Chap. II. of the E a s 
< Riches in his Sight, God requires of us, that we fhould 
6 worfhip him with Purity, and not with Blood ; and will 
c ac cept only the Prayers and Humiliation of Men, He is 
4 that Word by which he has created the vifible World, 
4 by which he preferves, governs, and caufes it to fubfift. 
4 He is a pure Spirit, and requires therefore no other OfFer- 
4 ings from us than our good Works, our Virtues, and our 
* Praifes. 
‘ As I have thus given you a Sketch of our Religion, 
* compare it, I befeech you, with your own ; or, at leaft, 
4 permit me to make a Companion. I can, by no means, 
« fuffer that aftonifhing Blindnefs, which allows you to pre- 
* tend to draw your Original from Heaven, and to make 
‘ fo free, as you do, with the Supreme Being. You have 
« no Idea of Grandeur, but as it confifts in an illuftrious 
4 Blood ; you defile thereby the Nobility of your firft Birth, 
« by referirng all Things to the Flefh, in which you place 
6 all your Delight: You make it the foie ObjeSt of your 
4 Attention ; you nourifh it with Delicacies ; you love no- 
* thing elfe ; and, which is a much greater Crime, you 
£ think it worthy of being prefented in Sacrifice to the 
4 Supreme Being. You know not the one God, who is ; 
4 and you adore a Multitude of Gods, that are not •, you 
4 place many of thefe in Pleaven, and yet affign them 
4 the Direction of feveral Parts of your Body : Minerva 
4 refides in the Brain, as in the Seat of Wifdom ; Juno 
4 governs the impetuous Motions of the Heart ; Mercury , 
4 your God of Eloquence, dwells on the Lips ; Hercules 
4 gives Force to your Limbs ; Cupid infpires you with Sen- 
4 timents of Tendernefs ; Bacchus gives you Tafte : Your 
4 Aliments are under the Care of Ceres ; Venus procures 
4 Fruitfulnefs ; Jupiter opens the Organs of Refpiration ; 
4 and Apollo, fo famous for his Addrefs, conduces your 
4 Fingers in playing on mufical Inftruments. 
4 What Divinities are here! how narrow are the Bounds 
4 of their Power, infomuch that they either will not, or 
4 cannot, change their reciprocal Fundtions ! Their Op- 
4 pofition is manifeft, even from the very Worfhip you 
4 pay them. You muft offer a Bull to Jupiter ; a Peacock 
4 to Juno ; a wild Boar to Mars ; a Goat to Bacchus ; a 
4 Swan to Apollo ; a Dove to Venus ; an Owl to Minerva ; 
4 Cakes to Ceres ; and Floney to Mercury : Hercules will 
4 have Branches of Poplar to adorn his Statues and Altars ; 
4 Cupid will have none but Rofes. You dare not change 
4 fo much as the Order of thefe Ornaments, without run- 
4 ning the Hazard of being difgraced with them. Now, 
4 do but confider the Contradiction of thefe Characters ; 
4 and how they all feem to have entered into a League, to 
4 torment you. One calls you to War-, another to Plea- 
4 fure : This to the Toils of Commerce ; and that to the 
4 Delights of good Cheat. All of them command you to 
4 do what they like : They invite, they prefs, they folicit 
4 you,; and they never allow you any Peace, till you have 
4 obeyed them. Are fuch Gods as thefe capable of pro- 
4 moting human Felicity ? Speak but the Truth, and you 
4 will own, that they are your own Paffions canonized. 
4 You may difcover yourfelves alfo, in the Divinities 
4 with which you have filled your Hell: It is eafy there to 
4 find your own Crimes under honourable Symbols. The 
6 Eumenides are your fallacious Thoughts ; T’ifiphone is the 
4 Reproaah of a Confcience loaded with Crimes ; T 'antalus 
4 your infatiable Covetoufnefs. Cerberus expreffes the Pu- 
4 nifhment due to Ill-fpeaking *, Hydra is your Vices re- 
4 viving, as often as they are cut off. Pluto himfelf, 
4 thrown down from Heaven, teaches that you are dege- 
4 nerated, like him, in forgetting that foie Being to whom 
4 you owe your Original. O unfortunate Nations ! whole 
6 Religion is your Crime, while living • and your Punifh- 
4 merit after Death . 5 
Alexander 'gave no Anfwer to this Letter ; neither did 
he apply himfelf any more to the Brachman, but accufed 
Mm of Pride and Impiety ; and defpifed that Wifdom, 
which he would not take the Pains to underhand. But it 
is now Time to return to that Conqueror’s Expedition, and 
to attend him -back to Perfta, as we followed him to the 
Indies . 
a Diodor. lih. xvii. Arrian. Quint. Curt. b That is. at 
* Diodor. Steal. Quint. Curt . Plutarch, in Alexandra , d And 
t Indies. , 39^ 
15. His Admiral Nearchus having informed him, that 
the Seafon was very favourable, and that there was no 
Danger in failing to the Euphrates , he ordered Hsphafticn 5 
with a great Part of the Army, to embark 5 and with the 
Remainder marched on to Pafargada , where he heard the 
Complaints that were made to him of the ill ConditA of his 
Governors in his Abfence, and piiniftied them very fe~ 
verely; and, having made Peucefces Governor of Perjia , lie 
advanced to the Pafitigris , where a new Bridge had been 
thrown over the River, for the PaiXage of the Land- 
forces, and where, at the fame time, Nearchus arrived 
with the Fleet, and that Part of the Army which had been 
embarked on board it, after they had been fix Months at 
Sea : And on this Account Alexander infiituted new Games., 
and facrificed according to the Cuftom of the Greeks a . 
When he arrived at Suja , he married Statira the Daugh- 
ter of Darius ; beftowed molt of the Perfian Ladies on his 
Macedonian Captains ; and made a magnificent Entertain- 
ment on account of their Marriages, at which there were 
9000 Guefts, to every one of which he gave a golden 
Cup : And that they might have nothing to embitter their 
Mirth, he paid all their Debts ; and, fufpedting that out 
of Shame they might not give a fair Account, he directed 
the Sum total to be brought him, without inquiring into 
each Man’s Account. Plutarch fays, that this amounted 
to 9870 Talents; and other Authors agree with him in that 
Account: But Arrian , the molt exadt Writer of his Me- 
moirs, affirms that their Debts came to 20,000 Talents b . 
Here he likewife punifhed, with great Severity, fuch as 
had been guilty of Oppreffion and Corruption during his 
Abfence ; and rewarded others, who had behaved well. To 
Peucejles , Leonnatus , Nearchus , Oneficritus , Hephrejiion , 
and others, he gave golden Crowns. At the fame time 
he muftered the 30,000 young Perjians , who had been 
trained in the Macedonian Exercife, and expreffed great 
Satisfaction as to their Behaviour. He likewife ordered all 
the Invalids in his Army to prepare for their Return into 
Greece , promifing to provide for them generoufly at their 
Departure ; in which he certainly meant them well : But 
the Macedonians , who were now grown peevifh and dif- 
affected, put a bad Contraction upon it ; and, running into 
a Mutiny, cried out, that now he had worn them out in 
his Service, he was weary of the Sight of them, and did 
not care to look upon the Halt and Maimed, who had loft 
their Health and their Limbs in his Battles. They there- 
fore defired he would difeharge them all, and make ufe of 
his dancing Boys to conquer the reft of the World ; or, if 
he found them infufficient, he might have recourfe to his 
Father Ammon c . 
Alexander was greatly provoked, ordered thirteen of the 
Ringleaders to be immediately drowned in the River, and 
for three Days admitted none of them to his Prefence ; 
which threw them into Defpair, and brought them to make 
the deepeft Submiffions : Upon which, after a gentle Re- 
proof, he was reconciled to them, and gave the Charge of 
the Invalids to Craterus , ordering every Man to have his 
Arrears paid him, with Money lufficient to bear the Ex- 
pence of his Journey, and a Talent befides. He likewife 
beftowed on Craterus the Government of Macedon , and or- 
dered that Antipatcr fhould come over, with frefh Recruits, 
from Greece ; fending him Inftrudrions likewife, to pay the 
utmoft Honour to his Invalids ; and to take care, that at 
all public Shews, and in the Theatres, they fhould have 
the firft Seats, and be allowed Chaplets of Flowers. He 
likewife dire Sized, that the Children of fuch as had loft their 
Lives in his Service, fhould have their Fathers Pay con- 
tinued to them d . 
When he came to Ecbatana in Media , he celebrated new 
Games, having juft received a Supply of 3000 Performers from 
Greece. But, in the midft of thefe Rejoicings, his Favou- 
rite Hephejlion died : Upon which he put the whole Em- 
pire into Mourning ; ordered the Yacred Fire of the Per- 
sians to be extinguiflied ; and, being informed that the 
CojJH, who lived in the Mountains, and had never been, 
fubdued by the Perfians , refufed Submiffion to him, he 
refolved to divert his- Grief, by an Expedition into that 
the lowed, 5,974,000/. of our Money, or 4,000*000/. at the higheft. 
«», lib. vil. Plutarch, in Alexandra Quint. Curt , 
Country j 
