Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/27

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[17]

much fury, and with various Success. This ends in an Account of her Retreat, with scarce a third of the Troops employed in the Expedition; an Expedition, which at this rate must have cost two Millions of Souls on her part; and it is not unreasonable to judge that the Country which was the Seat of War, must have been an equal Sufferer. Its Loss must in this way of Computation be two Millions more. So that in this War alone, (for she had other Wars) in this single Reign, and in this one Spot of the Globe, did four Millions of Souls expire, with all the horrid and shocking Circumstances which attend all Wars, and in a Quarrel, in which none of the Sufferers cou'd have the least rational Concern.

The Babylonian, Assyrian, Median, and Persian Monarchies must have poured out Seas of Blood in their Formation, and in their Destruction. The Armies and Fleets of Xerxes, their Numbers, the gloriousStand