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SECT. IV.

OF PERMANENT EXHAUSTION.

THE DEATH OF LORD CHATHAM.

Curæ leves loquunter, ingentes fupent.

TACITUS.

NOTWITHSTANDING a negative had been put upon every propofition and motion made by Lord CHATHAM concerning America, yet he resolved to perfevere in the fame line of conduct. To his zeal in this caufe he facrificed his life. He had not strength of frame fufficient to bear the exertions he made. He was now advanced in the feventieth year of his age, and fuffered the severest attacks of gout; but although debilitated by infirmity, and enervated by anguish of body and mind, ftill he refufed to yield to the calls of his disorder, or to mitigate his pains by the indulgence of a bed-while his country was bleeding, he felt for her and not for himself. Her honour and splendour had been his glory and his prideher debafement and adverfity were now the only fubjects of his concern and anxiety.

On the 7th day of April, 1778, the Duke of RICHMOND having moved to present an address to the king on the subject of the state of the nation, in which the neceffity of admitting the full INDEPENDENCE of America was hinted, Lord

CHATHAM,

CHATHAM, for the last time, rose to speak in the House of Lords.

My lords, he faid, I rejoice that the grave has not clofed upon me; that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the difmemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy! Preffed down as I am by the hand of infirmity, I am little able to affift my country in this most perilous conjuncture; but, my lords, while I have fenfe and memory, I will never confent to deprive the royal offspring of the Houfe of BRUNSWICK of their faireft inheritance. Where is the man that will dare to advise fuch a meafure? My lords, his Majefty fucceeded to an empire as great in extent as its reputation was unfullied. Shall we tarnish the luftre of this nation by an ignominious furrender of its rights and fairest poffeffions? Shall this great kingdom truckle to the Houfe of BOURBON? Shall a people, that feventeen years ago was the terror of the world, now ftoop fo low as to tell its ancient inveterate enemy, "Take all we have,

only allow us peace?" Is it poffible!-I wage war with no man, or fet of men.-I wish for none of their employments;-nor would I co-operate with men (alluding to the Duke of Richmond) who inftead of acting on a firm decifive line of conduct, halt between two opinions, where there is no middle path. In GoD's name, if it is abfolutely neceffary to declare either peace or war, and the former cannot be preferved with honour,

why

SECT. IV.

OF PERMANENT EXHAUSTION.

THE DEATH OF LORD CHATHAM.

Curæ leves loquunter, ingentes flupent.

TACITUS.

NOTWITHSTANDING a negative had been put upon every propofition and motion made by Lord CHATHAM Concerning America, yet he refolved to perfevere in the fame line of conduct. To his zeal in this cause he facrificed his life. He had not strength of frame fufficient to bear the exertions he made. He was now advanced in the feventieth year of his age, and fuffered the feverest attacks of gout; but although debilitated by infirmity, and enervated by anguish of body and mind, ftill he refused to yield to the calls of his diforder, or to mitigate his pains by the indulgence of a bed-while his country was bleeding, he felt for her and not for himself. Her honour and splendour had been his glory and his pride— her debasement and adverfity were now the only fubjects of his concern and anxiety.

On the 7th day of April, 1778, the Duke of RICHMOND having moved to present an address to the king on the fubject of the state of the nation, in which the neceffity of admitting the full INDEPENDENCE of America was hinted, Lord CHATHAM,

SECT. V.

FREQUENT END OF GREAT LITERARY TALENTS,

MEN of letters, fays Baron Van SWIETEN, who lead a ftudious life, are on this account much expofed to apoplexy. At first they become languid; they delight in eafe and indolence; their understanding grows dull; their memory decays and fails them; they then grow heavy, fleepy, and ftupid, and often remain long in this wretched fituation before they die. It has given me, he continues, much concern to fee learned men of the first clafs, who had been very serviceable to literature, live more than a twelvemonth after the lofs of their faculties, forget every thing; and at laft die on a fudden.

Sure 'tis a curfe which angry fates impofe
To mortify man's arrogance, that those
Who 're fashion'd of fome better fort of clay,
Much fooner than the common herd decay.
O, galling circumftance to human pride!
Abafing thought, but not to be denied!
With curious art the brain, too finely wrought,
Preys on herself, and is destroy'd by thought.
Conftant attention wears the active mind,

Blots out her pow'rs, and leaves a blank behind.

CHURCHILL.

It was thus with Dean SwIFT, who was feized in 1736 with violent giddiness, which in a few years gradually deprived him of his reason, and he funk at laft into a speechless idiot; and in the latter end of October 1745, without even giving an alarm to his attendance, he expired. A man in poffeflion of his reason would have wished for fuch a kind diffolution, but the Dean was wholly infenfible; he had not even the power or expreffion of a child, appearing, for fome years before his death, the reverfe of that fine defcription of man given us by MILTON:

A being, who not prone

And brute as other creatures, but endu'd
With fanctity of reafon, might erect
His stature, and upright, with front ferene
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence
Magnanimous to correfpond with heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Defcends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes,
Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship GOD fupreme, who made him chief
Of all his works.

SECT.

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