What is there in the table of Cebes like this fpiritual and religious virtue, this love to God, this zeal for his honour and fervice, and an intire dependence upon him in all conditions of life? The virtues of the heroes of antiquity are noble and excellent qualities; the r courage, and juftice, and temperance, and gratitude, and love to their country, are fine things: but they seem to have been calculated for the civil life. Thofe heroes were virtuous without being pious, and appear rather as felf-fufficient independent beings, than as fervants and votaries of God Almighty. It is these Christian virtues I have mentioned, that adorn and perfect human nature. It is these things that mostly contribute to the happiness of the world, and of every

man in it.

N. B. Mr. Scott, at the end of his Notes on Gebes, has the following remark. If this philosopher had reprefented the effects of virtue and vice as a divine conftitution, he would have ennobled his inftruction, and done greater fervice to the interest of morality. But those important interefts are effectually provided for by revelation. There the precepts of virtue are the laws of God. There we find a clear and compleat fyftem of his will. There our obedience is encouraged by hope in his pardoning mercy and powerful affiftance, by the life, death, and refurrection of his own fon; and by promises and threatnings which extend the reward of righteoufnefs, and the punishment of wickedness unto a future ftate of existence.

SECTION

SECTION XIII.

Look round the habitable world, how few Know their own good; or knowing it, pursue. How void of reason are our hopes and fears! What in the conduct of our life So well defign'd, fo luckily begun,

appears

But, when we have our with, we with undone ? The tenth Satire of Juvenal, DRYDEN,

Omnibus in terris quæ funt a Gadibus ufque Auroram et Gangem, pauci dignofcere poffunt Vera bona, atque illis multum diverfa remota Erroris nebula: quid enim ratione timemus Aut cupimus? Quid tam dextro pede concipis, ut te Conatus non pæniteat, votique peracti? JUVENALIS, Sat. X. (22)

§. I.

H

AVING married

the illuftrious fulia, as related in my last Sec

tion, and by the death of her

death of Julia. The unfortunate

father foont

after

(22) Sir Robert Stapylton has done this Satire in the following manner.

In all th' earth, from Cales weftward to the streams Of Ganges gilded with the morning beams, To few men good and ill unmask'd appear, For what with reafon do we hope or fear? What haft thou by thy happiest project gain'd, But thou repent'ft thy pains and with obtain'd?

M 2

Mr.

after the wedding, acquired a handsome fettlement, a confiderable fum of money, and a valuable collection of books; I thought myself fo happily fituated in the midst of flourishing

Mr. Dryden's tranflation is by far the fineft, to be fure. It is a charming thing: but whether it comes fo near the intended humour and brisk turns of Juvenal, as a third tranflation the Reader will find at the end of this fection, may admit of fome confideration.— I add here the fixteen laft lines of Dryden's Verfion, the most beautiful part of the Satire; that it may be near for comparing with the translation I have mentioned. -And for the fame reason, I likewife place here the fame number of lines done by Stapylton.

Yet not to rob the priests of pious gain,
That altars be not wholly built in vain :
Forgive the gods the reft, and ftand confin'd
To health of body, and content of mind;
A foul that can fecurely death defy,
And count it nature's privilege to die;
Serene and manly, hardned to fustain
The load of life, and exercis'd in pain :
Guiltless of hate, and proof against defire;
That all things weighs, and nothing can admire;
That dares prefer the toils of Hercules
To dalliance, banquets, and ignoble eafe.
The path to peace is virtue: What I fhow,
Thyfelf may freely on thyfelf bestow:
Fortune was never worshipp'd by the wife;
But, fet aloft by fools, ufurps the skies.

Yet that for facrifice thou may'ft prepare

DRYDEN.

Thy white hog, and for fomething make thy pray'r.

Play

flourishing mercies, and fo well fecured. from adverfity, that it was hardly poffible for the flame of deftruction to reach me. But when I had not the least reason to imagine calamity was near me, and fondly imagined profperity was my own, infeli

Pray that the Gods be gracionfly inclin'd,
To grant thee health of body, and of mind.
Afk a ftrong foul that may death's terrors fcorn,
And think to die, as good as to be born;
As great a gift of nature, that no cross
Can daunt, that knows no paffion, fears no lofs.
That Hercules his labours can digest,
Far better than Sardanapalus's feast,
His wenches, or his feather-beds; I fhow
What thou thyfelf may'ft on thyself bestow.
The path to peace is virtue; All the powers
Will be our own, if wifdom be but ours:
And yet to thee, vain fortune, we have given
The name of goddess, and plac'd thee in heav'n.
STAPYLTON

Ut tamen et pofcas aliquid, voveafque facellis. Exta, et candiduli divina tomacula porci: Orandum eft, ut fit mens fana in corpore fano. Fortem pofce animum, et mortis terrore carentem, Qui fpatium vitæ extremum inter munera ponat Naturæ, qui ferre queat quofcunque labores, Et venere, et cœnis, et pluma Sardanapali; Monftro, quod ipfe tibi poffis dare: femita certè, Tranquille per virtutum patet unica vitæ. Nullum numien habes, fi fit prudentia: fed te Nos facimus, fortuna, deam, cœloque locamus.

city came ftalking on unfeen; and from a fulness of peace, plunged us at once into an abyfs of woe. It was our wont, when the evenings were fine, to take boat at the bottom of a meadow, at the end of our garden, and in the middle of a deep river, pass an hour or two in fishing; but at last, by fome accident or other, a flip of the foot, or the boat's being got a little too far from the bank-fide, Julia fell in and was drowned. This happened in the tenth month of our marriage. The lofs of this charming angel in fuch a manner, fat powerfully on my fpirits for fome time; and the remembrance of her perfections, and the delights I enjoyed while fhe lived, made me wifh I had never feen her. To be fo vaftly happy as I was, and be deprived of her in a moment, in fo fhocking a way, was an affliction I was hardly able to bear. It ftruck me to the heart. I fat with my eyes fhut ten days.

A reflection on the death of fu

lia.

§. 2. But loffes and pains I confidered were the portion of mortals in this trying state, and from thence we ought to learn to give up our own wills; and to get rid of all eager wishes, and violent affection, that we may take up our reft wholly in that which pleafeth God: Carry