mythological conqueror of the East, whose enchantments reduced
wild beasts to the tameness of domestic cattle, and who harnessed
lions and tigers to his chariot, is but an imperfect type of
those extraordinary minds which have thrown a spell on the fierce
spirits of nations unaccustomed to control, and have compelled
raging factions to obey their reins and swell their triumph. The
enterprise, be it good or bad, is one which requires a truly
great man. It demands courage, activity, energy, wisdom,
firmness, conspicuous virtues, or vices so splendid and alluring
as to resemble virtues.

Those who have succeeded in this arduous undertaking form a very
small and a very remarkable class. Parents of tyranny, heirs of
freedom, kings among citizens, citizens among kings, they unite
in themselves the characteristics of the system which springs
from them, and those of the system from which they have sprung.
Their reigns shine with a double light, the last and dearest rays
of departing freedom mingled with the first and brightest glories
of empire in its dawn. The high qualities of such a prince lend
to despotism itself a charm drawn from the liberty under which
they were formed, and which they have destroyed. He resembles an
European who settles within the Tropics, and carries thither the
strength and the energetic habits acquired in regions more
propitious to the constitution. He differs as widely from princes
nursed in the purple of imperial cradles, as the companions of
Gama from their dwarfish and imbecile progeny, which, born in a
climate unfavourable to its growth and beauty, degenerates more
and more, at every descent, from the qualities of the original
conquerors.