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with us ; fewer still of those, who, like myself, passed the vigour of 

 youth in the service of Philip, your illustrious father! Broken down 

 with incessant fatigue, or utterly disabled by wounds, how many 

 reluctantly repose their weary limbs far from their native country, 

 their relatives and friends, in the numerous cities thou hast erected 

 to secure thy conquests ; how many have been cut off by disease and 

 pestilence in these eastern climes ; how many perished amidst the 

 snows of Paropamisus ; how many feed the famished vulture on the 

 plains of Bactria, glut the tigers of Hyrcanian deserts, or, ingulphed 

 in the great rivers of Asia, have become the prey of the voracious 

 alligator! Behold, Alexander, in the course of this long and ar- 

 duous campaign, every head grown bald and every face furrowed 

 with wrinkles and scars ! Are these miserable remains of what were 

 Macedonians, of what were the pride and flower of Greece, are 

 these fit persons to explore new worlds beyond the Ganges, or roll 

 the thunder of battle round the distant shores of the Eastern Ocean ? 

 When the Thessalian auxiliaries were wearied with the length of the 

 campaign, they were permitted to return from Bactria, laden with 

 spoils and costly presents, into their own country ; but we, thy more 

 faithful Macedonians, are only reserved for severer toils and renewed 

 slaughter. The desire in their minds to revisit their native country 

 is ardent, is insuperable; indulge, Alexander, their just claims, and 

 once more lead these grateful and enraptured subjects back to 

 Greece, which loudly demands thy presence, to allay the intestine 

 divisions that distract it. There shall these aged veterans find repose 

 from their toils, and peaceably enjoy the rewards of many a 

 hard-fought day, while a new race, risen since our departure, in the 

 vigour of their youth, and with all the zeal of their fathers, shall 

 eagerly crowd around thy standard, and burn to follow thee to the 

 remotest regions of the earth, against the Indians beyond the Ganges ; 

 the Scythians, who tenant the borders of the Euxine; the undaunted 

 Vol. m. 2 P 



