ing it by a compleat Conqueft, fhould now come of my own Motion, to afk a Peace; I am glad that it is of you, Scipio, I have the Fortune to afk it. Nor will this be among the leaft of your Glories, that Hannibal, victorious over fo many Roman Generals, fubmitted at laft to You. I could wifh, that our Fathers and we had confin'd our Ambition within the Limits, which Nature seem'd to have prescrib'd to it; the Shores of Africa, and the Shores of Italy. The Gods did not give us that Mind. On both Sides we have been fo eager after foreign Poffeffions, as to put our own to the Hazard of War. Rome and Carthage have had, each in their Turn, the Enemy at her Gates But fince Errors paft may be more eafily blamed than corrected, let it now be the Work of you and me, to put an End, if poffible, to the obftinate Contention. For my own Part, my Years, and the Experience I have had of the Inftability of Fortune, inclines me to leave nothing to her Determination which Reason can decide. But much I fear, Scipio, that your Youth, your want of the like Experience, your uninterrupted Succefs, may render you averfe from the Thoughts of Peace. He whom Fortune has never fail'd, rarely reflects upon her Inconftancy. Yet without recurring to former Examples, my own may perhaps fuffice to teach you Moderation. I am that fame Hannibal who, after my Victory at Canne, became Mafter of the greatest Part of your Country, and deliberated with myself what Fate I fhould decree to Italy and Rome. And now-fee the Change! Here, in Africa, I am come to treat with a Roman, for my own Prefervation and my Country's. Such are the Sports of Fortune. Is fhe then to be trufted becaufe fhe fmiles? An advantageous Peace is preferable, to the Hope of Victory. The one is in your own Power, the other at the Pleasure of the Gods. Should you prove victorious, it would add little to your own Glory, or the Glory of your Country; if vanquifh'd, you lose in one Hour all the Honour and Reputation you have been fo many Years acquiring. But what is my Aim in all this? That you should content yourself with our Ceffion of Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and all the Iflands between Italy and Africa. A Peace on thefe Conditions will, in my Opinion, not only fecure the future Tranquility of Carthage, but be fufficiently glorious for you, and for the Roman Name. And do not tell me, that fome of our Citizens dealt fraudulently with you in the late Treaty: It is I, Hanuibal, that now afk a Peace; I afk it, because I think it ex-' pedient pedient for my Country; and, thinking it expedient, I will inviolably maintain it. I The Anfwer of SCIPIO was to this Effect. KNEW very well, Hannibal, that it was the hope of your Return which embolden'd the Carthaginians to break the Truce with us, and to lay afide all Thoughts of a Peace, when it was juft upon the Point of being concluded; and your present Propofal is a Proof of it. You retrench from their Conceffions every thing but what we are, and have been long, poffeffed of. But as it is your Care that your FellowCitizens fhould have the Obligations to you of being eased from a great Part of their Burthen, fo it ought to be mine, that they draw no Advantage from their Perfidioufnefs. No body is more fenfible than I am of the Weakness of Man, and the Power of Fortune, and that whatever we enterprize is fubject to a thoufand Chances. If before the Romans paffed into Africa, you had of your own Accord quitted Italy, and made the Offers you now make, I believe they would not have been rejected. But as you have been forced out of Italy, and we are Mafters here of the open Country, the Situation of things is much altered. And what is chiefly to be confider'd, the Carthaginians by the late Treaty, which we entered into at their Requeft, were, over and above what you offer, to have restored to us our Prisoners without Ranfom, deliver'd up their Ships of War, paid us five thousand Talents, and to have given Hoftages for the Performance of all. The Senate accepted thefe Conditions, but Carthage failed on her Part; Carthage deceived us. What then is to be done? Are the Carthaginians to be releafed from the most important Articles of the Treaty, as a Reward of their Breach of Faith? No, certainly. If to the Conditions before agreed upon, you had added fome new Articles to our Advantage, there would have been Matter of Reference to the Roman People; but when, instead of adding, you retrench, there is no Room for Deliberation. The Carthaginians therefore muft fubmit to us at Difcretion, or muft vanquish us in Battle. N. B. The Battle was fought, the Romans gained the Victory, and the Carthaginians fubmitted to Rome. This ended the Second Punic War, and acquired Scipio the Surname of Africanus, THE TH HE following Speeches are felected from Shakespear, and 'tis hoped they will be useful and agreeable to the Boys, as they will ferve to give a Variety to their Tasks, and to bring them acquainted with the higher and more poetical Stile of their own Language. I have taken fome Small Liberties here and there in altering an obfolete Word, or even a Sentence, when I thought the Conftruction of it (which fometimes happens in Shakespear) too hard or too obfcure for Boys to understand. But this Liberty, it will be perceiv'd, I have used but very fparingly; and never with the Prefumption of hoping to mend Shakespear, but only to make him more fit and proper for my Purposes. With what Judgment the Speeches are chofen muft be left to the Determination of judicious Mafters, who will be at Liberty to make use of any others, which they may think more proper. The two or three laft are given as Interludes for feveral Boys to practife on together. LESSON I. The Progrefs of Life. From the Play called, A LL the World's a Stage, And all the Men and Women merely Players; They have their Exits, and their Entrances; And then, the whining School-boy with his Satchel, Ev'n in the Cannon's Mouth. And then, the Juftice, His youthful Hofe well fav'd, a World too wide Is fecond Childifhnefs, and mere Oblivion; LESSON II. HAMLET'S Meditation on Death. O be, or not to be: That is the Question.- To fleep?-perchance, to dream! ay, there's the Rub- Muft give us paufe.-There's the Refpect, That makes Calamity of fo long Life. For who would bear the Whips and Scorn o' th' Time, The Infolence of Office, and the Spurns And And thus the native Hue of Refolution Is ficklied o'er with the pale Caft of Thought; LESSON III. A Speech of King Henry the Fourth, upon his receiving News in the Night, of the Rebellion of the Earl of Northum berland. HOW OW many Thousands of my pooreft Subjects Why rather, Sleep, lyeft thou in fmoaky Hutts, And husht with buzzing Night-flies to thy Slumber; A Watch-cafe to a common Larum-bell? LESSON |