Unus in Egypto Magno lapis? Omnia Lagi
Rura tenere poteft, fi nullo cefpite nomen
Hæferit. Erremus populi, cinerumque tuorum,

Magne, metu nullas Nili calcemus arenas. L. 8. 7. 798.

Thus in Row's tranflation:

Where there are feas, or air, or earth, or fkies,
Where-e'er Rome's empire ftretches, Pompey lies.
Far be the vile memorial then convey'd
Nor let this stone the partial gods upbraid.
Shall Hercules all Oeta's heights demand,
And Nyfa's hill for Bacchus only stand;
While one poor pebble is the warrior's doom
That fought the cause of liberty and Rome?
If Fate decrees he must in Egypt lie,
Let the whole fertile realm his grave fupply,
Yield the wide country to his awful shade
Nor let us dare on any part to tread,

Fearful we violate the mighty dead.

The following paffages are pure rant. Coriolanus, fpeaking to his mother,

What is this?

Your knees to me? to your corrected fon?
Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach
Fillop the ftars: then let the mutinous winds
Strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery fun :
Murd'ring impoffibility, to make
What cannot be, flight work.

Coriolanus, A&t v. Sc. 3.

Cæfar.

Danger knows full well,

That Cæfar is more dangerous than he.

We

We

We were two lions litter'd in one day, And I the elder and more terrible.

Julius Cæfar, A&t 11. Sc. 4.

I

Almahide. This day

gave my faith to him, he his to me.

Almanzor. Good Heav'n, thy book of fate before

me lay

But to tear out the journal of this day.

Or if the order of the world below,

Will not the gap of one whole day allow,

Give me that minute when she made that vow,

That minute ev'n the happy from their bliss might give, And those who live in grief a fhorter time would live, So fmall a link if broke, th' eternal chain,

Would like divided waters join again.

Conqueft of Grenada, A& III.

Almanzor.

I'll hold it faft

As life and when life's gone, I'll hold this last.

And if thou tak'ft after I am flain,

I'll fend my ghost to fetch it back again.

Conqueft of Grenada, Part 2. A&t 111.

Lyndiraxa. A crown is come,

and will not fate allow,

And yet I feel fomething like death is near.

My guards, my guards

Let not that ugly skeleton appear.

Sure Destiny mistakes; this death's not mine;
She doats, and means to cut another line.

Tell her I am a queen-but 'tis too late;
Dying, I charge rebellion on my fate;

Bow down, ye flaves

Bow

Bow quickly down and your fubmiffion show;
I'm pleas'd to taste an empire ere I go.

[Dies.

Conqueft of Granada, Part 2. A&t v.

Ventidius. But you, ere love misled your wand'ring eyes,

Were, fure, the chief and best of human race,

Fram'd in the very pride and boast of nature,

So perfect, that the gods who form'd you wonder'd
At their own skill, and cry'd, A lucky hit

Has mended our defign.

Dryden, All for Love, Act 1.

Not to talk of the impiety of this sentiment, it is ludicrous inftead of being lofty.

The famous epitaph on Raphael is no less abfurd than any of the foregoing paffages :

Raphael, timuit, quo fofpite, vinci

Rerum magna parens, et moriente mori.

Imitated by Pope in his Epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller :

Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie
Her works; and dying, fears herfelf might die.

Such is the force of imitation; for Pope of himfelf would never have been guilty of a thought fo extravagant.

So much upon fentiments; the language proper for expreffing them, comes next in order.

CHAP.

A

CHAP. XVII.

LANGUAGE OF PASSION.

MONG the particulars that compofe the focial part of our nature, a propenfity to communicate our opinions, our emotions, and every thing that affects us, is remarkable. Bad fortune and injuftice affect us greatly; and of these we are so prone to complain, that if we have no friend nor acquaintance to take part in our fufferings, we fometimes utter our complaints aloud, even where there are none to liften.

But this propenfity operates not in every state of mind. A man immoderately grieved, feeks to afflict himself, rejecting all confolation: immoderate grief accordingly is mute: complaining is ftruggling for confolation.

It is the wretch's comfort ftill to have
Some small reserve of near and inward wo,
Some unfufpected hoard of inward grief,

Which they unfeen may wail, and weep, and mourn.
And glutton-like alone devour.

Mourning Bride, A&t 1. Sc. 1.

When grief fubfides, it then and no fooner finds a tongue we complain, because complaining is an effort to difburden the mind of its diftrefs *.

Surprise

* This observation is finely illustrated by a story which

Herodotus

Surprise and terror are filent paffions for a different reason they agitate the mind fo violently as for a time to fufpend the exercife of its faculties, and among others the faculty of speech.

Love and revenge, when immoderate, are not more loquacious than immoderate grief. But when these paffions become moderate, they fet the tongue free, and, like moderate grief, become loquacious moderate love, when unfuccessful,

Herodotus records, b. 3. Cambyfes, when he conquered Egypt, made Pfammenitus the King prisoner; and for trying his conftancy, ordered his daughter to be dreffed in the habit of a flave, and to be employed in bringing water from the river; his fon alfo was led to execution with a halter about his neck. The Egyptians vented their forrow in tears and lamentations; Pfammenitus only, with a downcaft eye, remained filent. Afterward meeting one of his companions, a man advanced in years, who, being plundered of all, was begging alms, he wept bitterly, calling him by his name. Cambyfes, ftruck with wonder, demanded an answer to the following queftion: "Pfammenitus, thy mafter, Cambyfes, is defirous "to know, why, after thou hadft seen thy daughter fo ignominiously treated, and thy fon led to execution, "without exclaiming or weeping, thou should be fo "highly concerned for a poor man, no way related to "thee?" Pfammenitus returned the following answer: "Son of Cyrus, the calamities of my family are too

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great to leave me the power of weeping; but the mif"fortunes of a companion, reduced in his old age to "want of bread, is a fit fubject for lamentation,"