by a fpring from the bottom, made by all his feet at once; and having taken a mouthful of air, and looked about him, he drops to the bottom again; the fportfmen lie at this time behind the covert of fome hedge near the bank; and when they have discovered a place where there are two or three near each other, as is frequently the cafe, they make thither, and prepare for the fport; they know the middle of the river is the place where they feed, partly to be out of the way of disturbance, and partly to take the advantage of any food that may be brought down by the ftream. The sportsmen now prepare their tackle; they have an iron spike of eight inches long, tolerably thick, and fharp at each end; to the middle of this is faftened a kind of cord, made of feveral iron wires twisted the whole of the thickness of a man's little finger, and of five or fix feet in length; to the other end of this is fixed a cord of many fcore toifes in length, and the other end of this cord is fixed to the ftern of the boat with a kind of reel, from whence more or less of it can be fet off as there is occafion.

The roots of the water lily, of which the creature is fo fond, are of the thickness of a man's thigh. A piece of one of thefe, of a foot long, is the bait: they run the iron fpike into the centre of this, till it is entirely buried in it, and then letting it fall into the water, they let off as much cord from the reel as will give it room to go to the bottom. In this fituation they let themselves down the ftream, but not quite fo fwift as it would carry them, for they retard the motion by the ufe of fome fmall oars which they ply very gently. As they pafs in this manner on the furface, they fee often four or five of the river horfes, feeding quietly at thirty feet depth below, and giving themfelves no trouble about them. The bait dragging along

e bottom feems a fragment of the

root of which the creature is fo fond, broken off by fome accident and coming down with the ftream. the first of the animals, in whose way it comes, feizes it; if he has already fed heartily, he is lazy and champs it; in this cafe he eats the root, and shakes the fpike out of his mouth but if it fall in the way of one that is hungry and ravenous, he is caught; he fwallows it with little chewing, and it goes down lengthways, and the fpike of iron with it: as foon as it is fwallowed the people in the boat give a violent jirk to the cord, and the fpike is turned croffways in his throat, and he is fecure. From this time they have what they efteem the diverfion of their expedition, but it is a dangerous one, and they enjoy it ready prepared for an affault. Each man has a fpear, with a point twelve inches long of iron, lying by him. The creature is at the depth of from twenty to five and thirty feet, clear water, and their bufinefs is to play him about, as the angler does a large fish, till he is tired, and they can get him on fhore; but the fport is greater in proportion to the animal. As foon as he feels himself wounded, he becomes outrageous, fometimes he makes away with all his fpeed for deeper water, and they give him line, notwithstanding the boat is often in danger; fometimes he plunges, rolls, and flounces in a terrible manner, in the fame place bleeding and wounded the more by his motions; they all the while fatiguing him. The agony of the creature often renders him regardless of every thing, and the fportfmen look on with pleafure; but when looks up and fees them, he does not fail to know they are the occafion of what he fuffers, and he rifes inftantly to the furface: their fpears are all now darted at him at once, and they generally dispatch him; but as he rifes juft at the fide

he

of

of the boat, the pofture he attempts is to put his fore-feet in; if fo, he ufually deftroys fome one, for fuch a month in agony is fatal if he fails in this, he bites at the fide of the boat, and never fails to take a piece out, often fo large as to fink the veffel. Sometimes he rifes at a greater diftance and ftands at bay, when they dart at him. He always attempts to catch the ftroke at his mouth, if he huts it upon the weapon, the point is bitten off; and if it ftrike ideways upon his teeth, it gives fire with them as a fteel would do against a flint. Thefe are the accounts we receive from those who have feen the fport, and there is this probability that their teeth are vaftly harder than ivory, or any other bony fubftance whatever, and will ftrike fire in the manner of a flint with a steel on a fmall blow.

The bolder people practife the fport thus fingly, but the more wary go out in two boats, and they have, befides for fafety, a further advantage, the bait is let down in this cafe from one of the boats, as already obferved; and a fecond cord is faftened to the first about the top of the wires, this communicates with the other boat; thus the two fall flowly down the ftream, and looking before them, wherever they fee one of the creatures, they can, by the motion of the two cords, draw the bait where in its

course it must fall juft under its nofe: fond of the food, and free from all fufpicion, he never fails to seize it; and when he is flruck, they play him about much more eafily. If in this cafe he rifes at them, at whichever boat he aims, those on the oppofite fide draw him away; and when he makes at them, the people in the first draw him back again: thus fome keeping the boats at a distance, while others, manage him by the two cords, they keep him on the furface, and play with all his fury; fome one person on each boat, at the fame time, ftriking him with a lance, till they have difpatched him.

The river-horfe is the only creature of this kind ufually known, but there are two others differing from it in fize, and in fome more effential particulars; thefe two are of South America. They have neither of them any tail; and the one, which is as big as a well-grown calf, has a very long and flender head and the other, the size of which is about equal to that of a large maftiff, has the head fo vaftly large and fleshy, that it can scarce fee out of its eyes, and hardly fupport the weight of it. Thefe both feed on vegetables in the manner of the other; and the natives of thofe parts of America, where they are met with, eat them, and ac count their flesh a great delicacy.

with a conftant increase of fame and

glory, carries in it fomething wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man this world, therefore, with a view to fame, is only a nursery for the next; and the feveral generations of rational creatures, which rife up and disappear in fuch rapid fucceffions, are only to receive their firft rudiments of applaufe and afterwards to be tranfplanted into a more friendly climate, where they may spread and flourish amidst the fmiles of a perpetual remembrance.

The means or inftruments men have devised for propagating their fame, confift in the erecting of monuments, impreffing medals, and obtaining a place in hiftory. Some, having juft reafon to defpond of fhining in the laft, have been careful, during their own life time, to immortalize themselves by either of the other methods; but as herein they have been influenced by vanity and pride, the memory becomes hateful; for it is not enough, that thefe monuments and medals fpeak; they muft fpeak truth, otherwife what was intended as a panegyric will be converted into reproach.

The best way to live in the annals of fame is to fufpend the enjoyment of it. The jufteft character of a man is to be had of men. Grateful pofterity will not fail to erect fepulchral monuments, obelifks, triumphal arches, to the deferving. The worst way to fame muft furely be in fhewing ourfelves too anxious about it. Death fets a kind of feal upon a man's character, and places him out of the reach of vice and infamy. Death only clofes a man's reputation, and determines it either good or bad. This makes it dangerous to praise men, while living; for whilft they are capable of changing, we may be forced to retract our opinions. As no life can be called happy or

unhappy, fo it cannot be called vicious or virtuous, till the end of it; and, as there is not a more melancholy confideration to a good man, than his being obnoxious to fuch a change, fo there is nothing more glorious than to keep up an uniformity in his actions, and preferve the purity in his character to the laft. The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal perfons ftill act in character, whatever the fate is which they undergo; for he, who has filled all the offices of life with dignity and honour till yesterday, and to-day forgets his duty, has done nothing.

It is obfervable, with regard to all well-policed states, that nothing has contributed more to the permanency of their profperous condition, than that noble love of fame and glory which they have endeavoured to cherish in the breasts of their fubjects. Rewarding merit, wherever found, is the main fpring of this paffion; and this paffion must be always laudable, as having a manifeft tendency to promote the welfare of the ftate. The great and good man, who is therefore ambitious of raifing, for the pleafure of his own mind, the noble fuperftructure of lafting fame, will renounce all felt esteem for any private views and intereft, fenfible. that engaging in fuch mean and frivilous concerns will be of no advantage to his reputation, and that the public efteem is alone worthy of his affections, is alone defirable; fince it is always a teftimony of the public gratitude, and, confequently, a proof of real merit. Thus he finds every thing poffible in his endeavours to merit the general efteem; and, as the pride of commanding kings recompenfed the Romans for enduring the feverity of military difcipline, fo the noble pleasure of being efteemed, comforts the illuftrious

mag

man, even under the unjust frowns of fortune; and, if he has obtained this esteem, he reputes himfelf the poffeffor of the most defirable wealth. In fact, whatever indifference we pretend to fhew for the public opinion, every one feeks after fame, and believes he is more worthy of being placed by it in a confpicuous light, in proportion as he finds himself more generally esteemed.

As our wants, our paffions, and, above all, our indolence, do not ftifle in our minds this ardent defire of fame, there is no perfon, who does not ftrive to deferve it, and does not wish for the public fuffrage, as a furety for the high opinion he has of himself. Therefore a contempt for reputation, and the facrifice faid to be made of it to fortune, or other views, is always infpired by the defpair of rendering ourfelves illuftrious.

not.

The neceffary effects of mifguided pride are to boaft of what we have, and despise what we have It is not fo with the man who courts fame by public-fpirited actions: if he confiders as a benefit all the evil that is not done to him, and, as a gift, all that the wickednefs of mankind fuffers him to enjoy; if he pours over the faults of others the lenient balfam of pity, and is flow in difcovering them; it is because the elevation of his mind will not permit him to expatiate upon the vices and follies of fingle perfons, but upon thofe of mankind in general, If he confiders their faults, it is not with a malevolent eye, which is always unjuft, but with the ferenity wherewith two men, defirous of knowing the human heart, reciprocally examine each other, as two fubjects of inftruction, and two living ftreams of moral experience. If he is tender of his good name, it is because he has given ample proofs of having deferved it. The public can nei

ther know nor efteem any merit, nor any pretenfions to fame, that are not proved by facts, Are they to judge of men of different ranks, they ask the military man, what victory have you obtained? The minitter of ftate, the member of parliament, the man in place: what relief have you afforded to the miseries of the people? the private perfon by what have you contributed to the good of fociety? Whoever can make no answer to these questions fhould neither be known to, nor esteemed by the public. There are, however, a great many who, feduced by the delufions of power, by the pomp of grandeur, and the hope of favours, mechanically found the praifes of the merit of perfons in high ftations: But their elogiums, aз fleeting as the credit of thofe on whom they are bestowed, cannot impofe on the fenfible part of the public. Uninfluenced by interest, the public judge as a ftranger, who acknowledges for a man of merit him only who is diftinguished by his talents.

He who would exacly know his own value, or the degree of famehe has merited, can therefore only learn it from the public, and ought therefore to fubmit himself to its judgment. All actions. are not equally great and heroic; and we find that the esteem of the public, for fuch and fuch an action, is not proportioned to the degree of ftrength, courage, or generofity, neceffary to execute it, but to the importance of that action, and the public advantage derived from it. When, encouraged by the prefence of an army, one man fights against three who are wounded, the action is undoubtedly brave; but it is what numbers of our common foldiers are capable of, though they might never be mentioned for it in hiftory; but, when the fafety of an empire, formed to fubdue the

universe,

univerfe, depends on the fuccefs of this battle, Horatius is an hero; he is the admiration of his fellow citizens; and his name, celebrated in hiftory, is handed down to the most diftant ages. Two perfons throw themselves into a gulph: this was an action common to Sappho and Curtius; the firft did it to put an end to the torments of love, the other to fave Rome; Sappho was therefore a fool, and Curtius a hero. When the Dutch had erected a ftatue to William Buckelft, who had taught them the fecret of falting and barrelling herrings, they did not confer this honour upon him on account of the extent of genius neceffary for that difcovery, but from the importance of the fecret, and the advantage it procured to the nation.-Nifi utile fit quod facimus, parva eft gloria.

But, fetting afide the motive of utility, which is principally confidered by a ftate, in the diftribution of rewards to thofe who have deferved well of it, we may obferve in general, that a strong paffion for fame is the first moving force, and perhaps the only, that prompts men to the execution of thofe heroic actions, and gives birth to thofe grand ideas, which are the aftonishment and admiration of all ages.

Paffions are, in the moral, what motion is in the natural world. If motion creates, deftroys, preferves, animates in its proper fphere of action, paffions do the fame in theirs. It is avarice which conducts fhips over the defarts of the ocean; it is pride which fills up vallies, levels mountains, hews for itfelf a paffage through rocks, raifes the pyramids of Memphis, digs the lake Meris, and cafts the Coloffus of Rhodes. It was the enthusiasm of gratitude which claffed the benefactors of mankind among the Gods, and invented the extravagance of falfe religions and fuperftitions. It is to the paffion of being reputed of fome confequence in the world, that we

owe the invention and wonders of arts and fciences. It is from a defire of glory that the aftronomer is feen placing his inftruments on the icy fummits of the highest mountains; that the botanift clambers over precipices in queft of plants; and that the ancient lovers of the fciences travelled into Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Indies to vifit the most celebrated philofophers, and acquire, from their converfation, the principles of their doctrine. How ftrongly did this paflion exert itself in Demofthenes, who, in order to perfect his pronunciation, ufed every day to ftand on the fea-fhore, and, with his mouth full of pebbles, harangue the agitated waves! it was from the fame defire of glory that the young Pythagoreans fubmitted to a filence of three years, to habituate themfelves to recollection and meditation. In fhort, it is under the powerful influence of this paffion that we fuftain dangers, pain, and death, and that by it we are animated to take and pursue the boldest resolutions.

Cato, when a child, going with his Tutor to Sylla's palace, at feeing the bloody heads of the proscribed, asked, with impatience, the name of the monfter who had caufed fo many Roman citizens to be murdered? he was anfwered it was Sylla: how, fays he, does Sylla murder thus, and is Sylla ftill alive?' Yes, replied the Tutor, the very name of Sylla difarms our citizens.'

O Rome, cried Cato, deplorable is thy fate, fince, within the vaft compafs of thy walls, not a man of virtue can be found, and the arm of a feeble child is the only one that will oppofe itself against tyranny! Then turning towards his Governor, Give me thy fword; I will conceal it under my robe, approach Sylla, and flay him. Cato lives, and Rome is again free.

In what climates has not this vir tuous love of one's country, this generous pride, this paffion of patri