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Death. For my own Part, as I have always had the Experience of the Smiles of Fortune, for Fear left the • Defire of living too long may make her frown upon me, I am going, by a happy Period, to dismiss the Remains of my Soul, leaving behind me two Daughters of my Body, and a Legion of Grand-children.' Having faid this, and given some Exhortations to her Family to live in Peace and Union, divided her Eftate amongst them, and recommended her eldest Daughter to the Protection of the domeftic Gods; fhe boldly took the Cup in her Hand, in which was the Poison, and having made her Vows to Mercury, accompanied with Prayers that he would conduct her to fome happy Seat in the other World, fhe toffed off the mortal Beverage. She then entertained the Company with the Progress of its Operation; and as the Parts of her Body were feized with a Chilnefs, one after another, The told them, at length, it had reached her Heart and Bowels; and then called her Daughters to do the last Office for her, and to close her Eyes.

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Pliny tells us of a certain Hyperborean Country, where, The voluntary by reafon of the mild Temperature of the Death of the Air, the Inhabitants rarely end their Lives Hyperbo- but by the voluntary Surrender of them; inafmuch, that, when they are weary and fur-. feited with Life, 'tis ufual for them, after they have lived to a good old Age, to make a fumptuous Feaft, and then to throw themfelves into the Sea, from a certain Rock deftined to that Service. Pain, and the Fear of a worfe Death, feem to me to be the moft excufable Inducements *.

Ay Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. iv. C. IZ.

CHAP.

43

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CHA P. IV.

To-morrow is a New Day.

An Elogium on the Language of Amiot, the Tranflator of

Plutarch.

F all our French Writers, James Amiot, in my Opinion, deferves the Palm, not only for the Propriety and Purity of his Language, in which he furpaffes all others; nor for his conftant Perfeverance in fo long a Labour; nor for the Depth of his Knowledge, having fo happily unravelled the Intricacies of fo difficult an Author; (for People may say what they please, though I understand nothing of Greek, yet I perceive a Sense fo well connected and maintained throughout his whole Tranflation, that furely he must have perfectly known the Author's true Thoughts, or, by being long converfant with him, must have had a general Idea of Plutarch's Mind strongly imprinted in his Soul, forasmuch as he has delivered us nothing from him that in the leaft derogates from, or contradicts him) but, above all, I am pleased with him for having fingled out a Book so proper, fo worthy for a Present to his Country. We Dunces had been funk in the Mire, had not this Book lifted us out of it. By this Favour of his we venture now both to speak and write. The very Ladies read it to the School-masters. 'Tis our Breviary. If this good Man be yet living, I would recommend him to do as much by Xenophon. 'Tis a more eafy Tafk than the other, and therefore more proper for a Gentleman fo far advanced in Years. And then I know not how it is, but methinks, though he very brifkly and clearly recovers himself when he has made a Trip, yet his Stile is more his own, when it is not embarraffed, and runs fmoothly on.

I was just now reading that Paffage in Plutarch, where he fays of himself, that Rufticus, while prefent at a Declamation of his at Rome, received a

Curiofity greedy after News. Pacquet

To this, I think, fhould be added, that Amiot, by his Tranflation of

Plutarch, has not only polifhed, but even inriched our Language.

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In the Treatife of Curiofity, ch. 14. Amiot's Tranflation.

Book II. Pacquet from the Emperor, but delayed to open it till all was ended; for which, faid he, the whole Audience highly applauded this Perfon's Gravity. 'Tis true, that as I am on the Subject of Curiofity, and that eager and ravenous Appetite for News, which makes us, with fo much Indifcretion and Impatience, abandon every Thing to entertain a Novelty, and, without any manner of Repect or Civility, break open, in what Company foever, all Letters that are brought to us, he had Reason to applaud the Gravity of Rufticus upon this Occafion, and might, moreover, have commended his Civility and Courtefy in not interrupting the Courfe of his Declamation. But I doubt whether his Prudence is to be commended, for, as the Letters came to him unexpected, and especially from an Emperor, it might have fallen out that the deferring to read them would have been very prejudicial. Negligence the The Vice oppofite to Curiofity is Indifferency appofite Vice ta or Negligence, to which I certainly have a Curiofity. natural Propenfity by my Conftitution, and to which I have feen fome Men fo extremely addicted, that they have kept Letters in their Pockets, unopened, for three or four Days together. I never open any Letters, neither those committed to my Care, nor those which pafs through my Hands by Accident; and I am uneafy with myfelf, if my Eyes inadvertently catch any Contents of Letters of Importance that a great Man is reading when I am close by him. Never was a Man lefs inquifitive, or lefs prying into other People's Affairs. In our Fathers Days, M. de Boutieres had like to have loft Turin, becaufe, being in good Company at Supper, he deferred to read an Advertisement which was fent him of the Treason that was plotted against the faid City, of which he was Governor. And this very Plutarch has given us to underftand, that Julius Cæfar had faved himelf, if he had read a Paper that was prefented to him as he went to the Senate, on that very Day he was killed by the Confpirators. He alfo tells the Story of Archias, the Tyrant of Thebes, that, the Night before Pelopidas put his

The reading of Letters ought not to be deferred.

In the Life of Julius Caefar, c. 17.

D

Plot

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Plot into Execution for killing him in order to restore his Country's Liberty, he had a circumftantial Account of the whole Confpiracy fent him in Writing by another Archias, an Athenian, and that, the Pacquet having been delivered to him while he fat at Supper, he deferred the Opening of it, faying, what afterwards turned to a Proverb in Greece, To-morrow is a New Day. A wife Man may, in my Opinion, for the Sake of another Perfon, either for Fear, like Rufticus, of indecently disturbing the Company, or of breaking off another Affair of Importance, put off the reading or hearing any new Thing that is brought to him; but if a Man, for his own particular Intereft or Pleasure, even though he holds a public Office, will not interrupt his Dinner, nor be awaked out of his Nap, he is inexcufable.

The Confular Place at Table the most acceffi

ble.

And there was anciently, at Rome, the Confular Place, which they called the most honourable, at Table, for being a Seat which had moft Scope, and was of the cafieft Access to thofe who came to speak with him who was placed in it; which is a Proof that though they were at Table they did not abandon the Concern for other Affairs and Incidents. But, when all is said that can be said, 'tis very difficult, in human Actions, to prescribe so just a Rule, by rational Arguments, that Fortune will not maintain her Right in them.

A

CHA P. V.

of CONSCIENCE.

S I was travelling one Day, during the Civil Wars, with my Brother the Sieur de la Brouffe, we met a Gentleman of good Fashion, who was of the Of the Power contrary Party to us, though I knew nothing of Confcience. of it, for he pretended to be of ours: And the Mischief on't is, that, in Wars of this Sort, the Cards are fo fhuffled, your Enemy not being diftinguished from yourself by any apparent Mark, either of Language or Carriage, being

In his Treatife of Socrates's Dæmon, ch. 27,

Book II. being bred up under the fame Laws, Air, and Manners, that 'tis difficult to avoid Disorder and Confufion. This made me afraid, myself, of meeting with any of our Troops in a Place where I was not known, that I might not be forced to tell my Name, and for Fear of fomething worse, perhaps, as happened to me once, when, by by fuch a Mistake, I loft both Men and Horses; and, amongst others, an Italian, my Page, whom I had bred up with Care, was miferably killed, a fine Lad, and one that was very promifing. But the Gentleman we met had fo ftrange a Terror upon him, and was fo mortified at the meeting with any Horse-men, and travelling through Towns which held out for the King, that I, at length, gueffed he was alarmed by his Confcience. The poor Man feemed to be in fuch a Condition, that, through his Vizor, and the Croffes on his Caffock, one might have penetrated into his Bofom, and read his fecret Intentions. So wonderful is the Force of Confcience, that it makes us betray, accufe, and fight with ourselves; and, for Want of other Evidence, to give Teftimony against ourfelves:

Occultum quatiens animo tortore flagellum a.

i. e.

Confcience, the Soul's Tormentor, does, unfeen,
Brandish and shake a hidden Scourge within.

e

The Tale that follows is in the Mouths of Children: Beffus, a Paonian, being reproached with having wantonly pulled down a Sparrow's Neft, and killed the young ones, faid he had Reason for it, because those little Birds Strange Difco- were continually chattering a Falfhood, that very of a Par- he had murder'd his Father. This Parricide ricide. had, till then, been undiscovered and unknown, but the revengeful Furies of his Confcience caufed it to be discovered by himself, who was justly to fuffer for it.

Juv. Sat. xiii. v. 195.

Hefiod

See Plutarch's Treatife, Why the Divine Justice sometimes defers the Pu mifoment of Crimes, ch. 8.

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