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II.

NARRATION.

DAMON and Pythias, of the Pythagorean Narration, sect in philosophy, lived in the time of Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily. Their mutual friendship was so strong, that they were ready to die for one another. One of the two (for it is not known which) being condemned to death by the tyrant, obtained leave to go into his own country, to settle his affairs, on condition that the other should consent to be imprisoned in his stead, and put to death for him, if he did not return before the day of execution. The attention of every one, and especially of the tyrant himself, was excited to the highest pitch; as every body was curious to see what should be the event of Doubting. so strange an affair. When the time was almost elapsed, and he, who was gone, did not appear, the rashness of the other, whose sanguine friendship had put him upon running so scemingly desperate a hazard, was universally blamed. But he still declared that he had not the Confidence least shadow of doubt in his mind, of his friend's fidelity. The event shewed how well he knew him. He came in due time, and surrendered to that fate, which he had no reason to think he should escape; and which he did not desire to escape by leaving his friend to suffer in his place. Such fidelity softened even the savage heart of

not most of the following paffages, taken both from the ancients and the moderns. For my defign was to put together a fet of leffons ufeful for practice, which did not reftrict me to the very words of any author. I have endeavoured to make each leffon a complete piece; which obliged me to infert matter of my own. I have excluded improper fentiments, and have fubftituted modern expreffions for fome antiquated ones, which I thought young people would be puzzled to understand; and I have inferted a few fancies, which occurred to me in copying out fome of the pasfages, to render them more diverting to youth, whose tule long experience has given me fome knowledge of.

Courage.

Declama

tion.

Pity.

Averfion.

es, and procured a pardon for the mother. Nor was it thought sufficient to give to so dutiful a daughter the forfeited life of her condemned mother, but they were both maintained afterwards, by a pension settled on them for life. And the ground, upon which the prison stood, was consecrated, and a temple to Filial Piety built upon it.

What will not filial duty contrive, or what hazards will it not run; if it will put a daughter upon venturing, at the peril of her own life, to maintain her imprisoned and condemned mother in so unusual a manner. For what was ever heard of more strange, than a mother sucking the breasts of her own daughter? It might even seem so unnatural, as to render it doubtful, whether it might not be, in some sort, wrong, if it were not, that duty to parents is the first law of nature. [Val. Max. Plin.]

V.

HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION.

LUCIUS CATALINE, by birth a Patrician, was, by nature, endowed with superior advan tages both bodily and mental; but his dispositions were corrupt and wicked. From his youth, his supreme delight was in violence, (1) slaughter, rapines, and intestine confusions; and such works were the employment of his earliest years. His constitution qualified him for bearing hunger, cold, and want of sleep, to a degree exceeding belief. His mind was daring, subtle, unsteady. There was no character which he could not assume and put off at pleasure, Rapacious of what belonged to others; prodigal of his own; violently bent on whatever became the object of his pursuit. He possessed a considerable share

(1) Enumeration requires a thort pause between the particulars.

threatening him from on high, soon put a stop to his joy and revelling. The pomp of his attendants, and the glitter of the carved plate, gave him no longer any pleasure. He dreads to stretch forth his hand to the table. He throws off the Trepidation chaplet of roses. He hastens to remove from his or hurry. dangerous situation; and at last begs the king to restore him to his former humble condition, having no desire to enjoy any longer such a dreadful kind of happiness. [Cic. Tusc. QUEST.]

IV.

NARRATION.

THE prreter had given up to the triumvir, Narration.

a woman of some rank, condemned for a capital
crime, to be executed in the prison. He who
had charge of the execution, in consideration of
her birth, did not immediately put her to death;
he even ventured to let her daughter have access
to her in prison; carefully searching her, how-
ever, as she went in, lest she should carry with
her any sustenance; concluding, that in a few
days, the mother must, of course, perish for want,
and that the severity of putting a woman of
family to a violent death, by the hand of the' ex-
ecutioner, might thus be avoided. Some days
passing in this manner, the triumvir began to
wonder, that the daughter still came to visit her
mother, and could by no means comprehend, how
the latter should live so long. Watching, there-
fore, carefully, what passed in the interview
between them, he found to his great astonishment,
(1) that the life of the mother had been, all this
while, supported by the milk of the daughter,
who came to the prison every day, to give her
mother her breasts to suck. The strange contri-
vance between them was represented to the judg

(1) See Admiration, in the Essay, page 27.

Wonder.

Declama

tion.

Pity.

Averfion.

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es, and procured a pardon for the mother. Nor was it thought sufficient to give to so dutiful a daughter the forfeited life of her condemned mother, but they were both maintained afterwards, by a pension settled on them for life. And the ground, upon which the prison stood, was consecrated, and a temple to Filial Piety built upon it.

What will not filial duty contrive, or what hazards will it not run; if it will put a daughter upon venturing, at the peril of her own life, to maintain her imprisoned and condemned mother in so unusual a manner. For what was ever heard of more strange, than a mother sucking the breasts of her own daughter ? It might even seem so unnatural, as to render it doubtful, whether it might not be, in some sort, wrong, if it were not, that duty to parents is the first law of nature. [Val. Max. Plin.]

V.

HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION.

LUCIUS CATALINE, by birth a Patrician, was, by nature, endowed with superior advantages both bodily and mental; but his dispositions were corrupt and wicked. From his youth, his supreme delight was in violence, (1) slaughter, rapines, and intestine confusions; and such works were the employment of his earliest years. His constitution qualified him for bearing hunger, cold, and want of sleep, to a degree exceeding belief. His mind was daring, subtle, unsteady. There was no character which he could not assume and put off at pleasure, Rapacious of what belonged to others; prodigal of his own; violently bent on whatever became the object of his pursuit. He possessed a considerable share

(1) Enumeration requires a thort pause between the particulars.

His

of eloquence; but little solid knowledge. insatiable temper was ever pushing him to grasp at what was immoderate, romantic, and out of his reach.

Horror.

About the time of the disturbances raised by Narration. Sylla, Cataline was seized with a violent lust of power; nor did he at all hesitate about the means, so he could but attain his purpose of raising himself to supreme dominion. His restless spirit was in a continual ferment, occasioned by the confusion of his own private affairs, and by the horrors of his guilty conscience; both which he * had brought upon himself by living the life above described. He was encouraged in his ambitious projects by the general corruption of manners, which then prevailed: amongst a people infected with two vices, not less opposite to one another in their natures, than mischievous in their tendencies, I mean luxury and avarice. [Sal. BELL. CATILINAR.]

No

VI.

ARGUING. (1)

O one, who has made the smallest progress in mathematics, can avoid observing, that mathematical demonstrations are accompained with such a kind of evidence, as overcomes obstinacy, insuperable by many other kinds of reasoning, Hence it is, that so many learned men have laboured to illustrate other sciences with this sort of evidence; and it is certain, that the study of mathematics has given light to sciences very little connected with them. But what will not wrong-headed men abuse! This advantage, which mathematical reasoning has, for discovering truth, has given occasion to some to reject truth itself, though supported by the most unexceptionable

(1) See in the ESSAY, the articles Arguing, Teaching, &c. page 23 & 24.

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