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different with the greater part of mankind; there is no fpectacle we fo eagerly purfue, as that of fome uncommon and grievous calamity; fo that whether this misfortune is before our eyes, or whether it be reprefented on the stage, it always touches with delight. The more real, the keener is the fenfation. Choose the day, on which to represent the most sublime and affecting tragedy we have; appoint the most favourite actors; fpare no coft upon the fcenes and decorations; unite the greateft effort of poetry, painting, and mufic; and when you have collected your audience, just at the moment when their minds are erect with expectation, let it be announced, that a ftate criminal of high rank is on the point of being executed; in a moment the emptiness of the theatre would demonftrate the comparative weakness of the irritative arts, and proclaim the triumph of real fympathy for our CREATOR has defigned we fhould be united by the bond of fympathy, and hath strengthened that bond by a proportional delight; and there most, where our fympathy is moft wanted; and HE hath also wifely ordained that this delight fhould, by preffing on us too strongly, finally give way to real uneafinefs.

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eafinefs. The delight we have in fuch events hinders us from fhunning scenes of mifery; and the pain we afterwards feel, prompts us to relieve ourselves in relieving those who fuffer; and all this antecedent to any reasoning by an instinct that works us to its own purposes without our concurrence.

VOL. IV.

4 X

SECT.

SECT. LXVI.

A SINGULAR INSTANCE OF SYMPATHY.

O Greece! thou fapient nurfe of finer arts;

-whose every fon,

even the last mechanic, the true tafte poffefs'd.
Thine was the meaning mufic of the heart;
not the vain trill, that, void of paffion, runs
in giddy mazes, tickling idle ears ;—
But that deep-fearching voice, and artful hand,
to which, refpondent, fhakes the varied foul.

THOMSON.

WHEN the appointed day arrived, the whole inhabitants of Athens, whether citizens or ftrangers, affembled early in the Piraus, to admire the greatest fpectacle ever beheld in a Grecian harbour.

A hundred gallies were adorned with all the splendour of naval pomp: the troops deftined to embark, vied with each other in the elegance of their drefs and the brightnefs of their arms: the alacrity painted in every face, and the magnificence difplayed with profufion in every part of the equipage, reprefented a rather than the ftern image of war.

triumphal fhow,

But the folidity

and

and greatness of the armament proved that it was intended for ufe, and not oftentation.

Amidst this glare of external pageantry which accompanied the adventurous youth, their friends and kinfien could not suppress a few parting tears, when they confidered the dangers of the fea, and the uncertainty of beholding again the dearest pledges of their affection. But their partial expreffions of grief were fpeedily interrupted by the animating founds of the trumpet, which iffued at once from an hundred fhips, and provoked fympathetic acclamations from the fhore.

The captains then offered folemn prayers to the gods, which were answered by corresponding vows from the fpectators: the customary libations were poured out; and, after the triumphant Pæan had been fung in full chorus, the whole fleet at once fet fail, and contended. for the prize of naval skill and celerity, until they reached the lofty fhores of Egina, from whence they enjoyed a profperous navigation to the rendezvous of their confederates at Corcyra.

There the commanders reviewed the ftrength of the armament, which confifled of an hundred and thirtyfour fhips of war, with a proportioned number of tranfports and tenders,

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At a moderate computation, we may eftimate the whole military and naval strength at twenty thousand

men.

When the inhabitants of Syracuse heard the first rumours of the Athenian invafion, they despised them, as idle lies invented to amuse the populace. The hostile armament had arrived at Rhegium before they could be perfuaded, by the wisdom of HERMOCRATES, to provide against a danger which their presumption painted as imaginary. But when they received undoubted intelligence that the enemy had reached the Italian coaft; when they beheld their numerous fleet commanding the fea of Sicily, and ready to make a descent on their defenceless island, they were seized with a juft degree of terror and alarm proportional to their falfe fecurity. From the heights of prefumption they plunged into the depths of despair, and their spirits were, with difficulty, restored by the animating voice of the brave and prudent HERMOCRATES.

Only a few days elapfed before the adverfe armies prepared to engage. The Syracufan generals drew up their troops fixteen, and the Athenians only eight, deep: but the latter had, in their camp, a body of refervė, which was kept ready for action on the first signal.

The

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