582 XERXES'S BRIDGE OF BOATS. 



him in a manner suitable to his greatness, ho had a free, prospect to 

 the coast, seeing at one view both his fleet am 1 land forces. The 

 sea was covered with his. ships, and the Jar^e plain* of Abydtu with 

 his troops, quite down to the shore. While ho wa> surveying (ho 

 vast extent of his power, and deemirg himself tiie most h-ppy 

 of mortals, his joy being all on u sudden turned into :rri"f, he 

 bmst out into a Hood of tears ; wliich Artabanus perceiving, a U. <1 

 him, what had made hirr, in a lew moments, pats fiom an xre:s of 

 joy to so great a grief. The king replied, that, considering the 

 slioitness of human life, he could not refrain his (>ui ; for, of all 

 tins* numbers of men, not one, said he, will he olive an hundred 

 years hence. Artabanus, \\lu> neglocted no opportunity of in. 

 stilling into the young prince's mind sentiments of ki.idntsh toward* 

 his people, finding him touched with a smse of tenderness and hu- 

 manity, endeavoured to make him sensible of the obligation that is 

 incumbent upon princes, to alleviate the sorrows, and sweeten the 

 bitterness, which the lives of their subjects are liable to, since it is 

 not in their power to prolong them. In the same conversation, 

 Xei \, s asked his uncle, whether, if he had n ;t s> t n the vision which 

 made him change his mind, he would still persist in the same opi- 

 nion, and dissuade him from making war upon Greece. Artabanus 

 sincerely owned, that he still had his fears, and was very uneasy 

 concerning iwo things, the sea and the land ; the sea, because there 

 were no port capable of receiving and sheltering such a fleet, if a 

 storm .TOonld arise ; the land, because no country could maintain so 

 numerous an army. The king \vas very sensible of the strength of 

 his reasoning ; but as it was now too late to go back, he made an. 

 swer, that, in great enterprizes, m'en ought not to enter into so nice 

 a discussion of all the inconyeniencies that may attend them : that 

 bold and daring undertakings, though subject to many evils and 

 dangers, are preferable to inaction, however safe : that great suc- 

 cesses are no otherwise to be obtained than by venturing boldly ; 

 and that, if his predecessors had observed such scrupulous and 

 timorous rules of politics, the Persian empire would never have 

 attained to so high a degree of glory and grandeur. 



All things being now in readiness, an 1 a day appointed for the 

 passing over of the army, as soon as the first rays of the sun began 

 to r; pear, all sorts of perfumes were burnt upon the bridge, and 

 the way sir wd \vi.h myrtle. Atthesame time, Xerxes, pouring 

 a libatmi, , a out of a golden cup, and addressing the sun, 



implored the assistance of that deity, begging that he might meet 



