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Article ON THE PASSIONS OF THE ANCIENTS. ← Page 2 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Passions Of The Ancients.
sions incognito , that he mig ht have the pleasure of enjoying a tete-atete with Alcmena , in the absence of Amphytrion ; and his various metamorphoses to possess himself of Europa , Leda , and tire rest of those celebrated heroines of antiquity , are incontestible proofs of his passion for intrigue , and that he was subject to the power of that little blind bastard Cupid as well as Alcides , who ( though the strongest of all the immortals ) was content to yield the breeches to his fair helpmate
, with all the complaisance of a modern well-bred husband . Though the Greeks in former ages always considered marriage as their sammum bonum , or summit of earthly felicity , Socrates , who was one of their most distinguished philosophers , dissented from the general opinion , as appears by an epistle which he wrote to one of his old acquaintancesin which he cannot help wondering what could induce
, him to enter into the matrimonial state while he had two-pence left in the world to purchase a rope , with which he might have put an instant period to his miseries ; and concludes tire epistle with just hinting that if , like Orpheus , he should be tempted to take a short tri p to the infernal regions on his wife ' s account , it should be to request the devil ' s acceptance , rather than his restitution of her .
The reflections of this bald-pated cynic ( however applicable to his own circumstances ) are tinctured with a severity which I cannot approve ; and though they will certainly find a vindication in the infamous conduct of a Rhodope , a Messalina , and a Lais , the conjugal fidelity of an Andromache , a Lucrece , or a Porcia , will by no means admit them either just or generous ; and if we would ill-naturedly
censure Helenas the sole cause ofthe destruction of old Troy , we should , injustice to the fair sex , acknowledge that the Romans were indebted to the injuries of Lucrece for the foundation of that liberty for which their republic was once so universally famed . Brutus , though a man in whom all the tender passions seemed dead , reposed the most generous confidence in a woman , when he trusted that glorious plan which he had concerted for the restoration of the Roman liberties , to the discretion of Porcia , whose conduct at that important crisis can never be sufficiently admired or applauded .
I he vanity of the fair sex ( however it may be tickled at the admirable conduct of Porcia ) will be very sensibly mortified when they reflect that Mark Antony lost the world , and was betrayed into the hands of Ctesar , by the infidelity of Cleopatra ; though it must be confessed that Antony ( begging his pardon ) was a fool , and met with the fate he deserved , for putting it in the power of that mischievous gipsey to do him so great a prejudice .
The boasted friendship of Alexander the Great to the family ofthe injured Darius , seems rather the result of love , than any real magnanimity of soul . For the man who could with his own hands inhumanly sacrifice the most faithful of his friends , for nobly disdaining to sooth his mad ambition , by paying him the adoration of a deity , can have no pretensions to a flame so generous as friendship : nay , the most candid retrospect of the life and actions of this vain-glorious monster , however they may be extolled , willjustify me in pronouncing VOL , VI . ' N -
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Passions Of The Ancients.
sions incognito , that he mig ht have the pleasure of enjoying a tete-atete with Alcmena , in the absence of Amphytrion ; and his various metamorphoses to possess himself of Europa , Leda , and tire rest of those celebrated heroines of antiquity , are incontestible proofs of his passion for intrigue , and that he was subject to the power of that little blind bastard Cupid as well as Alcides , who ( though the strongest of all the immortals ) was content to yield the breeches to his fair helpmate
, with all the complaisance of a modern well-bred husband . Though the Greeks in former ages always considered marriage as their sammum bonum , or summit of earthly felicity , Socrates , who was one of their most distinguished philosophers , dissented from the general opinion , as appears by an epistle which he wrote to one of his old acquaintancesin which he cannot help wondering what could induce
, him to enter into the matrimonial state while he had two-pence left in the world to purchase a rope , with which he might have put an instant period to his miseries ; and concludes tire epistle with just hinting that if , like Orpheus , he should be tempted to take a short tri p to the infernal regions on his wife ' s account , it should be to request the devil ' s acceptance , rather than his restitution of her .
The reflections of this bald-pated cynic ( however applicable to his own circumstances ) are tinctured with a severity which I cannot approve ; and though they will certainly find a vindication in the infamous conduct of a Rhodope , a Messalina , and a Lais , the conjugal fidelity of an Andromache , a Lucrece , or a Porcia , will by no means admit them either just or generous ; and if we would ill-naturedly
censure Helenas the sole cause ofthe destruction of old Troy , we should , injustice to the fair sex , acknowledge that the Romans were indebted to the injuries of Lucrece for the foundation of that liberty for which their republic was once so universally famed . Brutus , though a man in whom all the tender passions seemed dead , reposed the most generous confidence in a woman , when he trusted that glorious plan which he had concerted for the restoration of the Roman liberties , to the discretion of Porcia , whose conduct at that important crisis can never be sufficiently admired or applauded .
I he vanity of the fair sex ( however it may be tickled at the admirable conduct of Porcia ) will be very sensibly mortified when they reflect that Mark Antony lost the world , and was betrayed into the hands of Ctesar , by the infidelity of Cleopatra ; though it must be confessed that Antony ( begging his pardon ) was a fool , and met with the fate he deserved , for putting it in the power of that mischievous gipsey to do him so great a prejudice .
The boasted friendship of Alexander the Great to the family ofthe injured Darius , seems rather the result of love , than any real magnanimity of soul . For the man who could with his own hands inhumanly sacrifice the most faithful of his friends , for nobly disdaining to sooth his mad ambition , by paying him the adoration of a deity , can have no pretensions to a flame so generous as friendship : nay , the most candid retrospect of the life and actions of this vain-glorious monster , however they may be extolled , willjustify me in pronouncing VOL , VI . ' N -