diffimulation; for he had not yet learned really to esteem that which all men poffeffed of ambition and the luft of power defpife; nor did he yet contemn that which, at this period of the Republic, every Roman who was eager to command esteemed more than all other things. But Manlius Curius, the nobleft Roman of the age, really poffeffed the fentiments which Pompey expreffed. Having vanquished feveral warlike nations, driven Pyrrhus out of Italy, and enjoyed three times the honour of a triumph, he retired to his cottage in the country, and there cultivated, with his own victorious hands, his little farm, where, when the Ambaffadors from the Samnites arrived to offer him a large prefent of gold, he was found, feated in his chimney corner, dreffing turnips. The noble reclufe refused the present, and gave the ambaffadors this anfwer: "A man "that can be satisfied with fuch a supper has no "need of gold; and I think it more glorious "to conquer the owners of it, than to poffefs it

"myself.”

THE perfect happiness which Curius enjoyed in dreffing this humble meal, may be truly envied by the greatest Monarchs and most luxurious Princes. It is a melancholy truth, but too well known to Kings and Princes, that under many cir

cumftances

Kirk del.

Ridley sculp.

Curius, refusing the Samnites Gold!?

Pubhshed by Vernor & Hood, March 11800.

cumstances they are deprived of real friends; and this is the reason why they afk the advice of many, and confide in none. Every man of candour, reflection, and good fenfe, pities the condition of virtuous Sovereigns; for even the best of Sovereigns are not totally exempt from fears and jealoufies. Their felicity never equals that of a laborious and contented husbandman; their pleasures are neither fo pure nor fo permanent, nor can they even experience the fame tranquillity and unalloyed content. The provifions, indeed, of a peafant are coarse, but to his appetite they are delicious: his bread is hard, but he goes to it fatigued by the honeft labours of the day, and fleeps founder on his mat of ftraw than monarchs on their beds of down.*

*The reftleffnefs which hangs around the thorny pillow of Royalty, and prevents the wearied eye of greatness from tafting that sweet and comfortable repose which relieves the unambitious toil of humble industry, is finely described by our immortal Poet SHAKESPEARE, in the Soliloquy of HENRY THE FOURTH.

"How many thousands of my poorest subjects

"Are at this hour asleep!-O, Sleep, O, gentle Sleep!
"Nature's foft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
"That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,

“And steep my fenfes in forgetfulness ?

"Why rather, Sleep, ly'st thou in fmoaky cribs,

"Upon uneafy pallets ftretching thee,

"And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy flumber,

"Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,

"O, thou dull God, why ly'ft thou with the vile
"In loathfome beds, and leav'ft the kingly couch
"A watch-cafe, or a common larum bell?
<< Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
"Seal up the hip-boy's eyes, and rock his brain
"In cradle of the rude imperious furge,
"And in the vifitation of the winds,
"Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
"Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
"With deaf'ning clamours in the flippery fhrouds,
That, with the hurly, Death itself awakes?
Can't thou, O, partial Sleep! give thy repofe
"To the wet fea boy in an hour fo rude,
"And in the calmeft and the ftillest night,
"With all appliances and means to boot,

"Deny it to a king! Then, happy, lowly clown,

"Uneafy lies the head that wears a crown.”

HENRY IV. Part 2, A& 3, Scene 1,