"Mem. Having waited a whole week for an anfwer to this letter, I hurried to town, "where I found the perfidious creature married "to my rival. I will bear it as becomes a man, "and endeavour to find out happiness for my"felf in that retirement, which I had prepared in vain for a falfe ungrateful woman. 99 "I am, &c." Mr. CASTELON, at the Penny-poft-office, hopes to publish by Saturday feveral vindications against " The SPECTATOR, Sept. 17, 1714." Poft-boy, No 3065, RRRRR. Dec. 1714. This feems to refer to SPECT. N° 594. N° 628. Friday, December 3, 1714. Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum. HOR. I Ep. ii. 43. It rolls, and rolls, and will forever roll,' • Mr. SPECTATOR, T HERE are none of your speculations which please me more than those upon 'infinitude and eternity*. You have already confidered that part of eternity which is paft, and I wish you would give us your thoughts upon that which is to come. Your readers will perhaps receive greater pleasure from this view of eternity than the former, fince we have every one of us a con * Sec SPECT. N° 565, N° 571, No 580, and No 590. cern cern in that which is to come: whereas a spe⚫culation on that which is past is rather curious • than useful. Befides, we can easily conceive it poffible for fucceffive duration never to have an end; though, as you have juftly obferved, that eternity which never had a beginning is altogether incomprehenfible; that is, we can • conceive an eternal duration which may be, though we cannot an eternal duration which hath been; or, if I may use the philofophical terms, we may apprehend a potential though not an actual eternity. 6 This notion of a future eternity, which is • natural to the mind of man, is an unanfwer⚫able argument that he is a being defigned for it; efpecially if we confider that he is capable ⚫ of being virtuous or vicious here: that he hath faculties improvable to all eternity; and, by a proper or wrong employment of them, may be happy or miferable throughout that infinite ' duration. Our idea indeed of this eternity is ⚫ not of an adequate or fixed nature, but is perpetually growing and enlarging itself toward the object, which is too big for human comprehenfion. As we are now in the beginnings of exiftence, fo fhall we always appear to ourselves as • if we were for ever entering upon it. After a million or two of centuries, fome confiderable things, already paft, may flip out of our memory; which, if it be not ftrengthened in a wonderful manner, may poffibly forget that ever there was a fun or planets; and yet, ⚫ notwithstanding the long race that we thall • then then have run, we shall still imagine ourselves juft ftarting from the goal, and find no pro'portion between that fpace which we know had a beginning and what we are sure will 6 never have an end. • But I fhall leave this fubject to your management, and question not but you will throw it into fuch lights as fhall at once improve and • entertain your reader. I have, enclosed, sent you á translation* of the fpeech of Cato on this occafion, which hath accidentally fallen into my hands, and which, for concifenefs, purity, and elegance of phrase, cannot be fufficiently admired.' * This tranflation was by Mr. afterwards Dr. Bland, once schoolmaster, then Provost of Eton, and Dean of Durham. See the note in p. 368. CATO was tranflated by Salvini into Italian, and acted at Florence; and by the Jefuits of St. Omer's into Latin, and played by their pupils. Of this verfion a copy was fent to Mr. Addison: it is to be wished that it could be found, for the fake of comparing their version of the folilo quy with that of Bland.' Dr. Johnfon's "Lives of Eng"ith Poets," vol. II. p. 375, 8vo. edit. 1781". It has been frequently obferved that the papers in this eighth volume are not diftinguished by Signatures, and ADDISON's papers are given on the authority of Mr. Tickell, who, it is fuppofed, has faithfully reprinted them in his edition of ADDISON'S "Works." This paper was probably written by ADDISON, or by Mr. Budgell, or Mr. Tickell, according to ADDISON'S direction, or with his approbation. ACT A C T V. SCENE I. CATO folus, &c. • SIC, fic fe habere rem neceffe prorfus eft, Ratione vincis, do lubens manus, Plato. • Quid enim dediffet, quæ dedit fruftra nihil, • Eternitatis infitam cupidinem • Natura? Quorfum hæc dulcis expectatio; Vitæque non explenda melioris fitis? Quid vult fibi aliud, ifte redeundi in nihil • Horror, fub imis quemque agens præcordiis? Cur territa in fe refugit anima, cur tremit? • Attonita, quoties, morte ne pereat, timet? • Particula nempe eft cuique nafcenti indita ? • Divinior; quæ corpus incolens agit; • Hominique fuccinit, tua eft æternitas. Eternitas! O lubricum nimis afpici, Mixtumque dulci gaudium formidine! Que demigrabitur alia hinc in corpora? Figendus hic pes; certa funt hæc ha&tenus ; Arma en induor, [Enfi manum admovens. • In utramque partem facta; quæque vim inferant, • Tu permanebis fola femper integra, 6 *This beautiful tranflation, which fame and Dr. Kippis have attributed to Bishop Atterbury (and which on that authority, and on ORAL TRADITION in the University of Oxford, I had printed as his in the "Select Collection of Poems," vol. V. p. 6.), I afterwards found reafon (vol. VIII. p. 302) to afcribe to Dr. Henry Bland, head mafter of Eton school, Provoft of the college there, and Dean of Durham (to whom it is also without hesitation afcribed by the laft and best Biographer of Addison); and have fince had the honour of being affured by Mr. Walpole "that it was the work of Bland; "and that he has more than once heard his father Sir Robert "Walpole fay, that it was he himself who gave that tranflation "to Mr. Addifon, who was extremely surprised at the fidelity " and beauty of it." J. N. ACT |