in the formation of man, without looking on this world as only a nursery for the next, and believing that the feveral generations of rational creatures, which rife up and difappear in fuch quick fucceffions, are only to receive their first rudiments of exiftence here, and afterwards to be tranf planted into a more friendly climate, where they may fpread and flourish to all eternity.

THERE is not, in my opinion, a more pleafing and triumphant confideration in religion, than this of the perpetual progrefs which the foul makes towards the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon the foul as going on from ftrength to ftrength, to confider that she is to fhine for eyer with new acceffions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that she will be ftill adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge; carries in it fomething wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man. Nay, it must be a prospect pleafing to God himself, to fee his creation for ever beautifying in his eyes, and drawing nearer to him, by greater degrees of refemblance.

METHINKS this single confideration, of the progress of a finite spirit to perfection, will be fufficient to extinguish all envy in inferior natures, and all contempt in fuperior. That cherubim, which now appears as a God to a human foul, knows very well that the period will come about in eternity, when the human foul fhall be as perfect as he himself now is nay, when the fhall look down upon that degree of perfection, as much as fhe now falls fhort of it. It is true, the higher nature ftill advances, and by that means preserves his distance and fuperiority in the fcale of being; but he knows that, how high foever the ftation is of which he ftands pofL 4 feffed

feffed at prefent, the inferior nature will at length mount up to it, and shine forth in the fame degree of glory.

WITH what aftonishment and veneration may we look into our fouls, where there are fuch hidden ftores of virtue and knowledge, fuch inexhaufted fources of perfection! We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man to conceive the glory that will be always in referve for him. The foul, confidered in relation to its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity, without a poffibility of touching it: and can there be a thought fo tranfporting, as to confider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to Him, who is not only the ftandard of perfection, but of happiness!

ΟΝ THE

CHAP.

BEING

SPECTATOR.

མ་

OF A GO D.

ETIRE;- The world fhut out;-Thy thoughts

R call home ;

Imagination's airy wing reprefs ;

--

Lock up thy fenfes ;-Let no paffion ftir ;-
Wake all to Reafon ;-Let her reign alone ;-
Then, in thy Soul's deep filence, and the depth
Of Nature's filence, midnight, thus inquire:

WHAT am I? and from whence ?-I nothing know,
But that I am; and, fince I am, conclude
Something eternal: had there e'er been nought,
Nought ftill had been: Eternal there must be.-
But what eternal ?-Why not human race?
And ADAM's ancestors without an end ?-----
That's hard to be conceiv'd; fince ev'ry link

Of

Of that long-chain'd fucceffion is fo frail;
Can every part depend, and not the whole?
Yet grant it true; new difficulties rife ;

I'm ftill quite out at fea; nor fee the fhore.
Whence earth, and these bright orbs?-Eternal too -
Grant matter was eternal: ftill thefe orbs
Would want fome other Father;-Much defign
Is feen in all their motions, all their makes;
Defign implies intelligence, and art:

That can't be from themselves-or man; that art
Man can scarce comprehend, could man bestow?
And nothing greater, yet allow'd, than man.-
Who, motion, foreign to the smallest grain,
Shot thro' vaft maffes of enormous weight?
Who bid brute matter's reftive lump affume
Such various forms, and gave it wings to fly ?
Has matter innate motion? Then each atom,
Afferting its indifputable right

To dance, would form an univerfe of duft:

Has matter none? Then whence thefe glorious forms,
And boundless flights, from fhapelefs, and repos'd?
Has matter more than motion? Has it thought,
Judgment, and genius? It is deeply learn'd
In Mathematics? Has it fram'd fuch laws,
Which, but to guefs, a NEWTON made immortal ?—
If art, to form; and counfel, to conduct;

And that with greater far, than human skill,
Refides not in each block;—a GODHEAD reigns.-
And, if a GOD there is, that GOD how great!

BOOK V.

ORATIONS AND HARANGUES,

CHA P. I.

JUNIUS BRUTUS OVER THE DEAD BODY OF

LUCRETIA.

YES, noble lady, I fwear by this blood, which was once

fo pure, and which nothing but royal villainy could have polluted, that I will purfue Lucius Tarquinius the proud, his wicked wife, and their children, with fire and fword: nor will I ever fuffer any of that family, or of any other whatsoever, to be King in Rome. Ye Gods, I call you to witness this my oath!-There, Romans, turn your eyes to that fad fpectacle-the daughter of Lucretius, Collatinus's wife-she died by her own hand. See there a noble lady, whom the luft of a Tarquin reduced to the neceflity of being her own executioner, to atteft her innocence. Hofpitably entertained by her as a kinsman of her husband's, Sextus, the perfidious gueft, became her brutal ravisher. The chafte, the generous Lucretia could not survive the infult. Glorious woman!

woman! But once only treated as a flave, fhe thought life no longer to be endured. Lucretia, a woman, difdained a life that depended on a tyrant's will; and shall we, fhall men, with such an example before our eyes, and after five and twenty years of ignominious fervitude, fhall we, through a fear of dying, defer one fingle inftant to affert our liberty? No, Romans, now is the time; the favourable moment we have fo long waited for is come. Tarquin is not at Rome. The Patricians are at the head of the enterprize. The city it abundantly provided with men, arms, and all things neceffary. There is nothing wanting to fecure the fuccess, if our own courage does not fail us. And all those warriors, who have ever been fo brave when foreign enemies were to be fubdued, or when conquefts were to be made to gratify the ambition and avarice of Tarquin, be then only cowards, when they are to deliver themselves from flavery? Some of you are perhaps intimidated by the army which Tarquin now commands. The foldiers, you imagine, will take the part of their general. Banish fo groundlefs a fear. The love of liberty is natural to all men. Your fellow-citizens in the camp feel the weight of oppreffion with as quick a fenfe as you that are in Rome: they will as eagerly feize the occafion of throwing off the yoke. But let us grant there may be fome among them, who, through bafenefs of fpirit, or a bad education, will be disposed to favour the tyrant. The number of thefe can be but small, and we have means fufficient in our hands to reduce them to reafon. They have left us hoflages more dear to them than life. Their wives their children, their fathers, their mothers, are here in the city. Courage, Romans, the Gods are for us; thofe Gods, whofe temples and altars the impious Tarquin has profaned by facrifices and libations made with polluted hands, polluted