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whom they have every day to do. This weakness, which is perceived in them, prompts all men ftudy to make their advantage of it; they teaze they folicit, they tire them; and by tiring them obtain their ends. They at first flatter and praife them in order to ingratiate themselves; but as foon as they have gained their confidence, and are feated near them in places of power, they lead them whither they pleafe, and impofe their yoke upon them. They groan beneath it, and often try to shake it off, but they wear it as long as they live. They are folicitous not to feem to be governed, and yet they always are fo; nay, they cannot do without it; for they refemble feeble vines, which not being able to fupport themselves, creep around the trunk of fome large tree.

I will not fuffer you, Telemachus to be guilty of a failing, which unfits a man for government. You, who are of fo tender a difpofition as to be afraid to fpeak to Idomeneus, will not feel his grief the moment you are got out of Salentum. It is not his grief which affects you, it is his prefence which confounds you. Go, fpeak to Idomeneus yourself, learn on this occafion to be tender hearted and refolute at the fame time. Tell him how forry you are to leave him, but tell him alfo with a peremptory tone how neceffary your departure is.

Telemachus did not dare either to oppofe Mentor, or to go to Idomeneus; he was ashamed of his fears but had not courage to overcome them; he paufed he took a ftep or two, and immediately returned, to alledge to Mentor fome new reafon of delay; but a fingle look of Mentor deprived him of his fpeech, and made all his fair pretences vanish. Is this then, faid Mentor with a fmile, the vanquisher of the Daunians, the deliverer of the great Hefperia, and the fon of the wife Ulyffes, who is after him to be the oracle of Greece? He dares not tell Idomeneus, that he can no longer put off his return to his own country, to fee his father again! O ye people of Ithaca, how unhappy will ye one day be, if you TOM. II.

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& qui facrifie les plus grands intérêts à fes foibleffes fur les plus petites chofes Voyez, Télémaque, quelle différence, il y a entre la valeur dans les combats, & le courage dans les affaires. Vous n'avez point craint les armes d'Adrafte, & Vous craignez la trifteffe d'Idoménée. Voilà ce qui déshonore les princes, qui ont fait les plus grandes actions après avoir paru des héros dans la guerre, ils fe montrent les derniers des hommes dans les actions communes où d'autres fe foutien

nent avec vigueur.

Télémaque, fentant la vérité de ces paroles, & pique de ce reproche, partit brufquement fans s'écouter lui-même. Mais à peine commença-t-il à paroître dans le lieu où Idoménée étoit affis, les yeux baiffés, languiffans & abattus de trifteffe, qu'ils fe craignirent l'un l'autre; ils n'ofoient fe regarder; ils s'entendoient fans fe rien dire, & chacun craignoit que l'autre ne rompît le filence; ils fe mirent tous deux à pleurer. Enfin Idoménée, preffé d'un excès de douleur, s'écria: A quoi fert de rechercher la vertu, fi elle récompenfe fi mal ceux qui l'aiment ? Après m'avoir remontré ma foibleffe, on m'abandonne ! Hé bien ! je vais retomber dans tous mes malheurs. Qu'on ne me parle plus de bien gouverner; non, je ne puis le faire, je fuis las des hommes. Où voulez-vous aller, Télémaque? Votre pere n'eft plus, vous le cherchez inutilement; Ithaque eft en proie à vos ennemis ; ils vous feront périr, fi vous y retournez. Quelqu'un d'entre eux aura époufé votre mere. Demeurez ici, vous ferez mon gendre & mon héritier; vous régnerez après moi. Pendant ma vie même, vous aurez ici un pouvoir abfolu; ma confiance en vous fera fans bornes. Que fi vous êtes infenfible à tous ces avantages, du moins laiffez-moi Mentor, qui eft toute ma reffource. Parlez, répondez-moi, n'endurciffez point votre cœur, ayez pitié du plus malheureux de tous les hommes. Quoi vous ne dites rien ! Ah! je comprends combien les Dieux me font cruels; je le fens encore plus rigoureusement qu'en Crete lorfque je perçai mon propre fils.

have a king who is a flave to a criminal modefty, and who facrifices his most important affairs to his weakneffes in the verieft trifles! See, Telemachus > what difference there is between valour in battle and courage in bufinefs: You were not afraid of Adraftus's arms, and yet you fear Idomeneus's grief. This is what dishonours princes who have performed the greatest actions; having shewn themselves to be heroes in war, they shew themselves to be the lowest of mankind in common occurrences, wherein others fupport themselves with vigour.

Telemachus feeling the truth of thefe words, and ftung with this reproach, hurried away without giving his paffions time to fpeak. But as foon as he entered where Idomeneus was fitting with downcaft; languid, and forrowful eyes, they were afraid of and durft not look at each other; they understood one another without fpeaking a word; each feared that the other would break the filence, and they both began to weep. At length Idomeneus, prompted by his excefs of forrow, cried out, What profits it to pay one's court to virtue, if she fo ill requites her lovers? I am made fenfible of my weaknefs, and then deferted! Well! I shall foon relapfe into all my former misfortunes. Let no man talk to me of governing well; no, I am incapable of it, I am fick of mankind. Whither would you go, Telemachus ? Your father is no more, you feek him in vain ; Ithaca is become the prey of your enemies; they will deftroy you, if you return thither. Some one of them has married your mother. Stay here, you shall wed my daughter, and be my heir; you shall reign after me: Nay, during my life you shall have an abfolute power here; my confidence in you shall be unbounded. But if you are unmoved by all these advantages, at least leave me Mentor who is my

only refource. Speak, anfwer me, harden not your heart, pity the most wretched of men. How! filent! Ah! I feel how cruel the Gods are to me; I have even a quicker fenfe of it than I had in Crete, when I flew my own fon.

Enfin Télémaque lui répondit d'une voix troublée. & timide: Je ne fuis point à moi, les destinées me rappellent dans ma patrie. Mentor qui a la fageffe des Dieux, m'ordonne en leur nom de partir; que voulez-vous que je faffe? Renoncerai-je à mon pere à ma mere, ma patrie, qui me doit être encore plus chere qu'eux ? Etant né pour être roi je ne fuis pas deftiné à une vie douce & tranquille, ni à fuivre mes inclinations. Votre royaume et plus riche & plus puiffant que celui de mon père; mais je dois préférer ce que les Dieux me destinent, à ce que vous avez la bonté de m'offrir. Je me croirois heureux, fi j'avois Antiope pour épouse, fans espérance de votre royaume; mais, pour m'en rendre digne, il faut que j'aille où mes devoirs m'appellent, & que ce foit mon pere qui vous la demande pour moi. Ne m'avez-vous pas promis de me renvoyer à Ithaque? N'est-ce pas fur cette promeffe que j'ai combattu pour vous contre Adrafte avec les alliés ? Il eft temps que je fonge à réparer mes malheurs domeftiques. Les Dieux qui m'ont donné à Mentor, ont auffi donné Mentor au fils d'Ulyffe, pour lui faire remplir fes deftinées. Voulez-vous que je perde Mentor après avoir perdu tout le refte? Je n'ai plus ni bien, ni retraite, ni pere, ni mere, ni patrie affuree; il ne me refte qu'un homme fage & vertueux qui eft le plus précieux don de Jupiter. Jugez vous-même fi je puis y renoncer & confentir qu'il m'abandonne. Non, je mourrois plutôt. Arrachezmoi la vie, la vie n'eft rien; mais ne m'arrachez pas Mentor.

A mefure que Télémaque parloit, fa voix devenoit plus forte, & fa timidité difparoiffoit. Idoménée ne favoit que répondre, & ne pouvoit demeurer d'accord de ce que le fils d'Ulyffe lui difoit. Lorfqu'il ne pouvoit plus parler, du moins il tâchoit, par fes regards & par fes geftes, de faire pitié. Dans ce moment il vit paroître Mentor, qui lui dit ces graves paroles :

Ne vous affligez point: nous vous quittons; mais la fageffe, qui préfide aux confeils des Dieux, de

meurera

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At length Telemachus replied with a difordered and timorous voice, I am not at my own disposal, Destiny recalls me to my country. Mentor, who is endued with the wifdom of the Gods, commands me in their name to depart: What would you have me do? Shall I renounce my father, my mother, my country, which ought to be yet dearer to me than they? As I am born to be a king, I am not de-, figned for a life of pleasure and repofe, nor to follow my own inclinations. Your kingdom is richer and more powerful than that of my father; but I ought to prefer that which the Gods have alloted me to that which you have the goodness to offer me. I should think myself happy, were Antiope my wife, without any hopes of your kingdom: but to render myfelf worthy of her, I mult go where my duty cal's me, and it must be my father who demands her of you. Did you not promile to fend me back to Ithaca? Was is not upon this promise that I, with the allies, fought for you against Adraftus? It is time for me to think of repairing my domeftic mifortunes. The Gods who gave me to Mentor, gave Mentor alfo to the fon of Ulyffes, that he might fulfill the decrees of fate. Would you have me lofe Mentor, after having loft every thing elfe? I have now neither eftate, nor place of retreat, nor father, nor mother, nor any certain country; nothing is left me but a wife and virtuous man, who is the most precious gift of Jupiter. Do you yourself judge if I can renounce him, and confent that he should forfake me. No, I would fooner die. Take my life, my life's a trifle, but take not Mentor from me.

As Telemachus fpoke, his voice grew stronger, and his fears vanished. Idomeneus knew not what to answer, nor could he confent to what the fon of Ulyffes faid. When he could no longer fpeak, he endeavoured at leaft by his looks and his gestures to move his pity. The fame moment he faw Mentor appear, who made him this ferious addrefs:

Do not grieve; we quit you, but the wildom which prefides in the council of the Gods will re