of the Earth, but the Address of its Princes; and if that World should be again rous’d from the Repose which his prevailing Arms had given it, why should we not hope that there is an Almighty, by whose Influence the terrible Enemy that thinks himself prepar’d for Battel, may find he is but ripe for Destruction? and that there may be in the Womb of Time great Incidents, which may make the Catastrophe of a prosperous Life as unfortunate as the particular Scenes of it were successful?  For there does not want a skilful Eye and resolute Arm to observe and grasp the Occasion:  A Prince, who from [2]

    ’—­Fuit Ilium et ingens
    Gloria—­’

    Virg.

T.

[Footnote 1:  The extract is from very near the close of Steele’s Christian Hero.  At this part a few lines have been omitted.  In the original the paragraph closed thus: 

’... the Entertainment of it, and making their great Monarch the Fountain of all that’s delicate and refined, and his Court the Model for Opinions in Pleasure, as well as the Pattern in Dress; which might prevail so far upon an undiscerning world as (to accomplish it or its approaching Slavery) to make it receive a superfluous Babble for an Universal Language.’]

[Footnote 2:  Here Steele abruptly breaks with ’Fuit Ilium’—­the glory has departed—­on the sentence: 

’A Prince who from just Notion of his Duty to that Being to whom he must be accountable, has in the Service of his Fellow Creatures a noble Contempt of Pleasures, and Patience of Labours, to whom ’tis Hereditary to be the Guardian and Asserter of the native Rights and Liberties of Mankind;’

A few more clauses to the sentence formed the summary of William’s character before the book closed with a prayer that Heaven would guard his important life.]

* * * * *

No. 517.  Thursday, October 23, 1712.  Addison.

  ‘Heu Pietas! heu prisca Fides!’

  Virg.

We last night received a Piece of ill News at our Club, which very sensibly afflicted every one of us.  I question not but my Readers themselves will be troubled at the hearing of it.  To keep them no longer in Suspence, Sir ROGER DE COVERLY is dead. [1] He departed this Life at his House in the Country, after a few Weeks Sickness.  Sir ANDREW FREEPORT has a Letter from one of his Correspondents in those Parts, that informs him the old Man caught a Cold at the County-Sessions, as he was very warmly promoting an Address of his own penning, in which he succeeded according to his Wishes, But this Particular comes from a Whig-Justice of Peace, who was always Sir ROGER’S Enemy and Antagonist.  I have Letters both from the Chaplain and Captain Sentry which mention nothing of it, but are filled with many Particulars to the Honour of the good old Man.  I have likewise a Letter from the Butler, who took so much care of me last Summer when I was at the Knight’s House.  As my Friend the Butler mentions, in the Simplicity of his Heart, several Circumstances the others have passed over in Silence, I shall give my Reader a Copy of his Letter, without any Alteration or Diminution.