ACT V.-SCENE I.

CATO alone, &c.

'It must be so-Plato, thou reason'st well-
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread and inward horror,
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;

'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.

Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought!

'Through what variety of untry'd being,
Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
The wide, th' unbounded prospect lies before me;
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.
Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us,
(And that there is all Nature cries aloud

Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue;
And that which he delights in must be happy.

But when or where?-This world was made for Cæsar.
I'm weary of conjectures-This must end them.

[Laying his hand on his sword.

'Thus am I doubly arm'd; my death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me.
This in a moment brings me to an end;
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul secur'd in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,

Unhurt amidst the war of elements,

The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.'

the honour of being assured by Mr. Walpole that it was the work of Bland; and that he has more than once heard his father, sir Robert Walpole, say, that it was he himself who gave that translation to Mr. Addison, who was extremely surprised at the fidelity and beauty of it.' J. N.

ADVERTISEMENT.

'Dr. Cairns, a gradual, challenges all the gradual doctors of Great Britain to discourse with him of the nature of metals and their medicinal virtues, and of the universal medicine; and, untill he find one fitter for the title, he declareth himself professor of occult philosophy and alchymy. And in his chamber every Thursday at four o'clock, he will make a discourse of the greatest secrets in nature. He expected and invited the most learned audience that the kingdom affords [nam ignoti multa cupido]; and promised a discourse of the greatest secrets in nature, not only suitable to their titles and his, but to the highest attainments of human understanding. Dr. Cairns lives the next door but one to the Ridinghouse in Berwick-street, near Marlborough-street. Each paying half a crown.'-Spect. in folio, No. 606.

No. 629. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1714.

-Experiar quid concedatur in illos,

Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis, atque Latinâ.

Juv. Sat. 1. 170.

-Since none the living dare implead,
Arraign them in the persons of the dead.

DRYDEN.

NEXT to the people who want a place, there are none to be pitied more than those who are solicited for one. A plain answer with a denial in it is looked upon as pride, and a civil answer as a promise.

Nothing is more ridiculous than the pretensions of people upon these occasions. Every thing a man hath suffered, whilst his enemies were in play, was certainly brought about by the malice of the opposite party. A bad cause would not have been lost, if such an one had not been upon the bench; nor a profligate youth disinherited if he had not got drunk every night by toasting an outed ministry. I remember a tory, who, having been fined in a court of justice for a prank that deserved the pillory, de

No. 630, Spect. in folio.

sired upon the merit of it to be made a justice of peace when his friends came into power; and shall never forget a whig criminal, who, upon being indicted for a rape, told his friends, 'You see what a man suffers for sticking to his principles.'

The truth of it is, the sufferings of a man in a party are of a very doubtful nature. When they are such as have promoted a good cause, and fallen upon a man undeservedly, they have a right to be heard and recompensed beyond any other pretensions. But when they rise out of rashness or indiscretion, and the pursuit of such measures as have rather ruined than promoted the interest they aim at, (which hath always been the case of many great sufferers,) they only serve to recommend them to the children of violence or folly.

I have by me a bundle of memorials presented by several cavaliers upon the restoration of king Charles II. which may serve as so many instances to our present purpose.

Among several persons and pretensions recorded by my author, he mentions one of a very great estate, who, for having roasted an ox whole, and distributed a hogshead upon king Charles's birthday, desired to be provided for as his majesty in his great wisdom should think fit.

Another put in to be the prince Henry's governor for having dared to drink his health in the worst of times.

A third petitioned for a colonel's commission for having cursed Oliver Cromwell the day before his death, on a public bowling-green.

But the most whimsical petition I have met with is that of B. B. esq. who desired the honour of

knighthood, for having cuckolded sir T. W. a notorious Roundhead.

There is likewise the petition of one who, having let his beard grow from the martyrdom of king Charles the First till the restoration of king Charles the Second, desired in consideration thereof to be made a privy-counsellor.

I must not omit a memorial setting forth that the memorialist had, with great despatch, carried a letter from a certain lord to a certain lord, wherein, as it afterwards appeared, measures were concerted for the restoration, and without which he verily believes that happy revolution had never been effected; who thereupon humbly prays to be made postmaster-general.

A certain gentleman, who seems to write with a great deal of spirit, and uses the words gallantly and gentleman-like very often in his petition, begs that (in consideration of his having worn his hat for ten years past in the loyal cavalier-cock, to his great danger and detriment) he may be made a captain of the guards.

I shall close my account of this collection of memorials with the copy of one petition at length, which I recommend to my reader as a very valuable piece,

'THAT your petitioner's father's brother's uncle, colonel W. H., lost the third finger of his left hand at Edgehill fight.

'That your petitioner, notwithstanding the small

ness of his fortune (he being a younger brother), always kept hospitality, and drank confusion to the Roundheads in half a score bumpers every Sunday in the year, as several honest gentlemen (whose names are under-written) are ready to testify.

That your petitioner is remarkable in his country, for having dared to treat sir P. P. a cursed sequestrator, and three members of the assembly of divines, with brawn and minced pies upon newyear's day.

'That your said humble petitioner hath been five times imprisoned in five several county-gaols, for having been a ringleader in five different riots; into which his zeal for the royal cause hurried him, when men of greater estates had not the courage to rise.

That he the said E. H. hath had six duels and four and twenty boxing matches in defence of his majesty's title; and 'that he received such a blow upon the head at a bonfire in Stratford upon Avon, as he hath been never the better for from that day to this.

'That your petitioner hath been so far from improving his fortune, in the late damnable times, that he verily believes, and hath good reason to imagine, that if he had been master of an estate, he had infallibly been plundered and sequestered.

'Your petitioner, in consideration of his said merits and sufferings, humbly requests that he may have the place of receiver of the taxes, collector of the customs, clerk of the peace, deputy-lieutenant, or whatsoever else he shall be thought qualified for. And your petitioner shall ever pray, &c.

'A Letter to the late Author of the Spectator, occasioned by his paper of Monday, December 6, 1714, No. 630, 51 pages. Printed for J.