Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/87

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( 77 )

¬ments. — He complained of the hostile armies which were surrounding his territories, and painted with but too prophetic a pencil the cala- mities impending over the nations that were assembling them ; yet asked nothing for himself or for his people, than as they themselves should preserve peace, and respect the independence of all other nations. I will translate for you here- after into the English language the whole of this pathetic supplication, with the answer to it, which I shall at present only abridge. — You ought to carry them into your own world, if you ever shall return to it, as the greatest curiosity that can be furnished by our's, or per- haps amongst all those that are now twinkling over our heads, even if they were to raise one by way of subscription through infinite space. — Perhaps the most curious part of the latter composition is, that the ink was not frozen in writing it. — It was a grand effort for an able statesman capable of saying every thing, to succeed so perfectly in saying nothing, and with the ¬strongest ¬