The epistles of Phalaris translated into English from the original Greek by S. Whately ... ; to which is added Sir W. Temple's Character of the epistles of Phalaris ; together with an appendix of some other epistles lately discovered in a French ms.

Ep. 38. To Demoteles.

V. Ep. 61.

I Forgive you your good Advice. You that have never been a Tyrant your self, counsel Him that is one, to lay aside his Usurped power, and return to the condition of a Private Man. Had some of the Gods joyned with you, and of∣fered me their Bond to save me Harm∣less, then perhaps I might have been tempted to have hearkned to you. But when you think your own single word a Security sufficient for me in a matter of this Consequence, you shew how lit∣tle you Understand the World; who know not how much greater Hazard a man runs in Laying down such a Power, after once he hath taken it up, than he did in first Assuming it. For as a Pri∣vate man is safer while he still keeps him∣self a Private man, than when he makes himself a Tyrant: So he that hath once made himself a Tyrant, can never be

Safely any other than a Tyrant. So that upon the whole, by the same Rule we may judge of the Fate of being a Tyrant, as we may of the Fate of all Mankind in respect of their being Born into the world, and leading their lives in it. For as, had it been possible for a man to have foreseen* 1.1 before his Birth, the miseries he must have run through in this World, he would never by his good will have been born into it; so neither could a private man Foresee the Unhappiness of being a Tyrant, would he ever covet to change his Private condition for that of a Sove∣raign. Thus, Demoteles, I think it had been Better for every man never to have been Born, than to have been Born, and for every private man never to have been a Tyrant, than to have been a Ty∣rant. Had therefore your Counsel came in Time, and given me before-hand a True Knowledge of the many Mischiefs I should find in being a Tyrant, I had been ruled by you, and never quitted my private Station. But since I now unhap∣pily am a Tyrant, and have thereby (as it is impossible it should be otherwise) ran into some excesses, and made my self † 1.2 many Enemies; neither shall You, nor Any man else,* 1.3 nor all the Gods in

Heaven perswade we to strip my self of my power, and so lye at the Mercy of them who now lye at mine: which, when once I do, I well know how short a time I have to Live, and how Cruel a death to Dye.

Notes

• * 1.1

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. I have but one Copy by me, and it may be a 'scape of the Press. I doubt not but the true Lection is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• † 1.2

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. But I have ta∣ken in both senses.
• * 1.3

  Vid. Not, Ox. in loc