or Vicious here; that he hath Faculties improvable to all Eternity, and by a proper or wrong Employment of them, may be happy or miserable throughout that infinite Duration.  Our Idea indeed of this Eternity is not of an adequate or fixed Nature, but is perpetually growing and enlarging itself toward the Object, which is too big for human Comprehension.  As we are now in the Beginnings of Existence, so shall we always appear to our selves as if we were for ever entring upon it.  After a Million or two of Centuries, some considerable Things, already past, may slip out of our Memory; which, if it be not strengthened in a wonderful Manner, may possibly forget that ever there was a Sun or Planets.  And yet, notwithstanding the long Race that we shall then have run, we shall still imagine ourselves 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 shall leave this Subject to your Management, and question not
  but you will throw it into such Lights as shall at once improve and
  entertain your Reader.

’I have enclos’d sent you a Translation [2] of the Speech of Cato on this Occasion, which hath accidentally fallen into my Hands, and which for Conciseness, Purity, and Elegance of Phrase, cannot be sufficiently admired.

    ACT V. SCEN.  I.

    CATO solus, &c.

’Sic, sic se habere rem necesse prorsus est, Ratione vincis, do lubens manus_, Plato. Quid enim dedisset, Quae dedit frustra nihil, AEternitatis insitam cupidinem Natura?  Quorsum haec dulcis Expectatio; Vitaeque non explenda melioris sitis?  Quid vult sibi aliud iste redeundi in nihil Horror, sub imis quemque agens precordiis?  Cur territa in se refugit anima, cur tremit Attonita, quoties, morte ne pereat, timet?  Particula nempe est cuique nascenti indita Divinior; quae corpus incolens agit; Hominique succinit, Tua est AEternitas, AEternitas!  O lubricum nimis aspici, Mixtumque dulci Gaudium formidine?

    Quae demigrabitur alia hinc in corpora? 
    Quae Terra mox incognita?  Quis orbis novus
    Manet incolendus?  Quanta erit mutatio? 
    Haec intuenti spatia mihi quaqua patent
    Immensa:  Sed caliginosa nox premit;
    Nec luce clara vult videri singula. 
    Figendus hic pes; certa sunt haec hactenus: 
    Si quod gubernet Numen Humanum genus,
    (At, quod gubernet, esse clamant omnia)
    Virtute non gaudere certe non potest: 
    Nec esse non Beata, qua gaudet, potest. 
    Sed qua Beata sede?  Quove in tempore? 
    Haec quanta quanta terra, tola est Caesaris.
    Quid dubius haeret animus usque adeo?  Brevi
    Hic nodum hic omnem expediet.  Arma en induor
                                  Ensi manum admovens,
    In utramque partem facta; quaeque vim inferant,
    Et quae propulsent!  Dextera