That gave't furmifed fhape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works;
And think them faames, which are, indeed, nought elfe
But the protractive trials of great Jove,

To find perfiftive conftancy in men ?

The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love for then, the bold and coward,
The wife and fool, the artitt and unread,
The hard and foft, feem all affin'd and kin:
But, in the wind and tempeft of her frown,
Diftin&tion, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Nef. With due obfervance of thy godlike feat,
Great Agamemnon, Neftor fhall apply

Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance

Lies the true proof of men: The fea being smooth
How many shallow bauble boats dare fail

Upon her patient breaft, making their way

With thofe of nobler bulk?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold

The ftrong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements

Like Perfeus' horfe: Where's then the faucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd fides but even now
Co-rival'd greatnefs? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even fo

Doth valour's fhew, and valour's worth, divide

In ftorms of fortune: For, in her ray and brightness, The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,

Than by the tiger: but when the splitting wind

Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies flee under fhade, Why, then, the thing of

courage,

As rouz'd with rage, with rage doth fympathize,.

And, with an accent tun'd in felf-fame key,

Returns to chiding fortune.

Uly. Agamemnon,——

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,

Heart

Heart of our numbers, foul and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be fhut up,-hear what Ulyses speaks.
Befides the applause and approbation,

The which,―moft mighty for thy place and fway,-
And thou moft reverend for thy ftretcht-out life,-
I give to both your fpeeches,which were fuch,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece

Should hold up high in brass; and fuch again,
As venerable Neftor, hatch'd' in filver ‡,
Should with a bond of air (ftrong as the axle-tree
On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekib ears
To his experienc'd tongue,-let it please both,-
Thou great, and wife, to hear Ulysses speak.
Aga. Speak, prince of Ithaca: and we less expect
That matter needlefs, of importless burthen,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his maftiff jaws,
We shall hear mufick, wit, and oracle.

Uly. Troy, yet upon her bafis, had been down;
And the great Hector's fword had lack'd a master,
But for thefe inftances:

The Specialty of rule hath been neglected;
And, look, how many Grecian tents do ftand
Hollow upon this plain, fo many hollow factions.
When that the general is not lik'd o'the hive,
To whom the foragers fhall all repair,,

What honey is expected Degree being vizarded,
The unworthieft fhews as fairly in the mask.

"The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centers, "Observe degree, priority, and place,

Infifture, courfe, proportion, feason, form, "Office, and cuftom, in all line of order : And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol, "In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd "Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye

Though Neftor is confeffedly filvered with age, yet we know not, how he can be faid to be batched in filver, unless we form the predictive idea of having been born to a ftate of longevity.

The fubject of fubordination is admirably delineated in this Speech, "Correcis

I. 3

"Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,

"And pofts, like the commandment of a king, "Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the planets, "In evil mixture, to diforder wander,

"What plagues, and what portents ? what mutiny? "What raging of the fea? fhaking of earth? "Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, horrors, "Divert and crack, rend and deracinate

"The unity and marry'd calm of states

"Quite from their fixure ?" O, when degree is fhak'd, Which is the ladder of all high defigns,

The enterprize is fick! How could communities, Degrees in fchools, and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, The primogeniture and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, fcepters, laurels, But by degree, ftand in authentic place? "Take but degree away, untune that ftring, "And, hark, what difcord follows! each thing meets "In meer oppugnancy: The bounded waters

“Should lift their bofoms higher than the shores, * And make a fop of all this folid globe: Strength fhould be lord of imbecillity,

"And the rude fon fhould ftrike his father dead: "Force should be right; or, rather, right and wrong (Between whofe endless jar juftice refides) "Should lose their names, and fo should justice too. "Then every thing includes itself in power,

"Power into will, will into appetite;

"And appetite, an univerfal wolf,

"So doubly feconded with will and power,

"Muft make perforce an universal prey,

"And, laft, eat up himself." Great Agamemnon, This chaos, when degree is fuffocate,

Follows the choaking.

And this neglection of degree it is,

That by a pace goes,backward in a purpose

In Neftor's fpeech (page 172, line 29) there is the fingularly

odd idea of the globe's, that is the terrene parts of it, being made a toaft for Neptune; here it is described as a sop.

It hath to climb: The general's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: fo every step,
Exampl'd by the first pace that is fick
Of his fuperior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodlefs emulation :

And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own finews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness ftands, not in her strength
Nef. Moft wifely hath Ulysses here discover'd
The fever, whereof all our power is fick.

Aga. The nature of the fickness found, Ulyffes,
What is the remedy?

Uly. The great Achilles,-whom opinion crowns
The finew and the forehand of our hoft,
Having his ear full of his airy fame,

Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
Lies mocking our defigns: With him, Patroclus,,
Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day

Breaks fcurril jests ;

And with ridiculous and aukward action
(Which, flanderer, he imitation calls)

He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
Thy topless deputation he puts on;

And, like a ftrutting player, whose conceit
Lies in his ham-ftring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and found
"Twixt his ftretch'd footing and the fcaffoldage,
Such to-be-pity'd and o'er-rested seeming
He acts thy greatnefs in and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unfquar'd,,
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd,
Would seem hyperboles. At this fufty stuff,
The large Achilles, on his prefs'd bed lolling,
From his deep cheft laughs out a loud applause ;
Cries, Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just.
Now play me Neftor; hem, and stroke thy beard,

* However flirewdly characteristic this fpeech may be, we think it much too long, and too redundant for ftage-delivery; therefore we have marked those lines which, in our view, may be best spared, if this piece fhould ever encounter the stage,

As be, being 'dreft to fome oration.

That's done; as near as the extremeft ends
Of parallels, like as Vukan and his wife:
Yet good Achilles ftill eries, Excellent!
'Tis Neftor right: Now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to anfwer in a night alarms

And then, forfooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spity
And, with a palfy fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet and at this sport
Sir Valour dies; cries, O; enough, Patroclus;
Or give me ribs of steel! I fball plir all
In pleafure of my pleen. And in this fafhion
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exac,
Atchievements, plots, orders,. preventions,
Excitements to the field, or fpeech for truce,
Success, or lofs, what is, or is not, ferves
As ftuff for these two to make paradoxes *.
Nef. And in the imitation of these twain
Whom, as Ulyffes fays, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice) many are infect.
Ajax is grown felf-will'd; and bears his head
In fuch a rein, in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him ;
Makes factious feafts; rails on our ftate of war,
Bold as an oracle: and fets Therfites

(A flave, whofe gall coins flanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;

To weaken and difcredit our exposure,
How rank foever rounded in with danger.

Uly. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice;
Count wifdom as no member of the war;

Foreftal prefcience, and esteem no act

But that of hand: the ftill and mental parts,

This fpeech has ftrong painting in it, letting us well and pleafingly into the characters of Achilles and Patroclus.

There is a very commendable idea broached here against those who prefer immediate action to prefcient calculation; but with deference to our author, we think he makes Ulyffes deliver himself in terms to complicate and cramp