firmed: but no kind of power is more licen tiously infolent than that, which is fupported

by force of arms. It was this, which enabled

Marius and Sylla to drench the streets of Rome with the blood of her moft virtuous citizens; a consciousness of superior force gave Cæfar fpirits to pafs the Rubicon, and opprefs the liberty of his country, which the profligate tyrant Octavius finally extinguished with the fame deteftable inftrument: and the infatiable avarice of princes, joined to the pride of conqueft and the love of dominion, has filled the world with terrour and mifery, from Sefoftris who invaded Afric and Europe, to the three mighty potentates, who are ravaging Poland. How much more splendid would their glory have been, if, instead of raising their fame on the fubverfion of kingdoms, they had applied their whole thoughts to the patronage of arts, fcience, letters, agriculture, trade; had made their nations illuftrious in wisdom, extenfive in commerce, eminent in riches, firm in virtue, happy in freedom; and had chofen rather to be the benefactors, than the deftroyers, of the human fpecies!

These fentiments, which, as nothing can prevent my entertaining them, so nothing fhall prevent my expreffing as forcibly as I

am able, were fufficient to have deterred me from ever attempting to write The Life of a Conqueror; unless it had been for the sake of exposing a character of all others the most infamously wicked, and of,difplaying the charms of liberty by showing the odiousness of tyranny and oppreffion; but a circumstance, which it will be proper to relate from the beginning, induced me to depart from my resolution, and hurried me from the contemplation of civil and pacifick virtues to the more dazzling, but less pleasing, scenes of victories and triumphs.

A great northern monarch, who visited this country a few years ago, under the name of the prince of Travendal, brought with him an Eastern manufcript, containing the life of NADER SHAH, the late fovereign of Perfia, which he was defirous of having translated in England. The secretary of state, with whom the Danish minifter had converfed upon the fubject, fent the volume to me, requesting me to give a literal translation of it in the French language; but I wholly declined the task, alledging, for my excufe, the length of the book, the dryness of the subject, the difficulty of the ftyle, and, chiefly my want both of leisure and ability to enter upon an undertaking fo fruitless and fo laborious. I mentioned, however, a gentleman, with whom I had not then

the pleasure of being acquainted, but who had diftinguished himself by his tranflation of a Perfian history, and was far abler than myself to fatisfy the King of Denmark's expectations. The learned writer, who had other works upon his hands, excufed himself on the account of his many engagements; and the application to me was renewed: it was hinted, that my compliance would be of no small advantage to me at my entrance into life, that it would procure me some mark of diftinction, which might be pleafing to me, and, above all, that it would be a reflection upon this country, if the King fhould be obliged to carry the manufcript into France. Incited by these motives, and principally by the laft of them, unwilling to be thought churlish or morofe, and eager for the bubble Reputation, I undertook the work, and sent a specimen of it to his Danish Majefty; who returned his approbation of the ftyle and method, but defired, that the whole tranflation might be perfectly literal, and the Oriental images accurately preferved. The tafk would have been far easier to me, had I been directed to finish it in Latin; for the acquifition of a French ftyle was infinitely more tedious; and it was neceffary to have every chapter corrected by a native of France, before it could be offered

to the difcerning eye of the publick; since in every language there are certain peculiarities of idiom, and nice fhades of meaning, which a foreigner can never learn to perfection: but the work, how arduous and unpleasing foever, was completed in a year; not without repeated hints from the Secretary's office, that it was expected with great impatience by the Court of Denmark. The tranflation of the History of NADER SHAH was published in the fummer of the year feventeen hundred and feventy *, at the expence of the tranflator; and forty copies upon large paper were fent to Copenhagen, one of them, bound with uncommon elegance, for the King himself, and the others as presents to his Courtiers.

What marks of diftinction I have fince received, and what fruits I have reaped for my labour, it would ill become me to mention at the head of a work, in which I profess to be the Hiftorian of others, and not of myself; but fince an advertisement has appeared on this fubject in the publick papers, which is notoriously falfe in every article, and cafts a moft unjust reflection upon an

* Under the title of Hiftoire de Nader Chah, traduite du Perfan par ordre de fa Majefté le Roi de Dannemark 4to. Chez P. Elmfley dans le Strand.

amiable monarch, it feems a duty impofed upon me by the laws of juftice and gratitude, to print at the beginning of this Volume the honourable teftimony of regard, which his Majefty Chriftian VII. fent publickly to London, a few months after He had received my work, together with my letter of thanks for fo fignal a token of His favour; and I cannot, certainly, be charged with want of respect to the great and illuftrious Perfonage, to whom that royal Epiftle is addreffed, fince it was not sent in a private manner, but openly and in the eyes of the world; and a copy of it was even delivered to me, after having paffed through several hands. Nothing more remains to be faid on this subject, but that the worthy and excellent man, who was my fole guide and adviser in this affair, and to whom I opened my thoughts in my familiar letters with the utmost frankness, having retired from the office which he then held, I am left at perfect liberty to relate the whole transaction, without a poffibility of giving offence to any one living; especially fince I have not suffered his name to be made cheap, by mentioning it in any part of the narrative.

This was the circumftance, which induced me, against my inclination, to describe the Life of a Conqueror, and to appear in publick