not follow, not that I could be of any fervice (for I did not expect that, nor could I accomplifh it); but if any thing to which human nature is liable had happened to me, (for many things seem to happen contrary to the order of nature and of fate) I fhould this day leave my voice a witness to the republic of my perpetual attachment to its interefts." Here he uses the words fate and nature: whether he intends they fhould bear the fame fignification, and ufes two words instead of one, or whether he has fo divided and separated them, that nature feems to bear one meaning, and fate another, is, I think, worthy of confideration. And firft, we must enquire how

man who died what we call a natural death, was faid to die according to fate; whereas an accidental death was fupposed to be according to the regular courfe of fate or nature. Some philofophers alfo made fate and nature the fame. Alexander Aphrodifienfis concludes, after arguing the point, that fate is nothing more than the peculiar nature of each individual. He alfo cites Theophraftus for the fame opinion.

Theophraftus, fays he, clearly demonftrates, that according to nature and according to fate mean exactly the fame. See Lucan, ver. 91.

Deus magnufque potenfque

Sive canit fatum, feu quod jubet ipfe canendo
Fit fatum.

which Milton thus imitates

Though I uncircumfcribed myself retire,
And put not forth my goodness, which is free
To act or not, neceffity and chance

Approach not me, and what I will is fate.

he

he can affirm that many things may happen (bumanitùs) according to the order of human nature, (præter fatum) in oppofition to fate, fince the plan and order, and unconquerable neceffity of fate is fo appointed, that in the will of fate all things are included, unless he has followed Homer's expreffion,

Left, fpite of fate, you visit Pluto's realm.

There is no doubt, however, that Homer here means a violent and fudden death, which may justly feem to happen contrary to nature. But why he has called that fort of death contrary to fate, it is not our bufinefs to enquire, nor have we time for the investigation. However, it must not be paffed by, that Virgil has expreffed the fame opinion as Cicero upon fate, as in his fourth book, where he speaks of Elifa, who fuffered death by force,

Since nor by fate nor her deferts she fell.

As if in dying, those modes of death which are violent do not feem to come by the order of fate. But Cicero feems to have followed the words of Demofthenes, a man of equal wisdom and eloquence, who has faid the same things of nature and fate, in his excellent oration, TEPL στεφανε. "He who thinks himself born only for his parents, awaits the natural and regular order of death; but he who fancies himself born for the fervice of his country, will meet death B 2

that

that he may not fee his country enflaved." What Cicero feems to have called fate and nature, Demofthenes long before called "the natural and regular order of death," which is that fort of death which comes in the course of fate and nature, and is occafioned by no external force.

СНАР. 11.

On the familiar converfation of Pacuvius and Ac cius in the town of Tarentum.

HEY who had leifure and inclination to

THE

enquire into the modes of life which learn. ed men pursued, and to commit them to writing, have related this anecdote of the tragic poets Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius. "When Pacuvius," fay they," was an old man, and afflicted with perpetual disease of body, he retired from Rome to Tarentum. Accius, who was a much younger man', in his way to Afia, com

ing

Younger man. According to fome authors he was fifty years younger, yet he exhibited a tragedy under the fame ædiles. Fragments remain of many of his tragedies, fome of the finest of which are preferved in the philofophical

works,

ing to Tarentum, vifited Pacuvius, and being politely treated, and detained by him many days, read, at the request of Pacuvius, his tragedy of Atreus. Pacuvius, they faid, remarked that his lines were fonorous and full of dignity, but that they seemed rather harsh and rugged. "What you fay," replied Accius, "is true; nor do I lament it is fo. Yet I hope that what I write in future will be better. For what we obferve in fruits is true of the powers of the mind', those which at

firft

works of Cicero, and all are collected in the fragments of the ancien Latin poets, by H. Stephens.

Paterculus prefers him to Pacuvius, though he allows this latter to be a more correct writer. Horace, giving the popular judgment of his time concerning them, fays

Ambigitur quoties uter utro fit prius; aufert
Pacuvius docti famam fenis, Accius alti.

Quintilian repeats nearly the same opinion of them.

Powers of the mind.]-There are fome excellent re marks by Dr. Warton, in his Effay on the Genius of Pope, which may serve to illustrate this opinion of Accius. He is fpeaking of the early figns of genius in a young man, and thus diftinguishes the effects of oppofite qualities: "If his predominant talent be warmth and vigour of imagination, it will break out in fanciful and luxuriant defcriptions, the colouring of which will perhaps be too rich and glowing. If his chief force lies in the understanding rather than in the imagination, it will foon appear by folid and manly observations on life and learning, expreffed in a more chaste and fubdued ftyle. The former will frequently be hurried into obfcurity or turgidity, and a falfe grandeur of diction; the

B 3

latter

first are rough and bitter, become afterwards mild ( and fweet. But those which are soft and smooth, and are mellow at first, do not afterwards become ripe, but corrupt. It feems therefore that in the mind something fhould be left for time to improve."

latter will feldom hazard a figure, whofe ufage is not already established, or an image beyond common life; will always be perfpicuous, if not elevated; will never disgust, if not tranfport his readers; will avoid the groffer faults, if not arrive at the greater beauties of compofition; the "eloquentiæ genus" for which he will be diftinguifhed, will not be the "plenum, et erectum, et audax, et præcelfum," but the "preffum, et mite, et limatum."

A remark fomewhat of a fimilar kind occurs in a fragment of Alexis the comic poet, preferved in Athenæus. It is thus tranflated by Mr. Cumberland, in his fourth volume of the Obferver:

"The nature of man in some refpect resembles that of wine, for as fermentation is neceffary to new wine, fo is it alfo to a youthful fpirit; when that procefs is over, and it comes to fettle and fubfide, we may then, and not till then, expect to find a permanent tranquillity."

The fame idea is carried on in a subsequent paffage, which alfo is preferved in the fame place, and tranflated by the fame perfon thus:

"I am now far advanced in the evening of life's day, and what is there in the nature of man that I fhould liken it to that of wine, feeing that old age, which recommends the latter, mars the former; old wine, indeed, exhilarates, but old men are miferable to themselves and others."

Antiphanes the comic poet has ftruck upon the fame comparifon, but with a different turn, «Old age and wine,” says he," may well be compared; let either of them exceed their date ever fo little, and the whole turns four.'

CHAP.