
Rome,
and, partly in our own Days, there was the
Conde
of
France,
the
Charles
of
Sweden,
and
Persia's Kouli Kan.
 � What the plague does the Fellow laugh at?
I am laughing to think what a Blockhead
Themistocles
was. Being asked whom he considered as the greatest of Heroes; not him who conquers but who saves, replied
Themistocles;
not the Man who ruins but the Man who erects; who, of a Village can make a City, or turn a despicable People into a great Nation.
According to your Notion of Heroism, that Boor and Barbarian,
Peter Alexiowitz
of
Russia,
was the greatest Hero that ever lived.
True, my Friend; for, of a numerous People, he disembruted every one, except himself. But then, in all Equity, he ought to divide his Glory with
Kate
the Washerwoman, who humanized the Man that humanized a Nation.
Whom do you take to have been the greatest Hero of Antiquity?
Lycurgus,
without Comparison, the greatest of Heroes and the greatest of Legislators. In those very early Days, the People of
Lacedaemon
were extremely rude and ignorant; they acknowledged no Laws, save the Dictates of their own Will or the Will of their Rulers.
Lycurgus
might have assumed the Sceptre; but his Ambition aspired to a much more elevated and durable Dominion, over the Souls, Manners, and Conduct of this People and their Posterity. He framed a Body of the most extraordinary Institutions that ever enteredinto the Heart or Head of Man. Next to those of our DIVINE LEGISLATOR, they were intended
to form a new Creature.
He prevailed upon the Rich to make an equal Distribution of their Lands with the Poor. He prohibited the Use of all such Money as was current among other Nations, and, thereby prohibited the Importation of the Means and Materials of Pomp and Luxury. He enjoined them to feed, in common, on simple and frugal Fare. He forbid all Gorgeousness of Furniture and Apparel. In short, he endeavoured to suppress every sensual and selfish Desire, by Injunctions of daily Exercise, Toil, and Hardship, a patient Endurance of Pain, and a noble Contempt of Death. At length, feigning some Occasion of being abroad for a Season, he exacted an Oath from the
Lacedaemonians
that they should strictly observe his Laws, without the smallest Infringement, till his Return. Thus, for the love of his Country, he went into perpetual Banishment from it. And he took Measures, at his Death, that his Body should never be found, lest it should be carried back to
Sparta,
and give
