Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/29

 his uninterrupted Series of Success. You will run over his Battles. You will call to mind the Carnage which was made. You will give a Glance of the Whole, and you will agree with me; that to form this Hero no less than twelve hundred thousand Lives must have been sacrificed; but no sooner had he fallen himself a Sacrifice to his Vices, than a thousand Breaches were made for Ruin to enter, and give the last hand to this Scene of Misery and Destruction. His Kingdom was rent and divided; which served to employ the more distinct Parts to tear each other to Pieces, and bury the whole in Blood and Slaughter. The Kings of Syria and of Egypt, the Kings of Pergamus and Macedon, without Intermission worried each other for above two hundred Years; until at last a strong Power arising in the West, rushed in upon them and silenced their Tumuls, by involving all the contending Parties in the same Destruction. It is little to say, that the Contentions between the Successors of