fpeak of one another, try them by little and little; deliver yourself up to none; profit by your own experience when you have been mistaken in your judg~ ment, (for you wil fometimes be mistaken) and thereby learn not rashly to judge well or ill of any man. The wicked are too deep diffemblers not to impose upon the good by their difguifes; but your past mistakes will be useful leffons of instruction. When you find a man of ability and virtue, employ him with confidence; for men of integrity are pleafed to fee others confcious of their uprightness: they prefer efteem and confidence to riches: but do not fpoil them by entrusting them with an unbounded power. Many a man would have continued virwho is no longer fo, becaufe his matter has given him too much wealth and power. A prince, who is fo beloved of the Gods as to find in a whole kingdom two or three real friends of a steady wifdom and integrity, quickly finds by their means other perfons who are like them, to fill inferior pofts; by the men of virtue in whom he confides he learns what he could not of himself difcern in his other fubjects.

tuous,

But is it right, faid Telemachus, to make ufe of ill men when they have talents for bufinefs, as I have often heard it is? One is often, faid Mentor under a neceffity to make ufe of them. In a convulfed and difordered ftate one often finds unjust and crafty men who are already in authority; they are poffeffed of important pofts which cannot be taken from them; they have infinuated themselves into the confidence of certain perfons of influence with whom one must needs keep well: nay, one must keep well with the villains themselves, because they are to be feared, and have it in their power to throw every thing into confufion. It is highly neceffary therefore to make use of them for a time; but it is neceffary, alfo to have in view the rendering them by degrees unneceffary. As for a real and intimate confidence take care never to repofe it in them; for they may abuse it, and hold you falt whether you will or not

by

vez vous d'eux pour des négociations paffageres traitez-les bien; engagez-les par leurs paffions mêmes à vous être fideles, car vous ne les tiendrez que par-là; mais ne les mettez point dans vos délibérations les plus fecrettes. Ayez toujours un ref fort prêt pour les remuer à votre gré; mais ne leur donnez jamais la clef de votre cœur, ni de vos affaires. Quand votre état devient paifible réglé, conduit par des hommes fages & droits, dont vous êtes fûr, peu à peu les méchans, dont vous étiez contraint de vous fervir, deviennent inutiles. Alors il ne faut pas ceffer de les bien traiter; car il n'est jamais permis d'être ingrat, même pour les méchans: mais en les traitant bien, il faut tâcher de les rendre bons. Il est néceffaire de tolérer en eux certains défauts qu'on pardonne à l'humanité; il faut néanmoins relever peu à peu l'autorité, & réprimer les maux qu'ils feroient ouvertement, fi on les laiffoit faire. Après tout, c'est un mal que le bien fe faffe par les méchans ; & quoique ce mal foit fouvent inévitable, il faut tendre néanmoins peu à peu à le faire ceffer. Un prince fage, qui ne vou dra que le bon ordre & la juftice, parviendra avec le temps à fe paffer des hommes corrompus & trompeurs; il en trouvera affez de bons qui auront une habileté fuffifante.

Mais ce n'eft pas affez de trouver de bons fujets dans une nation, il est néceffaire d'en former de nouveaux. Ce doit être, répondit Télémaque, un grand embarras. Point du tout, reprit Mentor; l'application que vous avez à chercher les hommes habiles & vertueux pour les élever, excite & anime tous ceux qui ont du talent & du courage; chacun fait des efforts. Combien y a-t-il d'hommes qui languiffent dans une oifiveté obfcure, & qui devien droient de grands hommes, fi l'émulation & l'efpérance du fuccès les animoit au travail ? Com bien y a-t-il d'hommes que la mifere & l'impuiffance de s'élever par la vertu, tentent de s'élever par le crime? Si donc vous attachez les récom

penfes

by your fecrets, a chain harder to be broken than any chains of iron. Employ them in temporary ne gotiations, treat them kindly, and engage them to be faithful to you by their paffions themselves, for you have no other hold of them; but never admit them. into your fecret counfels. Always have fome fpring ready to put them in motion whenever you please, but never give them the key either of your heart or your affairs. When your kingdom is quiet, fettled, and governed by wife and upright men, on whom you can depend, the wicked men, whom you were constrained to make ufe of, become ufelefs by degrees. You must not then however cease to treat them kindly, for it is never allowable to be ungrateful even to the wicked; but at the fame time that you treat them kindly, you must endeavour to make them virtuous. It is neceffary to wink at certain human frailties in them; but you must however by degrees affame more authority, and check the growth of evils which they would commit openly, were they fuffered to go on. After all, the doing good by wicked inftruments is an evil; and though this evil is often inevitable, we must proceed gradually to put an entire ftop to it. A wife prince, who aims only at good order and juftice, will in time be able to do without corrupt and treacherous men; he will find good men enough who have fufficient abilities to ferve him.

an

But it is not enough to find good fubjects in a nation; it is neceffary to make others fo. That, fwered Telemachus, muft needs be very difficult. Not at all, replied Mentor; your diligence in feeking for able and virtuous men, in order to prefer them, excites and spurs on all persons of abilities and fpirit; every one exerts himself. How many men are there who languish in idlenefs and obfcurity, who would become great men, were they fpurred on to induftry by emulation and hopes of fuccefs! How many men are, there whom indigence and an impoffibility of rifing by virtue, attempt to raise themselves by vice! If therefore you annex rewards and ho

nours

penfes & les honneurs au génie & à la vertu, combien de fujets fe formeront d'eux-mêmes! Mais combien en formerez-vous en les faifant monter de degré en degré, depuis les derniers emplois juf qu'aux premiers ! Vous exercerez leurs talens ; vous éprouverez l'étendue de leur efprit, & la fin cérité de leur vertu. Les hommes, qui parvien dront aux plus hautes places, auront été nourris fous vos yeux dans les inférieures. Vous les aurez fuivis toute votre vie de degré en degré ; vous jugerez d'eux, non par leurs paroles, mais par toute la fuite de leurs actions.

Pendant que Mentor raisonnoit ainfi avec Télémaque, ils apperçurent un vaiffeau Phéacien qui avoit relâché dans une petite ifle déferte & fauvage, bordée de rochers affreux. En même temps les vents fe turent les doux Zéphirs même femblerent retenir leur haleine, toute la mer devint unie comme une glace, les voiles abattues ne pouvoient plus animer le vaiffeau; l'effort des rameurs déjà fatigués étoit inutile il fallut aborder en cette ifle, qui étoit plutôt un écueil, qu'une terre propre à être habitée par des hommes. En un autre temps moins calme, on n'auroit pu y aborder fans un grand péril. Ces Phéaciens, qui attendoient le vent, ne paroiffoient pas moins impatiens que les Salentins de continuer leur navigation. Télémaque s'avance vers eux fur ces rivages efcarpés. Auffitôt il demande au premier homme qu'il rencontre, s'il n'a point vu Ulyffe, roi d'Ithaque, dans la maifon du roi Alcinous.

Celui auquel il s'étoit adreffé par hafard, n'étoit pas Phéacien; c'étoit un étranger inconnu qui avoit un air majestueux, mais trifte & abattu. Il paroiffoit rêveur, & à peine écouta-t-il d'abord la queftion de Télémaque; mais enfin il lui répondit: Ulyffe, vous. ne vous trompez pas, a été reçu chez le roi Alcinoüs, comme en un lieu où l'on craint Jupiter, & où l'on exerce l'hofpitalité : mais il n'y eft plus, & vous l'y chercheriez inutilement; il eft parti pour revoir Itha

que,

nours to genius and virtue, what numbers of your fubjects will of themselves become eminent and virtuous! But how many will you render fo, by making them rife ftep by step from the lowest employments to the higheit? you will exercife their talents, you will prove the extent of their genius, and the fincerity of their virtue. The men who arrive at the higheft pofts, will have been trained up under your eyes in the inferior. You will have followed them all your life ftep by step, and will form your judgement of them, not by their words, but by the whole courfe of their actions.

While Mentor was reafoning thus with Telemachus, they perceived à Phæacian veffel that had pur in at a little island, which was defert, wild, and furrounded with frightful rocks. The winds at the fame time were hushed, the gentle Zephirs themselves feemed to hold their breath, the fea was become as fmooth as a mirror, the flagging fails could no longer animate the veffel, and the efforts of the weary rowers were vain; it was neceffary therefore to land in this ifland, which was rather a rock than earth proper to be inhabited by men. In lefs calm weather it would have been impoffible to have landed there without the utmost danger. These Phæacians, who were waiting for a wind, did not feem lefs impatient than the Salentines to proceed in their voyage. Telemachus advances towards them on these rocky shores, and immediately asks the first man he meets, if he had not feen Ulyffes king of Ithaca in king Alcinous's palace.

The perfon to whom he accidentally addreft himfelf, was not a Phæacian, but an unknown ftranger, of a majestic, but melancholy and dejected air. He feemed thoughtful, and at firft hardly heard Telema-` chus's queftion; but at length he answered, You are not mistaken, Ulyffes was entertained in king Alcinous's palace, a place where Jupiter is revered and hofpitality practifed; but he is not there now you would feek him there in vain; he is departed in order to revifit Ithaca, if the appeafed Deities