him, because it was what he more dreaded, an interruption to his glory; he defired a dangerous, fo it might be a speedy remedy. During this impatience of the king, it is well known that Darius had offered an immenfe fum to any one who fhould take away his life. But Philippus, the moft efteemed and moft knowing of his phyficians, promised, that within three days time he would prepare a medicine for him, which fhould restore him more expeditiously than could be imagined. Immediately after this engagement, Alexander receives a letter from the moit confiderable of his captains, with intelligence that Darius had bribed Philippus to poifon him. Every circumftance imagin able favoured this fufpicion; but this monarch, who did nothing but in an extraordinary manner, concealed the letter; and while the medicine was preparing, fpent all his thoughts upon his behaviour in this important incident. From this long foliloquy, he came to this refolution; Alexander must not lie bere alive to be oppreffed by his enemy: I will not believe my phyfician guilty or I will rather perish by guilt, than my own diffidence.

At the appointed hour Philippus enters with the potion. One cannot but form to one's felf, on this occafion, the encounter of their eyes; the refolution in thofe of the patient, and the benevolence in the countenance of the phyfician. The hero raifed himself in his bed, and holding the letter in one hand, and the potion in the other, drank the medicine. It will exercife my friend's pencil and brain, to place this action in its proper beauty. A prince obferving the features of a fufpected traitor, after having drank the poison he offered him, is a circumftance fo full of paffion, that it will require the highest strength of his imagination to conceive it, much more to exprefs it: But, as painting is eloquence and poetry in mechanism, I fhall raise his ideas, by reading with him the finest draughts of the paffions concerned in this circum-. ftance, from the moft excellent poets and orators. The cnnfidence which Alexander affumes, from the air of Philippus' face, as he is reading his accufation, anda

the generous difdain which is to rife in the features of a falfely accufed man, are principally to be regarded. In this particular he muft heighten his thoughts by reflecting, that he is not drawing only an innocent man traduced, but a man zealously affected to his perfon and fafety, full of refentment for being thought falfe. How fhall we contrive to exprefs the highest admiration mingled with difdain? How fhall we, in ftrokes of a pencil, fay, what Philippus did to his prince on this occafion? Sir, my life never depended on yours, more than it does now: Without knowing the fecret, I prepared the potion, which you have taken, as what concerned Philippus no less than Alexander; and there is nothing new in this adventure, but that it makes me still more admire the generefity and confidence of my mafter. Alexander took him by the hand, and faid, Philippus, I am confident you had rather I had. any other way to have manifefted the faith I have in you, than in a cafe which fo nearly concerns me : And, in gratitude, I now affure you, I am anxious for the effect of your medicine, more for your fake than for my own.

TATLER, Vol. IV. No. 209.

ALLUSIONS.

By allufions, a truth in the understanding is, as it

were, reflected by the imagination. We are able to fee fomething like colour and fhape in a notion, and to difcover a scheme of thoughts traced out upon matter. And here the mind receives a great deal of fatisfaction, and has two of its faculties gratified at the fame time, while the fancy is bufy in copying after the underftanding, and tranfcribing ideas out of the intellectual world into the material.

The great art of a writer fhows itself in the choice of pleafing allufions, which are generally to be taken from the great or beautiful works of art or nature: For though whatever is new or uncommon is apt to delight the imagination, the chief defign of an allufion being to explain or illuftrate the paffages of an author,

it fhould be always borrowed from what is more known and common, than the paffages which are to be explained.

ALCIBIADES

SPECTATOR, Vol. VI. No. 421.

ALCIBIADES.

was a man of great fpirit, extremely addicted to pleasure, but at the fame time very capable, and, upon occafion, very attentive to bufinefs. He was by nature endued with all the accomplishments fhe could bestow: He had beauty, wit, courage, and a great understanding; but, in the first bloom of his life, was arrogantly affected with the advantages he had over others. That temper is pretty visible in an expreffion of his, when it was propofed to him to learn to play upon a mufical inftrument; he answered, It is not for me to give, but to receive delight. However, the converfation of Socrates tempered aftrong inclination to licentioufnefs, into reflections of philofophy; and, if it had not the force to make a man of his genius and fortune wholly regular, it gave him fome cool moments, and this following foliloquy is fuppofed by the learned to have been thrown together before fome expected engagement, and feems to be very much the picture of the man.

"I am now wholly alone; my ears are not entertained with mufic, my eyes with beauty, nor any of my fences fo forcibly affected, as to divert the courfe of my inward thoughts: Methinks there is fomething facred in myself, now I am alone. What is this being of mine? I came into it without my choice; and yet Secrates fays it is to be imputed to me. In this repose of my fenfes, wherein they communicate nothing ftrongly to myself, I tafte methinks a being diftinct from their operation. Why may not then my foul exift, when he has wholly gone out of thefe organs? I can perceive my faculties grow ftronger, the lefs I admit the pleasures of fenfe; and the nearer I place

myself to a bare exiftence, the more worthy, the more noble, the more celeftial does that existence appear to me. If my. foul is weakened rather than improved by all that the body adminifters to her, fhe may reafonably be fuppofed to be defigned for a manfion more fuitable than this, wherein what delights her, diminishes her excellence, and that which affects her, adds to her perfection. There is an hereafter and I will not fear to be immortal, for the fake of Athens."

This Soliloquy is but the firft dawnings of thought in the mind of a mere man given up to fenfuality. GUARDIAN, Vol. I. No. 81.

AMBITION.

THE ambition of princes is many times as hurtful

to themselves as to their people: This cannot be doubt ed of fuch as prove unfortunate in their wars, but is often too true of those who are celebrated for their fucceffes. If a fevere view were to be taken of their conduct, if the profit and loss by their wars could be justly balanced, it would be rarely found that the conquest is fufficient to repay the coft.

SPECTATOR, Vol. III. No. 200.

There are but few men who are not ambitious of diftinguishing themfelves in the nation or country where they live, and of growing confiderable among thofe with whom they converfe. There is a kind of grandeur and refpećt which the meanest and most infignificant part of mankind endeavour to procure in the little circle of their friends and acquaintance. The pooreft mechanic, the man who lives upon common alms, gets him his fet of admirers, and delights in that fuperiority which he enjoys over thofe who are in fome refpect beneath him. This ambition, which is natural to the foul of man, might, methinks, receive a very happy turn; and, if it were

rightly directed, contribute as much to a perfon's advantage, as it generally does to his uneafinefs and difquiet.

SPECTATOR, Vol. III. No. 219.

If we look abroad upon the great multitude of mankind, and endeavour to trace out the principles of action in every individual, it will, I think, feem highly probable, that ambition runs through the whole fpecies, and that every man, in proportion to the vigour of his complexion, is more or lefs actuated by it. It is indeed no uncommon thing to meet with men, who by the natural bent of their inclinations, and without the difcipline of philofophy, afpire not to the heights of power and grandeur; who never fet their hearts upon a numerous train of clients and dependencies, nor other gay appendages of greatnefs; who are contented with a competency, and will not moleft their tranquility to gain an abundance: But it is not therefore to be concluded, that Tuch a man is not ambitious His defires may cut out another channel, and determine him to other purfuits; the motive may be, however, ftill the fame; and in thofe cafes, likewife, the man may be equally pushed on with the defire of diftinction.

Though the pure concioufnefs of worthy actions, abstracted from the views of popular applaufe, be to a generous mind an ample reward, yet the defire of dif tinction was doubtlefs implanted in our natures as an additional incentive to exert ourselves in virtuous excellence.

This paffion, like all others, is frequently perverted to evil and ignoble purposes; fo that we may account for many of the excellencies and follies of life upon the fame innate principles; to wit, the defire of being remarkable: For this, as it has been differently cultivated by education, ftudy, and converfe, will bring forth fuitable effects, as it falls in with an ingenious companion, or a corrupt mind: It does alfo exprefs itself in acts of magnanimity or selfish cunning, as it meets with a good or a weak understanding. As it