THROUGH SWEDEN. 83 
and extraordinary good fortune when the courage and talents of 
warlike princes find an objedl w 7 orthy of their fire and genius. 
Such, happily, was the deftiny of Guftavus Vafa and Guftavus 
Adolphus, both jufbly denominated Great: fuch was that of the 
Princes of Orange, whofe noble career was concluded by Wil¬ 
liam III. king of England. But perhaps had a caufe truly glorious 
been wanting to thofe princes, their natural love of pre-eminence 
and fame might have taken a lefs favourable direction. The wars 
of Charles XII. w r ere originally juft and honourable, but he car¬ 
ried them beyond the point where they ought to have ended ; and 
from a frantic paflion for military exploits, he ufed them for the 
purpofe of gratifying his own inclination, and not as the means of 
repelling aggreflion, and fecuring his country againft the injuftice 
of its neighbours. How much more truly glorious w T ould it have 
been if he had flopped in his career of vi&ory, and given repofe 
to his bleeding and exhaufted people ! The war in which Guf¬ 
tavus III. engaged with the Ruffians, and in which he certainly 
difplayed a magnanimity and perfonal intrepidity in no degree 
inferior to thofe of his braveft anceftors, was provoked by the 
intrigues and the overbearing pretenfions of the northern auto- 
crafy. But the experiment whether Guftavus, had it been in his 
power, would not have preferred the gratification of his own am¬ 
bition to the folid interefts of his country, was never fairly tried. 
A peace between the Ruffians and the Turks was unavoidably 
followed by an accommodation between the Ruffians and the 
Swedes, by which the latter certainly obtained the greateft fliare 
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