ars against
the Greeks and Scythians, threw away at least four millions of its
subjects; to say nothing of its other wars, and the losses sustained in
them. These were their losses abroad; but the war was brought home to
them, first by Agesilaus, and afterwards by Alexander. I have not, in
this retreat, the books necessary to make very exact calculations; nor
is it necessary to give more than hints to one of your lordship's
erudition. You will recollect his uninterrupted series of success. You
will run over his battles. You will call to mind the carnage which was
made. You will give a glance at the whole, and you will agree with me,
that to form this hero no less than twelve hundred thousand lives must
have been sacrificed; but no sooner had he fallen himself a sacrifice to
his vices, than a thousand breaches were made for ruin to enter, and
give the last hand to this scene of misery and destruction. His kingdom
was rent and divided; which served to employ the more distinct parts to
tear each other to pieces, and bury the whole in blood and slaughter.
The kings of Syria and of Egypt, the kings of Pergamus and Macedon,
without intermission worried each other for above two hundred years;
until at last a strong power, arising in the west, rushed in upon them
and silenced their tumults, by involving all the contending parties in
the same destruction. It is little to say, that the contentions between
the successors of Alexander depopulated that part of the world of at
least two millions.

The struggle between the Macedonians and Greeks, and, before that, the
disputes of the Greek commonwealths among themselves, for an
unprofitable superiority, form one of the bloodiest scenes in history.
One is astonished how such a small spot could furnish men sufficient to
sacrifice to the pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand
more acres, or two or three more villages; yet to see the acrimony and
bitterness with which this was disputed between the Athenians and
Lacedemonians; what armies cut off; what fleets sunk and burnt; what a
number of cities sacked, and their inhabitants slaughtered and captived;
one would be induced to believe the decision of the fate of mankind, at
least, depended upon it! But those disputes ended as all such ever have
done, and ever will do; in a real weakness of all parties; a momentary
shadow, and dream of power in some one; and the subjection of all to the
yoke of a stranger, who knows how to prof