and threatened with a consumption. When older, he was • asthmatic to that degree, it was often thought it would kill him. Diet, fobriety, and moderate exercife, kept him alive, ⚫ and he preferved to the laft ftrength of body fufficient for the vigour and activity of his mind." Seneca, with his talents and courage, might have aspired to any thing in Rome: and, indeed, he had been quæftor, ⚫ which was the first step to honour, when the disgrace I have fpoken of feemed for ever to fet afide all farther expectations. I have faid, how improbable it was, that he could ' deferve it; and every unbiassed reader must be of my opinion, from the account given of his life. The ftrictness and fcrupulous regularity of his morals muft furely be of greater "weight than any thing Meffalina could say *. He bore his difgrace at firft with firmnefs, as may be judged by the discourse he sent his mother Helvia, from his place of exile, in which he endeavours to comfort her. Hel• via was a woman of merit; fhe had sense and virtue. Her fon speaks to her in the strongest and most fublime manner: ⚫ the whole pomp of ftoic philofophy is difplayed in this performance of his. Some might be apt to think, he fays too much to be believed: however, it is plain, had he been greatly dejected by his misfortune, his mind could not have ⚫ been fufficiently easy and undisturbed, to compose a difcourfe of a pretty juft length, and fo well kept up from one end to the other. He began to grow tired of his banishment, and his re folution flagged towards the third year of his refidence in • Corfica. We have a piece of his wrote about that time, ⚫ that does not do much honour to his philofophy. Polybius, • a freeman + of Claudius's, having loft his brother, Seneca ⚫ compofed a difcourfe on that fubject, in which he meanly flatters that abject valet †, whofe infolence was fuch, that ! he would often walk in public between the two confuls. These memoirs of Seneca are thus introduced; Seneca was accufed as guilty of adultery with Julia: he was banished to the ifland of Corfica. A condemnation of Meffalina's procuring can leave no ftain, and the whole life of that eminent man justifies him • fufficiently.' Freeman.] Did not the continued use of this word prove the. contrary, we might poffibly have fuppofed it a typographical miftake; feeing the French, affranchi, as ufed by Mr. Crevier, or the Latin, libertus, would furely have been rendered, freedman, by any English writer, tolerably acquainted with the Roman history. Valet] We are inclined to imagine this an error of the prefs, and that our translator meant varlet, as a forry fellow for we do not remember any where to have met with Roman valets. : His loading the filly emperor with the most magnificent encomiums, tho' at the fame time he held him in contempt, is less surprising: but what is leaft of all to be excufed, is his defiring to be recalled on any terms whatever, confenting to wave the clearing of his innocence, if he could but be ⚫ delivered from exile. After extolling Claudius's clemency, "who," fays he, "has not thrown me down, but, on the "contrary, raifed and fupported me with his divine hand against the fhock of fortune; who intreated the fenate in my favour, and not content to pardon me, would ask that pardon himself;" he adds, "let him determine what he "would have the world think of my cause. Either his juf"tice will decree it good, or his clemency will represent it in "a favourable light; the obligation to me will be the fame, whether he finds me innocent, or treats me as if I "were." He concludes with faying, "he worships the thunder he had been fo juftly struck by." • This was ftooping low indeed; and this writing fo mean and abject, is probably what Dion Caffius tells us the author of it was afterwards fo much afhamed of, that he endeavoured to fupprefs it. To complete his misfortune, all his • meannefs did him no fervice. Seneca remained five years more in banishment; and had it not been for the revolution that happenened at court, by the fall of Meffalina, he might probably have staid there all his life.'-- An hiftorical reader will eafily perceive, that Mr. Crevier has exhibited the character of Seneca in the most favourable light; nevertheless, it is certain, that in many inftances he acted very inconfiftently with the philofophy he profeffed, or that severity of manners he is faid to have practifed. His fervile conformity to the temper of the times he lived in, is evident, in that he, who could fo well rally the fycophant fenator, Livius Geminius, for fwearing he faw Drufilla afcend into heaven, was forward enough to pay his adoration to the divinity of the fame Drufilla. Many were the accufations against him; all of them, furely, not undeferved. The fuperiority of his understanding did not exempt him from the paffions and foibles of the more ignorant: in fhort, to speak of him in the most candid manner, what Pope has faid of the famous Lord Bacon may be applied to the Roman philofopher; who was, in his day, The wifeft, greatest, meanest of mankind. With refpect to the tranflation of this volume, we wish we could justly fay, that we find it, in any refpect, better than the two former. น ART. ART. XXX. An Effay on the Character of the late Mr. William Bruce. In a letter to a friend. 8vo. 4d. Dublin: printed for John Smith, on the Blind-quay. A S an abstract of this little memoir would be inadequate to the purpose of giving the reader a competent idea of that worthy person who is the fubject of it, we have chofen to print it entire, except a fingle note, which is omitted as immaterial. We had the honour of a perfonal acquaintance with Mr. Bruce, and do not think that too much has been faid in his praife. • To Alexander Stewart, of Newtown, esq; • SIR, G The following letter, which is an effay upon the character of the late Mr. William Bruce, I received from a gentleman, who was for many years one of his intimate friends: and it is thought proper, upon many accounts, to publish it. It is not improbable that fome, who knew not that excellent man, may look upon the extraordinary, indeed, amazing character here given him, as very much the creature of warmed imagination; and think the author hath been labouring, • whether with exact justice or not, to croud into it all the C virtues, and graces, with which human nature can be en<riched. But the matter is far otherwife; there is, through the whole, a strict regard to truth, and to represent real life. This, you, Sir, and all who had the happiness of knowing • Mr. Bruce, will, upon the perusal of the letter, immediately • difcern: and you will not wonder, you cannot be displeased, that it is dedicated to you, who have lived fo many years with Mr. Bruce, in the ftricteft bonds of friendship, and in all the intimacies, and higheft delicacies of it, without interruption; especially as this effay will preferve the memory of that mutually honourable friendship, fo long as the • essay itself shall laft. The fullness of my heart fuggefteth a • great deal more upon this occafion, but I fhould do wrong to the reader, if I detained him longer from taking a view of human life, in its nobleft finishings, and which are rarely, very rarely, to be met with. Aug. 25, SIR, Your most obedient Servant, An SIR, An ESSAY, &c. It will, I believe, readily be owned by every capable judge, and who had access intimately to know the person whofe character you defire to have traced out, that a finer fubject could not well have been affigned; a fubject richer in all the various orders of moral excellence; in those beauties of the higheft eminence, which compose a finished piece. But, to difplay these in their proper colours, and with that fpirit of truth, and correctnefs in the expreffion, which juf⚫tice demands, would indeed require the hand of a mafter. • Here only you seem to have erred. However, be this fub'mitted to your own choice; and to that honeft warmth of friendship (may I not fay of admiration?) which prompteth · us, in common, to pay this tribute to the memory of an excellent man; to attempt placing in a more public point of view, tho' but weakly, virtues fo confpicuous as to do honour to human nature; and fuch as exhibit the fairest pat⚫tern for imitation: for it is real life and manners, and the affemblage of whatever adds grace and dignity to thefe, ⚫ which giveth virtue its most striking effect on the beholders. Happy that man who, in the unremitting tenor of a good life, exemplifies what all, in fome measure, may arrive at! The living virtues exceed not the compafs of humanity; they will excite the generous to emulation; while precepts ⚫ of vifionary men, and characters the creation of fancy, only teach despair to cut the nerves of industry. True worth may be caft fo deep into the fhades of obfcurity, as to escape C not only the public, but every undifcerning eye: yet, even here, true worth is itfelf---nec vixit male qui natus morienfque fefellit---felf-fatisfied, and hence anticipating the approving fentence of that all-feeing power, who penetrates the inmost thoughts; it may, perhaps, defire no other theatre. However, when the light of virtue breaketh through the fhade, illuftrating the fairest exemplar of every thing praife-worthy, ⚫ and alluring others to the love and practice of it; then only has it its moft diffufive influence: indeed, all force of example apart, and the public merely confidered, the poet faith right, • ---paulum fepulta diftat inertia celata virtus. You, Sir, I know, measure men and characters by the true ftandard: nor will any who do fo need the glare of external advantages, to bribe their love and veneration for ⚫ a character of fuch diftinguished worth and dignity, as that of our late friend, Mr. Villiam Bruce; a man whose • me、 I memory will long live in the hearts of the virtuous and wife; ⚫ as his death must be deeply regretted, by all who truly knew him, and were lovers of mankind, of their country, of • every amiable excellence that can adorn and ennoble hu man nature. • Custom, it is true, and the fond partiality of friends, are apt to be too profufe in oblations of this fort, to the memory of departed worth; and, on many occafions, may have justly rendered them fufpected. On the prefent occafion, however, be you, Sir, a judge; or rather let truth itself bear witness, at leaft to the intended refemblance betwixt the portrait and the original. Neither flattery nor vanity can ⚫ well find their account here: they have their proper retainers; and their work is, for mercenary ends, to throw de⚫formity into the fhade of deceit, to lay the brightest colours of virtue on the face of vice. In truth, the character of < our friend was, in many interesting points of view, fo peculiar, fo ftrongly marked, that a particular description of ⚫ it, to every candid and intelligent perfon, must be a very pleafing, a very useful entertainment. To prejudice, to malignity, be it only faid, they are not invited to this en• tertainment; and to each apart---Fragili querens illidere dentem, offendit folido. To proceed to fome of the most striking lines in the character before us. The first favourable impreffions generally enter at the eye; and from the exterior deportment in the common intercourfes of life: and, doubtless, on the flightest acquaintance with Mr. Bruce, one faw in him a molt exact regard to all the decencies and proprieties of life; fuch an evident ⚫ defire to oblige, and to make all about him easy, as became a good mind, and a liberal education. His general behaviour bore the genuine ftamp of true politenefs, the refult of an overflowing humanity and benevolence of heart. In him were happily blended, true dignity with softness of manners: this, fimple and fincere, the offspring of good-will: his dignity, commanding reverence, the refult of unaffect⚫ed wisdom: without any thing ungracious or forbidding, it ⚫ only checked the fallies of petulance and folly; while his ⚫ gentle and winning addrefs produced into light, and encouraged, modeft merit. Such qualities very justly and forcibly recommend; lying obvious to almoft every obferver. But, to the more difcerning, a nearer view of him quickly • discovered endowments, far above the common standard. He had, in truth, endowments of mind to have honoured any ftation. |