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maxims, though his mind was well ftored with them, and he had himself taught them to others. A melancholy humour infpired him, contrary to his real fentiments, with a fpirit of contradiction and fubtlety, to oppofe the truths which Mentor explained. To thefe arguments Telemachus oppofed the ingratitude of men. What! faid he, take fo much pains to win the affections of men, who perhaps will never love you, and to do good to wretches who will make ufe of your benefits to your prejudice!

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Mentor made him a calm reply: We must expect men to be ungrateful, and yet we must do good to them: we must ferve them lefs for their own fakes, than for the love of the Gods who command it. The good which a man does is never loft: if men forget it, the Gods remember and reward it. Befides, if the multitude is ungrateful, there are always fome virtuous perfons who are affected with your virtue = nay, the multitude itfelf, fickle and capricious as it is, never fails fooner or later to do a fort of justice to real virtue. But would you prevent the ingratitude of men? Do not labour folely to make them powerful, rich, formidable in arms, happy in their pleafures this glory this abundance, thefe pleafures corrupt them; they will only be the more wicked for them, and confequently the more ungrateful; it is making them a fatal prefent, it is offering them a delicious poifon : But apply yourfelf to reform their manners, and to inftill into them juftice, fincerity, a fear of the Gods, humanity. fidelity, moderation, and difinterestedness. By making them good you will hinder them from being ungrateful, and confer virtue, a real good, upon them; and virtue, if it be real, will for ever attach them to him who has inftilled it into them. Thus by conferring the real good upon them, you will do good to yourfelf, and will have nothing to fear from their ingratitude. Is it any wonder that men are ungrateful to princes who never taught them any thing but injuftice, unbounded ambition, a jealoufy of their neighbours, inhumanity, haughtiness Q 3

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tés qu'à l'injustice, qu'à l'ambition fans bornes, qu'à la jaloufie contre leurs voifins, qu'à l'inhumanité, qu'à la hauteur, qu'à la mauvaise foi? Le prince ne doit attendre d'eux que ce qu'il leur a appris à faire. Que fi au contraire il travailloit par fon exemple, & par fon autorité à les rendre bons, il trouveroit le fruit de fon travail dans leurs vertus; ou du moins il trouveroit dans la fienne & dans l'amitié des Dieux, de quoi fe confoler de tous les mécomptes.

A peine ce difcours fut-il achevé, que Télémaque s'avança avec empreffement vers les Phéaciens, dont le vaiffeau étoit arrêté fur le rivage. Il s'adreffa à un vieillard d'entre eux, pour lui demander d'où ils venoient, où ils alloient, & s'ils n'avoient point vu Ulyffe. Le vieillard répondit : Nous venons de notre ifle, qui eft celle des Phéaciens; nous allons chercher des marchandises vers l'Epire; Ulyffe, comme on vous l'a déja dit, a paffé dans notre patrie, mais il en eft parti.

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Quel eft, ajouta auffitôt Télémaque, cet homme fi trifte, qui cherche les lieux les plus déferts en attendant que votre vaiffeau parte? C'eft, répondit le vieillard, un étranger qui nous est inconnu. Mais on dit qu'il fe nomme Cléoménes; qu'il est né en Phrygie; qu'un oracle avoit prédit à fa mere avant fa naiffance qu'il feroit roi, pourvu qu'il ne demeurât point dans fa patrie, & que s'il y demeuroit, la colere des Dieux fe feroit fentir aux Phrygiens par une cruelle pefte. Dès qu'il fut né, fes parens le donnerent à des matelots qui le porterent dans l'ifle de Lesbos. Il y fut nourri en fecret aux dépens de fa patrie, qui avoit un fi grand intérêt de le tenir éloigné. Bientôt il devint grand, robuste, agréable, & adroit à tous les exercices du corps. Il s'appliqua inême, avec beaucoup de goût & de génie, aux fciences & aux beaux arts: mais on ne put le fouffrir dans aucun pays. La prédiction faite fur lui devint célébre: on le reconnut bientôt par-tout où il alla : partout les rois craignoient qu'il ne leur enlevât leurs dia

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and treachery? The prince should expect nothing from them but what he has taught them to do. But on the contrary, if he endeavoured by his own example and authority to render them virtuous, he would find the fruits of his labour in their virtues or at least he would find in his own and in the friendship of the Gods, wherewithal to comfort himself under all his disappointments.

This difcourfe was hardly ended, when Telemachus haftened towards the Phæacians, whofe ship was anchored on the shore. He addressed himself to an old man amongst them, and asked him whence they came, whither they were bound, and if they had not feen Ulyffes. The old man replied. We come from our own ifland, which is that of the Pheacians, we are going to Epirus for merchandize and Ulyffes, as you have already been told, came into our country, but is departed from it.

Telemachus immediately added, Who is that melancholy man who feeks the moft folitary places while he waits for the departure of your veffel? He is, replied the old man, a stranger that is unknown to us. But is faid that his name is Cleomenes; that he was born in Phrygia; that an oracle foretold his mother before his birth that he would be a king, provided he did not remain in his own country; and that if he did remain there, the wrath of the Gods would fall on the Phrygians in a dreadful peftilence. As foon as he was born, his Parents delivred him to certain mariners, who carried him to the island of Lesbos, where he was privately brought up at the expence of his country, which had fo great an inte reft to keep him at a distance. He foon grew tall, robust, handfome, and expert in all exercifes of the body. He even applied himfelf with great taste and genius to the fciences and the liberal arts; but he was not fuffered to ftay in any country.. The prediction concerning him became famous; he was prefently known wherever he went, and kings were every where afraid that he would wreft their crowns from them. Thus has he been a wanderer from his

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dêmes. Ainfi il eft errant depuis fa jeuneffe, & il ne peut trouver aucun lieu du monde, où il lui foit libre de s'arrêter. Il a fouvent paffé chez des peuples fort éloignés du fien, mais à peine eft-il, arrivé dans une ville qu'on y découvre fa naiffance, & l'oracle qui le regarde. Il a beau fe cacher & choifir en chaque lieu quelque genre de vie obfcure, fes talents éclatent, dit-on, toujours malgré lui, & pour la guerre, & pour les lettres, & pour les affaires les plus importantes: il fe préfente toujours en chaque pays quelque occafion imprévue qui l'entraîne, & qui le fait connoître au public. C'eft fon mérite qui fait fon malheur; il le fait craindre & l'exclud de tous les pays où il veut habiter. Sa deftinée est d'être eftimé, aimé, admiré par-tout, mais rejetté de toutes les terres connues. Il n'eft plus jeune, & cependant il n'a pu encore trouver aucune côte, ni de l'Afte ni de la Grece, où l'on ait voulu le laiffer vivre en quelque repos. Il paroît fans ambition, & il ne cherche aucune fortune. Il fe trouveroit trop heureux, que l'oracle ne lui eût jamais promis la royauté. Il ne lui refte aucune efpérance de revoir jamais fa patrie; car il fait qu'il ne pourroit porter que le deuil & les larmes dans toutes les familles. La royauté même, pour laquelle il fouffre, ne lui paroît point défirable; il court malgré lui après elle, par une trifte fatalité, de royaume en royaume, & elle femble fuir devant lui, pour fe jouer de ce malheureux jufqu'à fa vieilleffe. Funefte préfent des Dieux qui trouble tous fes plus beaux jours, & qui ne lui caufe que des peines, dans l'âge où l'homme infirme n'a plus befoin que de repos. Il s'en va, dit-il, vers la Thrace chercher quelque peuple fauvage & fans loix, qu'il puiffe affembler, policer, & gouverner pendant quelques années; après quoi l'oracle étant accompli, on n'aura plus rien à craindre de lui dans les royaumes les plus floriflans. Il compte alors de fe retirer dans un village de Carie, où il s'adonnera à l'agriculture, qu'il aime paffionné ment, C'est un homme fage & modéré qui craint

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birth, and can find no part of the world, where he may have the liberty to fettle. He has often travelled into nations the most remote from his own; but he hardly arrives in any city before his birth and the oracle concerning him are difcovered. He in vain hides himself, and chufes in every place fome obfcure kind of life; his talents for war, letters, and the most important affairs shine forth, they fay whether he will or not; there always offers in every country fome unforeseen occafion which gets the better of him, and makes him known to the public. His merit is the caufe of his misfortune; it makes him feared, and excludes him from all places where he attempts to refide. It is his fate to be every where efteemed, beloved, admired, but expelled from all the known countries in the world. He is not young, and yet has he not hitherto been able to find any coaft, either of Afia or Greece, where they would fuffer him to live in peace. He feems to have no ambition, and does not aim at greatnefs; he would be very happy, had not the oracle promifed him a crown. He defpairs of ever feeing his country again; for he knows that he should carry nothing but mourning and tears into every family. A crown itfelf, the caufe of his fufferings, feems not defirable to him; he pursues it contrary to his own inclinations, through a fad fatality, from kingdom to kingdom, and it feems to fly before him, in order to mock this unhappy man even to his old age. Fatal gift of the Gods, which clouds his brightest days, and caufes him nothing but pain, at a time when feeble man needs nothing but reft! He is going, he fays, to Thrace in queft of fome favage lawless people, whom he may affemble, civilize, and govern for fome years; after which, the oracle being accomplished, the moft flourishing kingdoms will have nothing to apprehend from him. He defigns then to retire to fome village of Caria, where he will devote himself to agriculture, of which he is paffionately fond. He is a wife and fober man, who fears the Gods who has a thorough knowledge of man

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