fpective manners of behaviour, as we fecretly believe the part of the dying perfon imitable by ourselves, or such as we imagine ourselves more particularly capable of. Men of exalted minds march before us like princes, and are, to the ordinary race of mankind, rather fubjects for their admiration than example. However, there are no ideas ftrike more forcibly upon our imaginations, than those which are raised from reflections upon the exits of great and excellent men. Innocent men who have fuffered as criminals, though they were benefactors to human fociety, seem to be perfons of the highest distinction, among the vaftly greater number of human race, the dead. When the iniquity of the times brought Socrates to his execution, how great and wonderful is it to behold him, unfupported by any thing but the teftimony of his own confcience and conjectures of hereafter, receive the poifon with an air of nirth and good-humour, and as if going on an agreeable journey befpeak fome deity to make it fortunate. When Phocion's good actions had met with the like reward from his country, and he was led to death with many others of his friends, they bewailing their fate, he walking compofedly towards the place of execution, how gracefully does he fupport his illuftrious character to the very laft inftant! One of the rabble fpitting at him as he paffed, with his ufual authority he called to know if no one was ready to teach this fellow how to behave himself. When a poor-fpirited creature that died at the fame time for his crimes bemoaned himfelf unmanfully, he rebuked him with this queftion, Is it no confolation to fuch a man as thou art to die with Phocion? At the inftant when he was to die, they asked what commands he had for his fon, he answered, to forget this injury of the Athenians. Niocles, his friend, under the fame fentence, defired he might drink the potion before him; Phocion faid, because he never had denied him any thing he would not even this, the most difficult request he had ever made. Thefe inftances were very noble and great, and the re. flections of thofe fublime fpirits had made death to them R 3 what what it is really intended to be by the author of nature, a relief from a various being ever subject to forrows and difficulties. Epaminondas the Theban general, having received in fight a mortal ftab with a fword, which was left in his body, lay in that posture until he had intelligence that his troops had obtained the victory, and then permitted it to be drawn out, at which inftant he expreffed himself in this manner, "This is not the end of my life, my "fellow-foldiers; it is now your Epaminondas is born, "who dies in fo much glory." It were an endless labour to collect the accounts with which all ages have filled the world of noble and heroic minds that have refigned this being, as if the termination of life were but an ordinary occurrence of it. This common-place way of thinking I fell into from an aukward endeavour to throw off a real and fresh affiction, by turning over books in a melancholy mood; but it is not eafy to remove griefs which touch the heart, by applying remedies which only entertain the imagination. As therefore this paper is to confift of any thing which concerns human life, I cannot help letting the prefent fubject regard what has been the last object of my eyes, though an entertainment of forrow. I went this evening to visit a friend, with a defign to rally him, upon a story I had heard of his intending to fteal a marriage without the privity of us his intimate friends and acquaintance. I came into his apartment with that intimacy which I have done for very many years, and walked directly into his bed-chamber, where I found my friend in the agonies of death. What could I do? The innocent mirth in my thoughts ftruck upon me like the most flagitious wickedness : I in vain called upon him; he was fenfelefs, and too far spent to have the leaft knowledge of my forrow, or any pain in himfelf. Give me leave then to transcribe my foliloquy, as I ftood by his mother, dumb with the weight of grief for a fon who was her honour and her comfort, and never until that hour fince his birth had been an occafion of a moment's forrow to her. "HOW "HOW furprifing is this change! from the poffeffion "of vigorous life and strength, to be reduced in a few hours to this fatal extremity! Thofe lips which look "fo pale and livid, within these few days gave delight to all who heard their utterance: it was the bufinefs, "the purpose of his being, next to obeying him to whom "he is going, to please and inftruct, and that for no other end but to please and instruct. Kindness was the "motive of his actions, and with all the capacity requi "fite for making a figure in a contentious world, mo"deration, good-nature, affability, temperance and chaf"tity, were the arts of his excellent life. There as he "lies in helplefs agony, no wife man who knew him fo "well as I, but would resign all the world can bestow to "be fo near the end of fuch a life. Why does my heart "fo little obey my reason as to lament thee, thou excellent man -Heaven receive him, or restore him. Thy beloved mother, thy obliged friends, thy helpless fervants, ftand around thee without diftinction. "How much wouldeft thou, hadft thou thy fenfes, say to * each of us! "But now that good heart bursts, and he is at rest--"with that breath expired a foul who never indulged a "a paffion unfit for the place he is gone to: where are "now thy plans of juftice, of truth, of honour? Of what ufe the volumes thou haft collated, the argu"ments thou hast invented, the examples thou haft fol"lowed? Poor were the expectations of the ftudious, "the modeft and the good, if the reward of their labours were only to be expected from man. No, my "friend, thy intended pleadings, thy intended good of"fices to thy friends, thy intended fervices to thy coun"try, are already performed, as to thy concern in them, " in his fight before whom the past, prefent, and future "appear at one view. While others with thy talents "were tormented with ambition, with vain-glory, with "envy, with emulation, how well didft thou turn thy "mind to its own improvement in things out of the 66 power of fortune; in probity, in integrity, in the "practice and ftudy of juftice; how filent thy paffage, "how private thy journey, how glorious thy end! many "have "have I known more famous, fome more knowing, not "one fo innocent." No. CXXXIV. FRIDAY, AUGUST 3. Dicor Opiferque per orbem And am the great physician call'd below. DURING my R. abfence in the country, feveral packets The to me, because I was expected every day in town. author of the following letter, dated from Tower-hill, having fometimes been entertained with fome learned gentlemen in plush doublets, who have vended their wares from a ftage in that place, has pleafan ly enough addreffed to me, as no lefs a fage in morality, than thofe are in phyfic. To comply with his kind incl nation to make my cures famous, I fhall give you his teftimonial of my great abilities at large in his own words. 'SIR, YOUR faying the other day there is fomething won derful in the narrowneis of thofe minds which can be pleafed, and be barren of bounty to those who please them, makes me in pain that I am not a man of 'power. If I were, you thould foon fee how much I approve your fpeculations. In the mean time I beg leave to fupply that inability with the empty tribute of an honeft mind, by telling you plainly I love and thank you for your daily refreshments. I conitantly perufe your paper as I fmoke my morning's pipe, though, I cannot forbear reading the motto before I fill and light, and really it gives a grateful relish to every whiff; each paragraph is freighted either with ufeful or delightful notions, and I never fail of being highly diverted or improved. The variety of your fubjects surprizes me as much as a box of pictures did formerly, in which there was only one face, that by pulling fome ' pieces pieces of ifinglafs over it, was changed into a grave senator or a Merry-Andrew, a patched lady or a nun, a beau or a black-a-moor, a prude or a coquette, a country 'fquire or a conjurer, with many other different reprefentations, very entertaining, as you are, though • ftill the fame at the bottom. This was a childh • amusement when I was carried away with outward appearance, but you make a deeper impreffion, and affect the fecret fprings of the mind; you charm the fancy, foothe the paffions, and infenfibly lead the reader to that sweetnefs of temper that you fo well defcribe; you rouse generofity with that fpirit, and inculcate humanity : with that eafe, that he must be miferably stupid that is • not affected by you. I cannot fay indeed that you have put impertinence to filence, or vanity out of counte<nance; but methinks you have bid as fair for it, as any man that ever appeared upon a public ftage; and offer an infallible cure of vice and folly, for the price of one penny. And fince it is ufual for those who receive be.nefit by such famous operators, to publish an advertisement, that others may reap the fame advantage, I think .myself obliged to declare to all the world, that having for a long time been fplenetic, ill-natured, froward, fufpicious, and unfociable, by the application of your medicines, taken only with half an ounce of right Vir♦ ginia tobacco, for fix fucceffive mornings, I am become open, obliging, officious, frank, and hofpitable. < I am Tower-hill, Your humble fervant, GEORGE TRUSTY." The careful father and humble petitioner hereafter mentioned, who are under difficulties about the just management of fans, will foon receive proper advertisements relating to the profeffors in that behalf, with their places of abode and methods of teaching. SIR, |