ACT V. SCENE I.

CATO alone, &c.

T must be so————Plato, thou reason'st well,

IT

Elfe whence this pleasing hope, this fond defire, This longing after immortality?

Or whence this fecret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into nought? Why fhrinks the foul
Back on herself, and ftartles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;

'Tis heav'n 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 fcenes and changes must we pass!
The wide, th' unbounded profpect, lies before me;
But fhadows, 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 Cafar.
I'm weary of conjectures-This must end 'em.

[Laying his hand on his fword.

Thus

In utramque partem facta; quæque vim inferant,
Et quæ propulfent! Dextera intentat necem ;
Vitam finiftra: vulnus hæc dabit manus ;
Altera medelam vulnéris: hic ad exitum
Deducet, ictu fimplici; hæc vetant mari.
Secura ridet anima mucronis minas,
Enfefque ftrictos, interire nefcia.
Extinguet atas, fidera diuturnior :
Etate languens ipfe fol, obfcurius
Emittet orbe confenefcente jubar:
Natura et ipfa fentiet quondam vices
Etatis; annis ipfa deficiet gravis:
At tibi juventus, at tibi immortalitas,
Tibi parta divum eft vita.

Periment mutuis

Elementa fefe et interibunt ictibus :
Tu permanebis fola femper integra,
Tu cuncta rerum quaffa, cuncta naufraga,
Jam portu in ipfo tuta, contemplabere.
Compage rupta, corruent in fe invicem,
Orbefque fractis ingerentur orbibus;
Illafa tu fedebis extra fragmina.

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 fhall never die.
The foul, fecur'd in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars fhall fade away, the fun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature fink in years;
But thou fhalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,

The wrecks of matter and the crush of worlds.

NO

N° 629.

Monday, December 6.

-Experiar quod concedatur in illos,

Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis, atque Latina.

Juv. Sat. I. v. 170.

Dryden.

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

N

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

NOTHING is more ridiculous than the pretenfions of people upon thefe occafions. Every thing a man hath suffered, while his enemies were in play, was certainly brought about by the malice of the oppofite party. A bad caufe would not have been loft, if fuch an one had not been upon the bench; nor a profligate youth difinherited, if he had not got drunk every night by toasting an outed miniftry. I remember a Tory, who having been fined in a court of juftice for a prank that deferved the pillory, defired upon the merit of it to be made a justice of peace when his friends came into power; and fhall never forget a Whig criminal, who, upon being indicted for a rape, told his friends, You fee what a man fuffers for fticking to his principles.

THE truth of it is, the fufferings of a man in a party are of a very doubtful nature. When they are fuch as have promoted a good caufe, and fallen upon a man undefervedly, they have a right to be heard and recompenfed beyond any other pretenfions; but when they rise out of rashness or indifcretion, and the pursuit of fuch meafures as have rather ruined, than promoted the interest they aim at, (which hath always been the cafe of a great many fufferers), they only ferve to recommend them to the children of violence and folly.

I HAVE by me a bundle of memorials prefented by several cavaliers upon the restoration of King Charles II. which may ferve as fo many inftances to our prefent purpose.

AMONG

AMONG feveral perfons and pretenfions recorded by my author, he mentions one of a very great estate, who, for having roasted an ox whole, and diftributed a hogshead upon king Charles's birth-day, defired to be provided for, as his majesty in his great wifdom shall think fit.

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

A THIRD petitioned for a colonel's commiffion, for having curfed 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. Efq; who defired the honour of knighthood, for having cuckolded Sir T. W. a notorious Roundhead.

THERE is likewife the petition of one, who, having let his beard grow from the martyrdom of king Charles I. till the restoration of king Charles II. defired, in confideration thereof, to be made a privy-counsellor.

I MUST not omit a memorial, fetting forth, that the memorialist had, with great dispatch, 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 poftmafter-general.

A CERTAIN gentleman, who feems to write with a great deal of fpirit, and ufes the words gallantry and gentleman-like very often in his petition, begs, that (in confideration 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 clofe 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.

The petition of E. H. Efq; humbly Sherweth;

HAT your petitioner's father's brother's uncle, colonel W. H. loft the third finger of his left

hand, at Edgehill fight.

THAT your petitioner, notwithstanding the smallnefs of his fortune, (he being a younger brother), always

• kept