irretrievable misfortune which has befallen Athens, and look upon themselves as equally involved in its fatal consequences. Thou mayst at first imagine, potent lord, that the late devouring pestilence has returned: that the naval force of this republic, its ornament and bulwark, has been defeated by the formidable fleet of Corinth; or that the victorious arms of Peloponnesus have wasted Attica with his fire and sword, and are now forming the siege of its metropolis. But none of these calamities have happened; and to detain thee no longer, thou wilt not, I believe, be surprised at so general a concern, when I inform thee that Pericles is dead, whose counsels have set his countrymen at the head of Greece, whose steady conduct has carried them with honour through the greatest difficulties, and whose military skill has given motion to their fleets and armies, during an administration of forty years. He died this evening, at his house in the Ceramicus, of a fever that has hung upon him for several months, and was occasioned by a severe shock which his constitution received from the plague, when it raged here, which all the art of physic, though exerted by Hippocrates himself, could never restore. His greatness of soul and natural flow of spirits made him disregard the approaches of danger: he was seen every day in the assemblies of the people, exhorting them to continue the war with a vigour becoming the Athenian name, and pointing out to them the methods of supplying the expense of it. He used to sit late in the senate, debating on projects for distressing the enemy, and securing the commerce of Athens, or drawing up dispatches for their commanders and ministers abroad. He frequently visited the fortifications and harbour, examined every thing with his own eyes; one while pressing forward the equipment of their ships, through all the delays which the manner of fitting them out here necessarily occasions; at another, reviewing the troops, and strengthening the city with additional works; till at last, as the weakness of his body by no means answered the zeal of his heart for the public service, he was obliged to leave off appearing abroad, and to call in that assistance from physic, which he had too long neglected. 66 Upon the first news of his confinement, crowds of people daily flocked to the temples, particularly those of Jupiter the counsellor, and Minerva the patroness of Athens; to solicit, with prayers and offerings, the continuance of so valuable a life; as the greatest national blessing they could bestow, and the strongest proof that Athens was still under the protection and auspicious influence of her guardian deities. During the short gleams of hope and quick returns of fear, which succeeded each other in the progress of the distemper, all public affairs were at a stand: no news from their armies or squadrons inquired after; and the truth of an old observation was verified, that mankind more sensibly perceive the excellence of any thing from the want than the enjoyment of it. "The behaviour of Pericles, in the whole course of his illness, was composed and magnanimous, en tirely consistent with the rest of his life, and agreeable to the calm fortitude he had always shewn both in the adversity and prosperity of his fortunes. I was myself a witness to a pretty remarkable incident. As some of his friends, not many days before his death, were sitting in his chamber, and discoursing of his virtue and authority, his memorable actions, and the trophies he had set up, whilst he commanded the armies of the republic, not imagining that he was then attending to their conversation; on the sudden he called out to us, that all the circumstances which we had mentioned, were common to him with the other great men whom Athens had produced; and that, besides, fortune might lay claim to part of the merit of them: 'but,' continued he, you have omitted what I most ' value myself upon, that in my whole administration none of my fellow-citizens ever wore mourning < on my account.' We, who were then present, were so moved with this speech, that we melted into tears; which, I dare say, a man of Pericles' sense took for the highest panegyric we could bestow, as I am sure it was the most natural. - "I have taken care to send away my dispatch by a ship that sails immediately out of the port for Ephesus; and as the wind sets fair, and the express who is charg'd with it is used to expeditious journies, I doubt not but it will bring the earliest advice to the court of Persia of this remarkable and interesting event. Adieu. "From Athens. "P." The following fraternal tribute has been copied from its original, in Bibl. Birch.9, 4325, and forms an agreeable appendage to the present article: "SONNET. TO MR. CHARLES YORKE (HIS BROTHER). "O Charles! replete with learning's various store; Howe'er attentive to th' historic page, The poet's lay, or philosophic lore, Thy thoughts from these high studies disengage. Let Horace rest and Locke, and quick repair To Wrest, that ancient honourable seat! And pass the fleeting hours in converse sweet. And in thy bloom of age outstrip the praise. P. Y."] 9 Several letters to Dr. Birch from different branches of the Yorke family, are contained in the same manuscript. JOHN MONTAGUE, FOURTH EARL OF SANDWICH, [THE eldest son of viscount Hinchinbroke, who died young; was born in 1718, succeeded his grandfather as earl of Sandwich in 1729, and after a liberal education at Eton and Cambridge, went abroad for farther improvement, in company with the late earl of Besborough. In this tour he did not confine himself to the usual route, but extended his travels to Grand Cairo and Constantinople; and during his residence in Egypt, purchased a remarkable marble, which he brought to England in 17392, and concerning which Dr. Taylor published a learned dissertation, entitled, Marmor Sandvicense. At this period his lordship attended to literary pursuits 3, and became a member of a club composed of gentlemen who had visited Egypt. He very early took his seat in the house of peers, and united himself with the ? He also brought two mummies and eight embalmed ibises from the catacombs of Mempl:is, a large quantity of the Egyptian papyrus, fifty intaglios, five hundred medals, &c. Cooke's Memoir of his Life, p.3. 3 He had copied above fifty Greek inscriptions, and taken plans and draughts of the pyramids, and other ancient buildings. Ibid. He is said to have written an account of his Travels in the East, and to have printed a few copies of the same, for gifts to favoured friends. |