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In the decorations of thefe fcenes, the Roman emperors difplayed their wealth and liberality; and we read, that, on various occafions, the whole furniture of the amphitheatre confifted either of filver, or of gold, or of amber. The poet who defcribes the games of Carinus, in the character of a fhepherd attracted to the capital by the fame of their magnificence, affirms, that the nets defigned as a defence against the wild beafts were of goldwire; that the porticoes were gilded; and that the belt or circle which divided the feveral ranks of fpectators from each other, was ftudded with a precious mofaic of beautiful ftones.

II. Reflections in Westminster Abbey.

WHEN I am in a ferious humour, I very often walk by myself in Westminster Abbey; where the gloominefs of the place, and the ufe to which it is applied, with the folemnity of the building, and the condition of the people who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that is not difagreeable. I yefterday paffed a whole afternoon in the church-yard, the cloifters, and the church; amufing myfelf with the tomb-ftones and infcriptions which I met with in those several regions of the dead. Moft of them recorded nothing elfe of the buried perfon, but that he was born upon one day, and died upon another; the whole hiftory of his life being comprehended in thefe two circumftances, that are common to all mankind. I could not but look upon thofe registers of exiftence, whether of brass or marble, as a kind of fatire upon the departed perfons, who had left no other memorial of themfelves, but that they were born, and that they died.

Upon my going into the church, I entertained myfelf with the digging of a grave; and faw, in every shovelful of it that was thrown up, the fragment of a bone or skull intermixed with a kind of fresh-mouldering earth, that, fome time or other, had a place in the compofition of an human body. Upon this, I began to confider with myfelf, what innumerable multitudes of people lay confufed together, under the pavement of that ancient cathedral; how men and women, friends and enemies,

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!

priefts and foldiers, monks and prebendaries, were crumbled amongst one another, and blended together in the fame common mafs; how beauty, ftrength, and youth, with old age, weakness, and deformity, lay undistinguished in the fame promifcuous heap of matter."

After having thus furveyed this great magazine of mortality as it were in the lump, I examined it more particularly by the accounts which I found on feveral of the monuments which are raised in every quarter of that ancient fabric. Some of them were covered with fuch extravagant epitaphs, that, if it were poffible for the dead perfon to be acquainted with them, he would blush at the praifes which his friends have beftowed upon him, There are others fo exceffively modeft, that they deliver the character of the perfon departed in Greek or Hebrew; and by that means are not understood once in a twelvemonth. In the poetical quarter, I found there were poets who had no monuments, and monuments which had no poets. I obferved, indeed, that the prefent war had filled the church with many of those uninhabited monuments, which had been erected to the memory of perfons whofe bodies were perhaps buried in the plains of Blenheim, or in the bofom of the ocean.

I could not but be very much delighted with feveral modern epitaphs, which are written with great elegance of expreffion and juftnefs of thought, and which therefore do honour to the living as well as to the dead. As a foreigner is very apt to conceive an idea of the igno. rance or politenefs of a nation from the turn of their public monuments and infcriptions, they fhould be fubmitted to the perufal of men of learning and genius, before they are put into execution. Sir Cloudetly Shovel's monument has very often given me great offence. Inftead of the brave rough Englith admiral, which was the diftinguifhing character of that plain gallant man, he is reprefented on his tomb by the figure of a beat, dreffed in a long periwig, and repofing himself upon velvet cufhions under a canopy of itate. The infcription is an fwerable to the monument; for, instead of celebrating the many remarkable actions he had performed in the fervice of his country, it acquaints us only with the manner of his death, in which it was impoffible for him to

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reap any honour. The Dutch, whom we are apt to defpife for want of genius, fhow an infinitely greater falte in their buildings and works of this nature, than we meet with in thofe of our own country. The monuments of their admirals, which have been erected at the public expence, represent them like themfelves, and are adorned with roftral crowns and naval ornaments, with beautiful feftoons of fea-weed, fhells, and coral.

I know that entertainments of this nature are apt to raife dark and difmal thoughts in timorous minds and gloomy imaginations: but, for my own part, though I am always ferious, I do not know what it is to be melancholy; and can therefore take a view of nature in her deep and folemn fcenes, with the fame pleasure as in her moft gay and delightful ones. By these means, I can improve myself with objects which others confider with terrour. When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate defire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tomb-ftone, my heart melts with compaffion; when I fee the tomb of the parents themfelves, I confider the vanity of griev ing for thofe whom we must quickly follow. When I fee kings lying by thofe who depofed them; when I con→ fider rival wits placed fide by fide, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes; I reflect with forrow and aftonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the feveral dates of the tombs, of fome that died yefterday, and fome fix hundred years ago, I confider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.

III. The Character of Mary Queen of Scots.

TO all the charms of beauty, and the utmost elegance of external form, Mary added thofe accomplishments which render their impreffion irrefiftible. Polite, affable, infinuating, fprightly, and capable of speaking and of writing with equal eafe and dignity. Sudden, however, and violent in all her attachments, because her heart was warm and unfufpicious. Impatient of contradiction, becaufe fhe had been accustomed from her infancy to be

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treated

treated as a queen. No ftranger, on fome occafions, to diffimulation; which, in that perfidious court where she received her education, was reckoned among the neceffary arts of government. Not infenfible to flattery, or unconscious of that pleasure with which almost every woman beholds the influence of her own beauty. Formed with the qualities that we love, not with the talents that we admire, the was an agreeable woman rather than an illuftrious queen.

The vivacity of her fpirit, not fufficiently tempered with found judgment, and the warmth of her heart, which was not at all times under the restraint of discre tion, betrayed her both into errours and into crimes. To fay that the was always unfortunate, will not account for that long and almost uninterrupted fucceffion of calamities which befel her; we must likewife add, that the was often imprudent. Her paffion for Darnly was rash, youthful, and exceffive. And, though the fudden transition to the oppofite extreme was the natural effect of her ill-requited love, and of his ingratitude, infolence, and brutality; yet neither thefe, nor Bothwell's artful address and important fervices, can justify her attachment to that nobleman. Even the manners of the age, licentious as they were, are no apology for this unhappy paffion; nor can they induce us to look on that tragical and infamous fcene which followed upon it, with lefs abhorrence. Humanity will draw a veil over this part of her character, which it cannot approve; and may perhaps prompt fome to impute her actions to her fituation, more than to her difpofition; and to lament the unhappiness of the former, rather than accufe the perverfenefs of the latter. Mary's fufferings exceed, both in degree and in duration, thofe tragical diftreffes which fancy has feigned to excite forrow and commiferation; and while we furvey them, we are apt altogether to forget her frailties we think of her faults with lefs indig. nation; and approve of our tears, as if they were fled for a person who had attained much nearer to pure vir tue.

With regard to the queen's perfon, a circumftance not to be omitted in writing the hiftory of a female reign, all contemporary authors agree in afcribing to

Mary

Mary the utmost beauty of countenance, and elegance of fhape, of which the human form is capable. Her hair was black, though, according to the fashion of that age, the frequently wore borrowed locks, and of different colours. Her eyes were a dark gray, her complexion was exquifitely fine, and her hands and arms remarkably delicate both as to fhape and colour. Her ftature was of an height that rofe to the majestic. She danced, fhe walked, and rode, with equal grace. Her talte for mufic was juft; and fhe both fung and played upon the lute with uncommon fkill. Towards the end of her life the began to grow fat; and her long confinement, and the coldness of the houfes in which the was imprisoned, brought on a rheumatifm, which deprived her of the ufe of her limbs. No man, fays Brantome, ever beheld her perfon without admiration and love, or will read her history without forrow.

IV. Character of Queen Elizabeth.

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THERE are few perfonages in hiftory who have been more exposed to the calumny of enemies and the adulation of friends, than Queen Elizabeth; and yet there fcarce is any whofe reputation has been more certainly determined, by the unanimous confent of poste rity. The unufual length of her administration, and the ftrong features of her character, were able to overcome all prejudices; and, obliging her detractors to abate much of their invectives, and her admirers fomewhat of their panegyrics, have at laft, in fpite of politi cal factions, and what is more, of religious animofities, -produced an uniform judgment with regard to her conduct. Her vigour, her conftancy, her magnanimity, her penetration, vigilance, and addrefs, are allowed to merit the highest praifes, and appear, not to have been furpaffed by any person who ever filled a throne: a conduct lefs rigorous, lefs imperious, more fincere, more indulgent to her people, would have been requifite to form a perfect character. By the force of her mind, fhe controlled all her more active and ftronger qualities, and prevented them from running into excefs. Her heroism was exempted from all temerity, her frugality from avarice, her friendship from partiality, her enterprize from K 2

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