Alexandria daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1803-1808, 1808-03-07


were sober, Industrious people-the Modes
devoted to riches, pride and yolnptuousness.
The example OF Cyrus pssvented his subjects
Aor time from being contaminated by tbs
vices OF the subdued, a though Babylon is now
added with her poisons 70 assist in the corrup-
ton. Cyrus dies; we then see the hardy fru-
sal Perslans debased By the Injuries OF the
states whose ehsnliIacy made them an easy
conquest. Two hundred years after the erec-
ton of this great empire, Slapped by the We
nom Of gold it becomes in turn the conquest
of band of veterans. lilte the blacklist e
pooh of history commences, and Tor two CEN
turies the world is immersed in depravity,
which the riches of Persia and It's great OK
tent of divisibe territory was the source Of
Here riches, land where commerce is, rich-
es must bel with their concomitants, yiaated,
and produced the downfall of an empire.
When Greece So heGnically expelled the
Persian arms, rel .o:ig "a ferstates was COM
mercial; the vessels of Athens had but timid-
" advanced TO sea, and the other maritime
cities were but secondaryto her.
The laws Of Sparta iorbad her being naval
power, and when she took the command of
nayies her degencracy ensued. l.icuraus, the
great legislator of Sparta, had scrutinized the
genius of com mercial governments, studied
human nature deeply, and with astonishing
force of mind, gave laws to a then corrupt
state,which are unparalleled for their wisdom
and. effects. While unim paired the Spartans
we're yirtuous and happy they, untutsned in
the arts and sciences, felt no want OF them !;
feared and respected by those who possessed
such accomplishments in perfection, they
were tie arbiters and protectors OF Greece,
while the great king Of Persia trembled at the
naine of Sparta. Lycursus knew that science
could not ensure happiness but that lis pro-
mGer or enlarger, commerce, might li.tuse
what would make them the reverse.
The possessor it not more blessed than the
illiterate savage-each has his peculiar sass-
faction-aad what we know not to exist, or
have been Inspired with contcnapt for, we
can never regret the unrossession Of.
may in this place direct tie attention of
Juyenis 70 IN Inconsistency il his remarks, as
respects Athens and Sparta; commencing
Athens for every elegance which marks civil
lied man, he forgets that the charges which
succeed this, are entirely applicable to that
commercial city. What promoted the unjust
and cruel Syracusan war, but the dcl raded
Athenians, s5nr'd OH by their Alcibiades. who
abused power and who trampled on the rights
Of allies, hut these AtheniaIls, in appropriate
ing the war faRlto the indGlging. OF their sen
sualities and in fine what city established the
ostracisln before Athens introduced it 10 ban
ish mel bcoorne too powerful by their exalted
virtue and services? Ibis humane polished
people exiled Alistides the Just: what a
grateful return did they make hIi!tiadcs, The
nistocles, Socrates, and other Philosophers
and many of their most dis .inguished gene
rails.
This is The refinement of your commercial
state bat Sparta, even when the most uE-
doubted proof was given to convict general,
refused % punish till the Ephosi themselves
were witnesses of BIS peridy.'
g Sparta fell by commerce, IT may connect
it nieh naval affairs. 1t was fundamental
law that they should indulge III no intercourse
with foreign power; it was on this account
that strangers were forbidden entrance within,
and Spartans to leave, It's territory. The
Spartan, Lysander, who had the command CT
the allied fleet, transmitted to his country,
gold, and thereby removing strong pillar,
eventually brought the whole fabric to TIC
ground.
Most Of Sparta, sensible Of the sequel,
viewed with horror the infringement OF the
constitution; but the advocates carried the
point by evasion, and with it the inyincibihty
of their country.
Greece actaiped her summit of glory in the
Persian WAL. We view through the telescope
glass of history the states of Greece emerging
from obscurity ); and their glory, as a star ris-
ing for an. instant above the horizon, sets, and
leaves the, wondering observer tc regret its
transit.
Greece conquered Persia by force Of arms,
but the pices.of the, latter humbled the con-
o,,arer The war> m which alude SoWed the