ABSTRACT
A discourse on Operas, and the gayer pleasures of the town, may seem to be too trifling for the important scene of affairs, in which we are at present engaged; but I must own my fears, that they will bear too great a part in the success of a war, to make the consideration of them foreign to it. A very little reflection on history will suggest this observation, that every nation has made either a great or inconsiderable figure in the world, as it has fallen into luxury or resisted its temptations. What people are more distinguished than the Persians under Cyrus, nursed up in virtue, and inured to labor and toil? Yet (in the short space of 220 years * ) they became so contemptible under Darius, as scarce to give honor to the conqueror’s sword. The Spartans, and the long-rulers of the world, the Romans, speak the same language; and I wish future history may not furnish more modern examples.
