The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind

To these noble images he adds a short, but comprehensive observation on human life, not excelled by any passage of the moral and sententious Euripides:

We are such stuff

As dreams are made on; and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep!

Thus admirably is a uniformity of character, that leading beauty in dramatic poetry, preserved throughout the Tempest. And it may be farther remarked, that the unities of action, of place, and of time, are in this play, though almost constantly violated by Shakspeare, exactly observed. The action is one, great, and entire, the restoration of Prospero to his dukedom: this business is transacted in the compass of a small island, and in or near the cave of Prospero; though, indeed, it had been more artful and regular to have confined it to this single spot; and the time which the action takes up, is only equal to that of the representation; an excellence which ought always to be aimed at in every well-conducted fable, and for the want of which a variety of the most entertaining incidents can scarcely atone.-Z.

N° 98. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1753.

Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris, et carcere dignum,
Si vis esse aliquis.-Juv.

Would'st thou to honours and preferments climb?

Be bold in mischief, dare some mighty crime,

Which dungeons, death, or banishment deserves.-DRYDEN.

'TO THE ADVENTURER.

'DEAR BROTHER,

THE thirst of glory is, I think, allowed, even by the dull dogs who can sit still long enough to write books, to be a noble appetite.

6

My ambition is to be thought a man of life and spirit, who could conquer the world if he was to se about it, but who has too much vivacity to give the necessary attention to any scheme of length.

'I am, in short, one of those heroic adventurers, who have thought proper to distinguish themselves by the titles of Buck, Blood, and Nerve. When I am in the country, I am always on horseback, and I leap or break every hedge and gate that stands in my way: when I am in town, I am constantly to be seen at some of the public places, at the proper times for making my appearance; as at Vauxhall, or Marybone, about ten, very drunk; for though I don't love wine, I am obliged to be consumedly drunk five or six nights in the week: nay, sometimes five or six days together, for the sake of my character. Wherever I come, I am sure to make all the confusion and do all the mischief I can; not for the sake of doing mischief, but only out of frolic, you know, to shew my vivacity. If there are women near me, I swear like a devil to shew my courage,

Under the rose I

and talk bawdy to shew my wit. am a cursed favourite amongst them; and have had bonne fortune let me tell you. I do love the little rogues hellishly: but faith I make love for the good of the public; and the town is obliged to me for a dozen or two of the finest wenches that were ever brought into its seraglios. One indeed, I lost: and, poor fond soul! I pitied her! but it could not be helped-self preservation obliged me to leave her— I could not tell her what was the matter with her, rot me if I could; and so it got such a head, that the devil himself could not have saved her.

There's one thing vexes me; I have much ado to avoid having that insignificant character, a goodnatured fellow, fixed upon me; so that I am obliged in my own defence to break the boy's head, and kick my whore down stairs every time I enter a nighthouse: I pick quarrels when I am not offended, break the windows of men I never saw, demolish lamps, bilk hackney-coachmen, overturn wheelbarrows, and storm night cellars: I beat the watchman, though he bids me good-morrow, abuse the constable, and insult the justice: for these feats I am frequently kicked, beaten, pumped, prosecuted, and imprisoned; but Tim is no flincher; and if he does not get fame, blood! he will deserve it.

'I am now writing at a coffee-house, where I am just arrived, after a journey of fifty miles, which I have rode in four hours. I knocked up my blockhead's horse two hours ago. The dog whipped and spurred at such a rate, that I dare say you may track him half the way by the blood; but all would not do. The devil take the hindmost, is always my way of travelling. The moment I dismounted, down dropped Dido, by Jove and here I am all alive and merry, my old boy!

I'll tell thee what; I was a hellish ass t'other day.

I shot a damn'd clean mare through the head, for jumping out of the road to avoid running over an old woman. But the bitch threw me, and I got a cursed slice on the cheek against a flint, which put me in a passion; who could help it, you know? Rot me, I would not have lost her for five hundred old women, with all their brats, and the brats of their brats to the third generation. She was a sweet creature! I would have run her five-and-twenty miles within an hour, for five hundred pounds. But she's gone!Poor jade! I did love thee, that I did.

'Now what you shall do for me, old boy, is this. Help to raise my name a little, d'ye mind: write something in praise of us sprightly pretty fellows. I assure you we take a great deal of pains for fame, and it is hard we should be bilked. I would not trouble you, my dear; but only I fear I have not much time before me to do my own business; for between you and I, both my constitution and estate are damnably out at elbows. I intend to make them spin out together as evenly as possible; but if my purse should happen to leak fastest, I propose to go with my last half-crown to Ranelagh gardens, and there, if you approve the scheme, I'll mount one of the upper alcoves, and repeat with an heroic air,

I'll boldly venture on the world unknown;
It cannot use me worse than this has done.

I'll then shoot myself through the head; and so
good by't'ye. Yours, as you serve me,
TIM WILDGOOSE.'

I should little deserve the notice of a person so illustrious as the hero who honours me with the name of brother, if I should cavil at his principles or refuse his request. According to the moral philosophy which is now in fashion, and adopted by many of 'the dull dogs who write books,' the gratification of

appetite is virtue; and appetite, therefore, I shall allow to be noble, notwithstanding the objections of those who pretend, that whatever be its object, it can be good or ill in no other sense than stature or complexion; and that the voluntary effort only is moral by which appetite is directed or restrained, by which it is brought under the government of reason, and rendered subservient to moral purposes.

But with whatever efforts of heroic virtue my correspondent may have laboured to gratify his thirst of glory', I am afraid he will be disappointed. It is, indeed, true, that like heroes of antiquity, whom successive generations have honoured with statues and panegyric, he has spent his life in doing mischief to others without procuring any real good to himself: but he has not done mischief enough: he has not sacked a city or fired a temple: he acts only against indivi duals in a contracted sphere, and is lost among a crowd of competitors, whose merit can only contribute to their mutual obscurity, as the feats which are perpetually performed by innumerable adventurers, must soon become too common to confer distinction.

In behalf of some among these candidates for fame, the legislature has, indeed, thought fit to interpose; and their achievements are with great solemnity rehearsed and recorded in a temple, of which I know not the celestial appellation, but on earth it is called Justice Hall in the Old Bailey.

As the rest are utterly neglected, I cannot think of any expedient to gratify the noble thirst of my correspondent and his compeers, but that of procuring them admission into this class; an attempt in which I do not despair of success, for I think I can demonstrate their right, and I will not suppose it possible that when this is done they will be excluded.

Upon the most diligent examination of ancient history and modern panegyric, I find that no action