I ACT V. SCENE I. CATO alone, &c. T must be so-Plato, thou reason'st wellElfe 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 foul "Back on herself, and startles at destruction? "'Tis the divinity that ftirs within us; ""Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, "And intimates eternity to man. "Eternity! thou pleafing, dreadful thought! "Through what variety of untry'd being, "Thro' what new fcenes and changes muft we pass! "The wide, th' unbounded profpect lies before me; "But fhadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it. "Here will I hold. If there's a power above us, "(And that there is all Nature cries aloud "Through all her works) he must delight in virtue; "And that which he delights in must be happy. "But when, or where!This world was made " for Cæfar. "I'm weary of conjectures-This must end them. [Laying his hand on his fword. "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 informs me I fhall never die. "The foul, fecur'd in her existence, fmiles "At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. VOL. VIII. B b "The "The ftars fhall fade away, the fun himself "The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds." ADVERTISEMENT. 'Dr. CAIRNS, a Gradual, challenges all the Gradual Doc'tors of Great Britain, to difcourfe with him of the nature of metals, and their medicinal virtues, and of the Univerfal Medicine; and, until he find one fitter for the title, he declareth himself Profeffor of Occult Philofophy and Alchymy. And in his Chamber, every Thurfday at four o'clock, he will make a difcourfe of the greateft fecrets in Nature. He expected and invited the most learned audience that the kingdoni affords [nam ignoti multa cupido]; and promifed a Dif courfe of the greatest fecrets in Nature, not only fuitable to their titles and his, but to the highest attainments of human understanding. Dr. Cairns lives the next door but one to the Riding Houfe in Berwick Street, near Marlborough • Street. Each paying half a Crown.' SPECT. in folio. N° 606. N. 629. N° 629.* Monday, December 6, 1714. Experiar quid concedatur in illos, Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis, atque latinâ. Juv. Sat. i. 170. Since none the living dare implead, Arraign them in the perfons of the dead.' NE DRYDEN. 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 anfwer as a promise. Nothing is more ridiculous than the pretenfions of people upon thefe occafions. Every thing a man hath fuffered, whilft 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 toasting an outed ministry. I remember a Tory, who, having been fined in a court of justice for a prank that deferved the pillory, defired upon the merit of it to be made a juftice of the peace when his friends came into power; and fhall never forget a Whig criminal, who, upon being *N 630. SPECT. in folio. B b 2 indicted indicted for a rape, told his friends You fee what a man fuffers for fticking to his principles.' The truth of it is, the fufferings of a man in party are of a very doubtful nature. When they are fuch as have promoted a good caufe, and fallen upon a man underfervedly, they have a right to be read and recompenfed beyond any other pretenfion. But when they rife out of rashness or indiscretion, and the pursuit of fuch measures as have rather ruined than promoted the intereft they aim at, which hath always been the cafe of many great fufferers, they only ferve to recommend them to the children of violence or folly. I have by me a bundle of memorials presented by feveral cavaliers upon the restoration of King Charles II. which may ferve as fo many inftances to our prefent purpose. Among feveral perfons and pretenfions recorded by my author, he mentions one of a very great eftate, who, for having roasted an ox whole, and diftributed a hogfhead upon King Charles's birth day, defired to be provided for as his Majesty in his great wisdom should think fit. Another put in to be the Prince Henry's governor, for having dared to drink his health in the worst of times. A third petitioned for a colonel's commiffion, for having curfed Oliver Cromwell, the day before his death, on a public bowling-green. But the most whimsical petition I have met with is that of B. B. Efq; who defired the honour 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 First until the restoration of King Charles the Second, desired in confideration thereupon 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 therefore humbly prays to be made postmaster-general, A certain gentleman, who seems to write with a great deal of spirit, and uses the words gallantry and gentleman-like very often in his petition, begs that (in confideration of his having worn his hat for ten years past in the loyal cavaliercock, to his great danger and detriment) he may be made a captain of the guards. I fhall close 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, The Petition of E. H. Efq. HUMBLY SHEWETH, TH HAT your petitioner's father's brother's uncle, Colonel W. H. loft the third finger of his left hand at Edgehill fight. Bb 3 That |