stores of virtue and knowledge, such inexhausted sources of perfection! We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man to conceive the glory that will be always in reserve for him. The soul, considered in relation to its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines, that may draw nearer to another to all eternity, without a possibility of touching it and can there be a thought so transporting, as to consider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to Him, who is not only the standard of perfection, but of happiness!

0000

CHAP. V

ON THE BEING OF A GOD.

RETIRE; The world shut out ;-Thy thoughts call home;

Imagination's airy wing repress ;~~~~~~~~

Lock up thy senses;-Let no passion stir;
Wake all to reason ;-Let her reign alone-
Then, in thy Soul's deep silence, and the depth
Of Nature's silence, midnight, thus inquire:
What am I? and from whence ?--I nothing know,
But that I am; and, since I am, conclude
Something eternal; had there e'er been nought,
Nought still had been; Eternal there must be.-
But what eternal?-Why not human race?
And ADAM's ancestors without an end ?-
That's hard to be conceived; since every link
Of that long chain'd succession is so frail;
Can ev'ry part depend, and not the whole?
Yet grani it true; new difficulties rise; -
I'm still quite out at sea; nor see the shore.
Whence earth, and these bright orbs?Eternal
too?

Grant matter was eternal; still these orbs

N

Would

Would want some other Father ;-Much design
Is seen in all their motions, all their makes;
Design implies intelligence, and art

That can't be from themselves—or man; that art
Man can scarce comprehend, could man bestow?
And nothing greater yet allow'd, than man-
Who motion, foreign to the smallest grain.
Shot through vast masses of enormous weight?
Who bid brute matter's restive lump assume
Such various forms, and gave it wings to fly?
Has matter innate motion? then each atom,
Asserting its indisputable right

To dance, would form a universe of dust:
Has matter none? Then whence these glorious forms,
And boundless flights, from shapeless and repos'd?
Has matter more than motion? Has it thought,
Judgment, and genius? Is it deeply learn'd
In Mathematics? Has it fram'd such laws,
Which, but to guess, a NEWTON made immortal?
If art, to form; and counsel to conduct;
And that with greater far than human skill,
Reside not in each block;—————a GODHEAD

reigns

And, if a GOD there is, that GOD how

BOOK V.

Orations and Harangues.

CHAP. I.

JUNIUS BRUTUS OVER THE DEAD BODY OF LUCRETIA,

YES, noble lady, I swear by this blood whick was once so pure, and which nothing but royal villany could have polluted, that I will pursue Lucius Tarquinius the proud, his wicked wife, and their children, with fire and sword; nor will I ever suffer any of that family, or of any other whatsoe ver, to be king in Rome: Ye Gods, I call you to witness this my oath !-There, Romans, turn your eyes to that sad spectacle-the daughter of Lucretius, Collatinus's wife-she died by her own hand. See there a noble lady, whom the lust of a Tarquin reduced to the necessity of being her own execution. er, to attest her innocence. Hospitably entertained by her as a kinsman of her husband's, Sextus, the perfidious guest became her brutal ravisher. chaste, the generous Lucretia could not survive the insult. Gorious woman! but once only treated as a slave, she thought life no longer to be endured. Lucretia, a woman, disdained a life that depended on a tyrant's will? and shall we, shall men with such an example before our eyes, and aiter five andtwenty years of ignomini us servitude, shall we, through a tear of dying, deter one single instant to assert our liberty? No, Romans, now is the time;

N Z

The

the

the favourable moment we have so long waited for, is come. Tarquin is not at Rome. The Patricians are at the head of the enterprise. The city is abundantly provided with men, arms, and all things necessary. There is nothing wanting to secure the success, if our own courage do not fail us. And shall those warriors, who have ever been so brave when foreign enemies were to be subdued, or when conquest were to be made to gratify the ambition and avarice of Tarquin, be chen only cowards, when they are to deliver themselves from slavery? “ome of you are perhaps intimidated by the army which Tarquin now commands. The soldiers, you imagine will take the part of their general. Banish so groundless a fear. The love of liberty is natural to all men. Your fellow citizens in the camp feel the weight of oppression with as quick a sense as you that are in Kome: they will as eagerly seize the occasion of throwing off the yoke. But let us grant there may be some among them, who, through baseness of spirit or a bad education, will be disposed to favour the tyrant: The number of these can be but small, and we have means sufficient in our hands to reduce them to reason. They have left us hostages more dear to them than life. Their wives, their children, their fathers, their mothers, are here in the city. Courage, Romans, the Gods are for us; those Gods/ whose Temples and Altars the impious Tarquin has profaned with sacrifices and libations made with polInted hands, polluted with blood, and with number. less unexpiated crimes committed against his subjects. Ye Gods, who protected our forefathers, ye Ģenii, who watch for the preservation and glory of Rome, do you inspire us with courage and unanimity in this glorious cause, and we will to our last breath, de end your worship from all profanation.

CHAP.

0000

CHAP. II.

A

HANNIBAL TO HIS SOLDIERS.

D

you on

I KNOW not, soldiers, whether you or your pri soners be encompassed by fortune with the stricter bonds and necessities. Two seas inclosethe right and left --not a ship to flee to for escaping, Before you is the Po, a river broader and more rapid than the Rhone; behind you are the Alps, over which, even when your numbers were undiminished, you were hardly able to force a passage. Here then, soldiers, you must either conquer or die, the very first hour you meet the enemy. But the same fortune, which has thus laid you under the necessity of fighting, has set before your eyes those rewards of victory, than which no men was ever wont to wish for greater from the immortal Gods Should we by

our valour recover only Sicily and Sardin, which were ravished from our fathers, these would be no inconsiderable prizes Yet, what are these? The wealth of Rome, whatever riches she has heaped together in the spoils of nations, all these, with the masters of them, will be yours. You have been long enough employed in driving the cattle upon the vast mountains of Lusitania and Celtiberia; you have hitherto met with no reward worthy of the labours and dangers you have undergone. The time is now come to reap the full recompense of your toilsome marches over so many mountains and riveis, and through so many nations, all of them in This is the place which fortune has appointed to be the limits of your labours; it is here that you will finish your glorious warfare, and receive an ample recompense of your completed service. For I would not have you imagine that victory will be as difficult as the name of a Roman war is great and sounding. It has often happened that a despised enemy has given a bloody battle, and the most reN 3

arms.

nowned