If thou neglect'ft or doft unwillingly

What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps; Fill all thy bones with aches: make thee roar,

That beafts fhall tremble at thy din.

SHAKESPEARE.

Whatever fpirit, careless of his charge,
Forfakes his poft or leaves the fair at large,
Shall feel sharp vengeance foon o'ertake his fins,
Be stopp'd in vials, or transfixed with pins;
Or plung'd in lakes of bitter washes lie,
Or wedg'd whole ages in a bodkin's eye:
Gums and pomatums fhall his flight restrain,
While clog'd he beats his filken wings in vain;
Or allum ftyptics with contracting pow'r,
Shrink his thin effence like a fhrivell'd flow'r :
Or as Ixion fix'd, the wretch fhall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling wheel;
In fumes of burning chocolate fhall glow,
And tremble at the fea that froths below!

POPE.

The method which is taken to induce Ferdinand to believe that his father was drowned in the late tempeft, is exceedingly folemn and striking. He is fitting upon a folitary rock, and weeping over against the place where he imagined his father was wrecked, when he fuddenly hears with astonishment, aërial mufic creep by him upon the waters, and the Spirit gives him the following information, in words not proper for any but a Spirit to utter:

Full

Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:

Those are pearls that were his eyes :
Nothing of him that doth fade,

But doth fuffer a fea-change,

Into fomething rich and ftrange.

And then follows a most lively circumstance;

Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell.
Hark! now I hear them-Ding-dong-bell!

This is fo truly poetical, than one can fcarce forbear exclaiming with Ferdinand,

There is no mortal business, nor no found
That the earth owns!-

The happy versatility of Shakespeare's genius, enables him to excel in lyric as well as in dramatic poefy.

But the poet rifes ftill higher in his managment of this character of Ariel, by making a moral ufe of it, that is, I think, incomparable, and the greateft effort of his art. Ariel informs Profpero, that he has fulfilled his orders, and punished his brother and companions fo feverely, that if he himself was now to behold their fufferings, he would greatly compaffionate them. To which Profpero answers,

-Doft thou think fo, Spirit?

Ariel. Mine would, Sir, were I human.
Profpero. And mine fhall.

VOL. III.

H

He

He then takes occafion, with wonderful dexterity and humanity, to draw an argument from the incorporality of Ariel, for the justice and neceffity of pity and forgiveness :

Haft thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions; and fhall not myself,

One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
Paffion'd as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art ?

The poet is a more powerful magician than his own Profpero we are tranfported into fairy land; we are wrapt in a delicious dream, from which it is mifery to be disturbed; all around is enchantment!

-The ifle is full of noises,

Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt

not.

Sometimes a thousand twanging inftruments

Will hum about mine ears, and fometimes voices;
That, if I then had wak'd after long fleep,
Will make me fleep again: and then in dreaming,
The clouds, methought, would open and fhew riches
Ready to drop upon me when I wak'd,

You have fomewhat difcouraged the hope of idleness, by fhewing, that whoever compares the number of those who have poffeffed fortuitous advantages, and of those who have been disappointed in their expectations, will have little reafon to regifter himself in the lucky catalogue.

But as we have feen thousands fubfcribe to a raffle, of which one only could obtain the prize; fo idleness will ftill prefume to hope, if the advantages, however improbable, are admitted to lie within the bounds of poffibility. Let the drone, therefore, be told, that if

by the error of fortune he obtains the ftores of the bee, he cannot enjoy the felicity; that the honey which is not gathered by induftry, will be eaten without relish, if it is not wafted in riot; and that all who become poffeffed of the immediate object of their hope, without any efforts of their own, will be disappointed of enjoyment.

No life can be happy, but that which is spent in the profecution of fome purpose to which our powers are equal, and which we, therefore, profecute with fuccefs: for this reafon, it is abfurd to dread bufinefs, upon pretence that it will leave few intervals to pleasure. Business is that by which industry pursues its purpose, and the purpose of industry is feldom difappointed: he who endeavours to arrive at a certain point, which he perceives himself perpetually to approach, enjoys all the happiness which nature has allotted to thofe hours, that are not spent in the immediate gratification of appetites by which our own wants are indicated, or of affections by which we are prompted to fupply the wants of others. The end propofed by the bufy, is various as their temper, conftitu. tion, habits and circumstances: but in the labour itfelf is the enjoyment, whether it be purfued to fupply the ncceffaries or the conveniencies of life, whether to cultivate a farm or decorate a palace; for when the palace is decorated, and the barn filled, the pleasure is at an end, till the object of defire is again placed at a diftance, and our powers are again employed to obtain it with apparent fuccefs. Nor is the value of life less, than if our enjoyment did not thus confift in anticipation for by anticipation, the pleasure which would otherwise be contracted within an hour, is diffused through a week; and if the dread which exaggerates

future