REMARKS ON HIS LIFE.

of Macedon; and in the relation of those countries to neighbouring powers in the foreign negotiations of their respective princes, as well as in the principal transactions of their illustrious reigns, there is a resemblance equally interesting and extraordinary. In several characteristic excellencies they may, perhaps, have been equalled or surpassed; but not in the impenetrable depths of their policy: for, though constitutionally ardent and impetuous, these princes gradually tamed their natures: in youth open and ingenious, they learned closeness and circumspection from age.

The subversion of the liberties of Greece throws a dark shade on the fame of the Macedonian. But Frederick boasts, with becoming dignity, that he had never deceived any man during the whole course of his life. He seldom commenced the hostilities of fraud, or was the first to lay the snares of deceit, although he appears on all occasions as willing as able to encounter art with similar address. Yet, on the whole, it appears that, compared with the king of Macedon, Frederick is to be regarded as a prince of strict faith and exemplary probity. The courage and magnanimity of Philip, emphatically celebrated even by his enemy Demosthenes, finds a counterpart in the magnanimity and courage of Frederick.

Opposing during seven campaigns the confederacy of France, Sweden, Germany, and Russia; commanding one army in person, while he directed the operations of two others, and of detachments innumerable;

embracing in his capacious mind the wide extent of country from the Rhine to the Niemen; amidst the actual fatigues of war, oppressed by the cares of preparation; his horses often shot under him; his body bruised by wounds and tortured by disease, yet writing to his confidential friends, 'I find myself equal to all this, and dedicate my moments of leisure to the delights of philosophy; which, during his severest trials, consoled the Roman consul, the father of his country, and the best model of eloquence. I shall not, I hope, ever prove deficient in my duty, but remember that fortune is not in my power. Yet my enemies shall never triumph over me; there will be always one way left to escape their persecution.'

Notwithstanding the striking coincidence in the lives of those illustrious princes, their deaths form a remarkable contrast. At the age of forty-seven, Philip perished by the hands of an assassin, while preparing to carry his arms into Asia. But his design did not perish with him, since the generals whom he had formed by his precepts and his example, subdued the monarchy of Cyrus, and divided the kingdoms of the ancient world, which were long governed by their posterity. Frederick reigned precisely as many years as Philip lived; and died at the age of seventy-five, surrounded by a new generation of friends, who attended with affectionate concern his last moments, reading, till his dull car could hear them no longer, favorite passages of Cicero and Plutarch, which he had marked with his own hand. The last exertion of

REMARKS ON HIS LIFE.

his valour and policy was employed in defending the liberties of Germany, and preventing the independent and warlike states of that flourishing country from becoming tame and truckling provinces of one overgrown monarchy. For seven years before his death, his sword was sheathed; and the mildness of his setting sun, which had blazed so fiercely at its meridian, diffused beneficence and mercy, cherished public prosperity, and sustained in his warlike subjects that generous spirit of national emulation which his genius first inspired.