mporary circumstances, have always afforded the
first means of rising to wealth and greatness. The minds of men, in a
poor state, seem never to have neglected an opportunity, presented
either by the one or the other, and they have generally proved
successful, till energy of mind and industry were banished, by the
habits of luxury, negligence, and pride, which accompany, or at least
soon follow, the acquisition of either.

Where wealth has been acquired first, power has generally been
sought for afterwards; and, where power came first, it has always
sought the readiest road to wealth, by attacking those who were in
possession of it.

The nations and cities on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, where
arts and commerce first began, where agriculture flourished, and
population had risen to a high pitch, carried on perpetual struggles to
supplant each other; and, in those struggles, the most wealthy
generally sunk under; till Alexander, the first great conqueror, with
whose history we are tolerably well acquainted, reduced them all to
[end of page #70] his yoke; one small and brave people triumphing
over the Egyptian and Assyrian empires, where wealth and luxury had
already produced their effects.

Though this triumph of poverty over riches was very complete, except
in one single instance, it did not occasion any real change, either in the
abodes of wealth, or the channels of commerce. Tyre, the richest
commercial city till then, was ruined, to make way for the prosperity
of Alexandria, which became the most wealthy; drawing great part of
the commerce from Carthage on the west, and taking the whole from
Rhinocolura on the east: but, in Egypt and Syria, Babylon and
Memphis still remained great cities.

The whole of this ancient world was for a moment under one chief,
but was soon again divided amongst the generals who succeeded to
that great conqueror; and the Egyptian and Persian empires became
rivals, as Egypt and Syria had been before. The Grecian nations still
remained the chief seats of civilization and the fine arts; and this
continued till the Romans, originally a poorer people than the
Macedonians, conquered the whole. This was the second great
triumph of poverty and energy over wealth and grandeur, and, in this
struggle, Greece itself fell.

The effects of wealth were not less formidable to the Romans
themselves, than they had been to those nations they had enabled that
brave and warlike people to conquer;