uld not be sufficient,
after making the fullest allowance for what might be hung by ballance on
either side of the animal. If again the towers were high, they would
fall; for he did not think it at all probable that the Romans had the
art of tying on such monstrous machines at a time when they had not
learnt the use even of girths to their saddles. He said he did not give
too much credit to the figures on Trajan's pillar, many of which were
undoubtedly false. He said it was his opinion, that those towers were
only drawn by the elephants; an opinion founded in probability, and free
from the difficulties of that which has been commonly received.

[Footnote 137: "The enervated soldiers abandoned their own, and the
public defence; and their pusillanimous indolence may be considered as
the immediate cause of the downfall of the empire." Gibbon's "Decline
and Fall," chapter 27.--ED.]

Talking of various schemes of life, fit for a man of spirit and
education; I mentioned to him that of being a foreign minister. He said
he thought it a very agreeable employment for a man of parts and
address, during some years of his life. "In that situation," said he, "a
man will insensibly attain to a greater knowledge of men and manners,
and a more perfect acquaintance with the politicks of Europe. He will be
promoted according to the returns which he makes to his court. They must
be accurate, distinct, without fire or ornament. He may subjoin his own
opinion, but he must do it with great modesty. The ministry at home are
proud."

He said the greatest happiness was not in glory, but in goodness; and
that Penn in his American colony, where he had established a people in
quiet and contentment, was happier than Alexander the Great after
destroying multitudes at the conquest of Thebes. He observed that the
history of Alexander is obscure and dubious; for his captains who
divided his kingdom, were too busy to record his life and actions, and
would at any rate wish to render him odious to posterity.

Never was I so thoroughly sensible of my own defects as while I was in
Corsica. I felt how small were my abilities, and how little I knew.
Ambitious to be the companion of Paoli, and to understand a country and
a people which roused me so much, I wished to be a Sir James
MacDonald.[138]

[Footnote 138: Sir James MacDonald, baronet of the Isle of Sky, who at
the age of one and twenty, had the learning and abilities of a
Professour and a statesman