ed with royal blood! and the only furviving fon of its late king, flying from an adopted murderer, and feeking that safety in foreign parts, which he cannot command in his own kingdom! WHITHER-O! whither shall I fly? If I return to the royal palace of my ancestors, my father's throne is seized, by the murderer of my brother. What can I there expect, but that Jugurtha should haften to imbrue, in my blood, thofe hands which are now reeking with my brother's? if I were to fly for refuge, or for affiftance, to any other court; from what prince can I hope for protection, if the Roman commonwealth give me up? From my own family or friends, I have no expectations. My royal father is no more. He is beyond the reach of violence, and out of hearing of the complaints of his unhappy fon. Were my brother alive, our mutual fympathy would be fome alleviation. But he is hurried out of life, in his early youth, by the very hand, which fhould have been the laft to injure any of the royal family of Numidia. The bloody Jugurtha has butchered all, whom he fufpected to be in my intereft. Some have been deftroyed by the lingering torment of the crofs. Others have been given a prey to wild beafts; and their anguifh made the fport of men, more cruel than wild beafts. If there be any yet alive, they are fhut up in dungeons; there to drag out a life, more intolerable than death itfelf. Look down, illuftrious Senators of Rome! from that height of power, to which you are raised, on the unexampled diftreffes of a prince, who is, by the cruelty of a wicked intruder, become an outcaft from all mankind. Let not the crafty infinuations of him, who returns murder for adoption, prejudice your your judgment. Do not liften to the wretch, who has butchered the fon and relations of a king, who gave him power to fit on the fame throne, with his own children. I have been informed, that he labours, by his emiffaries, to prevent your determining any thing against him, in his abfence; pretending, that I magnify my diftrefs; and that I might, for him, have ftaid in peace in my own kingdom. But, if ever the time come, when the due vengeance from above fhall overtake him, he will then diffemble in the very fame manner as I do. Then he, who, now, hardened in wickednefs, triumphs over thofe, whom his violence has laid low, will, in his turn, feel diftrefs; and fuffer, for his impious ingratitude to my father, and his blood-thirfty cruelty to my brother. O murdered, butchered brother! O dearest to my heart! now gone for ever from my fight ! But, why should I lament his death? He is, indeed, deprived of the bleffed light of heaven, of light and kingdom, at once, by the very perfon, who ought to have been the first, to hazard his own life, in defence of any one of Micipfa's family: but, as things now are, my brother is not fo much deprived of these comforts, as delivered from terror, from flight, from exile, and the endless train of miferies, which render life to me a burthen. He lies full low, gored with wounds, and feftering in his own blood. But he lies in peace. He feels none of the miferies which rend my foul with agony and diftraction; whilft I am fet up a spectacle, to all mankind, of the uncertainty of human affairs. So far from having it in my power to revenge his death, I am not mafter of the means of fecuring my own life. So far from being in a condition to defend my kingdom from the violence of the ufurper, I am am obliged to apply for foreign protection, for my own perfon. FATHERS, Senators of Rome, the arbiters of the world to you I fly, for refuge, from the murderous fury of Jugurtha. By your affections for your children; by your love for your country; by your own virtues; by the majefty of the Roman commonwealth; by all that is facred; and all that is dear to you! deliver a wretched prince, from undeferved, unprovoked injury and fave the kingdom of Numidia, which is your own property, from being the prey of violence, ufurpation, and cruelty. ............. XV. ་་ར་་་་་་ར་.. MAN'S INTEREST SOCIAL. FIND myself exifting upon a little spot, furrounded every way by an immenfe unknown expanfion. Where am I? What fort of place do I inhabit? Is it exactly accommodated, in every inftance, to my convenience? Is there no excefs of cold, none of heat, to offend me? Am I never annoyed by animals, either of my own kind, or a different? Is every thing fubfervient to me, as though I had ordered all myfelf?-No-nothing like itthe fartheft from it poffible.The world appears not, then, originally made for the private convenience of me alone?-It does not.--But is it not poffible fo to accommodate it, by my own particular induftry? If to accommodate man and beaft, heaven and earth; if this be beyond me, 'tis not poffible-What confequence then follows? Or can there be any other than this-If I feek an interest - of of my own, detached from that of others, I feek an intereft which is chimerical, and can never have existence? How then muft I determine? Have I no intereft at all? If I have not, I am a fool for ftaying here. 'Tis a fimoky houfe; and the fooner out of it, the better. But why no intereft ?Can I be contented with none, but one separate and detached? Is a focial intereft, joined with others, fuch an abfurdity, as not to be admitted? The bee, the beaver, and the tribes of herding animals, are enow to convince me, that the thing is, fomewhere at leaft, poffible. How, then, am I affured, that 'tis not equally true of man?-Admit it; and what follows? If fo, then honour and juftice are my intereft; then the whole train of moral virtues are my intereft; without fome portion of which, not even thieves can maintain fociety. But, farther ftill-I ftop not here- I purfue this focial intereft, as far as I can trace my feveral relations. I pafs from my own ftock, my own neighbourhood, my own nation, to the whole race of mankind, as difperfed throughout the earth.-Am I not related to them all, by the mutual aids of commerce; by the general intercourfe of arts and letters; by that common nature, of which we all participate? -Again-I must have food and cloathing. -Without a proper genial warmth, I inftantly perifh - Am I not related, in this view, to the very earth itself? to the diftant fun, from whofe beams I derive vigour to that ftupendous courfe and order of an infinite hoft of heaven, by which the times and feafons ever uniformly pafs on?-Were this order once confounded, I could not properly fur vive a moment; fo abfolutely do I depend on this common general welfare. WHAT, then, have I to do, but to enlarge virtue into piety? Not only honour and juftice, and what I owe to man, is my intereft; but gratitude alfo, acquiefcence, refignation, adoration, and all I owe to this great polity, and its greater governor, our common parent. BUT, if all these moral and divine habits be my intereft, I need not furely feek for a better. I have an intereft compatible with the fpot on which I live. I have an intereft which may exift, without altering the plan of providence; without mending or marring the general order of events. I can bear whatever happens, with manlike magnanimity; can be contented, and fully happy, in the good, which I poffefs; and can pafs thro' this turbid, this fickle, fleeting period, without bewailings, or envyings, or murmurings, or complaints. XVI. CORFORAL TRIM'S ELOQUENCE. Y young mafter in London is dead, faid M'Obadiah. HERE is fad news, Trim, cried Sufannah, wiping her eyes as Trim ftepped into the kitchenMafter Bobby is dead. I lament for him, from my heart and my foul, faid Trim, fetching a figh-Poor creature !- poor boy poor gentleman! ! HE |