N° 628. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1714.

Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum.

HOR. 1. Ep. ii. 43.

It rolls, and rolls, and will for ever roll.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

THERE are none of your speculations which please me more than those upon infinitude and eternity. You have already considered that part of eternity which is past, and I wish you would give us your thoughts upon that which is to come.

Your readers will perhaps receive greater pleasure from this view of eternity than the former, since we have every one of us a concern on that which is to come: whereas a speculation on that which is past is rather curious than useful.

'Besides, we can easily conceive it possible for successive duration never to have an end; though, as you have justly observed, that eternity which never had a beginning is altogether incomprehensible; that is, we can conceive an eternal duration which may be, though we cannot an eternal duration which hath been; or, if I may use the philosophical terms, we may apprehend a potential though not an actual eternity.

This notion of a future eternity, which is natural to the mind of man, is an unanswerable argument that he is a being designed for it; especially if we consider that he is capable of being virtuous or vicious here; that he hath faculties improvable to alleternity; and,by a proper or wrong employment. of them, may be happy or miserable throughout that infinite duration. Our idea indeed of this eternity is not of an adequate or fixed nature, but is perpe

tually growing and enlarging itself toward the ob ject, which is too big for human comprehension. As we are now in the beginnings of existence, so shall we always appear to ourselves as if we were for ever entering upon it. After a million or two of centuries, some considerable things, already past, may slip out of our memory; which, if it be not strengthened in a wonderful manner, may possibly forget that ever there was a sun or planets; and yet, notwithstanding the long race that we shall then have run, we shall still imagine ourselves just starting from the goal, and find no proportion between that space which we know had a beginning, and what we are sure will never have an end.

• But I shall leave this subject to your management, and question not but you will throw it into such lights as shall at once improve and entertain your reader.

I have, enclosed, sent you a translation* of the speech of Cato on this occasion, which hath accidentally fallen into my hands, and which, for conciseness, purity, and elegance of phrase, cannot be sufficiently admired.

ACT. V. SCEN. I.

CATO solus, &c.

Sic, sie se babere rem necesse frorsus est,
Ratione vncis, do lubens manus, Plato.
Quid erim dedisset, quæ dedit frustra nibil,
Eternitatis insitam cupidinem

Natura? Quersum hæc dulcis expectatio;
Vitaque non explenda melicris sitis?
Quid vult sibi aliud iste redeundi in nibil
Horror, sub imis quemque agens præcordiis?
Cur territa in se refugit anima, cur tremit

*This translation was by Mr. afterwards Dr. Bland, orce schoolmaster, then i rovost of Eton, and down of Durham.

Attonita, quoties, morte ne pereat, timet ?
Particula nempe est cuique nascenti indita
Divinior; que corpus incolens agit;
Hominique succinit, Tua est æternitas.
Eternitas! O lubricum nimis aspici,
Mixtumque dulci gaudium formidine!

Qua demigrabitur alia bine in cer bora ?
Qua terra mox incognita? Quis orbis novus
Manet incolendus? Quanta erit mutatio?
Hæc intuenti spatia mihi quaquà patent
Immensa: sed caliginosa nox premit ;
Nec luce clarâ vult videri singula.
Figendus bic pes; certa sunt bec hactenus:
Si quod gubernet numen humanum genus.
(At, quod gubernet, esse clamant omnia)
Virtute non gaudere certè non potest:
Nec esse non beata, quâ gaudet, polest.
Sed quâ beata sede ? Quove in tempore?
Hæc quanta quanta terra, tota est Cæsaris.
Quid dubius bæret animus usque adeo? Brevi
Hic nodum hic omnem expediet. Arma en indu»r,

[Ensi nianum admovens. In utramque partem facta; quæque vim inferant, Et que propulsent! Dextera intentat necem; Vitam sinistra: vulnus hæc dabit manus ; Altera medelam vulneris: bic ad exitum Deducet, ictu simplici ; bæc vetant mori. Secura ridet anima mucronis minas, Ensesque strictos, interire nescia. Extinguet atas sidera diuturnior : Etate languens ipse sol obscur us Emittet orbi consenescenti jubur : Natura et ipsa sentiet quondam vices Etatis; annis ipsa deficiat gravis: At tibi juventus, at tibi immortal.tas: Tibi parta divum est vita.

Periment mutuis

Elementa sese et interibunt ictibus.
Tu permanebis sola semper integra,
Tu cuncta rerum quassa, cuneta naufragay
Jam portu in ipso tuta, contemplabere.
Compage rupta, corruent in se invicem,
Orbesque fractis ingereatur orbibus;
Iliasa tu sedebis extra fragmina,

ACT V. SCENE I.

CATO alone, &c.

It must be sc-
-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
Bick 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,
Thro' 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 1 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 male for Casar,
I'm weary of conjecture -This must end them.

[Loying 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 wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds.

No 629. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1714.

-Experiar quid concedatur in illos,

Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis, atque Latinâ.

JUV. Sat.i. 190.

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. 1 remember a tory, who, having been fined in a court of justice for a prank that deserved the pillory, desired upon the merit of it to be made a justice of the 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