LETTER VI.

AGREE with you that the life of the latter Cato would, if executed with a pen worthy of it, prove one of the nobleft pieces of biography extant; not to mention the public benefit that might be derived from it in these our evil days; days in which a remote found of the applaufe reaped by patriot virtue has hardly reached our ears.

Of all the great characters of antiquity, few equal, none exceed, that of Cato. The vaftnefs, the force of his mind, are only to be rivalled by its regular confiftency; a confiftency that makes all his actions appear of a piece; a beauty, if I may fo exprefs myfelf, rarely to be obferved in the portraits of heroes; many of whom seem to have fallen as fhort of common exertion in fome paffages of their lives, as they exceeded it in others. How little, how mean, how trifling the character of Cicero when opposed to fuch a model! The very firft ftorm of public outrage tore his feeble

patriotism up by the roots; while the strong virtue of Cato, like a mountain oak, received fresh vigor from the utmost rage of the tem pest.

THEY who perufe the Familiar Letters of Cicero will find that orator, malapert and various as he is, uniform in his respect and almost adoration of Cato. Such was the power of real dignity of mind over faucy and loquacious eloquence! Thefe letters are enriched by the preservation of one of Cato, being the only compofition of his that has reached us; and which fhews us clearly that his foul, folid as diamond, was brightened with politenefs. Even friendship, that greatest fnare of a lofty mind, could not influence him against the confiftent plan of his virtue; yet his refufal to act against his real fentiments has nothing harsh, but is given at the fame time with a firmness that leaves nothing to hope, and with a mildness that leaves nothing to cenfure.

SPIRIT of Cato, what must be thy indignation if thou perceiveft the degeneracy of a country in which Hampden and Ruffel have bled!

Ir is remarkable that three of the best Roman poets have, as it were, vied with each other, who should most elevate the character of Cato. Virgil and Horace, tho the minions of a court whose frame was cemented with the blood of that patriot, have almost excelled their common expreffion in his praife. The first in the Eneid, where his hero finds Cato in Elyfium giving laws to the good;

His dantem jura Catonem.

The fecond in his odes;

Et cuncta terrarum fubacta,

Præter atrocem animum Catonis.

But Lucan, above all, has risen to the actual fublime, fired by the contemplation of that fublime character,

Victrix caufa deis placuit: fed victa Catoni.

To which of the poets is the preeminence due? Virgil's praise is wonderfully fine at firft fight; for how good, how juft, how virtuous, must he be, who is qualified to give laws to the good, to the juft, to the virtuous, in Elyfium itself? But, like the other beauties of this writer, it will not bear a clofe examination,

For

For what laws are to operate among the bleffed, where there can be no punishment nor reward? How can they receive laws, who are emancipated from all poffibility of crime? The praise is therefore futile and ridiculous; nothing being more abfurd than to erect a column of apparent fublimity upon the morafs of falfehood,

THE praise of Horace has great truth and dignity. Every thing on earth, in subjection to Cæfar fave the mind of Cato, is a great, a vast thought, and would even arife to the fublime, were it not for that of Lucan, which exceeds it; and nothing can be fublime to which a fuperior conception may be found.

THE praife of Lucan is fublimity itself, for no human idea can go beyond it. Cato is fet in oppofition to the gods themselves: nay is made fuperior in juftice, tho not in power. Now the power of the pagan deities may be called their extrinsic, justice their intrinsic, virtue. Cato excelled them, fays Lucan, in real virtue, tho their adventitious attribute of power admitted no rival.

LET.

Yo

LETTER VII.

OUR opinion of the comedy of Le Mechant I heartily fubfcribe to, tho Mr. Gray has pronounced it the best comedy he ever read. It is perfectly in the style of the French tragedy, inactive, and declamatory. Yet I do not wonder at Mr. Gray's favourable opinion of it, when he admired the filly decla mation of Racine fo much as to begin a tragedy in his very manner; which however he was fo fortunate as not to go thro with.

OUR stage, thank heaven, refufes the infipidity of the French drama; and requires an action, a business, a vigor, to which the run of Gerontes and Damons, which all their comedies are ftuffed with, are mere strangers. Moliere, in attempting to introduce laughter into the French comedy, has blundered upon mere farce; for it is the character of that nation always to be in extremes. In short, if we except Fontaine, I know of no writer in the French

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