108 TIMOLEON.

by the familiarity acquired in writing, to habituate my memory to receive and I'etain images of the best and worthiest characters. I thus am enabled to free myself from any ignoble, base, or vicious impressions, contracted from the contagion of ill company that I may be una- voidably engaged in, by the remedy of turning my thoughts in a happy and calm temper to view these noble examples. Of this kind are those of Timoleon the Co- rinthian, and Paulas Emilias, to write whose lives is my present business ; men equally famous, not only for their virtues, but success ; insomuch that they have left it doubtful whether they owe their greatest achievements to good fortune, or their own prudence and conduct. The aflairs of the Syracusans, before Timoleon was sent into Sicily, were in this posture : after Dion had driven out Dionysius the tyrant, he was slain by treach- ery, and those that had assisted him in delivering Syra- cuse were divided among themselves ; and thus the city, by a continual change of governors, and a train of mia- chiefs that succeeded each other, became almost aban- doned; while of the rest of Sicily, part was now utterly depopulated and desolate through long continuance of war, and most of the cities that had been left standing were in the hands of barbarians and soldiers out of em- ployment, that were ready to embrace every turn of government. Such being the state of things, Dionysius takes the opportunity, and in the tenth year of his ban- ishment, by the help of some mercenary troops he had got together, forces out Nysaeus, then master of S}Tacuse, recovers all afresh, and is again settled in his dominion ; and as at first he had been strangely deprived of the greatest and most absolute power that ever was, by a very small party, so now in a yet stranger manner, when in exile and of mean condition, he became the sovereign of those who had ejected him. All, therefore, that re-