Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/28

 Stand made against them, and the unfortuate Event of all his mighty Preparations, are known to every body. In this Expedition, gleaning half Asia of it's Inhabitants, he led an Army of about two Millions to be slaughtered, and wasted, by a thousand fatal Accidents, in the same Place where his Predecessors had before by a similar Madness consumed the Flower of so many Kingdoms, and wasted the Force of so extensive an Empire. It is a cheap Calculation to say, that the Persian Empire in it's Wars, against the Greeks, and Sythians, threw away at least four Millions of their Subjects, to say nothing of their other Wars, and the Losses sustained in them. These were their Losses abroad; but the War was brought home to them, first by Agesilaus, and afterwards, by Alexander. I have not, in this Retreat, the Books necessary to make very exact Calculations; nor is it necessary to give more than Hints to one of your Lordship's Erudition. You will recollect