One of the strongest Incitements to excel in such Arts and Accomplishments as are in the highest Esteem among Men, is the natural Passion which the Mind of Man has for Glory; which, though it may be faulty in the Excess of it, ought by no means to be discouraged.  Perhaps some Moralists are too severe in beating down this Principle, which seems to be a Spring implanted by Nature to give Motion to all the latent Powers of the Soul, and is always observed to exert it self with the greatest Force in the most generous Dispositions.  The Men whose Characters have shone the brightest among the ancient Romans, appear to have been strongly animated by this Passion. Cicero, whose Learning and Services to his Country are so well known, was enflamed by it to an extravagant degree, and warmly presses Lucceius [2], who was composing a History of those Times, to be very particular and zealous in relating the Story of his Consulship; and to execute it speedily, that he might have the Pleasure of enjoying in his Life-time some Part of the [Honour [3]] which he foresaw wou’d be paid to his Memory.  This was the Ambition of a great Mind; but he is faulty in the Degree of it, and cannot refrain from solliciting the Historian upon this Occasion to neglect the strict Laws of History, and, in praising him, even to exceed the Bounds of Truth.  The younger Pliny appears to have had the same Passion for Fame, but accompanied with greater Chastness and Modesty.  His Ingenuous manner of owning it to a Friend, who had prompted him to undertake some great Work, is exquisitely beautiful, and raises him to a certain Grandeur above the Imputation of Vanity. I must confess, says he, that nothing employs my Thoughts more than the Desire I have of perpetuating my Name; which in my Opinion is a Design worthy of a Man, at least of such a one, who being conscious of no Guilt, is not afraid to be remember’d by Posterity [4].

I think I ought not to conclude, without interesting all my Readers in the Subject of this Discourse:  I shall therefore lay it down as a Maxim, that though all are not capable of shining in Learning or the Politer Arts; yet every one is capable of excelling in something.  The Soul has in this Respect a certain vegetative Power, which cannot lie wholly idle.  If it is not laid out and cultivated into a regular and beautiful Garden, it will of it self shoot up in Weeds or Flowers of a wilder Growth.

[Footnote 1:  Newton.]

[Footnote 2:  Epist. ad Diversos, v. 12.]

[Footnote 3:  [Glory]]

[Footnote 4:  Lib. v. ep. 8, to Titinius Capito.  In which, also, Pliny quotes the bit of Virgil taken for the motto of this paper.]

* * * * *

No. 555.  Saturday, November 6, 1712.  Steele.

  ‘—­Respue quod non es—­’

  Pers.