vicious here; that he hath faculties improveable to all eternity; 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 perpetually growing and enlarging itself towards the object, 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 inclosed 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.'

A a 2

ACT. V. SCENE I.

CATO solus, &c.

SIC, sic se habere rem necesse prorsus est,
Ratione vincis, do lubens manus, Plato.
Quid enim dedisset, quæ dedit frustra nihil,
Eternitatis incitam cupidinem

Natura? Quorsum hæc dulcis expectatio;
Vitæque non explenda melioris sitis?
Quid vult sibi aliud isti redeundi in nihil
Horror, sub imis quemque agens præcordiis?
Cur territa in se refugit anima, cur tremit
Attonita, quoties morte ne pereat, timet?
Particula nempe est cuique nascenti indita
Divinior; quæ corpus incolens agit;
Hominique succinit, tua est æternitas.
ernitas! O lubricum nimis aspici,
Mixtumque dulci gaudium formidine?

Quæ demigrabitur alia hinc in corpora? Que terra mox incognita? Quis orbis novus, Manet incolendus? Quanta erit mutatio? Hæc intuenti spatia mihi quaqua patent Immensa: sed calignosa nox premit ; Nec luce clara vult videri singula. Figendus hic pes; certa sunt hæc hactenus: Si quad gubernet numen humanum genus, (At, quod gubernet, esse clamant omnia) Virtute non gaudere certa non potest : Nec esse non beata, qua gaudet, potest. Sed qua beata sede? Quove in tempore? Hæc quanta quanta terra, tota est Cæsaris. Quid dubius hæret animus usque adeo? Brevi Hic nodum hic omnen expediet. Arma en induor, In utramque partem facta; quaquæ vim inferant, Et quæ propulsent! Dextera intentat necem ; Vitam sinistra: vulnus hæc dabit manus; Alterna medelam vulneris: hic ad exitum Deducet, ictu simplici; hæc vetant mori.

ACT V. SCENE I.

CATO alone, &c.

IT must be so........Plato, thou reasonest well.........
Else why 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
Back on herself, and startles 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 scenes and changes must we pass!
The wide, th' unbounded prospect, lies before me ;
But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it.
Here will I hold. If there's a pow'r 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 Cæsar.

......

I'm weary of conjectures........ This must end 'em.

Thus I am doubly arm'd; my death and life,

My bane and antidote are both before me.
This in a moment brings me to my end;

But this informs me I shall never die.

Secura ridet anima mucronis minas,
Ensesque strictos, interire nuscia.
Extinguet ætas sidera diuturnior:
Etate languens ipse sol obscurius
Emi tet orbi consenescenti jubar:
Natura et ipsa sentiet quondam vices
Etatis; annis ipsa deficiet gravis:
At tibi juventus, at tibi immortalitas ;
Tibi parta divum est vita. Periment multui:
Elementa fese et interibunt ictibus:
Tu permanebis sola semper integra,
Tu cuncta rerum quassa, cuncta naufraga,
Jam portu in ipso tuta, contemplabere.
Compage rupta, corruent in ce invicem,
Orbesque fractis ingerentur orbibus;
Illæ tu sedebis extra fragmina.

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 wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.