Bev. As what?

Myrt. As fear of answering them.

Bev. Mr. Myrtle, I have no fear of answering any injury I have done you; because I meant you none; for the truth of which I am ready to appeal to any indifferent person, even of your own chusing. But I own I am afraid of doing a wicked action; I mean of shedding your blood, or giving you an opportunity of shedding mine, cold. I am not afraid of you, Mr. Myrtle. But I own I am afraid of him, who gave me this life in trust, on other conditions and with other designs, than that I should hazard, or throw it away, because a rash inconsiderate man is pleased to be offended, without knowing whether he is injured or not. No, I will not for you or any man's humor commit a known crime; a crime which I cannot repair, or which may in the very act, cut me off from all possibility of repentance.

Myrt. Mr. Bevil, I must tell you, this coolness, this moralizing, shall not cheat me of my love. You may wish to preserve your life, that you may possess Lucinda. And I have reason to be indifferent about it, if I am to lose all that from which I expect any joy in life. But I shall first try one means towards recovering her, I mean by shewing her what a dauntless hero she has chosen for her protector.

Bev. Shew me but the least glimpse of argument, that I am authorized to contend with you at the peril of the life of one of us, and I am ready upon your own terms. If this will not satisfy you, and you will make a lawless assault upon me, I will defend myself as against a ruffian. There is no such terror, Mr. Myrtle, in the anger of those who are quickly hot, and quickly cold again, they know not how or why. I defy you to shew wherein I have wrong'd you.

Myrt. Mr. Bevil, it is easy for you to talk coolly on this occasion. You know not, I suppose, what it is to love, and from your large fortune, and your specious outward carriage, have it in your power to come, without any trouble of anxiety, to the possession of a woman of honor; you know nothing of what it is to be alarmed, distracted with the terror of losing what is dearer than life; you are happy your marriage goes on like common business; and in the interim, you have for your soft moments of dalliance, your

rambling captive, your Indian princess, your convenient, your ready. Indiana.

Bev. You have touched me beyond the patience of a min; and the defence of spotless innocence, will, I hope, excuse my accepting your challenge, or at least obliging you to retract your infamous aspersions. I will not, if I can avoid it, shed your blood, nor shall you mine. But Indiana's purity I will defend. Who waits ? Serv. Did you call Sir?

Bev. Yes, go cail a coach.

Serv. Sir Mr. Myrtle-gentlemen-you are friends -I am but a servant-but

Bev. Call a coach.

Exit servant. A long pause. They walk sullenly about the room.] Aside. Shall I (though provoked beyond sufferance) recover myself at the entrance of a third person, and that my servant too; and shall I not have a due respect for the dictates of my conscience; for what I owe to the best of fathers, and to the defenceless innocence of my lovely Indiana, whose very life depends on mine.

[To Mr. Myrtle.] I have, thank Heaven, had time to recollect my self, and have determined to convince you, by means I would willingly have avoided, but which yet are preferable to murderous duelling, that I am more innocent of nothing, than of rivaling you in the affections of Lucinda. Read this letter; and consider what effect it would have had upon you, to have found it about the man you had murdered.

[Myrtle reads.] "I hope it is consistent with the laws a woman ought to impose upon herself, to acknowledge, that your manner of declining what has been proposed of a treaty of marriage in our family, and desiring that the refusal might come from me, is more engaging than the Smithfield courtship of him, whose arms I am in danger of being thrown into, unless your friend exerts himself our common safety and happiness."O, I want no move to clear your innocence, my injured worthy friend I see her dear name at the bottom.-I see that you have been far enough from designing any obstacle to my happiness, while I have been treating my benefactor as my betrayer-0 Bevil, with what words shall I

Bev. There is no need of words. To convince is more than to conquer. If you are but satisfied, that I meant you no wrong, all is as it should be.

Myrt. But can you forgive such madness ?

Bev. Have not I myself offended? I had almost been as guilty as you, tho I had the advantage of you, by knowing what you did not know.

Myrt. That I should be such a precipitate wretch? Bev. Prithee no more.

Myrt. How many friends have died by the hands of friends, merely for want of temper! what do I not owe to your superiority of understanding! what a precipicehave I escaped! O, my friend!-Čan you ever-forgive-can you ever again look upon me with an eye of favor?

Bev. Why should I not? Any man may mistake. Any man may be violent, where his love is concerned. I was myself.

Myrt. O Bevil! you are capable of all that is great, all that is heroic.

POETRY.

CONTEMPT of the common OBJECTS of PURSUIT.
ONOR and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part; there all the honor lies."
Fortune in men has some small difference made;
One flaunts in rage; one flutters in brocade;
The cobler apron'd; and the parson gown'd;
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd,

"What differ more (you cry) then crown and cowl`?”
I'll tell you, friend! A wise man and a fool.
You'll find, if once the wise man acts the monk,
Or, cobler like the parson will be drunk ;

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunella.

Stuck ov'r with titles and hung round with strings, That thou may'st be by kings, or ws of Kings; Boast, the pure blood of an illustrious race,

In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece ;

But by your father' worth, if your's you rate,
Count me those only, who are good and great,
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood,

Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood;

Go! and pretend your family is young;
Nor own your fathers have been fools so long.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards;
́Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards:

Look next on greatness. Say where greatness lies?
Where, but among the heroes and the wise.
Heroes are all the same, it is agreed,

From Macedonia's madman to the Swede.
Te whole strange purpose of their lives, to find,
Or make an enemy of all mankind.

Not one looks backward; onward still he goes;
Yet ne'er looks forward father than his nose.
No less alike the politic and wise

All sly, slow things, with circumspective eyes:
Men in their loose unguarded hours they take;
Not that themselves are wise; but others weak,
Bat grant that those can conquer; these can cheat;
Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great.
Who wickedly is wise, er madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knavę.
Who noble ends by noble means obtaius,
Or, falling, smiles in exile, or in chains.
Like good Aurelius let him reign; or bleed
Like Socrates; that man is great indeed!
What's fame? a fancy'd life in others breath;
A thing beyond us, even before our death.

Just what you hear's your own; and what's unknown,»
The same (my lord) if Tully's or your own.
All that we feel of it, begins and ends

In the small circle of our foes and friends,
To all besides as much an empty shade,
An Eugene living, as a Cæsar dead;
Alike, or wheff or where they shone or shine,
Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.

A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod;

An honest man's the noblest work of God.
Fame, but from death a villain's name can save,
As justice tears his body from the grave.
When what t'oblivion better were consign'd,
Is hung on high to poison half mankind.
All fame is foreign, but of true desert,

Plays round the head; but comes not to the hear

One self approving hour whole years outweighs.
Of stupid starers, and of loud hazzas ;
And more true joy, Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels..
In parts superior what advantage lies;
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise?
'Tis but to know, how little can be known:
To see all others' faults and feel our own:
Condem'd in business or in arts to drudge,
Without a second, and without a judge.
Truths would you teach, to save a sinking land,
All fear, none aid you: and few understand.
Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view
Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.
Bring then these blessings to a strict account,
Make fair deductions; see to what they mount.
How much of other each is sure to cost
How each for other oft is wholly lost;
How inconsistent greater goods with these;
How sometimes life is risk'd, and always ease;
Think; and if still such things thy envy call,
Say, would'st thou be the man to whom they fall?
To sigh for ribbands if thou art so silly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.:
Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life ?
Look but on Gripus or on Gripus' wife.
If parts allure shee, think how Bacon shin'd,
The wisest, brightest-meanest of mankind;.
Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,
See Cromwell damn'd to everlasting fame;}
If all united thy ambition call,

From ancient story learn to scorn them all.

VARIOUS CHARACTERS.

IS from high life, high characters are drawn;

Tsaint in crape is twice a saint in lawn;

A judge is just; a chanc'lor juster still;

A gownman learn'd; a bishop-what you will;
Wise, if a minister; but if a king,

More wise, more just, more learn'd, more every thing

'Tis education forms the common mind;

Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclin'd,