tories and a title to universal dominion.
The four following observations will serve to appreciate his claim to
the public gratitude; and perhaps we shall conclude that the Mongol
Emperor was rather the scourge than the benefactor of mankind. If some
partial disorders, some local oppressions, were healed by the sword of
Timur, the remedy was far more pernicious than the disease. By their
rapine, cruelty, and discord the petty tyrants of Persia might afflict
their subjects; but whole nations were crushed under the footsteps of
the reformer. The ground which had been occupied by flourishing cities
was often marked by his abominable trophies--by columns, or pyramids of
human heads. Astrakhan, Karizme, Delhi, Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo,
Damascus, Bursa, Smyrna, and a thousand others were sacked or burned or
utterly destroyed in his presence and by his troops; and perhaps his
conscience would have been startled if a priest or philosopher had dared
to number the millions of victims whom he had sacrificed to the
establishment of peace and order. His most destructive wars were rather
inroads than conquests. He invaded Turkestan, Kiptchak, Russia,
Hindustan, Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and Georgia, without a hope or a
desire of preserving those distant provinces. From thence he departed
laden with spoil; but he left behind him neither troops to awe the
contumacious nor magistrates to protect the obedient natives. When he
had broken the fabric of their ancient government, he abandoned them in
their evils which his invasion had aggravated or caused; nor were these
evils compensated by any present or possible benefits. The kingdoms of
Transoxiana and Persia were the proper field which he labored to
cultivate and adorn as the perpetual inheritance of his family. But his
peaceful labors were often interrupted, and sometimes blasted, by the
absence of the conqueror. While he triumphed on the Volga or the Ganges,
his servants, and even his sons, forgot their master and their duty. The
public and private injuries were poorly redressed by the tardy rigor or
inquiry and punishment; and we must be content to praise the
_Institutions_ of Timur as the specious idea of a perfect monarchy.
Whatsoever might be the blessings of his administration, they evaporated
with his life. To reign, rather than to govern, was the ambition of his
children and grandchildren--the enemies of each other and of the people.
A fragment of the empire was upheld with some g