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Rome, and against whom he had no particular Enmity, fhould turn to his Reproach, he fent back Orders, in all Hafte, to bind up her Wounds, which her Attendants, without his Knowledge, had done before; fhe being already half dead, and without any Manner of Senfe. Thus, though fhe lived, contrary to her own Design, it was very honourably, and confiftent with her own Virtue; her pale Complexion ever after manifefting how much of her Vi tal Spirit was run out of her Wounds..

The Writers of Tragedy muft have Řecourse to Hiftory for the Subject of their Plays.

These are my three very true Stories, which, I think, I find as diverting, and as tragic, as any of those we make of our own Heads wherewith to entertain the common People; and I wonder they who are addicted to fuch Relations do not rather cull out ten thousand very fine Stories, which are to be found in very good Authors, that would fave them the trouble of Invention, and be more useful and entertaining. And whofoever would compofe a whole Play from them would need to add nothing of his own but the Connection only, as it were the Solder of Metal; and might, by this Means, compile a great many true Events of all Sorts, difpofing and diverfifying them according as the Beauty of the Work fhould require, after the fame Manner almost as Ovid has patched up his Metamorphofis of that infinite Number of various Fables.

In this last Couple this is moreover worthy of Confideration, That Paulina voluntarily offered to Seneca's great lofe her Life for the Love of her Husband, Affection to his and that her Husband had formerly alfo Wife. • forbore dying for the Love of her.' There is no mighty Counterpoife in this Exchange as to us; but, according to his Stoical Humour, I prefume he thought he had done as much for her, in prolonging his Life upon her Account, as if he had died for her. In one of his Letters to Lucilius, after he has given him to understand, that, being feized with an Ague in Rome, he presently took Coach to go to a House he had in the Country, contrary to his Wife's Opinion, who would by all Means perfuade him VOL. II.

P Tacit. Annal. lib. xv. c. 64.

9

9 Epift. civ.

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Book II. to stay; and that he told her, That the Ague he was • feized with was not a Fever of the Body, but of the • Place: It follows thus; She let me go, fays he, with giving me a strict Charge of my Health: Now I, who know that her Life is involved in mine, begin to make • much of myself, that I may preferve her; and I lose the • Privilege, my Age has given me, of being more constant • and refolute in many Things, when I call to Mind, that there is a young Lady who is interested in this old • Man's Health; and, fince I cannot perfuade her to love me more courageously, the makes me more follicitously to love myself; for we muft allow fomething to honeft • Affections; and fometimes, though Occafions importune us to the Contrary, we must call back Life, even though it be with Torment; we must hold the Soul • within our Teeth, fince the Rule of Living amongst good Men is not fo long as they pleafe, but as long as they ought: He that loves not his Wife and his Friend fo well as to prolong his Life for them, but will obftinately die, is too delicate and too effeminate: The Soul muft impofe this upon itself, when the Utility of our • Friends does fo require: We must fometimes lend ourfelves to our Friends, and, when we would die for ourfelves, must break that Resolution for their Sakes: 'Tis • a Teftimony of a noble Courage to return to Life for the Sake of another's, as many excellent Perfons have • done: And 'tis a Mark of fingular Good-nature to pre• ferve old Age (of which the greateft Convenience is an • Indifference for its Duration, and a more ftout and difdainful Ufe of Life) when a Man perceives that this Office is pleafing, agreeable, and ufeful to fome Perfor whom we are very fond of; and a Man reaps a very • pleafing Reward from it; for what can be more delightful than to be fo dear to one's Wife, as, upon her Ac• count, to become dear to one's felf? Thus has my Paulina imputed to me not only her Fears, but my own; it has not been fufficient for me to confider how refolutely I could die, but I have also considered how unable fhe would be to bear it: I am inforced to live, and • fometimes to live is Magnanimity.' These are his own excellent Words, according to his ufual Manner. С НА Р.

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Of Three most excellent MEN.

FI should be afked who I fhould prefer, of all the I Men that have come to my Knowledge, I fhould anfwer, That I think three more excellent Homer prefer than all the reft:' One of them Homer; not red to the greatbut Ariftotle and Varro, for Example, were ft Geniuses. peradventure as learned as he; and poffibly Virgil might compare with him, even in his own Art; I leave this to be determined by fuch as know them both; I, who, for my Part, understand but one of them, can only fay this, according to my poor Talent, That I do not believe the Mufes themselves ever furpaffed the Roman.

6

Tale facit carmen doctâ teftudine, quale
Cynthius impofitis temperat articulis.

i. e.

His Lute and Verfe with Harmony as fweet confpire, As when Apollo fings in Concert with his Lyre. And yet in this Judgment we are not to forget, that it is chiefly from Homer that Virgil derives his Excellence, that he is his Guide and Teacher; and that the Iliad only has supplied him with Body and Matter, out of which to compose his great and divine Eneis. I do not reckon upon that alone, but take in feveral other Circumftances that render this Poet admirable to me, even as it were above human Condition: And, in Truth, I often wonder, that he who has erected, and by his Authority given fo many Deities Reputation in the World, was not deified himself, being both blind and poor, and fo well acquainted with the Sciences, before they were reduced into Rule and certain Obfervations, that all thofe who have fince taken upon them to establish Governments, to carry on Wars, and to write either of Philofophy or Religion, of what Sect foever, or of the Arts, have made use of him, as of 002

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a moft

Book 11: a moft perfect Inftructor, in the Knowledge of all Things; and of his Books as a Nursery of all Sorts of Learning:

Qui quid fit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, Plenius ac melius Chryfippo ac Crantore dixit.

i. e.

Who hath what's brave, what's bafe, what's hurtful, and what's good,

Clearer than Crantor or Chryfippus fhew'd.

and as this other fays,

a quo ceu fonte perenni

Vatum Pieriis labra rigantur aquis.

i. e.

At that clear Spring the Poets take their fwill,
Which ever flows from the Pierian Hill,

and another,

Adde Heliconiadum Comites, quorum unus Homerus
Aftra potitus ".

i. e.

Of all the Poets, Homer is alone

Judg'd the moft worthy of the Mufes Throne,

and another,

cujufque ex ore profufo

Omnis pofteritas latices in carmina duxit,
Amnemque in tenues aufa eft deducere rivos,
Unius fecunda bonis ".

i. e.

From whofe abundant Spring

Succeeding Poets draw the Songs they fing;
From him they take, from him adorn their Themes,
And into little Channels cut his Streams;

Rich in his Store

'Tis contrary to the Order of Náture that he has made the most excellent Production that can poffibly be; for

Hor. lib. i. Epist. 2. v. 3.

" Lacret. lib. iii. v. 1050.

the

Ovid. Amor. lib. iii. Eleg. 9. v. 25. w Manil, Aftren. lib. ii, v. 8, &..

x

the ordinary Birth of Things is imperfect; they thrive and gather Strength by growing: Whereas he has rendered even the Infancy of Poefy, and of several other Sciences, mature, perfect, and complete. And for this Reafont he may be called the firft and the laft of the Poets, according to the fair Teftimony Antiquity has left us of him, That, as there was none before him whom he could imitate, fo there has been none fince that could imitate him.' His Words, according to Ariftotle', are the only Words that have Motion and Action, and are the only fubftantial Words. Alexander the Great, having found a rich little Coffer amongst Darius's Spoils ", gave Order it should be reserved for him to keep his Homer in;' faying, That he was the best and most faithful Counsellor he had in his military Affairs. For the fame Reason it was that Cleomenes, the Son of Anaxandridas, faid, That he was the Lacedæmonian Poet, because he < was the best Master for the Discipline of War. This fingular and particular Commendation is also left of him in the Judgment of Plutarch, That he is the only Author in the World that never glutted nor difgufted his • Readers, presenting himself always in different Lights, and always flourishing in fome new Grace.' That merry Droll Alcibiades, having afked one who pretended to Learning for a Book of Homer, gave him a Box on the Ear because he had none, which he thought as fcandalous as we fhould for one of our Priefts to be without a Breviary. Xenophanes complained one Day to Hiero, the Tyrant of Syracufe, That he was fo poor he had not wherewithal to maintain two Servants:' The Tyrant replied, Homer, who was much poorer than you are, keeps above ten thousand now he is dead.' What did Panatius leave unfaid when he called Plato the Homer of Philofophers? Befides, what Glory can be compared to his? Nothing is fo frequent in Men's Mouths as his Name and Works; 003 nothing

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* Velleii Paterculi Hift. Hb. i. c. 5. y Arift. de Politica, c. 24. 2 Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. vii. c. 29. a Plutarch, in the Life of Alexander, In the Notable Sayings of the Lacedæmonians.

C. 2.

in his Treatife of Loquacity, c. 5.

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c. 3.
Word Hiero.

Plutarch,

d Idem, in the Life of Alcibiades,

Idem, in the Notable Sayings of the ancient Kings, c. at the
Cic. Tufc. Quelt. lib. i. c. 32,

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