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afterwards constrained me to dismiss the valiant Merion, who had attended me with great glory to the fiege of Troy. He was grown jealous of him, as he was of all whom I loved, and who gave any proofs of virtue.

You must know, my dear Mentor, that this is the fource of all my misfortunes. It was not fo much my fon's death that occafioned the revolt of the Cretans, as the vengeance of the Gods, who were incensed at my crimes, and the hatred of the pcople which Protefilaus had drawn upon me. When I shed my fon's blood, the Cretans, tired of my rigorous government, had loft all patience; and the horror of this last action only induced them to make a public difcovery of what long fince had been concealed in their hearts.

Timocrates attended me to the fiege of Troy, and gave an account privately in his letters to Protefilaus of all the difcoveries he could make. I plainly perceived my thraldom, but endeavoured not to think of it, despairing of a remedy. When the Cretans revolted at my arrival, Protefilaus and Timocrates were the first who fled. They would without doubt have deferted me, had I not been conftrained to fly almost as foon as they. Be affured, my dear Mentor, that men who are infolent in profperity, are always the most abject cowards in adverfity. Their heads turn as foon as abfolute power forfakes them; they become as cringing as they were proud, and pass in a moment from one extreme to the other.

Mentor faid to Idomeneus, But whence comes it, as you fo thoroughly know these two wicked men, that you ftill keep them about you, as I fee you do? I am not furprised at their following you, as they could do nothing better for their own intereft, and I think that you have done a generous action in affording them an afylum in your new fettlement; but why do you deliver yourself up to them again after fo many fatal trials?

You know not, anfwered Idomeneus, how useless

mécontens de tout ils n'ont pas le courage de rien redreffer. Tant d'années d'habitude étoient des chaînes de fer qui me lioient à ces deux hommes, & ils m'obfédoient à toute heure. Depuis que je fuis ici, ils m'ont jetté dans toutes les dépenses exceffives que vous avez vues. Ils ont épuifé cet Etat naissant, ils m'ont attiré cette guerre qui m'alloit accabler fans vous. J'aurois bientôt éprouvé à Salente les mêmes malheurs que je fentis en Crete; mais vous m'avez enfin ouvert les yeux & vous m'avez infpiré le courage qui me manquoit pour me mettre hors de fervitude. Je ne fais ce que vous avez fait en moi; mais depuis que vous êtes ici, je me fens un autre homme.

Mentor demanda enfuite à Idoménée quelle étoit la conduite de- Protéfilas dans ce changement des affaires. Rien n'eft plus artificieux, répondit Idoménée que ce qu'il a fait depuis votre arrivée, D'abord il n'oublia rien pour jetter indirectement quelque défiance dans mon efprit. Il ne difoit rien contre vous; mais je voyois diverfes gens qui venoient m'avertir que ces deux étrangers étoient fort à craindre. L'un, difoient-ils, eft le fils du trompeur Ulyffe; l'autre eft un homme caché & d'un efprit profond: ils font accoutumés à errer de royaume en royaume ; qui fait s'ils n'ont point formé quelque deffein fur celui-ci? Ces aventuriers racontent eux-mêmes qu'ils ont caufé de grands troubles dans tous les pays où ils ont paffé. Voici un Etat naiffant & mal affermi; les moindres mouvemens pourroient le renverfer.

Protéfilas ne difoit rien; mais il tâchoit de me faire entrevoir le danger & l'excès de toutes ces réformes que vous me faifiez entreprendre. Il me prenoit par mon propre intérêt. Si vous mettez difoit-il, les peuples dans l'abondance, ils ne travailleront plus, ils deviendront fiers, indociles, & feront toujours prêts à fe révolter; il n'y a que la foibleffe & la mifere qui les rendent fouples, & qui les empêchent de réfiter à l'autorité. Souvent il tâchoit de reprendre for ancienne autorité pour m'entraîner, & il la

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all experience is to effeminate, fupine, and unthinking princes. They are diffatisfied with all things, and have not courage to redrefs any thing. So many years of familiarity were chains of iron which linked me to these two men, who befet me every hour. Since I have been here, they have put me upon the exceffive expences which you have feen; they have exhaufted this rifing ftate; they have drawn this war upon me, which but for you I should have funk under. I should foon have experienced at Salentum the fame nisfortunes which I fuffered in Crete; but you at length have opened my eyes, and infpired me with the courage I wanted, to deliver myfelf from bondage. I know not what you have done to me; but fince you have been here, I find myself quite another man.

Mentor then asked Idomeneus, how Protefilaus behaved in the prefent change of affairs. Nothing is more artful, replied Idomeneus than his conduct fince your arrival. At first he ufed all indirect methods to make me fufpicious. He himself, indeed, faid nothing against you, but feveral perfons came and told me that these two strangers were much to be feared. One, faid they, is the fon of the deceitful Ulyffes; the other wears a difguife, and has a deep head: they are ufed to wander from kingdom to kingdom; and who knows that they have not formed fome defign upon this? Thefe adventurers themselves relate that they have caufed great confufions in the countries through which they have paffed. Ours is an infant unfettled ftate, and the least commotions might overturn it.

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Protefilaus faid nothing but he endeavoured to make me fee the danger and extravagance of all the reformations which you made me undertake. My own intereft was the argument he made ufe of : If you let your fubjects abound, faid he, they will work no longer, but grow proud, intractable, and be always ready to revolt. Nothing but weakness and poverty makes them pliable, and hinders them from refifting authority. He has often endeavoured to refume his former afcendant over me, covering it with

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couvroit d'un prétexte de zèle pour mon fervice. En voulant foulager les peuples me difoit-il, vous rabaiffez la puillance royale; & par-là, vous faites aut peuple même un tort irréparable; car il a befoin qu'on le tienne bas pour fon propre repos.

A tout cela je répondois que je faurois bien tenir les peuples dans leur devoir en me faifant aimer d'eux, en ne relâchant rien de mon autorité, quoique je les foulageaffe; en puniffant avec fermeté tous les coupables; enfin, en donnant aux enfans une bonne éducation, & à tout le peuple une exacte difcipline pour le tenir dans une vie fimple, fobre & laborieufe. Eh quoi! difois-je, ne peut-on pas foumettre un peuple fans le faire mourir de faim; Quelle inhumanité ! quelle politique brutale! Combien voyons-nous de peuples traites doucement, & très-foumis à leurs fouverains! Ce qui caufe les révoltes, c'est l'ambition: & l'inquiétude des grands d'un Etat, quand on ne fait pas les tenir dans le devoir, & qu'on a laiffé leurs paffions s'étendre fans bornes: c'eft la licence dans les autres ordres de l'Etat, fi on néglige de la répri mer: c'est la multitude des grands & des petits qui vivent dans la molleffe, dans le luxe & dans l'oifiveté; c'eft la trop grande abondance d'hommes adonnés à la guerre, qui ont négligé toutes les occupations utiles dans le temps de paix enfin, c'eft le défefpoir des peuples maltraités; c'eft la. dureté la hauteur des rois, & leur molleffe qui les rend incapables de veiller fur tous les membres de l'Etat, pour prévenir les troubles. Voilà ce qui caufe les révoltes, & non pas le pain qu'on laiffe manger en paix au laboureur après qu'il l'a gagné à la fueur de fon vilage.

Quand Protéfilas a vu que j'étois inébranlable dans ces maximes, il a pris un parti tout oppofé à fa conduite paffée, il a commencé à fuivre les maximes qu'il n'avoit pu détruire : il a fait femblant de les goûter, d'en être convaincu de m'avoir obligation de l'avoir éclairé là deffus. Il va au-devant de tour ce que je pourrois fouhaiter pour foulager les pauvres il eft le premier à me repréfenter leurs befoins, & à crier contre les dépenfes exceffives, Vous favez même

à pretended zeal for my fervice. By eafing the people, faid he, you debafe the royal power, and thereby do the people themselves an irreparable injury for it is neceffary for your own quiet that they should be kept humble.

To all this I answered, that I should easily keep the people firm in their allegiance to me by making myfelf beloved by them; by,remitting nothing of my authority, though I lightened their burden; by refolutely punishing all offenders; by giving children a good education, and by being ftrict in keeping all my Jubjects up to a plain, fober, and laborious life. How! faid I, is it not poffible to make people obedient without ftarving them to death? What inhumanity! what brutal policy! How many nations do we fee mildly governed, and yet loyal to their princes! That which caufes rebellions, is the reftlefs ambition of the grandees of a state, when they are entrusted with too much power, and their paffions fuffered to ftretch beyond bounds; it is the neglecting to punish the licentiousness of other orders in the ftate; it is the multitude of the great and the vulgar who live in luxury in pomp and idleness; it is the too great number of military men, who have neglected all the employments which are useful in time of peace; in short, it is the defpair of the injured people; it is the cruelty and pride of princes, and their luxury, which makes them incapable of watching over the members of the ftate, in order to prevent disturbances: These are the caufes of rebellions, and not the permitting the labourer to eat the bread in peace, which he has earned by the fweat of his brows.

When Protefilaus faw that I was immoveable in thefe maxims, he took a courfe quite contrary to his former, and began to act agreeable to principles which he could not destroy; pretending to relish them, to be convinced of their truth, and to be obliged to me for having enlightened his understanding in thefe matters. He anticipates all my defires to eafe the poor and is the firft to reprefent their wants to me, and to cry out against extravagance, You yourself know

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that