N° 628. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1714. Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum. HOR. 1. Ep. ii. 43. It rolls, and rolls, and will for ever roll. Mr. SPECTATOR, THERE are none of your speculations which please me more than those upon infinitude and eternity. You have already considered that part of eternity which is past, and I wish you would give us your thoughts upon that which is to come. Your readers will perhaps receive greater pleasure from this view of eternity than the former, since we have every one of us a concern on that which is to come: whereas a speculation on that which is past is rather curious than useful. • Besides, we can easily conceive it possible for successive duration never to have an end; though, as you have justly observed, that eternity which never had a beginning is altogether incomprehensible; that is, we can conceive an eternal duration which may be, though we cannot an eternal duration which hath been; or, if I may use the philosophical terms, we may apprehend a potential though not an actual eternity. This notion of a future eternity, which is natural to the mind of man, is an unanswerable argument that he is a being designed for it; especially if we consider that he is capable of being virtuous or vicious here; that he hath faculties improvable to all eternity; and, by a proper or wrong employ ent 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 perpe tually growing and enlarging itself toward the ob. ject, which is too big for human comprehension. As we are now in the beginnings of existence, so shall we always appear to ourselves as if we were for ever entering 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 plancts; 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, enclosed, sent you a translation* 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. Sic, sic se babere rem necesse prorsus est, Natura? Quersum hæc dulcis expectatio; * This translation was by Mr. afterwards Dr. Bland, once schoolmaster, then provost of Eton, and dean of Durham. Attonita, quoties, morte ne pereat, timet? Que demigrabitur alia bine in corpora ? [Ensi nianum admovens. In utramque partem facta; quæque vim inferant, Et quæ propulsent! Dextera intentat necem; Vitam sinistra: vulnus hæc dabit manus ; Altera medelam vulneris: bic ad exitum Deducet, ictu simplici; bæc vetant mori. Secura ridet anima mucronis minas, Ensesque strictos, interire nescia. Extinguet ætas sidera diuturnior : tate languens ipse sol obscurius Tu permanebis sola semper integra, 2 It must be scPlato, thou reason'st well————— Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, 'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought! 'Through what variety of untry'd being, Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue; But when, or where?- -This world was made for Casar, [Laying his hand on his sword. 'Thus am I doubly arm'd; my death and life, The wreck of matter, and the crush of words." N° 629. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1714. -Experiar quid concedatur in illos, Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis, atque Latinâ. JUV. Sat.i. 170. Since none the living dare implead DRYDEN. NEXT to the people who want a place, there are none to be pitied more than those who are solicited for one. A plain answer with a denial in it is looked upon as pride, and a civil answer as a promise. Nothing is more ridiculous than the pretensions of people upon these occasions. Every thing a man hath suffered, whilst his enemies were in play, was certainly brought about by the malice of the opposite party. A bad cause would not have been lost, if such an one had not been upon the bench; nor a profligate youth disinherited, if he had not got drunk every night by toasting an outed ministry. I remember a tory, who, having been fined, in a court of justice for a prank that deserved the pil lory, desired upon the merit of it to be made a justice of the peace when his friends came into power; and shall never forget a whig criminal, who, upon being indicted for a rape, told his friends, You see what a man suffers for sticking to his principles." The truth of it is, the sufferings of a man in a party are of a very doubtful nature. When they are such as have promoted a good cause, and fallen upon a man undeservedly, they have a right to be heard and |