[The story of the sepulchral monument with its cynical inscription rests on the authority of Aristobulus, who served under Alexander, and wrote his history. The passage is quoted by Strabo (lib. xiv. ed. 1808, p. 958), and as follows by Athenæus (lib. xii. cap. 40) in the _Deipnosophistæ_: "And Aristobulus says, 'In Anchiale, which was built by Sardanapalus, did Alexander, when he was on his expedition against the Persians, pitch his camp. And at no great distance was the monument of Sardanapalus, on which there is a marble figure putting together the fingers of its right hand, as if it were giving a fillip. And there was on it the following inscription in Assyrian characters:-- Sardanapalus The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes, In one day built Anchiale and Tarsus: Eat, drink, and love, the rest's not worth e'en this.' By '_this_' meaning the fillip he was giving with his fingers." "We may conjecture," says Canon Rawlinson, "that the monument was in reality a stele containing the king [Sennacherib] in an arched frame, with the right hand raised above the left, which is the ordinary attitude, and an inscription commemorating the occasion of its erection" [the conquest of Cilicia and settlement of Tarsus].--_The Five Great Monarchies, etc._, 1871, ii. 216.] [11] {25}[Compare "Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots."--_Hamlet_. act iv. sc. 3, lines 21-23.] [12] {27}[Compare--"The fickle reek of popular breath." _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza clxxi. line 2.] [13] Compare--"I have not flattered its rank breath." _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza cxiii. line 2. Compare, too, Shakespeare, _Coriolanus_, act iii. sc. i, lines 66, 67. [14] {28}["Rode. Winter's wind somewhat more unkind than ingratitude itself, though Shakespeare says otherwise. At least, I am so much more accustomed to meet with ingratitude than the north wind, that I thought the latter the sharper of the two. I had met with both in the course of the twenty-four hours, so could judge."--_Extracts from a Diary_, January 19, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 177.] [g] {31} ----_and even dared_ _Profane our presence with his savage jeers_.--[MS. M.] [h] {34} _Who loved no gems so well as those of nature_.--[MS. M.] [i] _Wishing eternity to dust_----.--[MS. M.] [j] {38} _Each twinkle unto which Time trembles, and_ _Nations grow nothing_----.--[MS. M. erased.] [15] {40}[Compare "these swoln silkworms," _Marino Faliero_, act ii. sc. 2. line 115, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 386, note 4.] [k] {43} _But found the Monarch claimed his privacy_.--[MS. M. erased.] [l] ----_not else_ _It quits this living hand_.--[MS. M. erased.] [m] _I know them beautiful, and see them brilliant_.--[MS. M. erased.] [n] {49} ----_by the foolish confidence_.--[MS. M. erased.]