What Pains to get the Gaudy Thing you hate, To fwell in Show, and be a Wretch in State! At Plays you ogle, at the Ring you bow; Even Churches are no Sanctuaries now. There, golden Idols all your Vows receive; She is no Goddefs that has nought to give. Oh, may once more the happy Age appear, When Words were artless, and the Thoughts fincere; When Gold and Grandeur were unenvy'd Things, And Courts lefs coveted than Groves and Springs. Love then fball only mourn when Truth complains, And Conftancy feel Transport in its Chains. Sighs with Success their own foft Anguish tell, And Eyes fball utter what the Lips conceal: Virtue again to its bright Station climb, And Beauty fear no Enemy but Time. The Fair fhall liften to Defert alone, And every Lucia find a Cato's Son.

FINI S.

LIFE

AND .

CHARACTER

OF

Marcus Portius Cato Uticenfis:

COLLECTED

From PLUTARCH in the Greek, and from LUCAN, SALUST, LUCIUS FLORUS, and other Authors in the Latin Tongue. Defign'd for the

READERS

OF

CATO, a TRAGEDY.

Quid ergo Libertas fine Catone? Non magis quàm Cato fine Libertate.

Valer. Max.

LONDON:

Printed for BERNARD LINTOTT, between the Two Temple-Gates in Fleet Street. MDCCXIII.

Price 6 d.

THE

LIFE and CHARACTER

OF

M. CATO of Utica.

T

HIS Gentleman was the Great-Grandson of M. Portius Cate Major, who by his Virtue and Excellence gain'da wonderful Reputation and Authority amongst the Romans, and tranfmitted a Grandeur and Nobility to his Family, which to that Time it wanted; and which his famous Defcendant, of whom I am here treating, by the fignal Probity of his Life, and Glory of his Death, as it were ftudied to preserve and keep alive to all Pofterity.

This Cato Uticenfis was born in the 659th Year from the Building of Rome, when C. Caldus and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus were Confuls; for he kill'd himself in the 48th Year of his Age, which was the 707th Year from the Building of the City, when the Great Julius Cæfar was the third Time Conful, with Marcus Æmilius Lepidus.

Our young Cato was, by the Lofs of both his Parents, left an Orphan, and was bred up in the House of Livius Drufus, his Uncle by the Mother's fide. He from his very Infancy discover'd thofe Seeds of Virtue in his Difpofition, which naturally produce the Harveft of his After-Sentiments and Actions: The Accent and Delivery of his Words, the Frame of his Countenance, and even the very Diversions of his Childhood, were concurring Teftimonies of a firm and inflexible Temper, that could neither easily be carried away with youthful Levities, or fway'd by more ungentle Paffions. I fhall not here trace him thro' all his growing Years, but only give an Inftance from Plutarch, how carly thofe Principles, and that Love of Liberty for his Country, were rooted in his Breaft; to which he Religiously adhered thro' all his Life, and to which he fet the Seal of his Approbation in his memorable Death: Being now almoft Fourteen Years old, and carried by his Tutor Sarpedo to Sylla's House, who was then Dictator, and who had formerly had a Friendship with Cato's Father, the young Gentleman faw the Heads of Great Men brought thither, who had fell under the Dictator's Difpleasure, and obferving that all the Standers by figh'd in fecret at the Repetitions of Cruelty, he turns to his Mafter, and with an Air of indignant Refolution asks him, Why does no body kill this Man? The Mafter replying, Because they all fear him, Child, more than they hate him: Why then (fays Cato again) do you not give me a Sword that I may tab him, and free my Country from this Slavery?

He feem'd indeed defign'd by Fate a Pattern of Integrity, in Oppofition to the general Corruption of the Times; for he thought the only Way to be honeft, was to run counter to the Age, and not be afhamed of his own Sin gularities, but his Contemporaries Vices: He was a Man (fays Velleius Paterculus) that was the very Picture of Virtue, and in all his Faculties more allied to the Purity of the Gods than the Frailties of Man; who never did a good Action,