MAN. REG. MAN. REG. MAN. REG. With the bright glory of the Conful's friendship! Manlius, and is it thus, is this the way I vainly hop'd from all my years of bondage? O Manlius! either give me proofs more worthy Doft thou not know, that the exchange refus'd, And has the name of death such terror in it The foe can only take from Regulus What wearied nature would have fhortly yielded; "Twould then become a neceffary tribute. O worth unparallel'd! thrice happy Rome! If thou wilt love me, love me like a Roman. I of my life, and thou of Regulus: One must refign his being, one his friend. Thou wilt fupport my counfel in the fenate. With transport I embrace thy proffer'd friendship. MAN MAN, after a pause. Yes, I do promise. REG. MAN. REG. MAN. REG. MAN. REG. LIC. REG. LIC. REG. Bounteous gods, I thank you! Farewell, my friend! With chains like thine? Thou man of every virtue Enter LICINIUS. Now I begin to live: propitious heaven Inclines to favour me.- - Licinius here ? With joy, my honour'd friend, I seek thy presence. Because my heart once more Say't thou in my caufe? LIC. In thine, and Rome's. Does it excite thy wonder? 'REG. Lic. REG. LIC. But fay, Licinius, REG. Lic. REG. Lic. REG. LIC. ATT. REG. ATT. REG. Att. REG. LIC. REG. ATT. LIC. REG. To each fucceffively, from each obtain'd To filial merit.—What I cou'd, I did. Who ? Attilia. Thy belov'd-thy age's darling! Was ever father blefs'd with fuch a child? Gods! how her looks took captive all who faw her! The ftouteft hearts of Rome! How did the roufe How fweetly temper dignity with grief! With what a foft, inimitable grace, She prais'd, reproach'd, intreated, flatter'd, footh'd! What could they say? Who could refift the lovely conqueror? See where she comes. Hope dances in her eyes, Enter ATTILIA. Once more my dearest father Ah, prefume not What do I hear? thy foe? my father's foe? To wish thee all the good the gods can give thee, Thou rafh, imprudent girl! thou little know'ft Who made a weak and inexperienc'd woman For pity's fake, my Lord! Peace, peace, young man. Her filence better than thy language pleads. T'oppofe th' inhuman rigor of thy fate. Peace, peace, Licinius. He can ne'er be call'd Neither can fhe be Regulus's daughter Whose coward mind wants fortitude and honour. Unhappy children! now you make me feel Have made me know I am indeed a flave. Exit REGULUS. We We know not whether this tragedy was offered to the ma magers or not; but to fee fuch plays as this destined to the parlour, and the theatre occupied by *******s and *******s, gives us a frange idea of the tafte of the times, with regard to dramatic productions.-But, perhaps, like Johnson's Irene, Mifs More's performance wants that ftage-trim and contrivance, the art of which is beft understood by experienced play-writers; and without which, the probability of its fuccefs in the reprefentation, would not, in a skilful manager's estimate, be great enough to raise his expectations very high,-whatever might be the merit of the work, confidered as a literary compofition. ART. III. Obfervations on the Power of Climate over the Policy, Strength, and Manners, of Nations. 8vo. 3 s. fewed. Almon. 1774. A S this title is calculated to attract notice, it is peculiarly incumbent on us to reprefent the nature and contents of the performance. Befide those writers whofe judgments are misled in the choice of topics on which to employ their pens, it often happens that a person undertakes to treat a subject to which he is very un qual; and with regard to the prefent Obfervations, whatever the Author might propofe to himself when he framed the titlepage, it has very little affinity with the work that follows it.. We will honeftly confefs, for our own part, that on reading the advertisement, we anticipated the pleafure of perufing an ingenious philofophical train of reafoning, on a fubject that appears capable of affording much amusement to an inquifitive mind: we foon found ourfelves, however, bewildered among a rhapsodical croud of political maxims, to which any other title might have fuited as well as that which the Writer has thought proper to bestow on his performance. At his outlet, the Author fays fomething, darkly enough, concerning the influence and tendency of climates to produce national fuperiority; but he adds, Yet however great and overbearing thefe natural caufes may appear, Providence hath bestowed powers upon the mind able in every refpect to controul them, I mean those of reason; but then an almost divine. exertion of it becomes neceffary.' What the Author may intend by this almost divine exertion,' is as obfcure to us, as the influence of climates appears to be to him according to the limited view in which he fees it. Those who reafon on the influence of climate, not only conceive it to affect the bodily organs, but, in confequence of that operation, to communicate a bias to the mental faculties. Climate however is not all; there is a variety of natural circumftances peculiar to every country, the combination of which will either co-operate with, or tend to counteract the influence of climates: and when these are duly taken into the eftimate, we may in ordinary cafes account for the different policies prevailing in different nations, under the fame or nearly the fame climates; and compare them with other nations under all the varieties of climate. That it may appear how foon this Writer lofes fight of his profeffed fubject, we fhall produce his fecond chapter verbatim ; it is intitled: • Of those who neglected to correct original Defects; and of Trade. Carthage, on the other hand, fo long the rival of Rome, was much behind her in that policy which can correct the natural imbe cility of ftates; the wealth which trade bellows will always mislead its poffeffors, who fhould therefore never have any concern in the direction of a great nation; too partial to their favourite object, they attribute to riches almoft omnipotence itself; fuch was the cafe of Tyre; its inhabitants wealthy beyond meafure, but confined in their ideas of government as in territory, totally given up to the accumulation of money, they neglected fuch an acquifition of land as may form a refpectable state, for Hieram refused the twenty cities of Galilee which Solomon offered him; they fuppofed no human force could take a city which contained fo many opulent merchants; numbers with valour, however, were found to prevail, and Alexander deftroyed it. Carthage, a fucker from Tyre, truck root in a fruitful foil, where by degrees the might have flourished and extended her territorial branches; but relying upon trade and colonies too much, he had no attention to internal ftrength; like a thin body with frong and athletic limbs, but without either a reft or fupport; too proud for incorporating with her neighbours fhe would rule them by her fuperior wealth, fo that inftead of faithful fellow-citizens the was in the time of distress surrounded by nations who rejoiced at her ruin, and having no refource in a native foldiery was obliged to put. her truft in perfidious mercenaries; fuch are the fatal confequences of throwing the management of a ftate into mercantile hands. A profeffion founded upon felf-intereft must contract a mind otherwife well enough difpofed, but totally comprefs one which is originally indifferent; it leaves no room for the great idea of a whole; the movement of the grand machine is too large an object for that eye which hath been always rivetted to a fingle wheel; he who hath been labouring all the morning for narrow felf, cannot leave that felf behind him at the threshold of the fenate-house, nor can his mind bear an occafional fudden dilatation to the great patriot fize. Particular men may be cited against this general doctrine, but no cafe, however diftinguished for its fingularity, can be imagined which hath not occurred at fome one time or other: a mind might have been found moft ftubbornly unapt to the bufinefs it had been turned to, and by its innate vigour, in fpite of all profeffional confraint, might have retained its original liberality; but, if a merchant can be a ftatefman, fure I am that he is fo by nature and not education. The few merchants who have been diftinguished as Ratesmen |