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It has always been observed of thofe that frequent a court, that they foon, by a kind of contagion, catch the regal fpirit of neglecting futurity. The minifter forms an expedient to suspend or perplex an enquiry into his measures for a few months, and applauds and triumphs in his own dexterity. The peer puts off his creditor for the present day, and forgets that he is ever to fee him more. The frown of a prince, and the loss of a penfion, have indeed been found of wonderful efficacy, to abstract men's thoughts from the prefent time, and fill them with zeal for the liberty and welfare of ages to But I am inclined to think more favourably of the author of this prediction, than that he was made a patriot by disappointment or difguft. If he ever faw a court, I would willingly believe, that he did not owe his concern for pofterity to his ill reception there, but his ill reception, there to his concern for pofterity.

However, fince truth is the fame in the mouth of a hermit, or a prince, fince it is not reafon but weakness, that makes us rate counsel by our esteem for the counfellor, let us at length defift from this enquiry, fo useless in itself, in which we have room to hope for fo little fatisfaction. Let us fhew our gratitude to the author, by answering his intentions, by confidering minutely the lines which he has left us, and examining their import without heat, precipitancy, or party-prejudices; let us endeavour to keep the juft mean, between searching ambitioufly for far-fetched interpretations, and admitting fuch low meaning, and obvious and low fenfe, as is inconfiftent with those great and extenfive views, which it is reasonable to afcribe to this excellent man.

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It may be yet farther asked, whether this infcription, which appears in the ftone, be an original, and not rather a version of a traditional prediction in the old British tongue, which the zeal of fome learned man prompted him to translate and engrave in a more known language for the inftruction of future ages: but as the lines carry at the first view a reference both to the ftone itself, and very remarkably to the place where it was found, I cannot fee any foundation for fuch a fufpicion.

It remains now that we examine the fenfe and import of the infcription, which, after having long dwelt upon it with the closest and most laborious attention, I must confefs myself not yet able fully to comprehend. The following explications, therefore, are by no means laid down as certain and indubitable truths, but as conjectures not always wholly fatisfactory even to myself, and which I had not dared to propofe to fo enlightened an age, an age which abounds with thofe great ornaments of human nature, fceptics, anti-moralifts, and infidels, but with hopes that they would excite fome perfon of greater abilities, to penetrate farther into the oraculous obfcurity of this wonderful prediction.

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Not even the four first lines are without their difficulties, in which the time of the difcovery of the ftone feems to be the time affigned for the events foretold by it.

Cum lapidem hunc, magni

Qui nunc jacet incola ftagni,

Vel pede equus tanget,

Vel arator vomere franget,

Sentiet

Sentiet ægra metus,

Effundet patria fletus,
Littoraque ut fluctu,

Refonabunt oppida luctu.

Whene'er this ftone, now bid beneath the lake,
The horse fhall trample, or the plough fhall break,
Then, O my country! fhalt thou groan distrest,
Grief in thine eyes, and terror in thy breaft.
Thy streets with violence of woe shall sound,
Loud as the billows bursting on the ground.

When this ftone, fays he, which now lies hid beneath the waters of a deep lake, fhall be ftruck upon by the horse, or broken by the plough, then fhalt thou, my country, be aftonished with terrors, and drowned in tears; then shall thy towns found with lamentations, as thy fhores with the roarings of the waves. These are the words literally rendered, but how are they verified? The lake is dry, the stone is turned up, but there is no appearance of this difmal scene. Is not all at home fatisfaction and tranquillity? all abroad fubmiffion and compliance? Is it the interest or inclination of any prince or state to draw a fword against us? and are we not nevertheless secured by a numerous standing army, and a King who is himfelf an army? Have our troops any other employment than to march to a review? Have our fleets encountered any thing but winds and worms? To me the present ftate of the nation feems fo far from any refemblance to the noise and agitation of a tempeftuous fea, that it may C

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be much more properly compared to the dead ftillness of the waves before a storm.

Nam fæcunda rubri
Serpent per prata colubri,
Gramina vaftantes,

Flores fructufque vorantes,

Omnia fædantes,

Vitiantes, et fpoliantes;
Quanquam haud pugnaces,
Ibunt per cuncta minaces,
Fures abfque timore,

Et pingues abfque labore.

Then through thy fields fhall fcarlet reptiles ftray,
And rapine and pollution mark their way.

Their hungry fwarms the peaceful vale shall fright,
Still fierce to threaten, ftill afraid to fight ;
The teeming year's whole product shall devour,
Infatiate pluck the fruit, and crop the flow'r :
Shall glutton on the induftrious peafant's Spoil,
Rob without fear, and fatten without toil.

He feems, in thefe verfes, to defcend to a particular account of this dreadful calamity; but his defcription is capable of very different fenfes with almost equal probability.

Red ferpents, fays he, (rubri colubri are the Latin words, which the poetical tranflator has rendered fcarlet reptiles,

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using a general term for a particular, in my opinion too licentiously.) Red ferpents fhall wander o'er her meadows, and pillage and pollute, &c. The particular mention of the colour of this destructive viper may be fome guide to us in this labyrinth, through which, I must acknowledge, I cannot yet have any certain path. I confefs, that when a few days after my perusal of this paffage, I heard of the multitude of lady-birds feen in Kent, I began to imagine that these were the fatal infects, by which the land was to be laid wafte, and therefore looked over all accounts of them with uncommon concern. But when my firft terrors began to` fubfide, I foon recollected that thefe creatures, having both wings and feet, would scarcely have been called ferpents; and was quickly convinced, by their leaving the country without doing any hurt, that they had no quality, but the colour, in common with the ravagers here defcribed.

As I am not able to determine any thing on this queftion, I fhall content myself with collecting, into one view, the feveral properties of this peftiferous brood, with which we are threatened, as hints to more fagacious and fortunate readers, who, when they fhall find any red animal that ranges uncontrouled over the country, and devours the labours of the trader and the husbandman; that carries with it corruption, rapine, pollution and devastation; that threatens without courage, robs without fear, and is pampered without labour, they may know that the prediction is compleated. Let me only remark farther, that if the style of this, as of all other predictions, is figurative, the ferpent, a wretched animal that crawls upon the earth, is a proper emblem of low

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