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that he is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending; that a thousand years are with him as one day, and one day as a thousand years; by which, and the like expreffions, we are taught, that his exiftence, with relation to time or duration, is infinitely different from the existence of any of his creatures, and confequently that it is impoffible for us to frame any adequate conceptions of it.

IN the firft revelation which he makes of his own being, he intitles himself, I am that I am; and when Mofes defires to know what name he fhall give him in his embaffy to Pharaoh, he bids him fay that I am hath fent you. Our great Creator, by this revelation of himfelf, does in a manner exclude every thing else from a real existence, and diftinguishes himself from his creatures, as the only being which truly and really exifts. The ancient Platonic notion, which was drawn from fpeculations of eternity, wonderfully agrees with this revelation which God has made of himself. There is nothing, fay they, which in reality exifts, whofe existence, as we call it, is pieced up of paft, prefent, and to come. Such a flitting and fucceffive exiftence is rather a fhadow of exiftence, and fomething which is like it, than existence itfelf. He only properly exists, whofe exiftence is entirely prefent; that is, in other words, who exifts in the most perfect manner, and in fuch a manner as we have no idea of

I SHALL Conclude this fpeculation with one ufeful inference. How can we fufficiently proftrate ourselves, and fall down before our Maker, when we confider that ineffable goodness and wifdom which contrived this existence for finite natures? What must be the overflowings of that good-will, which prompted our Creator to adapt existence to beings in whom it is not neceffary? efpecially when we confider that he himself was before in the complete poffeffion of existence and of happiness, and in the full enjoyment of eternity. What man can think of himself as called out and feparated from nothing, of his being made a confcious, a reasonable, and a happy creature, in fhort, of being taken in as a fharer of existence, and a kind of partner in eternity, without being swallowed up in wonder, in praife, in adoration! It is indeed a thought too big for the mind of man, and rather to be entertained

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in the fecrecy of devotion, and in the filence of the foul, than to be expreffed by words. The fupreme Being has not given us powers or faculties fufficient to extol and magnify fuch unutterable goodness.

IT is however fome comfort to us, that we shall be always doing what we fhall never be able to do, and that a work which cannot be finished, will however be the work of an eternity.

N° 591.

Wednesday, September 8.

-Tenerorum lufor amorum.

Ovid. Trift. eleg. 3. 1. 3. v. 73.

Love the foft fubject of his sportive muse.

I tells me he has obferved, with no fmall concern,

HAVE juft received a letter from a gentleman, who

that my papers have of late been very barren in relation to love; a fubject which, when agreeably handled, can fcarce fail of being well received by both fexes.

IF my invention therefore fhould be almoft exhausted on this head, he offers to serve under me in the quality of a Love-cafuift; for which place he conceives himself to be throughly qualified, having made this paffion his principal ftudy, and obferved it in all its different shapes and appearances, from the fifteenth to the forty-fifth year of his age.

He affures me with an air of confidence, which I hope proceeds from his real abilities, that he does not doubt of giving judgment to the fatisfaction of the parties concerned, on the most nice and intricate cafes which can happen in an amour; as,

How great the contraction of the fingers must be before it amounts to a squeeze by the hand.

WHAT can be properly termed an abfolute denial from a maid, and what from a widow.

WHAT advances a lover may prefume to make, after having received a pat upon his fhoulder from his mistress's fan.

WHETHER

WHETHER a lady, at the first interview, may allow an humble fervant to kifs her hand.

How far it may be permitted to caress the maid in order to fucceed with the miftrefs.

WHAT Constructions a man may put upon a fmile, and in what cafes a frown goes for nothing.

ON what occafion a fheepish look may do fervice, &c. As a farther proof of his skill, he has also sent me feveral maxims in love, which he affures me are the refult of a long and profound reflection, fome of which I think. myfelf obliged to communicate to the public, not remembering to have feen them before in any author.

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THERE are more calamities in the world arifing from love than from hatred.

'Love is the daughter of idleness, but the mother of difquietude.

MEN of grave natures (fays Sir Francis Bacon) are ⚫ the most conftant; for the fame reafon men fhould be • more conftant than women.

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THE gay part of mankind is most amorous, the ferious most loving.

A COQUETTE often lofes her reputation, while she preferves her virtue.

A PRUDE often preferves her reputation when she has loft her virtue.

'LOVE refines a man's behaviour, but makes a wo'man's ridiculous.

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LOVE is generally accompanied with good-will in the 'young, intereft in the middle aged, and a paffion too grofs to name in the old.

THE endeavours to revive a decaying paffion generally extinguifh the remains of it.

'A WOMAN who from being a flattern becomes overneat, or from being over-neat becomes a flattern, is • most certainly in love.'

I SHALL make use of this gentleman's fkill, as I see occafion; and fince I am got upon the subject of love, fhall conclude this paper with a copy of verfes which were lately fent me by an unknown hand, as I look upon them to be above the ordinary run of fonneteers.

THE author tells me they were written in one of his defpairing fits; and, I find, entertains fome hope that his mi

ftrefs

ftrefs may pity fuch a paffion as he has defcribed, before fhe knows that fhe is herfelf Corinna.

Conceal, fond man, conceal the mighty fmart,
Nor tell Corinna fhe has fir'd thy heart.
In vain wouldst thou complain, in vain pretend
To afk a pity which she must not lend.
She's too much thy fuperior to comply,
And too too fair to let thy paffion die.
Languifh in fecret, and with dumb furprise
Drink the refiftless glances of her eyes.
At awful distance entertain thy grief;
Be ftill in pain, but never afk relief.
Ne'er tempt her fcorn of thy confuming ftate;
Be any way undone, but fly her hate.
Thou must fubmit to fee thy charmer bless
Some happier youth that shall admire her lefs;
Who in that lovely form, that heav'nly mind,
Shall mifs ten thousand beauties thou couldst finds
Who with low fancy shall approach her charms,
While half enjoy'd she finks into his arms.
She knows not, must not know, thy nobler fire,
Whom fhe, and whom the mufes do inspire ;
Her image only fhall thy breaft employ,
And fill thy captiv'd foul with fhades of joy;
Direct thy dreams by night, thy thoughts by day:
And never, never, from thy bosom ftray.

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LOOK upon the playhouse as a world within it

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felf. They have lately furnished the middle region of it with a new fet of meteors, in order to give the fublime to many modern tragedies. I was there last winter, at the first rehearsal of the new thunder, which is much more deep and fonorous than any hitherto made ufe of.

They

They have a Salmoneus behind the fcenes, who plays it off with great fuccefs. Their lightnings are made to flash more brifkly than heretofore: their clouds are also better furbelowed, and more voluminous; not to mention a 'violent storm locked up in a great cheft, that is defigned 'for the Tempeft. They are alfo provided with above a dozen fhowers of fnow, which, as I am informed, are the plays of many unfuccefsful poets artificially cut and fhreaded for that ufe. Mr Rymer's Edgar is to fall in Inow at the next acting of king Lear, in order to heighten, or rather to alleviate, the diftrefs of that unfortunate prince; and to ferve by way of decoration to a piece which that great critic has written against.

I Do not indeed wonder that the actors fhould be fuch profeffed enemies to thofe among our nation who are commonly known by the name of critics, fince it is a rule among these gentlemen, to fall upon a play, not because it is ill written, but because it takes. Several of them lay it down as a maxim, that whatever dramatic performance has a long run, muft of neceffity be good for nothing; as though the first precept in poetry were not to pleafe. Whether this rule holds good or not, I fhall leave to the determination of those who are better judges than myself; if it does, I am fure it tends very much to the honour of thofe gentlemen who have established it; few of their pieces having been disgraced by a run of three days, and most of them being fo exquifitely written, that the town would never give them more than one night's hearing.

I HAVE a great esteem for a true critic, fuch as Aritotle and Longinus among the Greeks, Horace and Quintilian among the Romans, Boileau and Dacier among the 'French. But it is our misfortune, that fome who fet up for profeffed critics among us are fo ftupid, that they do not know how to put ten words together with elegance or common propriety, and withal fo illiterate, that they have no taste of the learned languages, and therefore criticife upon old authors only at fecond hand. They judge of them by what others have written, and not by any notions they have of the authors themfelves. The words unity, action, fentiment, and diction, pronounced with an air of authority, give them a figure among unlearned VOL. VIII. readers,

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