Of the same kind are the emotions which the death of an emulator or competitor produces. Whoever had qualities to alarm our jealousy, had excellence to deserve our fondness; and to whatever ardour of opposition interest may inflame us, no man ever outlived an enemy, whom he did not then wish to have made a friend. Those who are versed in literary history know, that the elder Scaliger was the redoubted antagonist of Cardan and Erasmus; yet at the death of each of his great rivals he relented, and complained that they were snatched away from him before their reconciliation was completed:
_Tu-ne etiam moreris? Ah! quid me linquis, Erasme,_ _Ante meus quam sit conciliatus amor?_
Art thou too fallen? Ere anger could subside And love return, has great Erasmus died?
Such are the sentiments with which we finally review the effects of passion, but which we sometimes delay till we can no longer rectify our errours. Let us, therefore, make haste to do what we shall certainly at last wish to have done; let us return the caresses of our friends, and endeavour by mutual endearments to heighten that tenderness which is the balm of life. Let us be quick to repent of injuries while repentance may not be a barren anguish, and let us open our eyes to every rival excellence, and pay early and willingly those honours which justice will compel us to pay at last.
_Maturo propior desine funeri_ _Inter ludere virgines,_ _Et stellis nebulam spargere candidis._ _Non siquid Pholoen satis,_ _Et te, Chlori, decet._ HOR. Lib. iii. Ode xv. 4.
Now near to death that comes but slow, Now thou art stepping down below; Sport not amongst the blooming maids, But think on ghosts and empty shades: What suits with Pholoe in her bloom, Grey Chloris, will not thee become; A bed is different from a tomb. CREECH.
I have been but a little time conversant in the world, yet I have already had frequent opportunities of observing the little efficacy of remonstrance and complaint, which, however extorted by oppression, or supported by reason, are detested by one part of the world as rebellion, censured by another as peevishness, by some heard with an appearance of compassion, only to betray any of those sallies of vehemence and resentment, which are apt to break out upon encouragement, and by others passed over with indifference and neglect, as matters in which they have no concern, and which if they should endeavour to examine or regulate, they might draw mischief upon themselves.