FIND fome of the most polite Latin authors, who wrote at a time when Rome was in its glory, speak with a certain noble vanity of the brightness and fplendour of the age in which they lived. Pliny often compliments his emperor, Trajan, upon this head; and when he would animate him to anything great, or diffuade him from anything that was improper, he infinuates that it is befitting or unbecoming the claritas et nitor feculi, that period of time which was made illuftrious by his reign. When we caft our eyes back on the history of mankind, and trace them through their feveral fucceffions to their firft original, we fometimes fee them breaking out in great and memorable actions, and towering up to the utmost heights of virtue and knowledge; when, perhaps, if we carry our obfervations to a little distance, we fee them funk into floth and ignorance, and

altogether loft in darkness and obfcurity. Sometimes the whole species is asleep for two or three generations, and then again awakens into action-flourishes in heroes, philofophers, and poets, who do honour to human nature, and leave fuch tracks of glory behind them as diftinguish the years in which they acted their part from the ordinary courfe of time.

Methinks a man cannot without a fecret fatisfaction confider the glory of the prefent age, which will shine as bright as any other in the history of mankind. It is ftill big with great events, and has already produced changes and revolutions which will be as much admired by pofterity as any that have happened in 'the days of our fathers, or in the old times before them.' We have seen kingdoms divided and united, monarchs erected and depofed, nations transferred from one fovereign to another, conquerors raised to fuch greatness as has given a terror to Europe, and thrown down by fuch a fall as has moved their pity.

But it is ftill a more pleafing view to an Englishman to fee his own country give the chief influence to fo illustrious an age, and stand in the strongest point of light amidst the diffused glory that furrounds it.

If we begin with learned men, we may observe, to the honour of our country, that those who make the greatest figure in most arts and sciences are univerfally allowed to be of the British nation; and what is more remarkable, that men of the greatest learning are among the men of the greatest quality.

A nation may indeed abound with perfons of fuch uncommon parts and worth as may make them rather a misfortune than a bleffing to the publick. Those who fingly might have been of infinite advantage to the age they live in, may, by rifing up together in the fame crisis of time, and by interfering in their pursuits of honour, rather interrupt than promote the service of their country. Of this we have a famous inftance in the republic of Rome, when Cæfar, Pompey, Cato, Cicero, and Brutus endeavoured to recommend themselves at the fame time to the admiration of their contemporaries. Mankind are not able to provide for fo many extraordinary persons at once, or find out posts suitable to their ambition and abilities. For

this reason they were all as miferable in their deaths as they were famous in their lives, and occafioned not only the ruin of each other, but of the commonwealth.

It is therefore a particular happiness to a people when the men of fuperior genius and character are fo juftly disposed in the high places of honour, that each of them moves in a sphere which is proper to him, and requires those particular qualities in which he excels.

If I fee a general commanding the forces of his country, whofe victories are not to be parallelled in story, and who is as famous for his negociations as his victories, and at the fame time fee the management of a nation's treasury in the hands of one, who has always diftinguished himself by a generous contempt of his own private wealth, and an exact frugality of that which belongs to the publick, I cannot but think a people under fuch an administration may promise themselves conquests abroad and plenty at home. If I were to wish for a proper person to prefide over the publick councils, it should certainly be one as much admired for his univerfal knowledge of men and things, as for his eloquence, courage, and integrity, in the exerting of fuch extraordinary talents.

Who is not pleased to see a person in the highest station in the law, who was the most eminent in his profeffion, and the most accomplished orator at the bar? Or at the head of the fleet, a commander under whofe conduct the common enemy received fuch a blow, as he has never been able to recover.

Were we to form to ourselves the idea of one whom we should think proper to govern a distant kingdom, consisting chiefly of those who differ from us in religion, and are influenced by foreign politics, would it not be fuch a one as had signalised himself by a uniform and unshaken zeal for the Protestant interest, and by his dexterity in defeating the skill and artifice of its enemies? In fhort, if we find a great man popular for his honesty and humanity, as well as famed for his learning and great skill in all the languages of Europe; or a perfon eminent for those qualifications which make men shine in public affemblies, or for that steadiness, conftancy, and good fenfe, which carry a man to the desired point through all the oppofition of

tumult and prejudice, we have the happiness to behold them in all posts suitable to their characters.

Such a constellation of great perfons, if I may so speak, while they shine out in their own diftinct capacities, reflect a luftre upon each other, but, in a more particular manner upon their fovereign, who has placed them in those proper fituations, by which their virtues become fo beneficial to all her fubjects. It is the anniversary of the birth-day of this glorious Queen, which naturally led me into this field of contemplation, and, instead of joining in the publick exultations that are made on fuch occafions, to entertain my thoughts with the more serious pleasure of ruminating upon the glories of her reign.

While I behold her furrounded with triumphs, and adorned with all the profperity and fuccefs which heaven ever shed on a mortal, and still confidering herself as fuch, though the perfon appears to me exceeding great, that has these just honours paid her, yet, I must confefs, fhe appears much greater in that the receives them with fuch a glorious humility, and fhews she has no further regard for them, than as they arise from these great events which have made her subjects happy. For my own part, I muft confefs, when I fee private virtues in fo high a degree of perfection, I am not astonished at any extraordinary fuccefs that attends them, but look upon public triumphs as the natural confequences of religious retirements.

After the laffitude of a day spent in the ftrolling manner, which is ufual with men of pleasure in this town, and with a head full of a million of impertinences, which had danced round it for ten hours together, I came to my lodging, and haftened to bed. My valet de chambre knows my univerfity trick of reading there; and he being a good scholar for a gentleman, ran over the names of Horace, Tibullus, Ovid, and others, to know which I would have. "Bring Virgil," faid I, "and if I fall asleep, take care of the candle." I read the fixth book over with the most exquisite delight, and had gone half through it a fecond time, when the pleasant ideas of Elyfian Fields, deceased worthies walking in them, fincere lovers enjoying their languishment without pain, compaffion for the unhappy fpirits who had mispent their short day-light,

and were exiled from the feats of bliss for ever; I fay, I was deep again in my reading, when this mixture of images had taken place of all others in my imagination before, and lulled me into a dream, from which I am just awake, to my great difadvantage. The happy mansions of Elyfium, by degrees, feemed to be wafted from me, and the very traces of my late waking thoughts began to fade away, when I was caft by a fudden whirlwind upon an island, encompassed with a roaring and troubled fea, which shaked its very centre, and rocked its inhabitants as in a cradle. The islanders lay on their faces without offering to look up, or hope for preservation; all her harbours were crowded with mariners, and tall vessels of war lay in danger of being driven to pieces on her shores. "Bless me!" faid I," why have I lived in fuch a manner, that the convulfion of nature should be so terrible to me, when I feel in myself that the better part of me is to furvive it? Oh! may that be in happiness." A fudden fhriek, in which the whole people on their faces joined, interrupted my foliloquy, and turned my eyes and attention to the object which had given us that fudden start, in the midst of an inconfolable and speechless affliction. Immediately the winds grew calm, the waves fubfided, and the people stood up, turning their faces upon a magnificent pile in the midst of the island. There we beheld an hero of a comely and erect afpect, but pale and languid, fitting under a canopy of state. By the faces and dumb forrow of those who attended, we thought him in the article of death. At a distance fat a lady, whofe life seemed to hang upon the fame thread with his: fhe kept her eyes fixed upon him, and seemed to smother ten thousand thousand nameless things, which urged her tenderness to clasp him in her arms; but her greatness of spirit overcame those sentiments, and gave her power to forbear disturbing his last moment, which immediately approached. The hero looked up with an air of negligence and fatiety of being, rather than of pain to leave it, and leaning back his head, expired.

When the heroine, who fat at a distance, faw his last inftant come, fhe threw herself at his feet, and kneeling, pressed his hand to her lips, in which posture she continued