Here I devote your senate! I've had wrongs, To stir a fever in the blood of age, Or make the infant's sinews strong as steel. This day's the birth of sorrows! - This hour's work Will breed proscriptions. Look to your hearths, my lords, For there henceforth shall sit, for household gods, Shapes hot from Tartarus!- all shames and crimes; Wan Treachery, with his thirsty dagger drawn ; Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup; Naked Rebellion, with the torch and axe, Making his wild sport of your blazing thrones ; Till Anarchy comes down on you like night, And Massacre seals Rome's eternal grave. LESSON CXXII. Cato's Soliloquy on the Immortality of the Soul. SCENE. ADDISON. · CATO sitting in a thoughtful posture, with Plato's book on the Immortality of the Soul in his hand; and a drawn sword on the table by him. Ir must be so - Plato, thou reasonest well! Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, "Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being, Through what new scenes and changes must we pass! The wide, th' unbounded prospect lies before me; Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue; But when? or where?- This world was made for Cæsar. [Laying his hand on his sword. . Thus am I doubly armed: my death* and life,t The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds. LESSON CXXIII. Edward and Warwick. FRANKLIN'S TRANSLATION. Edward. LET me have no intruders; above all, Keep Warwick from my sight [Enter Warwick.] Warwick. Behold him here; No welcome guest, it seems, unless I ask Edw. There was a time, perhaps, When Warwick more desired, and more deserved it. Edw. I thought, my lord, I had full well repaid Guided in secret every latent wheel Of government, and moved the whole machine: War. Who gave that cipher worth, and seated thee On England's throne? Thy undistinguished name Had rotted in the dust from whence it sprang, And mouldered in oblivion, had not Warwick Dug from its sordid mine the useless ore, And stamped it with a diadem. Thou knowest, This wretched country, doomed, perhaps, like Rome, Bade the rough waves subside in peace, and steered You may despise, perhaps, that useless aid Edw. Know, too, reproach for benefits received A thrifty, saving knowledge: when the debt You may remember next the injuries Which I have done you: let me know them all, And I will make you ample satisfaction. War. Thou canst not; thou hast robbed me of a jewel It is not in thy power to restore. I was the first, shall future annals say, That broke the sacred bond of public trust In after times, mere instruments, perhaps, That haunt your court, could none be found but Warwick, Edw. And wouldst thou turn the vile reproach on me? War. I've been abused, insulted, and betrayed: Edw. These gusts of passion Will but inflame them. If I have been right To wonder most. I little thought, indeed, But I've discovered all! War. And so have I. Too well I know thy breach of friendship there, Edw. I scorn it, sir! Elizabeth hath charms, War. 'Tis false! You knew it all, and meanly took occasion, Which your kingdom could not purchase. Edw. How know you that? But be it as it may, War. Prerogative! What's that? the boast of tyrants, A borrowed jewel, glittering in the crown With specious lustre, lent but to betray. You had it, sir, and hold it, from the people. Edw. And therefore do I prize it: I would guard Their liberties, and they shall strengthen mine; But when proud Faction and her rebel crew Insult their sovereign, trample on his laws, And bid defiance to his power, the people, |