to whose charge fhe had been intrufted, and whom The had made fenfible of her charms, to carry a mef fage to his rival. ARIMANT, with a letter in his hand: INDAMORA. Arim. And I the meffenger to him from you? You lay commands, both cruel and unjust, Ind. You firft betray'd your truft in loving me : Arim. I'll to the king, and ftrait my truft refign, But to become my confidant and friend : As fuch, I keep no fecret from your fight, And therefore make you judge how ill I write : If 'tis indited, as I meant it, kind. Arim. I afk not heav'n my freedom to reftore,- [Reading. But only for your fake· -I'll read no more. And yet I must Lefs for my own, than for your forrow fad Another line, like this, would make me mad [Reading. Heav'n fhe goes on -yet more- -and yet more kind! [As Reading. Each fentence is a dagger to my mind, See me this night Thank fortune, who did fuch a friend provide ; But pre-engag'd without my own confent! [Reading. Ind. Unknown t'engage you, ftill augments my score, And gives you fcope of meriting the more. Arim. The best of men Some int'reft in their actions must confefs; None merit, but in hope they may poffefs: Than, like Bellerophon, my own sentence bear. Ind. You may; but 'twill not be your beft advice: Why should you vainly ftruggle with your fate? Why am I thus to flavery defign'd, And yet am cheated with a freeborn mind! Or make thy orders with my reason fuit, } Or let me live by fenfe, a glorious brute [She frowns. You frown, and I obey with speed, before That dreadful fentence comes, See me no more. In this scene, every circumstance concurs to turn tragedy to farce. The wild abfurdity of the expedient; the contemptible fubjection of the lover; the folly of obliging him to read the letter, only because it ought to have been concealed from him; the frequent interruptions of amorous impatience; the faint expoftulations of a voluntary flave; the imperious haughtiness of a tyrant without power; the deep reflection of the yielding rebel upon fate and freewill; and his wife wish to lose his reafon as foon as he finds himself about to do what he cannot per fuade his reason to approve, are furely fufficient to awaken the most torpid rifibility. There is scarce a tragedy of the last century which has not debased its most important incidents, and polluted 5 luted its most serious interlocutions with buffoonry and meanness; but though perhaps it cannot be pretended that the prefent age has added much to the force and efficacy of the drama, it has at least been able to escape many faults, which either ignorance had overlooked, or indulgence had licenfed. The later tragedies indeed have faults of another kind, perhaps more destructive to delight, though less open to cenfure. That perpetual tumour of phrafe with which every thought is now expreffed by every perfonage, the paucity of adventures which regularity admits, and the unvaried equality of flowing dialogue, has taken away from our prefent writers almost all that dominion over the paffions which was the boast of their predeceffors. Yet they may at least claim this commendation, that they avoid grofs faults, and that if they cannot often move terror or pity, they are always careful not to provoke laughter. NUMB. 126. SATURDAY, June 1, 1751. Nihil eft aliud magnum quam multa minuta. VET. AUCT. Sands form the mountain, moments make the year. Young. SIR, A To the RAMBLER. MONG other topicks of converfation which your papers fupply, I was lately engaged in a difcuffion of the character given by Tranquilla of her lover Venuftulus, whom, notwithstanding the severity of his mistress, the greater number feemed inclined to acquit of unmanly or culpable timidity. One of the company remarked, that prudence ought to be distinguished from fear; and that if Ve nustulus was afraid of nocturnal adventures, no man who confidered how much every avenue of the town was infested with robbers could think him blameable; for why should life be hazarded without profpect of honour or advantage? Another was of opinion, that a brave man might be afraid of croffing the river in the calmeft weather; and declared, that, for his part, while there were coaches and a bridge, he would never be seen tottering in a wooden cafe, out of which he might be thrown by any irregular agitation, or which might be overfet by accident, or negligence, or by the force of a fudden guft, or the rufh of a larger veffel. It was his cuftom, he faid, to keep the fecurity of day-light, and dry ground; for it was a maxim with him, that no wife man ever perished by water, or was loft in the dark. The next was humbly of opinion, that if Tranquilla had feen, like him, the cattle run roaring about the meadows in the hot months, fhe would not have thought meanly of her lover for not venturing his fafety among them. His neighbour then told us, that for his part he was not afhamed to confefs, that he could not fee a rat, though it was dead, without palpitation; that he had been driven fix times out of his lodgings either by rats or mice; and that he always had a bed in the clofet for his fervant, whom he called up whenever the enemy was in motion. Another wondered that any man fhould think himfelf difgraced by a precipitate retreat from a dog; for there was always a poffibility that a dog might be mad; and that furely, though there was no danger but of being bit by a fierce animal, there was more wifdom in flight than conteft. By all these declarations another was encouraged to confefs, that if he had been admitted to the honour of paying his addreffes to Tranquilla, he should have been likely to incur the fame cenfure; for among all the animals upon which nature has impreffed deformity and horror, there was none whom he durft not encounter rather than a beetle. Thus, Sir, though cowardice is univerfally defined too close and anxious an attention to perfonal fafety, there will be found fcarcely any fear, however exceffive in its degree, or unreasonable in its object, which will be allowed to characterize a coward. Fear is a paffion which every man feels fo frequently predominant in his own breast, that he is unwilling to |