[Term of the Conquest of Timour, or Tamerlane; his Triumph at Samarcand; his Death on the Road to China (A. D. 1405); Character and Merits of Timour.]

nance that painted every sensation of the soul, and his gestures that enforced each expression of the tongue. In the familiar offices of life he scrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremonious politeness of his country: his respectful attention to the rich and powerful was dignified by his condescension and affability to the poorest citizens of Mecca; the frankness of his manner concealed the artifice of his views; and the habits of courtesy were imputed to personal friendship or universal benevolence. His memory was capacious and retentive, his wit easy and social, his imagination sublime, his judgment clear, rapid, and decisive. He possessed the courage both of thought and action; and although his designs might gradually expand with his success, the first idea which he entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original and superior genius. The son of Abdallah was educated in the bosom of the noblest race, in the use of the purest dialect of Arabia; and the fluency of his speech was corrected and enhanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these powers of eloquence, Mahomet was an illiterate bar-withheld the transports, which Timour demanded of barian; his youth had never been instructed in the arts of reading and writing; the common ignorance exempted him from shame or reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle of existence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors which reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of man was open to his view; and some fancy has been indulged in the political and philosophical observations which are ascribed to the Arabian traveller. He compares the nations and religions of the earth; discovers the weakness of the Persian and Roman monarchies; beholds with pity and indignation the degeneracy of the times; and resolves to unite, under one God and one king, the invincible spirit and primitive virtues of the Arabs. Our more accurate inquiry will suggest, that instead of visiting the courts, the camps, the temples of the east, the two journeys of Mahomet into Syria were confined to the fairs of Bostra and Damascus ; that he was only thirteen years of age when he accompanied the caravan of his uncle, and that his duty compelled him to return as soon as he had disposed of the merchandise of Cadijah. In these hasty and superficial excursions, the eye of genius might discern some objects invisible to his grosser companions; some seeds of knowledge might be cast upon a fruitful soil; but his ignorance of the Syriac language must have checked his curiosity, and I cannot perceive in the life or writings of Mahomet that his prospect was far extended beyond the limits of the Arabian world. From every region of that solitary world the pilgrims of Mecca were annually assembled, by the calls of devotion and commerce: in the free concourse of multitudes, a simple citizen, in his native tongue, might study the political state and character of the tribes, the theory and practice of the Jews and Christians. Some useful strangers might be tempted or forced to implore the rites of hospitality; and the enemies of Mahomet have named the Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian monk, whom they accuse of lending their secret aid to the composition of the Koran. Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius; and the uniformity of a work denotes the hand of a single artist. From his earliest youth Mahomet was addicted to religious contemplation each year, during the month of Ramadan, he withdrew from the world and from the arms of Cadijah: in the cave of Hera, three miles from Mecca, he consulted the spirit of fraud or enthusiasm, whose abode is not in the heavens but in the mind of the prophet. The faith which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation, is compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary fiction that there is only one God, and that Mahomet is the apostle of God.

From the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the Ganges to Damascus and the Archipe lago, Asia was in the hand of Timour; his armies were invincible, his ambition was boundless, and his zeal might aspire to conquer and convert the Christian kingdoms of the west, which already trembled at his name. He touched the utmost verge of the land; but an insuperable though narrow sea rolled between the two continents of Europe and Asia, and the lord of so many tomans, or myriads of horse, was not master of a single galley. The two passages of the Bosphorus and Hellespont, of Constantinople and Gallipoli, were possessed, the one by the Christians, the other by the Turks. On this great occasion they forgot the difference of religion, to act with union and firmness in the common cause: the double straits were guarded with ships and fortifications; and they separately either nation, under the pretence of attacking their enemy. At the same time they soothed his pride with tributary gifts and suppliant embassies, and prudently tempted him to retreat with the honours of victory. Soliman, the son of Bajazet, implored his clemency for his father and himself; accepted, by a red patent, the investiture of the kingdom of Romania, which he already held by the sword; and reiterated his ardent wish, of casting himself in person at the feet of the king of the world. The Greek emperor (either John or Manuel) submitted to pay the same tribute which he had stipulated with the Turkish sultan, and ratified the treaty by an oath of allegiance, from which he could absolve his conscience so soon as the Mogul arms had retired from Anatolia. But the fears and fancy of nations ascribed to the ambitious Tamerlane a new design of vast and romantic compass-a design of subduing Egypt and Africa, marching from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, entering Europe by the straits of Gibraltar, and, after imposing his yoke on the kingdoms of Christendom, of returning home by the deserts of Russia and Tartary. This remote and perhaps imaginary danger was averted by the submission of the sultan of Egypt; the honours of the prayer and the coin attested at Cairo the su premacy of Timour; and a rare gift of a giraffe, or camelopard, and nine ostriches, represented at Samarcand the tribute of the African world. Our imagination is not less astonished by the portrait of a Mogul who, in his camp before Smyrna, meditates and almost accomplishes the invasion of the Chinese empire. Timour was urged to this enterprise by national honour and religious zeal. The torrents which he had shed of Mussulman blood could be expiated only by an equal destruction of the infidels; and as he now stood at the gates of paradise, he might best secure his glorious entrance by demolishing the idols of China, founding mosques in every city, and establishing the profession of faith in one God and his prophet Mahomet. The recent expulsion of the house of Zingis was an insult on the Mogul name; and the disorders of the empire afforded the fairest opportunity for revenge. The illustrious Hongvou, founder of the dynasty of Ming, died four years before the battle of Angora; and his grandson, a weak and unfortunate youth, was burnt in his palace, after a million of Chinese had perished in the civil war. Before he evacuated Anatolia, Timour despatched beyond the Sihoon a numerous army, or rather colony, of his old and new subjects, to open the road, to subdue the pagan Calmucks and Mungals, and to found cities and magazines in the desert; and by the diligence of his lieutenant, he soon received a perfect map and description of the unknown regions, from the source

of the Irtish to the wall of China. During these preparations, the emperor achieved the final conquest of Georgia, passed the winter on the banks of the Araxes, appeased the troubles of Persia, and slowly returned to his capital, after a campaign of four years and nine months.

gree by the praise or confession of his bitterest enemies. Although he was lame of a hand and foot, his form and stature were not unworthy of his rank; and his vigorous health, so essential to himself and to the world, was corroborated by temperance and exercise. In his familiar discourse he was grave and modest, On the throne of Samarcand, he displayed in a and if he was ignorant of the Arabic language, he short repose his magnificence and power; listened to spoke with fluency and elegance the Persian and the complaints of the people, distributed a just mea- Turkish idioms. It was his delight to converse with sure of rewards and punishments, employed his riches the learned on topics of history and science; and the in the architecture of palaces and temples, and gave amusement of his leisure hours was the game of chess, audience to the ambassadors of Egypt, Arabia, India, which he improved or corrupted with new refinements. Tartary, Russia, and Spain, the last of whom pre- In his religion he was a zealous, though not perhaps sented a suit of tapestry which eclipsed the pencil of an orthodox, Mussulman; but his sound understandthe oriental artists. The marriage of six of the em- ing may tempt us to believe that a superstitious reverperor's grandsons was esteemed an act of religion as ence for omens and prophesies, for saints and astrowell as of paternal tenderness; and the pomp of the logers, was only affected as an instrument of policy. ancient caliphs was revived in their nuptials. They In the government of a vast empire he stood alone were celebrated in the gardens of Canighul, decorated and absolute, without a rebel to oppose his power, a with innumerable tents and pavilions, which displayed favourite to seduce his affections, or a minister to the luxury of a great city and the spoils of a victo- mislead his judgment. It was his firmest maxim, rious camp. Whole forests were cut down to supply that, whatever might be the consequence, the word of fuel for the kitchens; the plain was spread with pyra- the prince should never be disputed or recalled; but mids of meat and vases of every liquor, to which his foes have maliciously observed, that the commands thousands of guests were courteously invited; the of anger and destruction were more strictly executed orders of the state, and the nations of the earth, were than those of beneficence and favour. His sons and marshalled at the royal banquet; nor were the am- grandsons, of whom Timour left six-and-thirty at his bassadors of Europe (says the haughty Persian) ex- decease, were his first and most submissive subjects; cluded from the feast; since even the casses, the and whenever they deviated from their duty, they smallest of fish, find their place in the ocean. The were corrected, according to the laws of Zingis, with public joy was testified by illuminations and mas- the bastonnade, and afterwards restored to honour and querades; the trades of Samarcand passed in review; command. Perhaps his heart was not devoid of the and every trade was emulous to execute some quaint social virtues; perhaps he was not incapable of loving device, some marvellous pageant, with the materials his friends and pardoning his enemies; but the rules of their peculiar art. After the marriage-contracts of morality are founded on the public interest; and had been ratified by the cadhis, the bridegrooms and it may be sufficient to applaud the wisdom of a their brides retired to the nuptial chambers; nine monarch for the liberality by which he is not imtimes, according to the Asiatic fashion, they were poverished, and for the justice by which he is dressed and undressed; and at each change of apparel, strengthened and enriched. To maintain the harpearls and rubies were showered on their heads, and mony of authority and obedience, to chastise the contemptuously abandoned to their attendants. A proud, to protect the weak, to reward the deserving, general indulgence was proclaimed; every law was to banish vice and idleness from his dominions, to relaxed, every pleasure was allowed; the people were secure the traveller and merchant, to restrain the free, the sovereign was idle; and the historian of depredations of the soldier, to cherish the labours of Timour may remark, that, after devoting fifty years the husbandman, to encourage industry and learning, to the attainment of empire, the only happy period and, by an equal and moderate assessment, to inof his life was the two months in which he ceased to crease the revenue without increasing the taxes, are exercise his power. But he was soon awakened to indeed the duties of a prince; but, in the discharge the cares of government and war. The standard of these duties, he finds an ample and immediate rewas unfurled for the invasion of China; the emirs compense. Timour might boast that, at his accession made their report of two hundred thousand, the select to the throne, Asia was the prey of anarchy and and veteran soldiers of Iran and Touran; their bag- rapine, whilst under his prosperous monarchy a child, gage and provisions were transported by five hundred fearless and unhurt, might carry a purse of gold from great wagons, and an immense train of horses and the east to the west. Such was his confidence of camels; and the troops might prepare for a long merit, that from this reformation he derived an absence, since more than six months were employed excuse for his victories, and a title to universal in the tranquil journey of a caravan from Samarcand dominion. The four following observations will to Pekin. Neither age nor the severity of the winter serve to appreciate his claim to the public gratitude; could retard the impatience of Timour; he mounted and perhaps we shall conclude, that the Mogul emon horseback, passed the Sihoon on the ice, marched peror was rather the scourge than the benefactor of seventy-six parasangs (three hundred miles) from his mankind. 1. If some partial disorders, some local capital, and pitched his last camp in the neighbour-oppressions, were healed by the sword of Timour, the hood of Otrar, where he was expected by the angel of remedy was far more pernicious than the disease. By death. Fatigue, and the indiscreet use of iced water, their rapine, cruelty, and discord, the petty tyrants accelerated the progress of his fever; and the con- of Persia might afflict their subjects; but whole queror of Asia expired in the seventieth year of his nations were crushed under the footsteps of the reage, thirty-five years after he had ascended the throne former. The ground which had been occupied by of Zagatai. His designs were lost; his armies were flourishing cities was often marked by his abominable disbanded; China was saved; and fourteen years trophies by columns or pyramids of human heads. after his decease, the most powerful of his children Astracan, Carizme, Delhi, Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo, sent an embassy of friendship and commerce to the Damascus, Boursa, Smyrna, and a thousand others, court of Pekin. were sacked, or burned, or utterly destroyed in his presence, and by his troops; and perhaps his conscience would have been startled if a priest or philosopher had dared to number the millions of victims whom he had sacrificed to the establishment of peace

The fame of Timour has pervaded the east and west; his posterity is still invested with the imperial title; and the admiration of his subjects, who revered him almost as a deity, may be justified in some de

reward, the talents of a Christian engineer. The Genoese, who transported Amurath into Europe, must be accused as his preceptors; and it was probably by their hands that his cannon was cast and directed at the siege of Constantinople. The first attempt was indeed unsuccessful; but in the general warfare of the age, the advantage was on their side who were most commonly the assailants; for a while the proportion of the attack and defence was suspended; and this thundering artillery was pointed against the walls and towers which had been erected only to resist the less potent engines of antiquity. By the Venetians, the use of gunpowder was communicated without reproach to the sultans of Egypt and Persia, their allies against the Ottoman power; the secret was soon propagated to the extremities of Asia; and the advantage of the European was confined to his easy victrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery with the slow and laborious advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace, a philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or weep at the folly of mankind.

and order. 2. His most destructive wars were rather inroads than conquests. He invaded Turkestan, Kipzak, Russia, Hindostan, Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and Georgia, without a hope or a desire of preserving those distant provinces. From thence he departed laden with spoil; but he left behind him neither troops to awe the contumacious, nor magistrates to protect the obedient natives. When he had broken the fabric of their ancient government, he abandoned them to the evils which his invasion had aggravated or caused; nor were these evils compensated by any present or possible benefits. 3. The kingdoms of Transoxiana and Persia were the proper field which he laboured to cultivate and adorn, as the perpetual inheritance of his family. But his peaceful labours were often interrupted, and sometimes blasted, by the absence of the conqueror. While he triumphed on the Volga or the Ganges, his servants, and even histories over the savages of the new world. If we consons, forgot their master and their duty. The public and private injuries were poorly redressed by the tardy rigour of inquiry and punishment; and we must be content to praise the institutions of Timour as the specious idea of a perfect monarchy. 4. Whatsoever might be the blessings of his administration, they evaporated with his life. To reign, rather than to [Letter of Gibbon to Mrs Porten-Account of his Mode govern, was the ambition of his children and grandchildren, the enemies of each other and of the people. A fragment of the empire was upheld with some glory by Sharokh, his youngest son; but after his decease, the scene was again involved in darkness and blood; and before the end of a century, Transoxiana and Persia were trampled by the Uzbecks from the north, and the Turkmans of the black and white sheep. The race of Timour would have been extinct, if a hero, his descendant in the fifth degree, had not fled before the Uzbek arms to the conquest of Hindostan. His successors (the great Moguls) extended their sway from the mountains of Cashmir to Cape Comorin, and from Candahar to the Gulf of Bengal. Since the reign of Aurungzebe, their empire has been dissolved; their treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a Persian robber; and the richest of their kingdoms is now possessed by a company of Christian merchants, of a remote island in the northern ocean.

[Invention and Use of Gunpowder.]

of Life at Lausanne.]

December 27, 1783.

The unfortunate are loud and loquacious in their complaints, but real happiness is content with its own silent enjoyment; and if that happiness is of a quiet uniform kind, we suffer days and weeks to elapse without communicating our sensations to a distant friend. By you, therefore, whose temper and understanding have extracted from human life, on every occasion, the best and most comfortable ingredients, my silence will always be interpreted as an evidence of content, and you would only be alarmed (the danger is not at hand) by the too frequent repetition of my letters. Perhaps I should have continued to slumber, I don't know how long, had I not been awakened by the anxiety which you express in your last letter.

From this base subject I descend to one which more seriously and strongly engages your thoughts-the consideration of my health and happiness. And you will give me credit when I assure you, with sincerity, that I have not repented a single moment of the step The only hope of salvation for the Greek empire which I have taken, and that I only regret the not and the adjacent kingdoms, would have been some having executed the same design two, or five, or even more powerful weapon, some discovery in the art of ten years ago. By this time I might have returned war, that should give them a decisive superiority over independent and rich to my native country; I should their Turkish foes. Such a weapon was in their have escaped many disagreeable events that have hands; such a discovery had been made in the criti-happened in the meanwhile, and I should have avoided cal moment of their fate. The chemists of China or Europe had found, by casual or elaborate experiments, that a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal, produces, with a spark of fire, a tremendous explosion. It was soon observed, that if the expansive force were compressed in a strong tube, a ball of stone or iron might be expelled with irresistible and destructive velocity. The precise era of the invention and application of gunpowder is involved in doubtful traditions and equivocal language; yet we may clearly discern that it was known before the middle of the fourteenth century; and that before the end of the same, the use of artillery in battles and sieges, by sea and land, was familiar to the states of Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and England. The priority of nations is of small account; none could derive any exclusive benefit from their previous or superior knowledge; and in the common improvement, they stood on the same level of relative power and military science. Nor was it possible to circumscribe the secret within the pale of the church; it was disclosed to the Turks by the treachery of apostates and the selfish policy of rivals; and the sultans had sense to adopt, and wealth to

the parliamentary life, which experience has proved
to be neither suitable to my temper nor conducive to
my fortune. In speaking of the happiness which I
enjoy, you will agree with me in giving the preference
to a sincere and sensible friend; and though you
cannot discern the full extent of his merit, you will
easily believe that Deyverdun is the man. Perhaps
two persons so perfectly fitted to live together were
never formed by nature and education. We have
both read and seen a great variety of objects; the
lights and shades of our different characters are hap-
pily blended; and a friendship of thirty years has
taught us to enjoy our mutual advantages, and to
support our unavoidable imperfections. In love and
marriage some harsh sounds will sometimes interrupt
the harmony, and in the course of time, like our
neighbours, we must expect some disagreeable mo-
ments; but confidence and freedom are the two pillars
of our union, and I am much mistaken if the building
be not solid and comfortable.
In this season

*

I rise (not at four in the morning, but) a little before eight; at nine I am called from my study to breakfast, which I always perform alone, in the English

But what ought we to read? Each individual must answer this question for himself, agreeably to the object of his studies. The only general precept that I would venture to give, is that of Pliny, 'to read much, rather than many things;' to make a careful selection of the best works, and to render them famiReading is to the mind,' said the Duke of Vivonne liar to us by attentive and repeated perusals. Without to Louis XIV., what your partridges are to my chops.' expatiating on the authors so generally known and It is, in fact, the nourishment of the mind; for by approved, I would simply observe, that in matters of reading we know our Creator, his works, ourselves reasoning, the best are those who have augmented the chiefly, and our fellow-creatures. But this nourish-number of useful truths; who have discovered truths, ment is easily converted into poison. Salmasius had read as much as Grotius, perhaps more; but their different modes of reading made the one an enlightened philosopher, and the other, to speak plainly, a pedant, puffed up with a useless erudition.