and pour our heaviest Curses on her detefted Head-Join me, St. Evremond!-Lend me your affifting Hand, and we will crush her into AtomsLet us purfue her through all her horrid Haunts, her difmal Retreats. The injured Ghost of Mazarin fhall lead the Way, and scare her. from the meditated Tafk of Murder. There is a superfluous kind of Generosity peculiar to liberal Spirits, which makes them, upon the Lofs of those who were dear to them, lament that they have been deficient in Friendship. or in Kindness. This, I find, is amongst the things that affli&t you; but this is a Superstition of the Moral Kind, which you must not indulge. I know that Madame Mazarin had the greatest Obligations to your Friendship. You enlivened her unhappy Fortunes with your good Humour; you mitigated them with your Philosophy; you. relieved them out of an Income hardly sufficient for yourself. Remember these things, and the Reflections which now give you Pain will bring very different Senfations along with them. The Idea of Mazarin will be accompanied by a penfive but pleafing Tenderness, which, though. it may bear the Name of Sorrow, you will be unwilling to part with. There is a kind of Luxury in lamenting the Death of those we have loved. Our Our Affections themselves supply the Place of their Object. We enjoy the Exercise of them. again; and thus there is a Period of Mourning that has its Charms.. LETTER [86] I LETTER XXII. WALLER to ST. EVREMOND. REMEMBER to have been much pleased in my Youth with a Design and Motto of the Duke of Florence. The Emblem was a fine fpreading Tree, full of innumerable thriving and flowery Branches: The Device, -Primo avulfo, non deficit alter Aureus. The long Succeffion of that illuftrious House, the Idea of being communicated through a Series of Defcendants, and renewing Life, only in different Forms, gave Occasion to many pleasing and flattering Reflections. Alas! St. Evremond, they were the Dreams of young and unmortified Hope. Now, when I want them moft, they have the leaft Weight with me. I fhall, indeed, leave Children behind me, Branches that spring up from the decayed Stock of the Body But, the incommunicable Mind-Of that I find no Traces in thofe who are to follow me. They may, poffibly, bear my Name to the Dif tance of a few Centuries; during which Time it may acquire the Appendages of every Infirmity mity in Human Nature; be ftigmatized with Dishonesty, Vanity, and Stupidity! Yet how unaccountably prevalent is the Fondnefs of preferving a Family-Name! Could we impress the Features of the Soul; could we, like the Grecian Architect, give fome, internal Character, that might be a lafting Honour to us, this Ambition would have fome Shadow of Reafon for its Support. But I find myself, and I believe the greatest Part of those who are most strongly bent on this Method of preserving a Name, to be in the fame Circumstances with Ptolemy Philadel phus, when he built his celebrated Pharos. His principal Intention was, that this Building should convey his Memory to the remotest Pofterity; and, therefore, that future Times might have no Motives to destroy it, he took Care that it fhould be of Public Utility, and serve both as a Land-mark and as a Light to all that ufed thofe Seas. The Ambition of the Prince, however, was defeated by the Cunning of the Archite&. The Name of Ptolemy was cut upon a thin Shell, behind which was artfully concealed a folid Square of White Marble, with the following Inscription: Softratus of Gnidos, the Son of Dexipbanes; To "the Gods Protectors, for the Safeguard of Sai❝lors." Time did Justice to the Artift, and brought him to the Enjoyment of his proper Fame. |