Part 10 (1/2)

XII LINES PRINTED UNDER THE PORTRAIT OF MILTON

DRYDEN

Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn

The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd, The next in majesty, in both the last

The force of Nature could no farther go; To make a third she join'd the former two

XIII REASON

DRYDEN

_From_ RELIGIO LAICI

Dim as the borrowed bea travellers, Is Reason to the soul; and as on high Those rolling fires discover but the sky, Not light us here; so Reason's gliuide us upward to a better day And as those nightly tapers disappear, When day's bright lord ascends our heht; So dies, and so dissolves, in supernatural light

XIV ON THE LOVE OF COUNTRY AS A PRINCIPLE OF ACTION

RICHARD STEELE--1672-1729

_From_ THE TATLER, June 10, 1710

When enerous seeds which are there planted, that htly cultivated, ennoble their lives, and make their virtue venerable to futurity; how can they, without tears, reflect on the universal degeneracy froht to be the first and principal motive of all their actions? In the Grecian and Roreat incentive, and it was i a patriot All gallantry had its first source from hence; and to want a warmth for the public welfare, was a defect so scandalous, that he as guilty of it had no pretence to honor orus, in this behalf, the more vexatious and irksome to reflect upon, is, that the contest us, as it could be in those memorable people; and ant only a proper application of the qualities which are frequent a us, to be as worthy as they There is hardly a ht upon any occasion, which he thinksin everything that regards the public, as it is in this our private case, no uished hiallant instance of his zeal towards it in the respective incidents of his life and profession But it is so far otherwise, that there cannot at present be a ood of others He, in civil life, whose thoughts turn upon scheeneral benefit, without further reflection, is called a projector; and the ht-errant The ridicule aainst laudable actions; nay, in the ordinary course of things, and the coence of the public is an epidemic vice The brewer in his excise, the ht we know, the soldier in his uilty of their respective frauds towards the public This evil is coht, that he is a man _of_ a public spirit, and heroically affected to his country, who can go so far as even to turn usurer with all he has in her funds There is not a citizen in whose ilory, as Codrus, Scaevola, or any other great name in old Rome Were it not for the heroes of so h for themselves and their nation to trade with her with their wealth, the very notion of public love would long ere now have vanished froeneral custom may hurry us away in the streareat as that of being cold inness to receive anything that tends to the diminution of such as have been conspicuous instruments in our service Such inclinations proceed from the most low and vile corruption, of which the soul of man is capable

This effaces not only the practice, but the very approbation of honor and virtue; and has had such an effect, that, to speak freely, the very sense of public good has no longer a part even in our conversations Can then the ood of others, be so easily banished the breast of man? Is it possible to draw all our passions inward? Shall the boiling heat of youth be sunk in pleasures, the alorious, all that is worth the pursuit of great minds, be so easily rooted out?

When the universal bent of a people seelory, it looks like a fatality, and crisis of ienerous nations we just now mentioned understood this so very well, that there was hardly an oration ever eneral sense, ”That the love of their country was the first and most essential quality in an honest mind” Demosthenes, in a cause wherein his fame, reputation, and fortune, were embarked, puts his all upon this issue; ”Let the Athenians,” says he, ”be benevolent to reat and discerning orator knew, there was nothing else in nature could bear hi shown hi or able to serve his country This certainly is the test of ood-will is, having it yourself The adversary of this orator at that time was aeschines, a man of wily arts and skill in the world, who could, as occasion served, fall in with a national start of passion, or sullenness of humor, which a whole nation is sometimes taken with as well as a private man; and by that means divert the anything in its true light But when Deing by the general tenor of his life towards them, his services bore down his opponent before him, who fled to the covert of his mean arts, until soainst the superior merit of Demosthenes

It were to be wished, that love of their country were the first principle of action in men of business, even for their own sakes; for when the world begins to exaenerality, who have no share in, or hopes of any part in power or riches, but what is the effect of their own labor or prosperity, will judge of them by no other method, than that of how profitable their administration has been to the whole They who are out of the influence of men's fortune or favor, will let them stand or fall by this one only rule; andtried by it, are always popular in their fall Those, who cannot suffer such a scrutiny, are conte into shreds of , which has driven me from my recommendation of public spirit, which was the intended purpose of this lucubration There is not a ulus This sainians, and was sent by them to Rome, in order to dee for himself; and was bound by an oath that he would return to Carthage, if he failed in his commission He proposes this to the senate, ere in suspense upon it, which Regulus observing, without having the least notion of putting the care of his own life in coood, desired them to consider that he was old, and ale were reat merit in military affairs; and wondered they would o back to the short tortures prepared for hi a long life both gloriously and usefully This generous advice was consented to; and he took his leave of his country and his weeping friends, to go to certain death, with that cheerful coue of business in a court or a city, retires to the next village for the air

_When the heart is right there is true patriotism_

BISHOP BERKELEY--1684-1753

XV THE GOLDEN SCALES