ways wishing it away, and the other
always enjoying it.

How different is the view of past life, in the man who is grown old in
knowledge and wisdom, from that of him who is grown old in ignorance and
folly! The latter is like the owner of a barren country, that fills his
eye with the prospect of naked hills and plains, which produce nothing
either profitable or ornamental; the other beholds a beautiful and
spacious landscape divided into delightful gardens, green meadows,
fruitful fields, and can scarce cast his eye on a single spot of his
possessions that is not covered with some beautiful plant or flower.

CENSURE.

_Romulus_, _et Liber pater_, _et cum Castore Pollux_,
_Post ingentia facta_, _deorum in templa recepti_;
_Dum terras hominumque colunt genus_, _aspera bella_
_Componunt_, _agros assignant_, _oppida condunt_;
_Ploravere suis non respondere favorem_
_Speratum meritis_.

HOR., _Epist._ ii. 1, 5.

MITATED.

Edward and Henry, now the boast of fame,
And virtuous Alfred, a more sacred name,
After a life of generous toils endured,
The Gaul subdued, or property secured,
Ambition humbled, mighty cities storm'd,
Or laws establish'd, and the world reform'd;
Closed their long glories with a sigh to find
Th' unwilling gratitude of base mankind.

POPE.

"Censure," says a late ingenious author, "is the tax a man pays to the
public for being eminent." It is a folly for an eminent man to think of
escaping it, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious
persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed
through this fiery persecution. There is no defence against reproach but
obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and
invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.

If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much
liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are
not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve.
In a word, the man in a high post is never regarded with an indifferent
eye, but always considered as a friend or an enemy. For this reason
persons in great stations have seldom their true characters drawn till
several years after their deaths. Their personal friendships and
enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end,
before their faults or their virtues can have justice done them.