Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/137

Rh one of Walter Scott's novels, but as a fiction composed with the object of setting forth views on education and politics—we must allow it certain merits. The purity and elegance of its style are universally acknowledged. And it possesses, as Colonel Mure says, an epic unity of action, within which numerous episodes are artistically introduced, some of them quite idyllic in character. It will be sufficient for our purpose to introduce to the reader a few specimens of these, as there would be little use or pleasure in dwelling on the details of the pseudo-historical campaigns of Cyrus.

Xenophon commences by saying that, on reflecting how constantly governments of all kinds are overthrown, he had come to the conclusion that mankind are far harder to govern than cattle or horses, which are easily brought into obedience. One man, however, had possessed, in a pre-eminent degree, the faculty of ruling over his fellow-men, and that was Cyrus the Persian. How Cyrus should have been able to conquer and hold in subjection so large a portion of the world, seemed to him a problem worth investigation. He had made all the inquiries he could about the natural qualities and education which had produced so remarkable a ruler, and would now proceed to state them, as follows:—

Both the historians and the poets of Persia agree in describing Cyrus as beautiful in person, humane in disposition, and so keen in the pursuit both of knowledge and of glory as to endure all labours and encounter all dangers for their sake. The education which he