the physician's advice sufficiently to take his stand at the door of the apartment, in order to watch the most favourable opportunity for an interview.

Frederic's strength had been that evening so far exhausted by a preceding delirium, as to afford him for a short time the wretched possession of his faculties. He was kneeling, with great apparent agony, before a bible, and grasping with convulsive gripe the foot of his bed, as if, by the exertion of his nerves, to awaken his fainting soul from the torpor which seemed to be gathering on it at every interval of impassioned frenzy. There is in solitary misery a comfortless horror in brooding over misfortunes, which far exceeds even the cutting pangs we feel when those we love are involved in our calamities; -in the latter situation we have a pleasing object to rest the external sense on, and the very gratification of our feelings, on such an occasion, diffuses a tranquil luxury over our sorrows; in the former, all is dark and comfortless, and a gnawing horror perpetually suggests ideas, which the gangrened imagination, while it trembles to nourish, is unable to resist the indulgence of. Such was the situation of Frederic, when the recollection of the past, the horror of the present, and the prospect of the future, drew from the bottom of his soul, "Oh! that I had the wings. of a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest.' Edmond could, at this ejaculation, no longer contain himself, but rushing into the room, and hanging over his fainting friend, "All may yet be well," said he, we may yet live to renew our pleasures-to pursue those fond projects which your too delicate generosity has so cruelly interrupted!" The well-known voice sounded on Frederic's dying senses, and recalled a

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momentary exertion of his languid spirit:-"Never, never; it is past. Oh, Edmond! it is past!" Then, darting a look of despairing agony to heaven, he exclaimed, in a trembling voice," My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" and, sinking into the arms of his friend, groaned out his soul, and expired.

NOTES TO CORRESPONDENTS. TOGATUS must have entered very dully into the spirit of the numbers be objects to; I shall exemplify my power of rejection, in the non-insertion of his letter.-I shall be happy in the future correspondence of SIMON SNUBNOSE; at present I fear he glances too much on politics for admission.

No. 20. MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1787.

Fratrem facere ex`hostibus.—PLAUT.

To make a brother of a foe.

HAVING Occasion lately to refer to a chronological epitome, I accidentally cast my eyes on the name of Julius Cæsar; and it was not without some emotion that I read the following account of so extraordinary a character:

"Julius Cæsar, Emperor of Rome, born July 10, 100; invaded Britain, landing at Deal, August 26th, 55; killed in the senate-house, March 15, 44, A.C.; after having fought 50 battles, slain above 1,192,000 men, and taken by assault 1000 towns."

Whether the compiler of this work has thus briefly given this list of destruction, without mentioning its causes, with a view to stigmatise Cæsar as an execrable tyrant, or that he really considered these exploits as the most striking instances of his greatness, is not for me to determine; certain it is, that a self-taught philosopher would form but an indifferent opinion of mankind in general, should he, from this sketch, derive his knowledge of a hero, whose name is idolized as the standard of human greatness, whose actions command the admiration even of his enemies,

and whose imitation terminates the most extensive prospects of ambition.

In this paper, therefore, I shall endeavour to prove, that it was not on the sacking of a thousand towns, with the murder or alienation of their inhabitants, that Cæsar laid the foundations of that immortality, the desire of which seems to have given motion to the designs of his capacious ambition, and roused every nerve to those astonishing exertions which characterise his measures as well in the cabinet as the field; that he understood and practised the noblest art of conquest, by attacking the generosity of his enemies in preference to their fears;-and that, if his ambition was of that kind which some have represented it, a more daring piece of injustice was never directed to more beneficial purposes.

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A dauntless resolution and cunning revenge, says Machiavel, are the most effectual assistants to ambition. How false this position is, we may ourselves conclude, when we see Borgia employing a life of fraud in an unsuccessful attempt to acquire a petty principality;-Julius, by an open liberality of sentiment, and a thorough knowledge of the human heart, rising from the inspection of weights and measures to wield the sceptre of the world :-the career of the former checked by the recoil of his own artifice, and himself protracting his miserable existence in the horrors of a debilitated constitution and the disappointment of blasted ambition; the latter nobly sinking in the very theatre of his glory, by the hands of those whom, even in death, he had the satisfaction of upbraiding with their ingratitude.

Cæsar's is a character which, though more generally known, has perhaps been less equitably inves

tigated than any other in history. Dazzled with the lustre of his successes, a kind of reverential awe deters us from tracing their progress; or, if we cursorily examine it, we are prejudiced against him by what is imagined his prime motive-the aggrandisement of himself; and conceive that, as he was the first man who established despotism on any permanent footing in Rome, he must necessarily have been the oppressor of his country. His partizans have lost the vices of his heart in the greatness of his mind; and his detractors have reduced even the virtues of a generous temper to the cold prudence of political foresight.

Should I endeavour to examine whether, in a corrupted commonwealth, a man is to be so far actuated by self-preservation, as to make himself first where to be second is death; and, where the contest is who shall first seize illegal power to the prejudice of the other, whether ambition is justified in bearing an active part,-I should approach nearer to a metaphysical than an historical disquisition. I shall therefore content myself with taking a short view of the conduct of Julius, when compared with that of Sylla and Augustus. For, as all were nearly or precisely in the same situations, as all had equal power, all were exposed to the same temptations, and all had the same plea for the exercise of those cruelties which the insolence of success or political jealousy might dictate, the characters may surely be equitably compared, and the merits of each impartially distinguished.

The massacre of the Villa Publica and the bloody tribunal of Mutina, are incontestable proofs of the savage depravity human nature is capable of, when

steeled by the success of illegal_ambition or the avidity of premeditated revenge. But Sylla, it may be answered, was only retaliating on the Marians; and Augustus was gratifying a laudable resentment when persecuting the murderers of his uncle. Yet Julius had both these instigations;-an imitation of Sylla had been the constant threat of Pompey, in consequence of a victory, and those who experienced the generosity of Cæsar were the very assassins who had been instrumental to the murder of his relations. The unfeeling cruelty of Sylla, and the cold saturnine revenge of Augustus, are proofs of black and depraved hearts, which we nowhere find in Julius: on the contrary, if we may credit the testimony of Suetonius and other writers of his history, he seems to have expressed a concern for the alternative he was reduced to on the eve of every important enterprise during his civil wars, and even to have turned with horror and commiseration from the bleeding head of his most inveterate enemy. His apparent severity to the barbarians during his provincial administration, has, with some appearance of reason, been considered as a stigma on his character; but, if we trace this consummate general through his operations in Gaul, if we thoroughly examine the character of the surrounding nations-their ferocity when conquerors, and their perfidy when admitted to equitable terms, we shall immediately acquit him of wanton cruelty, and refer any apparent act of injustice to the necessity he was under of subduing, by violent and arbitrary measures, a people whose fears were their only ties of fidelity. Their entire subjection was absolutely necessary to the safety of the Romans, whose inmost barrier they surrounded on every side;