xvm INVASION MADE EASY 215 



borne in safety to the wars ! To what lengths have 

 our crimes hurried us criminals ? It is not enough 9 

 to vent one s madness within one s own sphere. 

 Your stupid King of Persia must cross into Greece, 

 filling it with an army with which he has failed to 

 conquer it. Your Alexander, leaving behind Bactra 

 and India, must needs seek to learn what lies 

 beyond the great sea, and will chafe that there is 

 any point beyond which he cannot go. Crassus in 

 like manner will fall a prey to the Parthians through 

 his lust of gold. He will not dread the imprecations 

 of the tribune who calls him back, nor the storms 

 of the tedious sea, nor the lightning by Euphrates 

 that foretold destruction, nor the resistance of heaven 

 itself. Through the wrath of man and God alike 10 

 gold shall be sought. 



Not without good cause, therefore, it may be 

 said that nature would have done better by us 

 had she forbidden the winds to blow at all, had 

 she checked their roaming abroad in their fury, 

 and ordered each one to abide in his own land. 

 If this had served no other end, at any rate the 

 mischief of each human life would have been 

 restricted to itself and its own nation. As it is, 

 the ills of home are too little for us ; we must toil to 

 share those abroad as well. No land is so far re 

 moved from neighbours that it cannot send forth in 

 some direction its evil propensities. How do I know n 

 but that some ruler of a great nation meantime con 

 cealed from view, swollen by fortune s kindness, 

 may choose not to confine his arms within the 

 boundaries of his own realm, but with secret design 

 may even now be fitting out his fleet against us ? 

 How can I tell whether this wind or that shall 

 convey war to me ? It would go far to ensure 



