268 APPENDIX. 



victory and right together :'* so hard is it to 

 persuade mere reason, that virtue may be un- 

 fortunate, and vice happy. 



He was no small poet, that argued himself 

 out of his Gods, by seeing wickedness honoured, 

 and worth slighted : which he expresses thus rf 



Licinus does in marble sleep, 

 A common urn does Cato keep, 

 Pompey's ashes may catch cold ; 

 That there are Gods, let dotards hold. 



There may be some use made of that in 

 Seneca,;]: ' Prosperous mischiefs are cardinal 

 virtues in the world's ethics ;' and therefore the 

 tragedian repeats it.§ The unwarrantableness 

 is hid and concealed in the glory of the success ; 

 we often praise the Macedonian conquest, but 

 seldom mention their boundless and unjust am- 

 bition. 



On the contrary, if an undertaking really 

 good miscarry, we censure it : so that accord- 

 ing to the vogue of the world, it is the event 

 that gives the colour to the action, and deno- 



* Eventus belli, velut aequus Judex, unde jus stat, ei victo- 

 riam dabit. 



t Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato parvo, 

 Pompeius nullo ; quis putet esse Deos ? 

 X Honesta quaedam scelera successus facit. 

 § Prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur. Here. Fur, 



