own interest. If you give the Daunians a just king, he will govern them with juftice, and teach them how beneficial it is to preferve their fincerity, and never to ufurp the dominions of their neighbours; which they could never learn under the impious Adraftus. While they are fwayed by a wife and moderate prince, you will have nothing to apprehend from them. They will be indebted to you for the good king that you will have given them; they will be indebted to you for the peace and profperity they will enjoy. Inftead of attacking, they will continually blefs you, and both the prince and the people will be the work of your hands. If on the contrary you divide their country among yourselves, the evils which will enfue, and of which I tell you beforehand, are thefe The Daunians driven to defpair will begin the war again; they will juftly fight for their liberty, and the Gods, who are enemies to tyranny, will fight for them. And if the Gods interfere , you will fooner or later be confounded, and your profperity will vanish like fmoke. Counsel and wisdom will be taken from your commanders, rage from your armies, and fertility from your lands. you will deceive yourselves with falfe hopes, you will be rash in your enterprizes, you will filence men of probity who tell you the truth, you will fall of a fudden, and it will be faid of you Are these the flourishing nations who were to give law to the whole earth? Lo! they fly before their enemies; they are the fport of nations who trample them under their feet. These are the doings of the Gods this is what unjuft, haughty and inhuman nations deferve.

cou

Again, confider that if you attempt to divide this conqueft among you, you will unite all the neighbouring nations against you. Your confederacy, formed to defend the common liberty of Hefperia against Adraftus, will become odious; and you yourfelves will be justly accused by all the world of aiming at univerfal tyranny. But fuppofing that you are victorious over the Daunians and all other nations, this victory will prove your destruction, and I

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vous détruira; voici comment. Confidérez que cette entreprise vous défunira tous. Comme elle n'eft point fondée fur la juftice, vous n'aurez point de regle pour borner entre vous les prétentions de chacun chacun voudra que fa part de la conquête foit proportionnée à fa puiflance; nul d'entre vous n'aura affez d'autorité parmi les autres pour faire ce partage paifiblement. Voilà la fource d'une guerre, dont vos petits-enfans. ne verront pas la fin. Ne vaut-il pas mieux être jufte & modéré, que de fuivre fon ambition avec tant de péril, & au travers de tant de malheurs, inévitables? La paix profonde, les plaifirs, doux & innocens qui l'accompagnent, l'heureuse abondance, l'amitié de fes voifins, la gloire qui eft inféparable de la justice, l'autorité qu'on acquiert, en fe rendant par la bonne foi l'arbitre de tous les peuples étrangers, ne font-ce pas des biens plus defirables, que la folle vanité d'une conquête injufte? O princes. !ô rois ! Vous voyez que je vous parle fans intérêt. Ecoutez. donc celui qui vous aime affez pour vous. dire & pour vous déplaire > en vous repréfentant la vérité.

contre

Pendant que Télémaque parloit ainfi avec une autorité qu'on n'avoit jamais vue en nul autre, & que tous les princes étonnés & en fufpens admiroient la fageffe de fes confeils, on entendit un bruit confus qui fe répandit dans tout le camp, & qui vint jus qu'au lieu où fe tenoit l'affemblée. Un étranger, dit-on, eft venu aborder fur ces côtes avec une troupe d'hommes armés. Cet inconnu eft d'une haure mine, tout paroît héroïque en lui; on voit aifément. qu'il a long-temps fouffert, & que fon grand courage. l'a mis au-deffus de toutes fes fouffrances. D'abord les peuples du pays, qui gardent les côtes, ont voulu le repouffer, comme un ennemi qui vient faire une irruption mais, après avoir tiré fon épée avec un air intrépide, il a déclaré qu'il fauroit fe défendre fi on l'attaquoit; mais qu'il ne demandoit que la paix & hofpitalité. Auffitôt il a préfenté un rameau d'olivier comme un fuppliant. On l'a écouté; il a

demandé

will tell you in what manner. Confider that this enterprise will diffolve your union. As it is not founded on juftice, you will have no rule to fettle every claimant's pretenfions among yourselves; every one will infift that his share of the conqueft be proportioned to his power; not one of you will have autho rity enough over the reft to make a peaceable partition. Lo the fource of a war, of which your grandchildren will not fee the end. Is it not better to be juft and moderate than to follow one's ambition through fuch a multitude of dangers and inevitable calamities? Are not a profound peace, its train of fweet and innocent pleasures, a happy plenty, the friendship of one's neighbours, the glory which is infeparable from juftice, the authority which is acquired in rendering ourfelves by our integrity the arbiter of all foreign nations are not thefe, I fay, more defirable bleffings than the foolish vanity of an unjust conqueft? O kings! O princes you fee that I have no interest in what I fay; have regard therefore to one who loves you enough to contradict and displease you, by fetting the truth before

you.

was

While Telemachus was difcourfing in this manner with an authority which they had never feen in any other, and all the aftonished and fufpenfeful princes were admiring the wifdom of his counfels, there heard a confufed noife which fpread itself through the camp, and reached even to the place where the affembly was held, A ftranger, it was faid, is juft landed on this coaft with a band of foldiers. This unknown perfon is of a lofty mien; every thing in him looks! heroic; one eafily perceives that he has fuffered a long while, and that his great courage has rendered him fuperior to all his fufferings. The people of the country, who guard the coaft, at first refolved to repel him as an enemy that was come to invade them: But drawing his fword with an intrepid air, he told them that he knew how to defend himself in cafe he were attacked, but that the defired nothing but peace and hofpitality. Upon which he held out an olive branch as a fuppliant; he was heard; he defired to

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demandé à être conduit vers ceux qui gouvernent dans cette côte de l'Hefpérie, & on l'amene ici pour le faire parler aux rois affemblés.

A peine ce difcours fut il achevé, qu'on vit entrer cet inconnu avec une majesté qui furprit toute l'affemblée. On auroit cru facilement que c'étoit le Dieu Mars, quand il affemble fur les montagnes de Thrace fes troupes fanguinaires. Il commença à parler ainfi : O vous, palteurs des peuples, qui êtes fans doute affemblés ici pour défendre la patrie contre fes ennemis, ou pour faire fleurir les plus juftes loix, écoutez un homme que la fortune a perfécuté. Faffent les Dieux que vous n'éprouviez jamais de femblables malheurs ! Je fuis Diomede, roi d'Etolie, qui blessai Vénus au fiege de Troye. La vengeance de cette Déeffe me poursuit dans tout l'univers Neptune, qui ne peut rien refufer à la divine fille de la mer, m'a livré à la rage des vents & des flots, qui ont brifé plufieurs fois mes vaiffeaux contre les écueils. L'inexorable Vénus m'a ôté toute efpérance de revoir mon royaume, ma famille, & cette douce lumiere du pays où j'ai commencé de voir le jour en naissant. Non je ne reverrai jamais tout ce qui m'a été le plus cher au monde. Je viens, après tant de naufrages, chercher fur ces rives inconnues un peu de repos & une retraite afsurée. Si vous craignez les Dieux, & fur-tout Jupiter qui a foin des étrangers; fi vous êtes fenfibles à la compaffion, ne me refufez pas dans ces vaftes pays quelque coin de terre ftérile, quelques déferts, quelques fables, ou quelques rochers efcarpés, pour y fonder avec mes compagnons une ville qui foit du moins une trifte image de notre patrie perdue. Nous ne demandons qu'un peu d'efpace qui vous foit inutile. Nous vivrons en paix avec vous dans une étroite alliance; vos ennemis feront les nôtres; nous entrerons dans tous vos intérêts; nous ne demandons que la liberté de vivre felon nos loix."

: Pendant que Diomede parloit ainfi Télémaque ayant les yeux attachés fur lui, montra fur fon visage toutes les différentes paffions. Quand Diomede.commença à parler de fes longs malheurs, il efpéra que

be brought before thofe who rule in this part of Hefperia, and is conducted hither to be examined by the affembled kings.

This was hardly faid, but the stranger entered with a majesty which furprifed the whole affembly. He might eafily have been taken for the God of war, when he affembles his blood thirsty troops in the moutains of Thrace He began thus:

Oye shepherds of the people, who are undoubtedly affembled here to defend your country against its enemies, or to give life to the most righteous laws, hear a man whom fortune has perfecuted. May the Gods grant that you may never taste the like diftrefs! I am Diomed, king of Etolia, who wounded Venus at the fiege of Troy. The vengeance of that Goddess pursues me through the whole world. Neptune, who can refuse nothing to the divine daughter of the fea, gave me up to the rage of the winds and the billows which have often dashed my ships in pieces against the rocks. Inexorable Venus has robbed me of all hopes of ever seeing again my kingdom, my family, and that grateful light of the country where I first beheld the day. No, I shall never fee more what was dearest in the world to ine. I come, after various shipwrecks, to feek on these unknown shores a little repofe and a fafe retreat. If you fear the Gods, and efpecially Jupiter who takes care of ftrangers; if you have any fenfe of pity, refufe me not fome barren corner of thefe fpacious regions, fome defert, fome fandy fpot, or fteepy rocks, where I and my companions may found a city which may at least be a melancholy image of our loft country. We only defire fome fmall tract which is ufelefs to you. We will live in peace and ftrict friendship with you; your enemies shall be ours; we will efpoufe all your interefts, and defire nothing but to live according to our own laws.

While Diomed was fpeaking thus, Telemachus keeping his eyes fixed upon him, difcovered all the different paffions in his countenance. When Diomedes began to mention his long fufferings, he hoped

that