ACT V.

SCENE I.

Τ

CATO alone, &c.

IT must be fo― Plato, thou reason'st well

Elfe whence this pleafing Hope, this fond Defire, This Longing after Immortality?

Or whence this fecret Dread, and inward Horror,
Of falling into Nought? Why fhrinks the Soul
Back on her felf, and ftartles at Deftruction?
'Tis the Divinity that ftirs within us;
'Tis Heav'n it felf, that points out an Hereafter,
And intimates Eternity to Man.

Eternity! thou pleafing, dreadful, Thought!

Through what Variety of untry'd Being, Through what new Scenes and Changes must we país! 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 muft delight in Virtue; And that which he delights in must be happy.

In utramque partem facta; quæque vim inferant,
Et que propulfent! Dextera intentat necem ;
Vitam finiftra: Vulnus hæc dabit manus;
Altera medelam vulneris: Hic ad exitum
Deducet, ictu fimplici; hæc vetant mori.
Secura ridet anima mucronis minas,
Enfefque ftrictos, interire nefcia,
Extinguet atas fidera diuturnior:
Atate languens ipfe Sol obfcurius
Emittet Orbi confenefcenti jubar:
Natura & ipfa fentiet quondam vices
Etatis, annis ipfa deficiet gravis:
At tibi juventus. at tibi immortalitas.
Tibi parta Divum eft vita. Periment mutuis
Elementa fefe et interibunt i&ibus:

Tu permanebis fola femper integra,

Tu cuncta rerum quassa, cuncta naufraga,
Jam portu in ipfo tuta, contemplabere.
Compage rupta, corruent in fe invicem,
Orbefque fractis ingerentur orbibus;
Illafa tu fedebis extra Fragmina.

Thus

Thus am I doubly arm'd; my Death and Life,
My Bane and Antidote are both before me.
This in a Moment brings me to an End;
But This inform's me I fhall never die.
The Soul fecur'd in her Exiftence, fmiles
At the drawn Dagger, and defies its Point.
The Stars fhall fade away, the Sun himself
Grow dim with Age, and Nature fink in Years;
But thou fhalt flourish in immortal Youth,

Unhurt amidst the War of Elements,

The Wrecks of Matter and the Crush of Worlds.

N° 629. Monday, December 6.

Experiar quid concedatur in illos,

Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis, atque Latinâ.

N

Juv.

EXT to the People who want a Place, there are none to be pitied more than those who are folicited for one. A plain Answer, with a Denial in it, is looked upon as Pride, and a Civil Answer as a Promife.

NOTHING is more ridiculous than the Pretenfions of People upon thefe Occafions. Every thing a Man hath fuffered, while his Enemies were in play, was certainly brought about by the Malice of the oppofite Party. A bad Caufe would not have been loft, if fuch an one had not been upon the Bench; nor a profligate Youth difinherited, if he had not got drunk every Night by toafting an outed Miniftry. I remember a Tory, who having been fined in a Court of Juftice for a Prank that deferved the Pillory, defir'd upon the Merit of it to be made a Juftice of Peace when his Friends came into Power; and fhall never forget a Whig Criminal, who, upon being indicted for a Rape, told his Friends, You fee what a Man fuffers for flicking to bis Principles.

THE Truth of it is, the Sufferings of a Man in a Party are of a very doubtful Nature. When they are fuch as have promoted a good Caufe, and fallen upon a Man undefervedly, they have a Right to be heard and recompenfed beyond any other Pretenfions. But when they rife out of Rafhnefs or Indiscretion, and the Purfuit of fuch Measures as have rather ruined, than promoted the Intereft they aim at, (which hath always been the Cafe of many great Sufferers) they only ferve to recommend them to the Children of Violence or Folly.

I

I have by me a Bundle of Memorials prefented by feveral Cavaliers upon the Restoration of King Charles II. which may ferve as so many Instances to our prefent Purpose.

AMONG feveral Perfons and Pretenfions recorded by my Author, he mentions one of a very great Estate, who, for having rofted an Ox whole, and distributed a Hogshead upon King Charles's Birth-Day, defired to be provided for, as his Majefty in his great Wisdom fhall think fit.

ANOTHER put in to be Prince Henry's Governor, for having dared to drink his Health in the worst of Times.

A Third petitioned for a Colonel's Commiflion, for having curfed Oliver Cromwell, the Day before his Death, on a publick Bowling-Green.

BUT the moit whimfical Petition I have met with is that of B. B. Efq; who defir'd the Honour of Knighthood, for having Cuckolded Sir T. W. a notorious Roundhead.

THERE is likewife the Petition of one who having let his Beard grow from the Martyrdom of King Charles the Firft, till the Reftoration of King Charles the Second, defired, in Confideration thereof, to be made a Privy-Counsellor.

I must not omit a Memorial fetting forth that the Memorialist had, with great dispatch, carried a Letter from a certain Lord to a certain Lord, wherein, as it afterwards appeared, Measures were concerted for the Restoration, and without which he verily believes that happy Revolution had never been effected; who thereupon humbly prays to be made Poft-Mafter-General.

A certain Gentleman, who feems to write with a great deal of Spirit, and ufes the Words Gallantry and Gentleman-like very often in his Petition, begs (that in Confideration of his having worn his Hat for ten Years paft in the Loyal Cavalier Cock, to his great Danger and Detriment) he may be made a Captain of the Guards.

I fhall clofe my Account of this Collection of Memorials, with the Copy of one Petition at length, which I recommend to my Reader as a very valuable Piece.