intentat necem;
    Vitam sinistra:  Vulnus haec dabit manus;
    Altera medelam vulneris:  Hic ad exitum
    Deducet, ictu simplici; haec vetant mori. 
    Secura ridet anima mucronis minas,
    Ensesque strictos, interire nescia. 
    Extinguet aetas sidera diuturnior: 
    AEtate languens ipse Sol, obscurius
    Emittet Orbi consenescenti jubar: 
    Natura et ipsa sentiet quondam vices
    AEtatis, annis ipsa deficiet gravis: 
    At tibi juventus, at tibi immortalitas,
    Tibi parta Divum est vita.  Periment mutuis
    Elementa sese, et interibunt ictibus: 
    Tu permanebis sola semper integra,
    Tu cuncta rerum quassa, cuncta naufraga,
    Jam portu in ipso tuta, contemplabere. 
    Compage rupta, corruent in se invicem,
    Orbesque fractis ingerentur orbibus;
    Illaesa tu sedebis extra Fragmina.’

    ACT V. SCENE I.
    CATO alone, &c.

    ’It must be so—­Plato, thou reason’st well—­
    Else whence this pleasing Hope, this fond Desire,
    This Longing after Immortality? 
    Or whence this secret Dread, and inward Horror,
    Of falling into Nought?  Why shrinks the Soul
    Back on her self, and startles at Destruction? 
    ’Tis the Divinity that stirs within us;
    ’Tis Heaven it self, that points out an Hereafter,
    And intimates Eternity to Man. 
    Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful, Thought!

    Through what Variety of untry’d Being,
    Through what new Scenes and Changes must we pass!

    The wide, th’ unbounded Prospect, lyes before me;
    But Shadows, Clouds, and Darkness rest upon it. 
    Here will I hold.  If there’s a Pow’r above us,
    (And that there is all Nature cries aloud
    Through all her Works) He must delight in Virtue;
    And that which he delights in, must be happy. 
    But when! or where!—­This World was made for Caesar.
    I’m weary of Conjectures—­This must end ’em.

    Laying his Hand on his Sword._

    Thus am I doubly arm’d:  my Death and Life,
    My Bane and Antidote are both before me. 
    This in a Moment brings me to an End;
    But This informs me I shall never die. 
    The Soul, secur’d in her Existence, smiles
    At the drawn Dagger, and defies its Point. 
    The Stars shall fade away, the Sun himself
    Grow dim with Age, and Nature sink in Years;
    But thou shalt flourish in immortal Youth,
    Unhurt amidst the War of Elements,
    The Wrecks of Matter and the Crush of Worlds.’

[Footnote 1:  Nos. 565, 571, 580, and 590.]

[Footnote 2:  By Mr., afterwards Dr., Bland, who became Provost of Eton and Dean of Durham.]

* * * * *

No. 629.  Monday, December 6, 1714.

    ’Experiar quid concedatur in illos,
    Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis atque Latina.’