1

tation and the fovereign arbiter of life and death in the execution of every legal condemnation; To court popularity is both derogatory and dangerous, nor fhould he, who is deftined to rule over the whole, condefcend to put himself in the league of a party: To be a protector of learning and a patron of the arts, is worthy of a prince, but let him beware how he finks himfelf into a pedant or a virtuofo: It is a mean talent, which excels in trifles; the fine arts are more likely to flourish under a prince, whose ignorance of them is qualified by general and impartial good-will towards their profeffors, than by one, who is himself a dabbler; for fuch will always have their favorites, and favoritism never fails to irritate the minds of men of genius concerned in the fame ftudies, and turns the spirit of emulation into the gall of acrimony.

Above all things let it be his inviolable maxim to diftinguish strongly and pointedly in his attentions between men of virtuous morals and men of vicious: There is nothing fo glorious and at the fame time nothing fo easy; if his countenance is turned to men of principle and character, if he beftows his fmile upon the werthy only, he need be at little pains to frown upon the profligate, all fuch vermin will crawl out of his path and fhrink away from his prefence:

ΙΟ

fence: Glittering talents will be no passport for diffolute morals, and ambition will then be retained in no other caufe, but that of virtue ; men will not chufe crooked paffages and byealleys to preferment, when the broad highway of honesty is laid open and ftrait before them. A prince, though he gives a good example in his own perfon, what does he profit the world, if he draws it back again by the bad examples of thofe, whom he employs and favors? Better might it be for a nation, to see a libertine on it's throne furrounded by virtuous counsellors, than to contemplate a virtuous fovereign, delegating his authority to unprincipled and licentious fervants.

The king, who declares his refolution of countenancing the virtuous only amongst his fubjects, speaks the language of an honest man; if he makes good his declaration, he performs the functions of one, and earns the bleffings of a righteous king; a life of glory in this world, and an immortality of happiness in the world to

come.

K4

No CIX.

N° CIX.

WAS furprifed the other day to find our

I warned per Ben Jonson had been peaching

in an obfcure collection of love-letters, written by the fophift Philoftratus in a very rhapsodical ftile merely for the purpose of stringing together a parcel of unnatural, far-fetched conceits, more calculated to difguft a man of Jonson's claffic tafte, than to put him upon the humble task of copying them, and then fathering the tranflation. The little poem he has taken from this despicable fophift is now become a very popular fong, and is the ninth in his collection intitled The Foreft.

I will take the liberty of inferting Jonson's tranflation, and compare it with the original, ftanza by ftanza

I.

Drink to me only with thine eyes,

And I will pledge with mine,
Or leave a kifs but in the cup,

And I'll not look for wine.

« PHILOSTRATUS, Letter XXIV.

σε Εμοι δὲ μόνοις πρέπινε τοις ὄμμασιν Drink to me « with thine eyes only. Ει δὲ βάλει, τοῖς χέιλεσι προςσε φέρεσα, πλήρες φιλημά των τὸ ἔκπωμα, καὶ ἕ τως δίδε. «Or if thou wilt, putting the cup to thy lips, fill « it with kiffes and fo beflow it upon me.”

II.

The thirft, that from the foul doth rife,

Demands a drink divine,

But might I of Jove's nectar fip,

I wou'd not change for thine.

« PHIL. Letter XXV.

«ς Ἐγω, ἐπειδὰν ἴδω σε, διψῶ, καὶ τὸ ἔκπωμα κατέχων, «ς καὶ τὸ μὲν ἐ προσάγω τοῖς χέιλεσι σὲ δὲ διδα πίνων.

I, as foon as I behold thee, thirst, and taking "hold of the cup, do not indeed apply that to my σε lips for drink, but thee,”

III.

I fent thee late a rofy wreath,
Not fo much honouring thee,

As giving it a hope that there
It might not withered be.

« PHIL. Letter XXX.

« Πέπομφὰ σοι τέφανον ῥόδων, ἐ σὲ τιμῶν, (καὶ τέτο σε μὲνγὰρ ἀλλ ̓ αὐτοῖς τι χαριζόμενος τοῖς ρόδοις, ἵνα μὴ

σε μαραυδῆς

"μapaudй. I fend thee a rofy wreath, not fo much "honoring thee (though this alfo is in my thoughts)

as beflowing favor upon the rofes, that fo they might not be withered."

IV.

But thou thereon didft only breathe,
And fent ft it back to me,

Since when it grows and fmells I fwear
Not of itfelf, but thee.

"PHIL. Letter XXXI.

« Ει δὲ βουλει τί φίλω χαρίζεσθαι, τὰ λέιψανα αυτῶν « αντίπεμψον, μηκέτι πνέοντα ρόδον μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ σκο

If thou would't do a kindness to thy lover, fend back the reliques of the rofes [I gave thee], for "they will fmell no longer of themselves only, but of thee."

When the learned poet publifhed his lovefong without any acknowledgment to Philoftratus, I hope the reafon of his omitting it was because he did not chufe to call the public curiofity to a perufal of fuch unfeemly and unnatural rhapfodies, as he had condefcended to copy from.

Now I am upon the fubject of Ben Jonson I fhall take notice of two paffages in The Induction on the Stage, prefixed to his play of Bartholomew