Various the papers, various wants produce,
The wants of fashion, elegance, and use.
Men are as various : and, if right I scan,
Each sort of paper represents some man.

Pray note the fop; half powder and half lace;
Nice, as a band-box were his dwelling-place;
He's the gilt paper, which apart you store,
And lock from vulgar hands in the scrutoire.

Mechanics, servants, farmers, and so forth,
Are copy paper of inferior worth;

Less priz'd, more useful, for your desk decreed,
Free to all pens, and prompt at ev'ry need.

The wretch, whom av'rice bids to pinch and spare, Starve, cheat, and pilfer, to enrich an heir, Is coarse brown paper, such as pedlars choose To wrap up wares, which better men will use.

Take next the miser's contrast, who destroys Health, fame, and fortune, in a round of joys. Will any paper match him? Yes, throughout, He's a true sinking paper, past all doubt.

The retail politician's anxious thought
Deems this side always right, and that stark naught;
He foams with censure; with applause he raves,
A dupe to rumours, and a tool of knaves;
He'll want no type his weakness to proclaim,
While such a thing as fools-cap has a name.

The hasty gentleman, whose blood runs high,
Who picks a quarrel if you step awry,
Who can't a jest, or hint, or look endure:
What's he? What? Touch-paper to be sure.

What are our poets, take them as they fall,
Good, bad, rich, poor, much read, not read at all?
Them and their works in the same class you'll find;
They are the mere waste-paper of mankind.

Observe

Observe the maiden, innocently sweet,
She's fair white paper, an unsullied sheet;
On which the happy man, whom fate ordains,
May write his name, and take her for his pains.

One instance more, and only one I'll bring;
'Tis the great man who scorns a little thing;
Whose thoughts, whose deeds, whose maxims are his own,
Form'd on the feelings of his heart alone :

True genuine royal paper is his breast;
Of all the kinds most precious, purest, best.

EXTRACT FROM CATO'S SPEECH BEFORE
THE RO-
MAN SENATE, AFTER THE CONSPIRacy of CatI-

HAVE often spoken before you, Fathers, with some extent, to complain of luxury and the greediness for money, the twin vices of our corrupt citizens; and have thereby drawn upon myself abundance of enemies. As I never spared any fault in myself, I was not easily inclined to favour the criminal excesses of others.

But though you paid little regard to my remonstrances, the Commonwealth has still subsisted by its own strength; has borne itself up, notwithstanding your neglect. It is not now the same. Our manners, good or bad, are not the question, nor to preserve the greatness and lustre of the Roman empire; but to resolve whether all we possess and govern, well or ill, shall continue our's, or be transferred with ourselves to enemies.

At such a time, in such a state, some talk to us of lenity and compassion. It is long that we have lost the right names of things. The Commonwealth is in this deplorable situation, only because we call bestow

ing other people's estates, liberality, and audaciousness in perpetrating crimes, courage.

Let such men, since they will have it so, and it is become the established mode, value themselves upon their liberality at the expense of the allies of the empire, and of their lenity to the robbers of the public treasury but let them not make a largess of our blood; and, to spare a small number of vile wretches, expose all good men to destruction.

Do not imagine, Fathers, that it was by arms our ancestors rendered this Commonwealth so great, from so small a beginning. If it had been so, we should now see it much more flourishing, as we have more allies and citizens, more horse and foot, than they had. But they had other things, that made them great, of which no traces remain amongst us at home, labor and industry; abroad, just and equitable government; a constancy of soul, and an innocence of manners, that kept them perfectly free in their councils; unrestrained either by the remembrance of past crimes, or by craving appetites to satisfy.

For these virtues, we have luxury and avarice; or madness to squander, joined with no less, to gain; the State is poor, and private men are rich. We admire nothing but riches; we give ourselves up to sloth and effeminacy; we make no distinction between the good and the bad; whilst ambition engrosses all the rewards of virtue. Do you wonder, then, that dangerous conspiracies should be formed? Whilst you regard nothing but your private interest; whilst voluptuousness solely employs you at home, and avidity or favor governs you here, the Commonwealth, without defence, is exposed to the devices of any one who thinks fit to attack it.

E

DIALOGUE

DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE GHOSTS OF AN ENGLISH DUELLIST, A NORTH-AMERICAN SAVAGE, AND MER

CURY.

Duellist.

MERCUR

[ERCURY, Charon's boat is on the other side of the water. Allow me, before it returns, to have some conversation with the North-American Savage, whom you brought hither with me. I never before saw one of that species. He looks very grim. Pray, Sir, what is your name? I understand you speak English.

Savage. Yes, I learned it in my childhood, having been bred for some years among the English of NewYork. But, before I was a man, I returned to my valiant countrymen, the Mohawks; and having been villanously cheated by one of your's in the sale of some rum, I never cared to have any thing to do with them afterwards. Yet I took up the hatchet for them with the rest of my tribe in the late war against France, and was killed while I was out upon a scalping party. But I died very well satisfied: for my brethren were victorious; and, before I was shot, I had gloriously scalped seven men, and five women and children. former war, I had performed still greater exploits. My name is the Bloody Bear: it was given me to express my fierceness and valour.

In a

Duel. Bloody Bear, I respect you, and am much your humble servant. My name is Tom Pushwell, very well known at Arthur's. I am a gentleman by my birth, and by profession a gamester and a man of honI have killed men in fair fighting, in honorable single combat; but don't understand cutting the throats of women and children.

or.

Şav. Sir, that is our way of making war. Every nation has its customs. But by the grimness of your countenance, and that hole in your breast, I presume you

were

were killed as I was, in some scalping party. How happened it that your enemy did not take off your scalp!

Duel. Sir, I was killed in a duel. A friend of mine had lent me a sum of money; and after two or three years, being in great want himself, he asked me to pay him. I thought his demand, which was somewhat peremptory, an affront to my honor, and sent him a challenge. We met in Hyde Park. The fellow could not fence but I was absolutely the adroitest swordsman in England. So I gave him three or four wounds; but at last he ran upon me with such impetuosity, that he put me out of my play, and I could not prevent him from whipping me through the lungs. I died the next day, as a man of honor should; without any snivelling signs of contrition or repentance and he will follow for his surgeon has declared his wounds to be mortal. It is said that his wife is dead of grief, and that his family of seven children will be undone by his death. So I am well revenged, and that is a comfort. For my part, I had no wife. I always hated marriage: my mistress will take good care of herself, and my children are provided for at the foundling hospital.

me soon;

Sav. Mercury, I won't go in the boat with that fellow. He has murdered his countryman; he has murdered his friend: I say positively, I won't go in the boat with that fellow. I will swim over thn river: I can swim like a duck.

Mer. Swim over the Styx! it must not be done : › it is against the laws of Pluto's empire. You must go in the boat and be quiet.

Sav. Don't tell me of laws: I am a savage: I value no laws. Talk of laws to the Englishman: there are laws in his country; and yet you see he did not regard them. For they could never allow him to kill his fellow-subject, in time of peace, because he asked him to pay an honest debt. I know, indeed, that the English are a barbarous nation: but they can't possibly be so brutal as to make such things lawful.

Mer.