No. 628. HOW could you break off so abruptly in your last, and tell me you must go and dress for the Play? If you loved I do, you would find no more Company in a Crowd, than I have in my Solitude.

as

I am, &c.

On the Back of this Letter is written, in the Hand of the Deceafed, the following Piece of History.

Mem. HAVING waited a whole Week for an Anfwer to this Letter, I hurried to Town, where I found the perfidious Creature married to my Rival. I will bear it as becomes a Man, and endeavour to find out Happinefs for my felf in that Retirement, which I had prepared in vain for a falfe ungrateful Woman.

I am, &c.

No.628. Friday, December 3.

Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum. Hor.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

TH

HERE are none of your Speculations which please me more than those upon infinitude and Eternity. You have already confidered that Part of Eternity which is past, and I wish you would give us your Thoughts upon that which is to come.

YOUR Readers will perhaps receive greater Pleafure from this View of Eternity than the former, fince we have every one of us a Concern in that which is to come: Whereas a Speculation on that which is paft is rather curious than ufeful.

BESIDES, we can easily conceive it poffible for fucceffive Duration never to have an End; tho', as you have juftly obferved, that Eternity which never

had

⚫ had a Beginning is altogether incomprehenfible; That is, we can conceive an eternal Duration which may be, though we cannot an eternal Duration which hath been;

or, if I may ufe the Philofophical Terms, we may ap

prehend a Potential though not an Actual Eternity.

THIS Notion of a future Eternity, which is natural to the Mind of Man, is an unafwerable Argument that he is a Being defigned for it; efpecially if we confider that he is capable of being Virtuous or Vicious here; that he hath Faculties improveable to all Eternity; and by a proper or wrong Employment of them, may be happy or miferable throughout that infinite. Duration. Our Idea indeed of this Eternity is not of an adequate or fixed Nature, but is perpetually growing and enlarging it felf toward the Object, which is too big for human Comprehenfion. As we are now in the Beginnings of Existence, fo fhall we always appear to our felves as if we were for ever entring upon it. After a Million or two of Centuries, fome confiderable Things, already paft, may flip out of our Memory; which, if it be not ftrengthened in a wonderful Manner, may poffibly forget that ever there was a Sun or Planets. And yet, notwithstanding the long Race that we shall then have run, we fhall ftill imagine our felves just starting from the Goal, and find no Proportion between that Space which we know had a • Beginning, and what we are sure will never have an • End.

BUT I fhall leave this Subject to your Management, and queftion not but you will throw it into fuch Lights as fhall at once improve and entertain your Reader.

• I have enclos'd fent you a Tranflation of the Speech of Cato on this Occafion, which hath accidentally fallen into my Hands, and which for Concifenefs, Purity, and Elegance of Phrafe cannot be fufficiently • admired.

A CT. V. S CE N. I.

CATO folus.

IC, fic fe habere rem neceffe prorfus eft
Ratione vincis, do lubens manus, Plato.
Quid enim dediffet, Quæ dedit fruftra nihil,
Aternitatis infitam cupidinem

Natura? Quorfum hæc dulcis Expectatio;
Vitaque non explenda melioris fitis?
Quid vult fibi aliud ifte redeundi in nihil
Horror, fub imis quemque agens precordiis?
Cur territa in fe refugit anima, cur tremit
Attonita, quoties, mortene pereat, timet ?
Particula nempe eft cuique nafcenti indita
Divinior; qua corpus incolens agit;
Hominique fuccinit, Tua eft Eternitas,
Eternitas! O lubricum nimis afpici,
Mixtumque dulci Gaudium formidine?

Qua demigrabitur alia hinc in corpora ?
Qua terra mox incognita? Quis orbis novus
Manet incolendus? Quanta erit mutatio ?
Hæc intuenti fpatia mihi quaquà patent
Immenfa: Sed caliginofa nox premit ;
Nec luce clara vult videri fingula.
Figendus hic pes; certa funt hæc hactenus:
Si quod gubernet Numen Humanum genus,
(At quod gubernet, effe clamant omnia)"
Virtute non gaudere certè non poteft:
Non effe non Beati, quâ gaudet, poteft.
Sed quâ Beata fede? Quove in tempore?
Hæc quanta quanta terra, tota eft Cæfaris.
Quid dubius hæret animus ufque adeo? Brevi
Hic nodum bic omnem expediet. Arma en induor.

Enfi manum admovens.

In

ACT V. SCENE I.

CATO alone, &c.

T must be fo Plato, thou reafon'ft well-
Elfe whence this pleafing Hope, this fand Defire,
This longing after Immortality?

Or whence this fecret Dread and inward Horror,
Of falling into Nought? Why fhrinks the Soul
Back on her felf, and ftartles at Deftruction ?
'Tis the Divinity that ftirs within us;

'Tis Heaven it felf, that points out an Hereafter,
And intimates Eternity to Man.

Eternity! thou pleafing, dreadful Thought!

Through what Variety of untry'd Being,
Through what new Scenes and Changes muft we país!
The wide, th' unbounded Profpect, lyes before me;
But Shadows, Clouds, and Darknefs reft upon it.
Here will I hold. If there's a Pow'r above us,
(And that there is all Nature cries aloud

Through all her Works) He must delight in Virtue;
And that which he delights in must be happy.

But when! or where! This World was made for Cæfar.
I'm weary of Conjectures

This must end 'em. [Laying his Hand on his Sword.

No.628. In utramque partem facta; quæque vim inferant, Et quæ propulfent! Dextera intentat necem ; Vitam finiftra: Vulnus hæc dabit manus ; Alter a medelam vulneris: Hic ad exitum Deducet, ictu fimplici; hæc vetant mori.. Secura ridet anima mucronis minas, Enfefque ftrictos, interire nefcia. Extinguet atas, fidera diuturnior : Etate languens ipfe Sol, obfcurius Emittet Orbi confenefcenti jubar ; Natura et ipfa fentiet quondam vices Etatis, annis ipfa deficiet gravis: At tibi juventus, at tibi immortalitas, Tibi parta Divum eft vita. Periment mutuis Elementa fefe, et interibunt i&tibus: Tu permanebis fola femper integra, Tu cuncta rerum quaffa, cuncta naufraga, Jam portu in ipfo tuta, contemplabere. Compage rupta, corruent in fe invicem, Orbefque frattis ingerentur orbibus ; Illefa tu fedebis extra Fragmina.