sessed at present, the inferior nature will at length mount up to it, and [hine forth in the same degree of glory.

With what astonishment and veneration may we look into our souls, where there are such hidden 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 for all eternity, without a poffibility 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?

SPECTATOR. с н А Р. V.

R

ON THE BEING OF A GOD.
ETIRE ;-The world shut out ;

-Thy thoughts
call home;
Imagination's airy wing repress ;-
Lock up thy senses ?-Let no passion ftir ;-
Wake all to Reason--let her reign alone ;-
Then, in thy soul's deep silence, and the depth
Of Nature's filence, 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'sancestors without an end?
That's hard to be conceiv'd ; since ev'ry link

Of

Of that long-chain'd succession is so frail ;
Can every part depend, and not the whole ?

Yet grant it true ; new difficulties rise ;
I'm still quite out at fea ; nor see the shore.
Whence earth, and thefe bright orbs ?-Eternal too ?-
Grant matter was eternal : still these orbs
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 thro' 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 an universe of duft.
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,
Resides not in each block ;-a GODHEAD reigns.-
And, if a GOD there is, that GOD how great!

YOUNG.

в оок

V.

ORATIONS AND HARANGUES.

C H À P. I.

JUNIUS BRUTUS OVER THE DEAD BODY

OF LUCRETIA.

YES

ES, noble lady, I swear by this blood, wliich was once

so pure, and which nothing but royal villainy 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 whatsoever, to be Kingin Rome. Ye Gods, I call you to witness this my oath !--There, Romans, turn your eyes to that fad fpectacle--the daughter of Lucretius, Collatinus's wife-she died by her own hand. See there a noble lady, whom the luft of a Tarquin reduced to the necessity of being her own executioner, to-attest her innocence. Hospitably entertained by her as a kinsman of her husband's, Sextus, the perfidious guest, became her brutual ravilher. The chaste, the generous Lucretia could not survive the insult. Glorious

woman !

The city

woman ! But once only treated as a Nave, 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 after five-andtwenty years of ignominious fervitude, shall we, through a fear of dying, defer one fingle inftant to assert our liberty? No, Romans, now is the time; the favourable moment we have so long waited for is come. Tarquin is not at Rome. The Patricians are at the head of the enterprize. is abundantly provided with men, arms, and all things neceffary. There is nothing wanting to secure the success, if our own courage does not fail us. Can all those warriors, who have ever been so brave when foreign enemies were to be subdued, or when conquests were to be made to gratify the ambition and avarice of Tarquin, be then only cowards, when they are to deliver themselves from slavery ? Some 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 Rome : 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 favourthe 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 ụs 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 by sacrifices and libations made with polluted hands, polluted

with

)

H5

with blood, and with numberless unexpiated crimes committed against his fubjects. Ye Gods, who protected our forefathers, ye Genii, 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 defend your worship from all profanation.

Livy,

C H A P. II.

HANNIBAL TO

HIS SOLDIERS.

IK

KNOW not foldiers, whether you or your prisoners

be encompassed by fortune with the stricter bonds and necessities. Two seas enclose you on the 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, orer-which, even when your numbers were undiminished, you were hardly able to force a passage. Here then foldiers, 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 are ever wont to wish for greater from the immortal Gods. Should we by our valour recover only Sicily and Sardinia, which were ravished from our fathers those would be no inconsiderable prizes. Yet what are thefe? The wealth of Rome, whatever riches she has heaped together in the spoils of nations, all these, with the mafters of them, will be yours.

You have been long enough em; loyed in driving the cattle upon the vast mountains of Lufitania and Celtiberia ; you have hitherto met with no reward worthy of the labours and dangers you have under

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