honour. But if 
m Here's a Close in, I think the true Declamation Turn. But the Translation doth somewhat vary from the Text.  there be any among you shall still think Phalaris too Cruel; so did Perilaus.   

Ep. 123. To Lysicles.  
I Wonder not, Lysicles, that you should be so unlike both to your Father and to your Son: for neither are you the Son of Lysicrates, nor the Father of Neoptolemus. And this, they say, both your Mother and your Wife have positively declared in the presence of many of the Sicilians. For which they are deservedly Admired: For as 'tis a proof of one's Honesty to own the Truth in the face of the whole World, so 'tis no less a point of Wisdom not to Disown it to them that known it 
* As many of the Sicilians Experimentally know you to be by your Mother's side a B— d, and by your Wives a C— d. Not. Ox.  before.   

Ep. 124. To Pollux.  
Vid. Ep. 106.  
THey that prepare War against me, Pollux, upon the account of those whom I have (not without good reason) put to Death: if they do it not till after having duly informed themselves of the Matter of Fact, may fairly pretend a Just Revenge for the cause of their Quarrel. But you, Pollux, while in your Speeching upon me to the Syracusians, you profess yourself a mighty Zealot for Justice, and cry aloud for Revenge, yet never vouchsafe so much as to mention (which should have been Principally observed) the Causes for which those unhappy Wretches suffered. A person of your Character, Pollux, the Steers man of the State, and Mouth of your People, aught to carry yourself Evenly on all sides, and give your Countrymen a true state of the Question; and therefore at the same time that you told them of the Death of those men, you ought also to have told them how Unjustly they were put to death: that so acquainting them with the unreasonableness of my Proceedings, you might more effectually have Engaged them against me. But if they Suffered for such Causes which you are ashamed to speak of, I cannot see how their Sufferings can be a Just cause of War against me.   

Ep. 125. To Lacritus.  
V. Ep. 10. 133.  
AS they who are possessed of a Prize, the thoughts of losing which they cannot bear, ought not to run the Risk of it: So I were unwilling to have exposed you to any Hazardous Adventures. But since you have been able to force my Fears to give way to your Valour, you think your Work half done already: and 
a The Paraphrase of this Epistle, as Licentious as it may seem, doth not much exceed the sense of my Author.  may the Event answer your Expectation, and make you as Successful in Executing the Design upon which you are sent, as you were Forward in Undertaking it. In the mean time your Assurance cannot Rebate my Fears, which during your Absence increase still more and more upon me: and till I see you Safe in my arms, the only Relief I have against them is to hear often of your Safety abroad. Remember therefore the charge I gave you when I sent you thither, That whatever became of the Country, you should be sure to take care of not losing me Lacritus, whom I value far above many Provinces, Cities, Kingdoms; nay, (Heaven knows) above my own Soul.   

Ep. 126. To Lacritus.  
REmember, Lacritus, your own Promise and my Nakedness. You are not ignorant how few Friends I have left me. That my Letters betray such a Fearfulness in me, is not my being under any Apprehensions from the power of the Multitude, (that's too well Broken to give me any Jealousies) nor from the weakness of my Allies, (I am able of myself to Cope with all my Enemies) but 'tis you, Lacritus, that keep me in a Fright: Your daring boldness in the Field, and your too Martial Inclinations. I am afraid, lest now you are once Entered, I shall never be able to call you in again; lest you should Affect the Glory of being a Warrior, and be Dissatisfyed with me if I suffer you not to have your share in all and every Action. But remember that you are Mine, and but trusted out for a while to your own Keeping, and that you promised me to bring yourself safe home. Let me beg you therefore (not to do any thing unbecoming your Honour, for that's impossible, but) to Reserve yourself for Greater Services and expect more Glorious occasions of signalizing your valour. And though you should now upon my Request Rebate somewhat of your Vigour, I'll take care to supply you with Opportunities of Exerting your whole self.   

Ep. 127. To Epistratus.  
BAffle not my patience with your Obstinacy, nor constrain me after having thrice pardoned you, now at last to proceed to Severity. 
a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [a] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [b] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [c] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [d] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Make it not a matter Indiffereut to you, whether Phalaris be Merciful or Cruel, a Forgiving or a Revengeful man: with them who will not suffer him to be the Former he must be the Latter.  
I know not how to Justify the English Version of this passage, but by trying whether I can hit it off better in Latin. Neque Phalaridis misericordiam [a] tibi ipsi quod te spectat] conjectêre [reddas] tanquam [b] rem alienam [id quod tuâ nihil refert, vel, undè tibi nihil fructûs] dumb [c] negatâ nobis [sc. propter tuam in peccando pertinaciam] hujus (misericordiae) exercendae libertate [d] necesse habebimus irà uti Tyranni.   

Ep. 128. To Ariphaetes.  
REckon not up those who have been consumed in my Bull by the Tale of their Heads, but by the Quality of their Actions: And then you will find the Number of their Crimes to exceed the Number of their Persons. Or how many soever they were, you see I have been able to Master them all. But as for your own part, as you are a young man, let me advise you not to take upon yourself Concerns more proper for Graver heads. That those who set themselves in Opposition against me procure their own Ruin, I have proved by Instances sufficient. I know you also to be one of them that are so 
a The Connexion necessarily requires this sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Rebus novis Studero.  Impatient of Subjection, and desirous of Change, and therefore would gladly see the world rid of me. But let me seriously warn you to forbear, not (I assure you) that I think myself in any danger from your hands (such a pretty Smock-faced Creature was not made for a Destroyer of Tyrants) but because I would not have you add yourself to the number of those that have been put into my Bull, and increase against me the unjust Accusation of Cruelty. But if you will not hearken to me, you may expect to be speedily called to an Account, as for other things, so particularly for your having despised the Advice I now give you.   

Ep. 129. To Timolaus.  
NEver to commit a Mistake is the privilege of God alone: by past Mistakes to be taught more Wisdom for the future, the common Lot of men. But he that hath both played the fool and smarted for his Folly, and yet grows never the Wiser; what shall we say of him but that he is a Lost creature? Doubly Unhappy therefore, (to bring the matter home) is that man, the Example of whose Rashness proves a warning to others, but whose own Sufferings can do no good upon Himself.   

Ep 130. To Phaedimus.  
'tIs now the Third time that you have been accused of Evil Practices against me, and yet I will not Believe; though the Charge comes still closer and closer upon you every time than other. But what I am desirous you should prove toward me, and what, I am sure, in Justice you ought to be; such were I willing to suppose you. And therefore I the more readily admitted the matters alleged against you to pass for False, because I was unwilling to have had them Proved true. But at the same time this let me tell you, That how 
a How much soever I favoured your Cause. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— feared your falling under the stroke of Justice. ● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. He must be an Extraordinary Linguist that can tell how many Languages (though the Words are all Greek) were taken in to the Composition of this one Sentence in the Original. I cannot but Remark to the Critical Reader this one Instance (out of many) of the singular Perspicuity and Elegance of the stile of my Author. I believe I have with much ado Conjured out his meaning in this Sentence. But as for what follows to the end of the Epistle I dare not say the same. 'Tis all mystery to me. And therefore if Leucon carries one thing and his Ass another, I cannot help it.  much soever I favoured your cause, yet I look upon your escape as a kind of Miracle: for he that is often brought to the Bar, and still comes off with a Not Guilty, seems more beholding to his Fortune than to his Innocence. Give me not occasion therefore to hate your Person or your Fortune, nor tempt me to Interpret her Indulgency's to you as Partialities against myself. And withal consider how unreasonable a thing it is, not only by your perpetual requiting Kindness with Injuries, not to Correspond to to the good Intentions I bear you, nor suffer them to take effect (for I must not see a Good nature endlessly Triumphed over by Insolence:) but also that even Interest itself should not be able to bind you to your good behaviour, nor oblige you (though contrary to the Bent of your Nature) to put on at least a Show of Common Humanity towards the person that Studies nothing more than how he may serve you.   

Ep. 131. To Philodemus.  
V. Ep. 135, 142, 143.  
'TIs plain, Philodemus, you are a very Honest man, and mean well. But as when I deposited the five Talents in your name, I never expected to see them again, as being in greater fear than of losing you than my money: so you are strangely mistaken in me. if you imagine 'twas upon any other consideration than that of a mutual Friendship, that I offered up all those Vows and Sacrifices for your safe Return; and Heaven knows how much more I value my Friend than all the Treasures in the world. But if you are resolved your Daughter shall not receive her Portion from any other hand than from your own; That's as much your Own as any thing that is your Own can be so. Or if you think otherwise, to those five Talents of mine add as many more of your own, and make her Fortune Ten: and so (with your good Leave) for one half of her Portion let her thank Phalaris his Bounty, for the other her Father's Estate. As for Theano's telling you so great things of me, I am overjoyed at it; since I see she remembers now she is a Mother, who were her Friends when she was a Maid. 
This Epistle we must suppose an answer to a Letter of Philodemus, after his return from his long Voyage, offering to repay the five Talents mentioned Ep 142, 143,    

Ep. 132. To Agesilaus.  
TElesippe is almost Distracted at the Stay you make at Syracuse. Nor is the impatience of a Loving and Virtuous Wife at the Absence of her Husband to be wondered at. She hath been with me about it, and bid me in plain terms show myself a Tyrant to you, and exercise my Authority, telling me that she could no longer bear your Absence; and protesting that she would call in her own Father to her assistance. You know, I suppose, what she means by that, and assure yourself, she'll do it. I will never endure it, saith she, to see my Husband used as if he were a stranger, and none of the Family. Then she appeals to me again; you may Force him home, saith she, if you please, he dare not Disobey you. To which I answered, that I thought she was better able to do that herself. For I believe, as much a Tyrant as I am, you do not so much 
* I follow the received Lection, though I look upon the Conjecture of the Oxford Notes to be very probable. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that your do not so much Fear Phalaris as Love Telesippe. For so the Antithesis of the following Paragraph seems to require.  Dread the displeasing of Phalaris, as you Dread the displeasing of Telesippe. But whether the one or the other be the greater, either your Regard for me, or your Love (as she well deserves it) for her; let me join my request with hers, and desire you forthwith to return, and bless your Longing Friends with the sight of you.   

Ep. 133. To Polymnestor.  
LAcritus hath given me an ample Testimony of your Merit, as upon other accounts, so more especially for your having Joined him with your Targeteers. He informs me that 'twas by the Bravery of You and your Men that the Place was taken, and that (in Deference, I suppose, to your Person) he gave you also the Command of his own Horse. Had you received All as well as Some of the Presents I made you; yet even so I should have been jealous that my Acknowledgements had fallen Short of your Deservings. But now your lessening my Requital by refusing to accept of it in as ample a manner as I designed it, forces a Prince to own himself Outdone by a Private man, and keeps me still your Debtor. But if you will not now, upon my own Appointment, take the Thirds of the Booty, and distribute it among your Soldiers, which you would not receive from Lacritus up●n the Spot, I must tell you, that you will make me for the future more Unwilling, not to bestow a Kindness (you are too Great, I find, to admit of me for a Benefactor) but more unwilling to Accept of an Obligation from your hands.   

Ep. 134. To Polymnestor.  
SO then! I see you are afraid of the Threatening I made you, never to be again obliged to you, since you have, according to my Directions, distributed among your men the Reward of their Bravery, and Recompense of their Hazards. Now you have effectually Obliged me, and now can I heartily thank you; since you have now both given me the Boldness to crave of you again, should my occasions require it, the like Assistance, and Heartened you men to show the like Forwardness. For who that hath the Spirit of a man having received a double Reward, would not strive to merit it by a double Service? What I have given you only passes through your hands to Others: and while you employ it in engaging your Soldiers to stand firm to my Interests; 'tis neither them nor yourself, but me that you serve in accepting of it.   

Ep. 135. To Teucrus.  
V. Ep. 131, 142, 143.  
I Hear that the Marriage of Philodemus his Daughter was brought to a Conclusion much sooner than your Letter signified to me. Fame Anticipates the most Industrious Intelligencer. The Dispatches of that Goddess, how long soever a Journey they have to take, arrive before the Post. And indeed I have just cause of Quarrel against her. As many other occasions have fixed upon me the unjust Reproach of Cruelty, so chiefly by her means is it that I am Condemned even before I am heard. She Trumpets out my Name wherever she goes, and fills the world with the Reports of my Infamy. So that Multitudes who have never seen my face, nor know any thing of me, believe me to be some bloody Monster, born for the Destruction of Mankind. But this is my single Misfortune, and no man's else. As to the present Affair, see that you keep Leo and Theano in the possession of the same House where they first made their Happy Congress, nor let Hymen be forced to quit the Thresholds where he celebrated his Festivals. I make them this Present, as concluding it will prove Grateful to the Receivers. For a Married Couple cannot but Retain a Fondness for the place where they exchanged Virginitys. And I will show the Syracusians that Philodemus is more worthy of their Envy than their Pity; and grieve their Envious Souls to see, that no man can be more Happy in his Prosperities, than I shall make him in his Misfortunes. And let them all hate Phalaris, (I value not their Stingless hatred) but at the same time they shall pray within their own Souls (how much soever they Dissimulate it) that they too might meet with Friends like Phalaris.   

Ep. 136. To Timander.  
YOur Practising at Camarina, Timander, and the exaggerating Condolements you make over them already executed by my Command, have forced me, though much (Heaven knows) against my will to shut up 
* Ep. 116.  Cleombrotus too, and his Complices in the Bull. I were afraid lest upon my pardoning them, you should have given over your pushing your Countrymen upon the beginning a Quarrel with me. 'Tis a perfect pleasure to me to hear what work you and your Mob make with my Name, which I should be deprived of, should once the Camarinaeans come to have more Wit, and be ashamed of harkening to any thing that such a Tool of an Orator as you are can say to them; whose impotent Attempts are too Harmless, I will not say for Phalaris, but for any of Phalaris his Slaves to be afraid of. Or though it had been their Interest to have made War against the Agragantines, yet to have done it upon your persuasions, would have been their Infamy. But now they are like to meet with a War that will prove more mischievous to them than even their Orator himself; or rather their Orator, as he brought this War upon them, so he is himself a Greater Plague to them, than all the Calamities of War. But when you put your Countrymen upon taking up Arms against me, it had been but fair in you at the same time to have given them some reason for their so doing: that while the State, depending upon the Conduct of so Martial a Spirit as yourself, thought fit to undertake a War, she might also have had her Manifesto in Readiness to Declare to all the World the injuries that forced her upon that last Remedy. But this was more than you would do: for after ye had been Hammering upon the matter as long as you could, one offering one Reason, another another, at last you were content to let them all drop and leave the cause to shift for itself. But if one might divide your Person from your Office, and with a Salvo to the Reverence due to a Magistrate, consider what you are of a Man; one might venture to say, that all the Arts of Cruelty would be but too gentle a reward for your Deservings, who after having sold your House and Land, and (if your Father left you any) your Household goods, to prove yourself no better an Husband for the Public than you were for your Family, must now be raising a Mercenary Army against me, and engaging the Camarinaeans in New and Hazardous Adventures. As for your own part indeed, that a man who hath nothing to lose should be so Daring an Undertaker, is no great wonder. For nothing but the thoughts of your own Desperate Fortune could have made you run a Tilt at me, at whose hands you are sure to meet with a Treatment answerable to your Merits. But 'twas Unconscionably done of you to mix the Fate of your Country with your own, and force me to Exact upon them the Punishment of your Folly. 
If a Critical Collator should say, I do but shuffle with my Author, and run out into Loose and Lawless paraphrase only to hide my own Ignorance; I must submit to the charge, and confess there be some passages in this Epistle which I knew not how to manage otherwise.    

Ep. 137. To the Anneans.  
V. Ep. 81. 148.  
OF the large Sums ye borrowed of me having been prevailed with to remit all to eight Talents, though at a time when I were in great want of Money myself, I might have expected you would have kept your word with me for them; which yet is more than you have done; but after having with much ado and very Grumblingly sent me Four, the other four you still keep in your hands. I am not (I assure you) so much concerned at my not having received them, as at my having remitted the rest. For your defrauding me of my Due (that, is suppose I should let it pass so) is but a four Talon Damage, but your Ingratitude I compute at a more than Ten Talon Loss. For what is given to an Ungrateful man, that I count most properly Loft. And you made me the same promise of paying what remained Unremitted as you did of Showing yourselves Grateful for what was Remitted. 
a Instead of this the Original hath a gingling Antithesis, which I knew not what to make of.  As therefore you have failed in the One, I have no reason to depend upon you for the other. All which notwithstanding, If the case be really so with you as your Ambassadors represent it, that your Public Stock is exhausted, and that you were forced to raise the payment you made me out of your private Purses; I remit to your City the remaining four Talents also. Nay more; I am ready to return to you what I have received, provided that your City may receive the Benefit of it, and that you suffer not those who keep you poor by cheating you of your Own, to Run away with Mine also. But as to the Design which your Ambassadors tell me you are upon of erecting Statues to me as a Public Benefactor; let that alone: I can willingly spare you the paying me my own Moneys, can as willingly spare you the putting yourselves to that expense.   

Ep. 138. To Lysander.  
YOur Supplies came too late for the service upon which they were sent. For before the Arrival of Euclides' Foreign Troops we got sight of the of the Enemy. So that though by reason of the slowness of their March they signified nothing to us in the Field, yet we think ourselves so much the more obliged to them, for the Honour they have done us in letting us Few beat the Enemy without their help. And the greater was the hazard we Ran, the greater Glory did we win.   

Ep. 139. To Antimachus.  
V. Ep. 29  
I Matter not (as the world now goes) what men say or think of me. For seeing that whether Just or Unjust, 'tis now one and the same thing, or rather that the man in Reality the most Unjust, shall in Common Opinion be Reported for the most Just; instead of disguising myself, I am proud of being what I am: as knowing, that when other men venture upon unjustifyable Actions; 'tis of their own free choice that they do so: if I transgress; 'tis Necessity that forces me to it. I acknowledge I have had my Irregularities, as no man living is without them. The only difference is this, that we Sovereigns, as we have Power to maintain our own Doings, So we are not afraid of showing ourselves to be what we are. But private persons, as they live under Command, and are in danger of being called to an Account, are forced to take shelter in Dissimulation and Denial.   

Ep. 140. To Polystratus.  
V. Ep. 84.  
I Shall not give either to you or any man else, the names of any of those persons to whom I have been a Benefactor: nor shall your Scornful rejecting my Presents, force me upon the Vanity of urging against you the many examples of those who have not Disdained to accept of a Benevolence from my hands. That would be at the same time a Boasting of myself, and an Upbraiding of them. For, for a man either to Report his Good Deeds himself, or to delight in hearing others do it for him, I take to be neither better nor worse, than a Reproaching the Receivers. 
a If I have taken the sense of the following Paragraphs right, this Clause will seem no unnecessary Addition, the Connexion seeming to run lame without it.  What notion you may have of the matter, 
b Sc. The Messaniaus. V. Ep. 84.  I know not: of this I am sure, other men think not the worse of any thing that's worth the Taking for its having once belonged to Phalaris. How much I have lost by the fraud and violence of those, who made no scruple of laying hold on whatever they could meet with of mine, I leave it to you to imagine. There are but too many (and those great pretenders to Justice) who look upon whatever they can Steal from me as Lawful Prize; and therefore having once seized it, nothing but the Power of the Sword can oblige them to Restore: Others have despoiled the very Gods themselves of the Gifts which came from Me, and taken into their own Hands the most Sacred and Inviolable things in the world. For certainly had they looked upon 'em as Abominable and Accursed, they would not have run such hazards in maintaing to themselves by Force of Arms the possession of that, the admitting of which to come near them they ought by Force of Arms to have Resisted. What Notion therefore have you of my Gifts, or for what Reason do you refuse them? for 
c We must suppose the Gifts sent to Polystratus to have been some of the Things designed for the Temple of Messana. Ep. 84.  all the excuses you have hitherto made what hath already been said (and much more might have been added) is sufficient to silence. That there is nothing of Impurity in the things themselves even my Enemies declare, Unless to them who seized them by force, adding Rapine to Sacrilege, they are Pure; Impure to you, to whom the voluntary Gift of your Friend, the Owner of them, giveth a just Title to them.   

Ep. 141. To Agemortus  
I Find at last, Agemortus, how ill I have consulted my own Happiness. This Invidious Sovereignty, to attain to which (fool as I were) I stuck at no Difficulties, hath but Loaded me with so many the more Melancholy Reflections. Many are the Miseries I have gotten by being a Tyrant, but none greater than this, That no Deserving person will accept of me for his Benefactor, but I am under a Necessity either of doing no Good with what I have, or flinging it away upon Knaves and Fools. For I know not what should be the reason of it, (but so it is) that you few Honest men, whom alone I desire to serve, turn your backs upon me, and are afraid of nothing more than of Receiving a kindness at my hands. For how else should it come to pass that of so many Schoolfellows, and Playfellows, and old Acquaintance that I have among you, not a man should come near me? nay, not one of you ever so much as promise me a visit, save calisthenes? and yet I am sure neither will He pay it. And as for the rest, they may have some kind of Evasion to excuse themselves for their not having accepted of my Offers: that 'twas no Aversion to my person, but with Some their bodily Infimities, with Others their dependence upon their Fathers, with Others their Public Engagements, As for your own part, I never gave you the Invitation, as knowing. you too well, and being before hand sure of a Denial. Nor shall I give it you now; especially since I hear of your Indisposition, and of the Children with which, since my having left your Country, your beloved Praula hath blessed you. 'Twas the Rejoicing of my Heart (Heaven knows) to hear of the Increase of my Kindred by so numerous an Offspring; and for that Reason were I the less desirous to separate your Person from your Family. But as you are my Kinsman, what pretence can you make for being afraid of owning the Relation you bear to me? For what else should be the meaning of it, that when I lately sent you a no Waggonly Present, to have been Trumpeted through the Streets at noon day, and have drawn upon you the Envy of your Neighbours; but a little parcel of Gold, and that by night, when no man could have observed it: yet you, as if it had been an Accursed thing, and under the Sentence of an Anathema, startled at the sight of it, and would not so much as touch it; And good reason was there for it? 'Twas the Gift of an hideous Wretch, a bloody Monster, delighting in Murder, and be-dyed in Human gore. Ah! Agemortus, you are perverse in your Constructions, and strangely uncharitable, nay, Unmerciful to me, that do not Compassionate my Unhappy Fate, and the miserable Necessities under which I am placed. For no other end were I ambitious of Sovereign Power than that I might be in a Capacity of obliging my Friends in a manner answerable to the Largeness of my Soul: and having now, by the Blessing of Heaven, obtained my desires, I have no Friends left to receive the Effects of my Generosity. Thus what alone I proposed to myself as the only Compensation of all the Labours and Hazards I underwent, That you my Friends deprive me of, by not vouchsafing to Share with me in my Prosperities. So that you, for whom alone I wished myself to be what I am, refusing to accept of my Favours, I am laid under a Necessity of bestowing the Rewards of Virtue, and the Bounties of a Monarch upon the Cravings of Fools and Flatterers. 
* I could not here make either Construction or Sense without inserting [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] and reading it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In Latin thus. Quae igitur tibi Excusationis species relanquitur; quî Meus haberi non vereâre? I shall never Admire the Sagacity of that Critic, who in this Author doth not smell the Tangle of the Latin running throughout the whole Composition.    

Ep. 142. To Teucrus.  
Vid. Ep. 131, 135  
I Had designed to have given a visit in person to Cleoeneta, the Wife of Philodemus, (you know whom I mean, Teucrus) upon the Affair of her Daughter's Marriage, but that some other pressing Occasions, which may not be Postponed, prevented me: and which are such as would have made me call you home to my Assistance, had I not rather chose to leave you at Syracuse, to pursue the Business upon which I now write to you: and by that you may see how much Concerned I am about it. Wait upon her therefore yourself, and engage for the Payment of five Talents to her Son-in-law, as soon as her Daughter shall have made her that new Relation. But so order the matter, that it may not seem the Giving of a Gift, but the Payment of a Debt which I owed to her Husband. If she ask you, how Philodemus should come to have so much Money, you need only answer you know not how: that you know no more of the matter than what you had from me, that so much Money of Philodemus' I have lying in my hands. And if you can Fairly bring it about, let Leo be the person. For he hath been with me to solicit the Match, and I readily Assured him of my best Endeavours; and with that promise have Remitted him to you. But if the Mother of the young Lady shall pitch upon some other Husband for her Daughter, make the same Engagement (as to her Portion) to him, and oppose not their Intentions. For I would not confine her Choice or my Liberality only to the person of Leo, nor because I give the Money take upon me to make the Match too; as if it were not Philodemus his Daughter, but my own Friend that I preferred. To whomsoever she shall dispose of her Daughter, I charge you, be as Quick and Punctual to your Engagements, as a man would be that had Appointed not to Pay Money but to Receive it. Heaven forbid, that the change of the Person to whom I wish the Gift, should prevent my Giving it, and lay me open to the shameful Suspicion of catching at the Opportunity of Leo's not having her, to Retract the offer which I first made to them freely, and without any such Reserve! The Eye that sees all things knows, how I abhor so base a thought: I look upon the Money as so much Loss to me, while it lies in my own hands, nor shall I till Then think myself the Richer for it, When the young Lady shall have chosen an Husband upon whom I may bestow it. Worse than such a thing as That they that know nothing of me could not imagine concerning me. And oh, that Fame would once do Justice to the Name of Phalaris. and speak no worse of him than what he deserves! When she shall be Married, present to her the four young Damosels, (whose Age suits with hers, and makes them fit to be her Attendants and Companions) as also the Vestments I have sent you for that purpose, and 60 pieces of Gold. Forward the matter as much as you can, for methinks it goes on but slowly. And when the time comes see the Presents delivered with all Dispatch: since by so doing, though the Expense be wholly mine, a great part of the Thanks will be yours, and you will come in for a Joint Benefactor with Phalaris. As to these particulars, take care to see my Orders observed. And in every things else let them find such a Friend of you, that neither the Daughter in the absence of her Father, nor the Wife in the absence of her Husband, may have any cause to Complain that their Family wants its Support. Do you provide them with all Necessaries, and when the Nuptial Ceremonies shall be performed, see them done with due magnificence, you depositing the Moneys to answer all Expenses. That on the day made for Rejoicing, there may be no mixture of Sorrow, nor any of the Bride's Relations be able to accuse the Fortune of the Family, or call Philodemus an Unhappy man. I'll let the Syraracusians see, that I am able to over rule the Malignity of his Father.   

Ep. 143. To Cleoeneta.  
V. Ep. 131, 135, 142.  
THe absence of your Husband, my unvaluable Friend, Philodemus, upon his long Voyage may be the more supportable to You, as adding a fresh Lustre to your already established Reputation: but it doth not fall out alike Fortunately to your Daughter, who hath now seen the Twentieth year of her Age without taking a flight out of the House of her Father. The longer an Husband continues absent from his Wife, the greater opportunity doth he give her of approving her Fidelity; but the longer a young Lady, whose years might expect the change of her Condition, continues without an Husband, may bear a Different Reflection. Common Opinion (and herein it is in the Right) makes a Daughter, beyond the Course of Nature, Undisposed of an Objection against the Care of her Parents. 'Tis now high time (and somewhat of the Latest) that your Daughter should have merited the Character which yourself most deservedly wear, of making an excellent Wife. Perhaps you find it some relief to you in the Absence of Philodemus to have always in your Eyes, that pledge of mutual Love, and dear Remembrance of him, that is your Daughter, as in Her enjoying part of Him. But'tis' preposterous not to be content to part with your Daughter, because in her you Enjoy the Remembrance of your Husband, and yet at the same time to deny her the Happiness of a Relation, in which you yourself find such Satisfaction, and of which her years making her now capable; the Absence of an Husband, e'er long to return, ought not to be Interpreted by you a greater Infelicity to yourself, than the not yet Having one to your Daughter. Especially when neither her want of Parents to make that Provision for her, nor their want of Money wherewith to do it, is in the cause; as neither is with her, which renders her Case so much the more Unfortunate. For let me tell you. Cleoeneta, what I suppose you little imagine, Philodemus at his Departure▪ put into my hands five Talents as a Portion for his Daughter. Nor is that all: While Phalaris hath Money, Philodemus and his Family shall not want it. Why therefore, Cleoeneta, since you have in your hands the means of doing it, should you any longer defer the bestowing her upon an Husband? For I see no reason for your putting it off till Philodemus his Return. What may conveniently be let alone till then let us not meddle with before: but the Demands of Nature wait not our Leisure. There is no putting a stop to Time. While we are Debating the matter, her Years are flying away. That Philodemus Disposed not of her himself, he was prevented, 'tis probable, by some of those Reasons which force a Father to see his Daughter unmarried beyond her time. But for her being longer detained in the same State, you can make no pretence. She should now be past wanting a Father, being a fitter Companion for a Husband. Add not therefore Indiscretion to Misfortune, nor, by the Cruel fondness of keeping her still to yourself, make the Absence of her Father less a punishment to her, than the presence of her Mother. Accept the Advice I give you, and consult at once the Felicity of your Family, and your Daughter's Honour. As many other matters have successfully passed through your hands, without the assistance of Philodemus: so in the bringing this one Affair (in which the happiness of all of you is so much Interested) to an happy Conclusion, and giving him upon his Return the sight of a Worthy Son-in-law, you will increase the Admiration he already hath of your Prudence, and let him see how little the Daughter of such a Mother stand, in need of a Father. The Money Teucrus shall pay upon Demand; and whatever else the Occasion shall require, 'tis but letting him know your Pleasure, and it shall be done for you. As for Philodemus, you may pray indeed to Heaven for his Return before the Nuptial day; but defer not your Daughter's happiness upon that Expectation. And that he will return both Safe and Within the time, as you have many other Reasons to hope, so particularly the Regard which the Gods have to the Prayers of Pious Souls. 
a What is here precisely meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is not easy to determine. That Philodemus was (upon what account is not particularly expressed) under some unhappy Circumstances, appears from the Epistles referred to at the Head of this. So that my version giving a Sense easy and coherent, I am content to let it pass as it is. Though upon second thoughts I imagine that my Author (with a Conciseness peculiar to himself) designed in his Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take in Both the Significations of the Latin, Necessitas: that is, Necessitudo for the Duties of Relation, and Necessitas Fortunae, the Necessities of Fortune; in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referring to the former, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the latter. If so, I'll try (though I must strain hard for it) whether I can express his Thought in Latin. Tu vero, cum pro aliis Necessitudinibus, tùm maximè Fortunae, absenti Patri, [i. e. Puellae Infortunio quae absentem habeat Patrem] Novum Infortunii cumulum adjiciendum putas presentem Matrem? The sense of which I have given in English. The Latin Necessitudo is sometimes used to signify Necessity, as well as (more commonly) the Duties of Relation.  
b I follow herein the interpretation of the Oxford Notes, a more agreeable sense than which I knew not how to make: though neither of us are positive that 'tis directly▪ the Authors.    

Ep. 144. To Nicocles.  
V. Ep. 78, 79.  
I Have according to your desire written to Stesichorus about the Poem upon your Wife, and given him the Particulars of the Subject. He readily undertook the Work, 
V. Not. Ox.  and promised to exert the utmost of his Abilities upon it, as hoping * by the Charms of his Muse to allay the Excesses of your Grief. 'Tis true indeed, your Unhappiness may seem too great to admit of Comfort, or be lessened by words, having lost in One and the same Person two most endearing Relations: The partner of your Blood, a Niece; and of your Bed, a Wife, both in Beauty and Virtue, far surpassing any Second▪ of her Sex. Thus pierced with a double wound, wasting your breath in doleful Lamentations, you languish in despair, and little matter whither you Live or Die. Be not, Nicocles, so Cruel to yourself, nor load Nature with a burden she is unable to bear. Such violent Resentments, both betray a weakness unworthy of a man, and will render your Wound uncurable. But come, Nicocles, let me argue the matter with you a little. Remove your thoughts some minute space from off your own Misfortunes, and place them upon the Common Fate of all Mankind, and the sad Necessities of our Mortal condition. We are all of us born to run through a world of Miseries, of which when every one hath received his allotted Portion; then hath he finished his Pilgrimage, and is come to the end of his Course. The only thing that makes us in love with a Life so Miserable, is because we think nothing more Miserable than Death: and when we express such grief at the Death of our Friends, we consider not that 'tis ourselves we Lament; the Tears we shed at the Funerals of them that go before us being but bestowed upon our Own, so soon after to follow. This, Nicocles, is what we are all Born to. When we receive the Gift of Life we receive the Sentence of Death: a Sentence so Impartially executed upon all, that none have cause of Complaint. For the Tyranny of Fate is not more Irresistible than it is Impartial. Neither can Force withstand, nor Art elude, nor Entreaty Avert the Stroke. All Tyrant as I am, yet Fate is still a greater Tyrant than Phalaris. Lawless, Cruel, Inexorable, or whatever else the World may say of me, her Cruelty surpasses Mine. I am called an Absolute Sovereign, but how Improperly so called, that fatal Hour will prove, when all my Castles, Guards and Arms shall be in vain. Or could I be that Absolute Sovereign, which no man can; not for my own sake would I wish it, to rescue myself out of the hands of Fate (I am one whom many think, nor can I contradict it, unworthy to take out even my Appointed time) but that I might be able to save such men from Dying, who, let them live never so Long, yet die too Soon. But since we lie at her Disposal, not she at ours, we must submit with Patience: [Cease therefore, Nicocles, your unmeasurable Grief] not only as being a thing vain in itself, but for fear of disquieting the Ghost of your Wife, to whom (if the Spirits of the Departed know what's done by them they leave behind) your Lamentations cannot but create Disturbance. She, who in her life made it her only business to study your Satisfaction, and whose only Pleasure it was to see you Pleased, must even after death be grieved to see you grieved: nay, doubly Grieved, not only at your Loss in being deprived of such a Wife, but at her Own also, in being taken away from such an Husband. Since therefore you are neither the First, nor the Only person that hath felt the like Misfortune, bear a Common calamity with the Spirit of a man. The various Incidents of my Fortune have Familiarized me to the thoughts of Death: the common Fate of kind, and the daily Spectacles of Mortality, aught to do the like with you. Our Concernments cannot alter the Law of Nature▪ and the less a man Resents the Miseries of life, the more doth he Enjoy the Blessings of it. 
Lego in Textu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.    

Ep. 145. To Stesichorus.  
I Have sent you a Quantity of Oil, not for your own use (mistake me not) but for your Grandson; the 
* V. Ep. 36.  Business he is now upon requiring such a Supply, and he himself deserving all Encouragement. Nor would I have the 
a A small Emendation renders the Text in this place easy. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Striking out the full point after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Public Exercises he is to Exhibit fall any whit short of those of Agesilaus; or if they do, it shall be no fault of mine. The Money which you would not accept of at my hands, when you were present with me yourself, if you refuse now that I have sent it after you, I will certainly 
* Ep. 3.  accuse you to the Syracusians of holding Secret Correspondence with Phalaris, and being in a Plot against the State: and then bring yourself off if you can 
b The Text is here confessedly Defective. V. Not. O. v. ad Ep. 147.  Not Politics, Stesichorus, but Poetry is your Talon: Keep to That therefore; and those Studies which have so Advanced you above the rest of Mankind, and wherein you may excel without a Rival, still pursue. But meddle not with such Affairs, wherein, how successful soever you should prove, the worst of Men may be your Equals.   

Ep. 146. To Stesichorus.  
NOt a word of me, Stesichorus, I beseech you, 
V. 〈…〉  either in your Odes, or any where else. I am lost to Fame, and Silence is the greatest Honour you can do me. In every thing else use your own pleasure, and freely pursue the Inclinations of your Nature, and the Inspirations of your Muse. But whatever you do, meddle not with the Affairs of State; and for that let my Example be your warning, whose very Successes have been my greatest Misfortune, and who upon the self same Account for which the world envies me as an Happy man, find myself most Miserable. Or if you think it may be justly so with me, who by Usurping to myself a Lawless power, deservedly suffer the Punishment of my own Presumption: but that you, pursuing so different a Course, and studying only the welfare of your Country, and the Common Liberty, have no reason to expect the like Difficulties; lay me aside, and consider yourself, Stesichorus; yourself, Stesichorus, and be taught by your own Example. Never did man put himself upon serving his Country with a purer Intention and more Disinterested affections. And yet consider, Stesichorus, what you have gotten by all your pains, and how much worse it had been with you, had you met with an Enemy unlike myself. Though indeed had a man Wind and Tide on his side, and sailed with never so full a Gale, yet it would not be his Wisdom to make too bold with his Fortune. 
a Nescio (quod saepius dictum velim) an in version Authoris sensum assecutus sim: Graeca obscura sunt & mendosa, cum passim, tum maximè in ultimis hisce ad Stesichorum Epistolis: nec ullum mihi e MSS. aut variantibus Codicibus Subsidium. Hoc potissimùm in loco nimiùm mihi metuo.  By the same methods by which you (neither a Tyrant over your Country▪ nor hated by all the world, as I am,) gained the Applauses of the Multitude and made yourself (at least you thought so) many Friends, did you make Me your Enemy: and by the same method had I been in your place, a Patriot instead of a Tyrant, might I have met with the same successes▪ and been as much the Himeraeans Darling. And yet consider how ill your Country hath requited all the services you performed, and the hazards you ran upon her Account, and how much better it is with the hated Tyrant, than with the applauded Patriot. Would you see the Man that receives the Blessings of his Country, and feels not her Displeasures, nor ever finds himself so ungratefully used, as you have been, by those whom he most strives to serve: you will find 'tis He, that will never have any thing to do with the Public, but wisely keeps himself to himself, and minds only his own business; nor takes any other Business for his own, but how to enjoy himself.   

Ep. 147. To Stesichorus. V. Ep. 22, 73.  
VAlue not, Stesichorus, what Eubulus and Ariphantus have told me concerning you, nor let their pretending themselves to have been put upon that Bloody design by you and your Poems, give you the least disturbance. How narrowly I escaped their hands at Himera, you yourself know; but since I have escaped them, their naming your Verse as the Motive of so desperate an Undertaking, aught to be rather a matter of Rejoicing to you, than the Contrary. And 
a Idem & hîc repetend●● 〈…〉 superiorem Epistolum dictum est.  that both upon your own Account, and upon mine: upon your own; their very Accusation proving what a Command those Poems, with which the Sacred Muses inspire you, have over the very Hearts and Souls of Men: upon mine; my Deliverance (if that be a thing worth your Regard) proving me to be placed above the Power of my Enemies. If Stesichorus his Lyre can put men upon Destroying Tyrants, the Lyre, in his hands, is a more dreadful Instrument, than the Trumpet: but still the Fortune of Phalaris is too strong for the Lyre of Stesichorus. And now, the Horrid danger passed, I know both where to show myself a Tyrant, and where a Friend. Nor is Stesichorus a person to be involved in the same Fate with Ariphantus and Eubulus. To them I have been what they have deserved, to you I am and ever shall be what I always were. So far from altering my Sentiments concerning You yourself, because some who pretended themselves your Admirers, designed my Destruction, that had they Effected as well as Designed it, I should have been unwilling to have had the Blame laid at your door. Nor, had I fallen by their hands could it have been said that you were any whit concerned in it. You may perhaps, in some or other of your Heavenly and Majestic Poems have Magnified the Destroying of Tyrants as a Glorious Action. Nor do I myself contradict it. But to Destroy. Tyrant's is one thing, to Kill Phalaris another. This is not▪ as you well know) the first proof I have had 
* Ep. 138. : Neither hath 
* Ep. 138.  Dropidas, nor any other man in the world, (not deserving it) found me a Tyrant; no, not one. Nor would Jupiter himself (who well merits of Me the Title of Deliverer, and who best knows how to distinguish the Just from the Unjust) when only Eubulus, Ariphantus and Phalaris were left in his Temple, have so miraculously delivered the two Conspirators into the hands of the one Tyrant, had he Judged me worthy of that Fate which they designed me. 'Tis true, that Sink of Lust, Conon; that projector of my Destruction, Theagoras; that Antimedes and Pericles, and what others like them I have been able to get into my hands, I have put to death: but not Unjustly; their Actions against me having been such, which, had I been placed in a far lower Station than I am, I would rather have lost my life than not have Revenged. Let such as they are call me Murderer, Monster, Atheist, Tyrant, Enemy to God and Man, or what worse Names they can Invent, and Spare me not. To have their Praises, would, in the sight of all Wise and Good men, be my Reproach, and Mercy to them a Crime; and Such a Crime which I shall ne'er be guilty of. Some of them therefore have I caused to be shut up and roasted in the Belly of my Brazen Bull; others to be nailed to the Cross, and hoist up into the Empty Air, a miserable Spectacle of Slow death, and dismal warning to all Beholders not to Attempt any thing against Phalaris; others have had their eyes burnt out of their heads, others their hands, legs, and the other extreme parts of their Bodies lopped off; others all their Bones broken upon the Wheel; and others the skin of their heads drawn over their faces: and others have I put to several other kinds of death, the very same which they were contriving against myself; which who can call unjust? To all these I must confess I have been a Tyrant: and for their sakes alone was it that I were so Ambitious (nor do I deny it) of getting into my hands a power above Control, that I might be able to give such Miscreants their due Rewards. But to all Just and Good men, the same am I now a Monarch, that I were when a Private man: over them I am no Usurper. Think not therefore, Stesiehorus, when in any of your Poems the Muses inspire you with an Indignation against the Exorbitancies of a Lawless Power, that I am the person you aim at. Receive their Inspirations with a willing mind, and freely give them Vent; nor let any regard to me check the Current of your Noble Thought. No hand can slaughter Phalaris. (how much soever a Tyrant) before the Term his Fate hath allotted him. His Destiny is long since decreed, and when the fixed period is come, though there were not a Poet in the world to write Verses against Tyrants, Phalaris must die. And whether sooner or later, I submit to my Doom. In the mean time Eubulus and his fellow Conspirators, who thought Fate too tardy with the Tyrant, and were for taking her work out of her hands, have received the reward their daring Folly required: not that reward the Laws of Greece propose to those vainglorious Fools that shall venture their lives to murder a Tyrant, but that which such Fools may expect when they fall into the Hands of a Tyrant, who is above the Laws of Greece. For causing them to be let down breast high into the Cage where the Himeraeans keep their wild Beasts, in that posture, with the addition of several other Tortures, they continued one whole day and night together before they died. As for yourself, Stesichorus, long may you live and Happy. Fare you well. And may you never, I will not say meet with a Fate like theirs, (your own Worth will secure you from that) but may you never meet with Enemies that would force you to be as Cruel as Phalaris. As the Muses are your Glory, so forsake them not. And to give ●●e some relief under the multiplicity of Cares with which I am distracted, send me some or other of your Heavenly Compositions. 
b For, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems a more probable 〈…〉 the original is here manifestly imperfect, 〈◊〉 in this Author one Breach shatters the whole Connexion; the Composition being generally carried on in a continued train of Antitheta's: 〈◊〉 that I were at Liberty, without nicely confining 〈…〉 to his remaining words, to piece up out of 〈…〉 as agreeable a sense as I could, and not contradictory, I presume, to any History.    

Ep. 148. To the Ennaeans.  
Vid. Ep. 81, 137.  
I Think, That you enjoy your Liberty is owing to me; but the Enjoyment of your Liberty I shall not charge to you as a debt, nor call you Ungrateful upon that Account. But pay me, I beseech you, the Moneys which you borrowed of me. For I have at present extraordinary occasion for Money, and am fain to send all Sicily over a borrowing. And some have supplied me of Free Gift, as the 
* Ep. 118  Geloans and Leontines; others promised me a Loan, as the Hyalaeans and the Phintians. What therefore mean you, O ye Ennaeans, not to repay me my own Money, when others, no way obliged to me as you have been, freely supply me with Theirs? And if those who have promised to lend me Moneys should hear, that instead of calling upon my Debtors, I should press upon others, upon whom I can pretend no claim, would they not, think you, be tempted to fall back from their word, as having too great reason to suspect, that the man who can so easily Forget the Debts owing to himself, would not much better Remember the Debts he owes to others. All these things considered, I hope you will be ashamed any longer to delay me the payment of my Money. But if Reason and Argument be of no force with you, assure yourselves I shall speedily find out some more powerful means than bare words, which will force you to be Honest, if they may be said to be so, who are not so till they are forced to it.  
The End of Phalaris his Epistles.    

The Alphabetical order of the Epistles, taken out of the Oxford Edition, G. L.  

TO Abaris. Epist. 56  
His Answer. 57  
Adimantus. 45  
The Aegestaeans. 46  
Agemortus. 141  
Agesilaus. 132  
Aglaus. 12  
Alcander. 91  
Alcibous. 1  
Amphidamas. 64  
Amphinomus. 17  
Androcles. 22  
Antimachus. 27  
Antisthenes. 47  
Arimachus. 139  
Ariphetes. 16, 128  
Ariphrades. 56  
Aristenetus. 87  
Aristolochus. 60, 63  
Aristomenes. 28  
The Astypalaeans 119  
The Athenians. 122  
Autonoe. 95  
Axiochus. 120  
The Camarinaeans 118  
The Catanaeans. 30, 104  
Cebron. 99  
Cleaeneta. 143  
Cleaeneta and Theano. 80  
Cleobulus. 101  
Cleodicus. 102  
Cleomedon. 116  
Cleomenides. 36  
Cleostratus. 9  
Clisthenes. 110  
Critophemus. 32  
Ctesippus. 33  
Demaratus. 79  
Demoteles. 38  
The Engyines. 107  
The Ennaeans. 81, 137, 148.  
Epicharmus. 61, 98  
Epistratus. 49, 127  
Erythia. 18, 69  
Eteonicus. 51  
Evander. 73  
Euctemon. 100  
Euenus. 7  
Eumelus. 14  
Gorgias. 37  
Hegesippus. 77  
Herodicus. 13  
Hiero. 86  
Hieronymus. 212  
The Himeraeans 54, 88, 93, 108, 121,  
Hippolytio. 41  
Lacritus. 19, 125, 126  
Lamachus. 113  
Leontiades. 25  
Leontides. 75  
The Leontines. 5, 53  
Lycinus. 4  
Lysander. 138  
Lysicles. 123  
Lysinus. 97  
Megacles. 11  
The Megaraeans. 2, 52  
The Melitaeans. 21, 84  
Menecles. 48  
The Messanians. 21, 84  
Mnesicles. 90  
Nausicles. 59  
Neolaidas. 89  
Nicaenetus. 105  
Nicaeus. 115  
Nicharchus. 114  
Nicias. 44  
Nicippus. 111  
Nicophemus. 96  
Onetor. 50  
Orsilochus. 74  
Paurolas. 19, 20, 40, 67, 68  
Pelopidas. 65  
Peristhenes. 72  
Phaedimus. 130  
Philodemus. 131  
Pullux. 34, 106, 124  
Polycletus. 70, 71  
Polygnotus. 35  
Polymnestor. 133, 134  
Polystratus. 39, 340  
Polystratus and Daiscus. 58  
Politimon. 42  
Pythagoras. 23  
Sameas. 8  
Stesichorus. 78, 79, 92, 94, 109, 145, 146, 147.  
Stesichorus his Daughters. 31  
Stesichorus his Children. 103  
Teleclides. 66  
Teucrus. 15, 43, 135, 142  
Thorax. 24  
Thrasenor. 55  
Timander. 82, 136  
Timolaus. 129  
Timonax. 85  
Timosthenes. 62  
Tyrrhenus. 3  
Xenophithes. 29  
Zeuxippus. 6    

THE APPENDIX.  

To the Reader.  
HAving once resolved to Translate the Epistles of Phalaris into English, and made some entrance into the Work; it came into my Head to inquire whether it were not done into French. I found, methoughts the Phalaridan both Thought and Style very much to symbolise with that of the Lovure, especially in the more Majestic, and truly Tyrannic Strokes. The same Absoluteness of Power, the same Vncontrolledness of Dominion, the same Dispensings of either Good or Evil according to the Arbitrement of Sovereign Will, the same Triumphs over Opposition, the same Insulting over Enemies, the same Menacing of the Disobedient, so frequently Displayed in the Epistles of the Sicilian Tyrant, most exactly resembling those magnificent Addresses with which the Lofty Genius's of France strive to outdo each other, in Caressing their Grand Monarch: and the same Colours of Humanity not sparingly used to Palliate the utmost Severities: the same Elaborateness of Composition, the same Stateliness of Thought, the same Operoseness of Style in the one as in the other. So that could I have met with a French Phalaris, I were in great hopes to have found not only the Sense of my Author facilitated to me, but also his Oratory Improved to the most elevated Strain of Magniloquence. And then my English Reader might have seen a true Phalaris: which now for want of that Help appears in a plain and homely Dress, and disrobed of his chiefest Excellency; a Stiffness, and Stateliness, and Operoseness of Style; having nothing but the naked Thought (nor perhaps always that) Simply expressed, to recommend it. I searched all the Foreign Shops, but no French Phalaris could I find. But though I missed of my Principal Aim, yet I did not wholly lose my Labour. Rummaging among a parcel of old Books under a Counter, I met with a Collection of French Epistles. 'Twas imperfect, two of the first sheets being wanting: so that I am not able to give any Conjecture either of the Author or the Date. At the end of it I found some sheets in Manuscript, which indeed pleased me as well, or rather better than those in Print. Blessing myself with so opportune a Discovery, I resolved to turn some of them into English, and Attail them as an Appendix to my Phalaris. The Author of them is manifestly of a more Recent Date, than either the Sophist or the Tyrant. But methinks there is something of the same Spirit in Both. And that he is not very Modern, besides, that the writing doth not appear fresh, I conclude from hence: because there is, methinks, more of Thought and Design, and less of Word and Phrase in him, than in most of the Modern French Compositions I have met with. As for his Character and Quality, it may be guest at by his Writings: And as for the Choice of the Epistles, I followed my own Gust. There being somewhat in even the most Familiar of them, which to me was Affecting. Most of those I have given, are such as may with a little change be applied to very Common occasions: And many of them so adapted to the present posture of Affairs, that one would think the Author was somewhat Related to the Family of Nostradamus'. But there is nothing new under the Sun.   

To Monsieur Tomassin.  
I Congratulate your safe arrival to your Countryhouse, and should envy you the Happiness of your Retirement, but that I expect to see the world blest with the fruits of it. 'Tis really so, Sir; you may more Improve by keeping company with yourself, than by the best Clubs in the Town. Happy the man that's best when Alone! That's your Case; and now you are gone, Mine: For your Departure hath made the City as to me a Solitude. Bless me with your Commands; for then only shall I think myself well employed on't of my Closet when I am upon your service.  
P. S. Your old friend is in good health: Loud and Lusty; and as Busy as ever. He got up yesterday at four a Clock in the morning, and raised all the family, to hunt a Flea, and did it with as much noise as ever poor Puss was run down. I wish I could picture a Noise: 'twould cure you of your Melancholy.   

To Mr Tournavant.  
I Am not surprised to hear of your Successes, and how you are Caressed by the Ladies. 'Tis by the mere Sympathy of Nature, which renders it Impossible for the Fair Sex not to have a Singular value for a person so Qualified as yourself: so Adapted to their Capacities, so Commensurate to their Attainments, so Attempered to their Properties; that in You they Admire Themselves. I cannot but envy both your Fortune and your Nature. But alas! I for ever despair of the like. For as my Fortune hath denied me the Felicities which attend you: So had I them, the Cross-grained Make of my Nature would not suffer me to enjoy them. I know not how it comes to pass, but so it is, The Women and I scarce ever admire the same things. I should think myself a Fool, if they thought me otherwise: and so I do however: but not so Great an one now as I should do then▪ This is my Misfortune, and I were Born to it. But as for yourself, I cannot but Congratulate You, as a Man most Happy in your Satisfactions.   

To Mr le 
* This is no Jest in the Original.  Nodaine.  
THe Gracious 
* This is no Jest in the Original.  Nod you were pleased to bestow upon me t'other day as I crossed you in the Street, especially being in such company as you were, I interpret as so singular a favour, that I could not think myself out of your Debt till I had returned you my thanks for it.   

To Mr le Parlepant.  
I Received your note. I shall not be at home this Afternoon; not that I have any other Business than not to be at home.   

To Mr de la Fume.  
PRint it? ay, by all means. I know Whom it comes from, and I know what it is. But I han't time to Read it.   

To Mr Seurant.  
I Much admire the Success of your undertaking: but I much more admire that you should admire yourself for your Performance in it. But I see there's truth in the old Observation, That Books, as well as Men, have their Lucky Stars.   

To Mr Beaugoust.  
I Received your Letter, and am glad to hear of your Safety. I have looked over the Catalogue, and sent you a note of what Books I desire. But as for that Quarto, n. 17. which you so mightily extol, I have heard nothing of it from any body else. You need not buy it.   

To Mr Fourdain.  
THe Experience I have had of your Goodness emboldens me to Importune a fresh Favour at your hands. I would excuse the Trouble I give you, but that I am sure you no more expect Excuses for Requests, than you do Thanks for Performances: which hath often put me to some Difficulties, as knowing how much 'tis my Duty to make my Acknowledgements, and how Unwillingly you receive them. Interpret therefore for the future my Backwardness in this kind to be a Complying with your Modesty, and that the Reason why I do not so often thank you as you deserve, is because I know you. Permit me only to say thus much of you: That I am not more Deeply obliged to you than I am Willingly so; and that I do not more Depend upon you than I Love you. Since in you I find that Rare man, scarce to be met with elsewhere, that Dispenses a Favour with as Unassuming an Air as he would Receive one, and to whom a man may be a Debtor, without being a Slave. I desire you first to read the Enclosed, then seal it up, and take your time to deliver it. I Desire no more of you, because I know I need not. I depend upon you for my Friend: not so much because I have upon all occasions hitherto found you so, as because you never twice told me that you were so. I am, etc.   

To Mr Tauremont.  
REad the Enclosed. I confide in you Make me not a Misanthropos.   

To Mr le Braire.  
WHat you please. The less you give, the more I gain: the more you give, the less I gain. I'll meet you at the place and hour appointed; but ask no Questions; for I'll Answer none.   

To Mr le Failant.  
I Am very glad you missed of your Appointment t'other day; though I waited there at least six hours in expectation of you, and your failure laid me under some present difficulties. But I am now otherwise supplied. Had you been more punctual and venturous, I had been a considerable loser by you. For a certain Windfall hath now put into my hands a Lease, of which, had I received from you the assistance I then wanted, you must have had the Refusal. But now I am my own man, and shall make my penny worth of it.   

To Mr Minon.  
YOu have made me most monstrous proud of myself. You told me that your Friend to whom you committed the Correction of my Papers, was a most Judicius person. I have seen his Corrections, and find myself a better man than I thought I were. I were at considerable pains to make an Indifferent thing Passably good; what was passably well done, he comes after me, and makes stark naught. Well! I'll learn to Trust more to myself for the future. And that's a Lesson for which I am beholding to you.   

To Mr L' Honoree.  
NO, I can't. I want Time more than Business. As I am your Tenant, not your Servant; I will pay you my Rent in Money, not in Service: And the first I receive you shall receive. My service humbly presented to that excellent woman, your Consort.   

To Mr L' Intendant de Havre de Grace.  
IF it was the Disappointment of Your Expectation caused the Disappointment of Mine; I am satisfied: if a Change in your Inclinations; I am Ruined. For if I am lost to you, I am lost to all the world.   

To Mr le Gaulmien.  
FOrget you! No, not so long as I walk in open Air, So many Remembrancers do I meet of you wherever I go. I never behold that stately Animal, the Dunghil-Cock (his gay Attire, his Brisk Looks, his Lively Air; the Tough on his Head, the Strut of his Gate, and his Tail Erect) proffering his Courtly Service to his Fair Lady, and with the Prance of his Paw, the Jirk of his Wing, and the Toss of his Crown, making his Pass by her Side; and presently after Repeating the same Salutation to her Companion: I never see this Sight; but, Sir, I think of you.   

To Madame de Prouletout.  
I Thank you heartily for the friendly Service you offer me. The truth on't is, I begin to be weary of being my own Caterer. And besides, methinks I am (as to some things) somewhat too Ignorant for a man of my years. But who must speak first? for in troth I know not what to say. Take a plate of Fruit in your hand, open the door, come in, and speak for us both.   

To Mr Monfredien.  
GO on, let me beseech you, and be not ashamed of the Littleness of the thing. Then might we expect to see the Philosophy of Language, when men of Sense and Penetration would not be ashamed to write Grammars. Or if that be, (as it is) a work too Little for you, go on with t'other Business, which if you Finish, you will Die with the Satisfaction of not Having lived in vain.   

To Mr L' Hautisin.  
I Have read over the Composition which you design to Pronounce in the Oratory. I need not tell you I like it, for you know I like every thing that comes from your hands. But what's my Liking to the purpose? You are a man strangely perverse, and so wedded to your own ways! Why I tell you again, as I told you before; if you will not take in Longer words, and put more Breath into your Periods, (ay, and Dress better too) you may live and die a Beggar.   

To Mr Fieuregois.  
PUblish it! I had rather you should cut off your Right hand. I know 'tis Witty. But Exert the Powers of thy Soul. Mortify thy Vanity, and Spare thy Friend.   

To Mr Fourbien.  
Prithee, my Dear friend, off with thy Disguise, and show thyself what thou art. 'Tis a most Damnable pain for a Knave to walk in an Honest man's Shoes. And thou needest not be ashamed. Thou'lt have more Fellows, nay, and greater Friends too, this way than t' other. But if you won't put it off, I'll pull it off for you: That is, if you fall in my Walks.   

To Mr de la Bouche.  
THou Bull of the Common! Thou Bagpipe of Wisdom! Thou Tongue and Lungs! To have my Modesty thus Insulted by thy Impudence! I need not tell you what I mean, nor when and where 'twas done. Thinkest thou therefore that I also admire thy Imperious Bellow, and borrowed Eloquence? The Scrape of thy Paw, the Toss of thy Horn, and the Flirt of thy Tail? Interpret not, Vain man, my Scorn for Reverence, or Silence for Approbation. I'd no more Answer thee than I would a Parrot, and I Regard thee less. Nay, didst thou ever see me so much as Laugh at thee? No; thou art as much beneath a Laugh with me, as is a Merry Andrew. But this know, that I Know thee, and therefore whenever I meet thee in the street (and no where else by my Good will will I meet thee) Remember that while I Cap thee I Despise thee.   

To Mr de Beaugoust.  
BOth your Friend and your Letter were heartily welcome to me. I find him to be (that is as far as I can judge) what you say of him, a Learned person. But let me tell you, as there is no man in the world more admires Learning than myself, so there is none in the world less admires a Learned man. Take not this as a Reflection upon your Friend. I can as yet have but little knowledge of him. But I believe he is a man of Sense: for he shows not too much of himself at first, and seems to be one of those Men that one shall like better at the Year's end than at the Week's.   

To Monsieur de Charteville.  
I Have read your long and Elaborate Epistle, by which one would imagine we were all Lost, and the whole Province upon its last Legs. I am pretty confident you need not put yourself to such Frights. But when Scholars will set up for Merchant Adventurers, there's danger in every Wind. 'Tis the little Experience you have of the World makes you Bookish men so Mistrustful and Prescribing. Prove either of these two things to me, and I'll be your Convert: either that ever any one followed your Advice without Repenting of it, or that ever you offered a Conjecture which was not confuted by the Event. You may as well Travel to Persia by the Map, as direct the Management of Affairs by your Aphorism. Books. Rules were first made from Examples: and a great Genius Begins an Example and Begets a Rule. There's as much difference between Reading and Action, as there is between an Army in the Field and one on the Chimney-piece: And Painters are as fit to make Generals, as Clerks Politicians I know you are an Honest man, and Mean well. But your Intellect is as yet too Straightened to take in Light enough to be able to pass a true Judgement upon Affairs of this Nature. 'Tis that makes you so forward and unreserved in your Censures. The Powers of Circumstance, the Qualifications of Fact, the true and genuine Characterism of Virtue, the slender Line that Divides the Honest and Dishonest, are too Spiritual things to be discerned by Material Organs, or Pictured by the Pen. But you Closet Politicians never think a man safe unless he stand upon the Centre, not considering that Virtue and Honour have their Circumference: nor can a man ever become truly Great, and fit for the Business of the world, that knows not how to venture to the very Edge, and touch the Inside of the Line, yet without stepping over it. But these are things requiring a more Extended thought than you are yet Capable of. 'Tis a hard matter to convince a Speculatist that any body is Wiser than Himself, his Author, and his Club. Since therefore you are not in condition to admit of any other Teacher, Learn from yourself, and let the so often repeated Failure of your Predictions teach you to be for the Future more Suspending, and less Directorious. Mr. L'Intendant Knows both your interests and his own too well, either to receive your Directions, or to neglect his Duty; which is to Procure your welfare You are Safe, if you can but think yourselves so: or whether you think yourselves so or not; yet still you are Safe. but 'tis by His pursuing Methods contrary to your Prescriptions that we are so. I shall add no more at present, since all that I could tell you, you may (as I said before) learn from your own Mistakes: and if They will not Teach you, nothing will. But as for Presenting your Scheme, you must excuse me. Fare you well.   

To Mr Gardesieux.  
I Admit your Reproof, and confess I might better have been more Reserved. But I am not a man of Cunning. Yet let me tell you, I can keep a Secret; that is, if it be a Secret worth the keeping: and give me no other: For though I'll be faithful to you in your Cash, I'll not be made the Keeper of your old Iron. Were you as able to Distinguish between what doth really Reflect upon a man, and what not; as I am to distinguish between Secret and Secret; this Quarrel were at an end. You are a man of Business, and let me give you an Aphorism. None in the world so fit to be in a Plot as a Talkative man: he draws out the Secrets of others without being suspected himself. But for the future let me know no more of your Concerns than what you are willing all the world should know. Forgive me, and Fare you well.   

To Mr Doubtray.  
I Crave your pardon for that Freedom of Speech I used with you at our last meeting, with which you seemed to part somewhat Dissatisfied. I were perhaps a little too Eager. But really, Sir, we both talked in the Dark, and shot at Rovers. Only thus much I can say for myself, that for this eight or ten years past no man hath been more lucky in his Wagers. Had they been for Crown pieces instead of pints of Wine, I had been a Rich man. But I am resolved never more to trouble my head about Politics, since I find we have to do with a man who proveth his Wisdom by the Events.   

To Mr Charlebon.  
I Am mightily taken with the Copy of Verses you sent me. They are Neat and Proper, and one would think above the reach of a School Boy. I'll requite you in your own kind with a piece of Poetry out of our Free School. 'Tis a single distich upon the Sieur Guilluame, spoken by a little Boy at their Breaking up. And indeed Sir William is the best Housekeeper the Parish hath had for this hundred Years. 
O Gulielme, parem cui Saecula nulla tulerunt,  
Saecula cui nullum sunt habitura parem.  'Tis pretty Latin for a Child. Remember me to little Cob, the Hopefullest thing I ever beheld of his Inches. 
* I have ventured to turn these two Lines into English, though I confess they do not run off so smoothly in English as they do in Latin. 
William, whose like past Ages ne'er have known,  
Whose like will ne'er in Future times be shown.     

To S. Accommodati della villa Nova.  
I Pity your Case, and wish it were otherwise. I know your Neighbour is a Cross-grained Fellow, but he is Plausible, and will find Friends, and hath Neighbours as bad as himself, who will not fail to take his Part. Since therefore you can neither Remove nor Reform him; secure yourself and Compound with him. Invite him to Dinner, and make him your Friend. This is Good advice, and make a Rule on't.   

To Mr Fleurpoint.  
YOu may justly Resent my Rudeness to a person of your Quality, in refusing to admit the Honour you designed me of a visit. But it would have been a Greater Incivility to have accepted of a Civility from a person whom I am under a Necessity of Disobliging. For I must do Justice to your Adversary before either I can be Your Friend, or You Mine. That done, none should be more ready to Serve you than Myself▪   

To Mr Vervecoix.  
GO on and spare me not. I only pity thy Disquietudes. For the Outrageous violence you use upon my name in some Companies, and the timorous Reserve with which you treat it in others, are the manifest Symptoms of a Soul distracted between Fear and Revenge. But set your heart at ease. I could vindicate without Recriminating; or so Recriminate as to render a vindication unnecessary But I'll do neither. I envy not your Success. I should be perfectly ashamed to have it said that you and I have the same Friends. If your Accusations will not acquit me, I'll stand condemned. Forgive me not, for you cannot Injure me: or if you could Injure me, you could not forgive me. Fare you as well as a Cowardly Envious Soul can do.   

To Mr de la Prude.  
Beware of him! Yes, I am aware of him. He's a Cunning Creature! Yes he is a Cunning Creature, as Cunning, I mean, as a man of neither Sense nor Conscience can be: But he will as certainly be Betrayed by himself (for ●tis in him, and Nature will be 〈◊〉) as Fire by the Smoke. And 〈…〉 need no other Recommendation 〈◊〉 his Accusations.   

To Monsieur de Pied.  
PRay do me the kindness to lend me the Book you so mightily extolled t'other day at Mr de Piemonts. For I suppose you have Read it yourself.   

To Mr L' Amphay.  
I Have sent you my Book reeking hot from the Press; which had I never known You I had never written.   

To Mr Urbain.  
THou Feeble creature! Dost thou know what thou dost? wouldst thou have dared to look me in the Face, had it not been for the Courage which thou tookest up at the Shops? That ever Tailor and Sempstress should so Abuse a Man! Or have the Fumes of my Lord's Table perfectly poisoned thy Intellect? Hast thou quite forgot both what I am, and what Thou art? The very self same on both sides as before the Tailor made the Difference. I have read your Letter, but am otherwise Employed than to Answer it. In short, let me hear no more of you. I am what I have always been, and what that is you know.   

To Mr Monfredien.  
YOu can have no more of a Cat than her Skin. I give you my Papers, and that's all I have in the world to give. There is nothing but an Ill Conscience that I would more gladly be rid of than my Debts. But how can I help it? You know all I had was lost at Sea. I shall to my last Breath acknowledge the Generosity of those my Friends, who so frankly contributed toward the repairing of my Fortunes. But all they did fell short of the Damnum Solidum, which was the least part of my Suffering. That unlucky Adventure hath broken all my Measures, and at one Blow destroyed the Hopes and Designs of my whole Life. But I submit to the Disposals of him who sees all things from the Beginning to the End, all whose Methods are well Designed, and who by our Misfortune's Cures of our Vanities. I cannot think of Travelling again: not but that I might live in any part of the World as well as where I am. For all my Correspondencies are Lost: not only by that Natural Shyness which all wise Dealers have to a Broken man, but by my own Sheepishness, who (I know not why) cannot but be ashamed of my Misfortunes as my Faults. I am very much obliged to my Creditors for their Charitable Forbearances. But now I despair not, God granting me some few years life, (and for no other end do I desire life) of being able to Answer all their Demands And among the rest, yours: Which nothing but the Assurance I have of your Compassions renders tolerably Easy to me. All I can do now is to offer you my Papers. Use your Discretion.   

To Mr Fonteigne.  
I Do indeed deserve your Pity, and I thank you for it. That I had the Summum jus, if not a little beyond it, you need not be told, who know so well both how and by whom the whole Affair was managed. Yet I blame not my Judges: for 'twas a Crime; that is, a Trespass upon the Letter of the Law: But a Crime, Ill venture to say it, so Innocently committed, so free from any thing of Natural Turpitude, or evil Tendency, ventured upon with so Charitable an Intention, and terminating in so Good a Work; that under the same Circumstances I could scarce forbear repeating the same offence, though sure of the same punishment. You know the whole Case so very well, are so wellKnown yourself, and so much both my friend and a hater of Oppression, that I need not desire you should you at any time hear the matter misrepresented, to do me Justice.   

To Mr de L' Isle.  
'TIs true, they Charge me home. But I must crave your pardon for Replying to the whole Indictment. That would take up at least half a Choir of Paper. All that I shall answer to it is this. First, 'Twas in a life now pretty far run the first and last Transgression of the kind. Secondly, I must have done as I did or have done worse. Thirdly, 'Twas not Malum in se, and therefore Fourthly, 'Twas no fault: For Fifthly, 'Twas a Duty. But I have resolved not to say a syllable more of this matter; and therefore force me not to break a Resolution which 'tis for your Friend's Interest that I should keep. Only thus much let me tell you as a Secret, I am less in Humour what they call me, than I am in Principles.   

To Mr le Nodaine.  
I Value not what other men say or think of me. They know me not, and do me no wrong: Nor is there a man upon earth more content to be Despised than myself. But as for you, my School-fellow, and my Playfellow, my old Companion, and once Friend, I had almost said Admirer, at least that knew me; Not to know me! Or was it because (being just come off a Journey) I had my old Hat on, and worst clothes, and the Walks were full? Well! But suppose I could so Degenerate (and yet what should make you think so but a Downcast look and Unregarded Beard?) as to have the same Opinion of myself as the rest of the world (Judging by the same measures by which you Act) have of me: Yet I could never forgive your Consenting either to them or to me. Mistake me not. I am not proud of your Opinion concerning me, by which I Judge not Myself but You. For to You I ought to be the same you think me to be; which is much better than what I am. But as for yourself, what you are I know, and what you were I remember. That is much the same now (as to the main part) as when my Schoolfellow. And so Fare you well. 
There were in the same Papers several other Epistles, but some of them too long, some of them too particular, some of them too Serious to be acceptable to the public, and therefore I passed them by. Just at the end of the Epistles I found standing in a Line by itself These words.   
Hold your Peace you Fool, no body knows on't but You and I. 
In the same MS. I found standing in a page by themselves these Latin Verses, which methoughts were pretty things in their kind. They were overwritten thus.   
My Nephew's Verses upon this Theme.  
Non bene conveniunt nec in unâ sede Morantur Majestas & Amor.  
Jupiter ut tacitas inhonesto pectore flammas  
Sentiit, & vires, parve Cupid, tuas:  
Aegide deposita Sumpsit sibi cornua Tauri,  
Nec nisi Mugitus Bosque Deusque Tonat.  
Quantum Numen, Amor, tibi, quanta Potentia soli,  
Qui tua ferre Jovem cogis a eratra Boem.  
After two or three blank pages I found this Epistle overwritten thus.   

Mr F— to Monseigneur de l' Isle de Parnasse.  
THe Knowledge I have of your Lordship's Character hath Emboldened my Pen to the following Address. 'Tis well known what an Admirer your Lordship is of the Productions of the Brain, as being a great Dealer in the like Commodity yourself. Indeed, my Lord, we might reckon you as one of us, were it not for your Wealthy Condition. 'Tis not impossible but that your Lordship's self may upon some occasion or other have experimentally found at how low an ebb Invention runs when Nature is exhausted with the Cares of Life (for Grandeur also hath its Cares) the Imagination drooping by too long an Abstinence from those Spirituous Liquids which should Support it, and the Courage of Thought broken by want of that Cordial in the Fob, upon which it so much depends. The Trade of Wit (how Airy soever it may seem) can no more than any other Merchandise whatsoever, be carried on without something of a Stock, either in Cash or Credit, of both which our Society is equally Unprovided. To say nothing of Books, of Habits, of Conversation, of Domestic Accommodations, of Intervallating Refreshments, of the Indulgence of some Vanities which are proper to our Character, and to which we are Prompted by the Peculiarity of Inclination; all which laid together require a Competent Supply: But abating all this; the Care for to Morrow, my Lord, the Care for to Morrow; that's a pressing occasion, and strangely Abates that Heat, without which there's nothing to be done in our way. Nature startles at the thought: but I am horribly afraid on't: yes, my Lord, I am afraid 'twill come to that at last; That I shall be changed from a Poet into a Philosopher. Deus averiat! 
In the last leaf of the Book I found this Epistle standing by itself, Inscribed only thus, Receivid from Mr P—    

Received from Mr P—  
YOu know we Poets have a Spice of Vanity. 'Tis Intrinsic to our Natures, and that which makes us Poets. And therefore I hope a Common Infirmity will be pardoned in a Friend. Presuming upon that, I have sent you my last Composition. It Takes I assure you; whether it Deserves, I am not so fit to Judge. Yet I think the Epithets are Chosen, the Cadence Smooth, the Rhimes Full, and the Close of the Thought Easie and Natural. And that is indeed the peculiar Delicacy of our Country Wit, to be Soft and Easie. For which all Foreigners that have a true Gust do so justly admire the French Nation. I think my Genius Corresponds to the Place of my Birth, and Breathes pure Parisian. I cannot deliver a Copy of verses out of my hands (and I could write a Ream a week) but Presently all the Dressing-Rooms about the Court Echo of 'em. Not that I value myself upon the Applauses of the Ladies: though I must needs say they are better Judges of Poetry than we commonly imagine them to be. But I shall be more proud of myself, if I find Their Judgement confirmed by Yours: in expectation of which I remain— 
On the inside Blank of the Parchment Covering, I found the following verses in French, which presuming to be those referred to in the Epistle, I have, as well as I could, turned into English. Without doubt something of the Beauty, Fineness, and Harmony of the Original must be lost in the Translation, but nothing (I hope) of the Spirit and Vigour of them   
As ●amon sat by Chloris side,  
And loved and hugged the longing Bride;  
Lysander, envying heir Fate,  
At a convenient distance sat.  
He sobbed and sighed, his swelling eyes  
Streamed scalding Tears, and thus he cries  
Oh, Happy He, and Happy She!  
And Twice and Thrice Unhappy me!  
Just under the Verses at the bottom corner of the page, I found written in Latin these two words: Risum teneatis!