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Belike through impotence or unaware,
To give his enemies their wifh, and end
Them in his anger whom his anger faves
To punish endless? Wherefore ceafe we then?
Say they who counfel war: we are decreed,
Refery'd, and deftin'd to eternal wo :
Whatever doing, what can we fuffer more,
What can we suffer worse? Is this then worst,
Thus fitting, thus confulting, thus in arms?
What, when we fled amain, purfu'd and struck
With heav'n's afflicting thunder, and befought
The deep to fhelter us? this hell then feem'd
A refuge from those wounds: or when we lay
Chain'd on the burning lake? that fure was worse.
What if the breath that kindled thofe grim fires,
Awak'd, fhould blow them into fev❜nfold rage,
And plunge us in the flames? or, from above,
Should intermitted vengeance arm again
His red right hand to plague us? what if all
Her stores were open'd, and this firmament
Of hell fhould spout her cataracts of fire,
Impendent horrours, threat'ning hideous fall
One day upon our heads; while we, perhaps
Defigning or exhorting glorious war,
Caught in a fiery tempeft, fhall be hurl'd,
Each on his rock transfix'd, the sport and prey
Of wrecking whirlwinds: or for ever funk
Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains;
There to converfe with everlasting groans,
Unrefpited, unpitied, unrepriev'd,

Ages of hopeless end? this would be worse.-
War, therefore, open or conceal'd, alike
My voice diffuades.

SECT

Stock.

SECTION V.

DRAMATIC PIECES.

MR

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[R Belcour, 1 am rejoiced to fee you: you are welcome to England.

Bel. I thank you heartily, good Mr Stockwell. You and I have long converfed at a distance: now we are met and the pleasure this meeting gives me, amply compenfates for the perils I have run through in ac complishing it.

Stock. What perils, Mr Belcour! I could not have thought you would have met with a bad paffage at this time o'year.

Bel. Nor did we. Courier-like, we came pofting to your fhores upon the pinions of the fwifteft gales that cver blew. It is upon English ground all my difficulties have arifen it is the paffage from the river-fide I complain of.

Stock. Indeed! What obftructions can you have met between this and the river-fide?

Bel. Innumerable! Your town's as full of defiles as the island of Corfica; and, I believe, they are as obftinately defended. So much hurry, buftle, and confufion, on your quays; fo many fugar-cafks, porter-butts, and common council men, in your ftreets; that, unless a man marched with artillery in his front, it is more than the labour of a Hercules can effect to make any tolerable way through your town.

Stock. I am forry you have been so incommoded.

Bel. Why, truly, it was all my own fault. Accuflomed to a land of flaves, and out of patience with the whole tribe of custom-houfe extortioners, boatmen, tidewaiters, and water-bailiffs, that befet me on all fides worfe than a fwarm of mufquetoes, I proceeded a little 200 roughly to brush them away with my ratan. The

fturdy

sturdy rogues took this in dudgeon; and, beginning to rebel, the mob chofe different fides, and a furious fcuffle enfued; in the course of which, my perfon and apparel fuffered fo much, that I was obliged to step into the first tavern to refit, before I could make my approaches in any decent trim.

Stock. Well, Mr Belcour, it is a rough fample you have had of my countrymen's fpirit; but, I trust, you will not think the worfe of them for it.

Bel. Not at all, not at all: I like them the better. Were I only a vifitor, I might perhaps with them a little more tractable; but, as a fellow-fubject and a sharer in their freedom, I applauded their fpirit-though I feel the effects of it in every bone in my fkin.- -Well, Mr Stockwell, for the first time in my life, here am I in England; at the fountain-head of pleasure; in the land of beauty, of arts, and elegancies. My happy ftars have given me a good eftate, and the confpiring winds have. blown me hither to spend it.

Stock. To ufe it, not to waste it, I fhould hope; to treat it, Mr Belcour, not as a vaffal over whom you have a wanton defpotic power, but as a fubject whom you are bound to govern with a temperate and reftrained authority.

Bel. True, Sir, moft truly faid: mine's a commiffion, not a right: I am the offspring of diftrefs, and every child of forrow is my brother. While I have hands to hold, therefore, I will hold them open to mankind. But, Sir, my paffions are my masters; they take me where they will; and, oftentimes, they leave to reafon and virtue nothing but my wifhes and my fighs.

Stock. Come, come, the man who can accufe, corrects himself.

Bel. Ah! that is an office I am weary of. I wish a friend would take it up: I would to Heaven you had leifure for the employ. But, did you drive a trade to the four corners of the world, you would not find the task fo toilfome as to keep me free from faults.

Stock. Well, I am not difcouraged. This candour tells me I fhould not have the fault of felf-conceit to combat; that, at least, is not amongst the number.

Bel, No; if I knew that man on earth who thought

more

more humbly of me than I do of myself, I would take up his opinion and forego my own.

Stock. And, were I to choose a pupil, it should be one of your complexion: fo, if you will come along with me, we fhall agree upon your admiffion, and enter upon a courfe of lectures directly.

Bel. With all my heart.

II. Lady Townly and Lady Grace.

Lady T. OH, my dear Lady Grace! how could you leave me fo unmercifully alone all

this while?

Lady G. I thought my lord had been with you. Lady T. Why, yes-and therefore I wanted your relief; for he has been in fuch a flufter here

Lady G. Blefs me! for what?

Lady T. Only our ufual breakfaft; we have each of us had our dish of matrimonial comfort this morningwe have been charming company.

Lady G. I am mighty glad of it: fure it must be a vaft happinefs when man and wife can give themfelves the fame turn of converfation!

Lady T. Oh, the prettieft thing in the world?

Lady G. Now I fhould be afraid, that where two people are every day together fo, they must often be in want of fomething to talk upon.

Lady T. Oh, my dear, you are the moft miftaken in the world! inarried people have things to talk of, child, that never enter into the imagination of othersWhy, here's my lord and I, now, we have not been married above two fhort years, you know, and we have already eight or ten things conftantly in bank, that, whenever we want company, we can take up any one of them for two hours together, and fubject never the flatter; nay, if we have occafion it, it will be as fresh next day too, as it was the first hour it entertain

ed us.

Lady G. Gertainly that must be vaftly pretty.

Lady T. Oh, there's no life like it! Why, tother day, for example, when you dined abroad, myrd and 1, after a pretty cheerful tête à tête meal, fat us down by the fire-fide, in an cafy, indolent, pick-tooth way,

• for

for about a quarter of an hour, as if we had not thought of one another's being in the room.-At laft, ftretching himself and yawning-My dear, fays he,aw you came home very late laft night.- -'Twas but juft turned of two, fays I.I was in bed-aw-by eleven, fays he.So you are every night, fays I. Well, fays he, I am amazed you can fit up fo late.How can you be amazed, fays I, at a thing that happens fo often!Upon which we entered into a converfation: and though this is a point has entertained us above fifty times already, we always find fo many pretty new things to fay upon it, that I believe in my fou! it will last as long as we live.

Lady G. But pray, in fuch fort of family-dialogues (though extremely well for paffing the time) doesn't there now and then enter fome little witty fort of bitternefs?

Lady T. Oh, yes! which does not do amifs at all. A fmart rapartee, with a zeft of recrimination at the head of it, makes the prettieft fherbet. Ay, ay, if we did not mix a little of the acid with it, a matrimonial fociety would be fo luscious, that nothing but an old liquorifh prude would be able to bear it.

Lady G. Well, certainly you have the most elegant tafte.

Lady T. Though, to tell you the truth, my dear, I rather think we fqueezed a little too much lemon into it this bout; for it grew fo four at laft, that, I think

I almoft told him he was a fool-and he again -talked fomething oddly of-turning me out of doors.

Lady G. Oh! have a care of that.

Lady T. Nay, if he thould, I may thank my own wife father for it.

Lady G. How fo?

Lady T. Why, when my good lord firft opened his honourable trenches before me, my unaccountable papa, in whose hands I then was, gave me up at difcre

tion.

Ley G. How do you mean?

Lady T. He laid the wives of this age were come to that paf, that he would not defire even his own daughter fhould be trafled with pin-money; fo that my whole

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