Tho' it is a very hard Matter to distinguish the _Grand_ from the _Noble_ in the Manner of Thinking, yet we shall endeavour it by the following Examples; and sure nothing can be more _Grand_, than the Saying of _Alexander the Great_, to the Greatest of his Captains _Parmenio_, _Darius_, King of _Persia_, having offer'd the _Macedonian_ Monarch half _Asia_ in Marriage with his Daughter _Statira_. _As for me_, says _Parmenio_, _if I were_ Alexander, _I would accept of these Offers_: _And so would I_, reply'd that Prince, _If I were_ Parmenio. But why should we be always dealing in _Heroicks_, and running back into Antiquity to borrow Example from the Conquerors of the World. Why may not we propose one in the lowest Life, which will at the same Time prove, that the Excellencies of both Thought and Expression are in Nature, and not in the Rules of Art only. A Sergeant of the Guards, _What a terrible Fall is this, from_ Alexander the Great, _to a Sergeant of the Guards!_ who was in the last Attack upon the Castle of _Namur_ in King _William_'s War, after he had fir'd his Grenades at the Enemy behind the Palisadoes, leapt over them, and had been slaughter'd, had not a _French_ Officer prevented it. The Sergeant being a Prisoner in the Castle was sent for by the Governour Count _Guiscard_, and the Mareschal _de Boufflers_. The Latter demanding how he durst attempt to leap the Palisadoes with the Enemy behind them, when he could hardly have done it had there been none? _Perhaps, Sir, I might not,_ reply'd the brave _English_ Soldier, _but there is nothing too difficult for me to come at my Enemy._ A Saying worthy of _Alexander_ or _Cæsar_, of _Marlborough_ or _Eugene_. I have seen something like these Verses of Mr. _Waller_'s, quoted as in the grand Way of Thinking: _Great_ Maro _could no greater Tempest feign, When the loud Winds usurping on the Main, For angry_ Juno _labour'd to destroy The hated Relicks of confounded_ Troy. But the Image, as grand as it is, does not seem to be so noble as the Instances before-mentioned; there is too much Terrour in it to participate of that Kind of Thought, which is not confident with what is terrible. I cannot help thinking there is something _Grand_ in this _Epitaph_: _Underneath this Marble Hearse, Lies the Subject of all Verse;_ Sidney_'s Sister,_ Pembroke_'s Mother, Death 'ere thou hast kill'd another, Fair and learn'd, and good as she, Time shall throw a Dart at thee._