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ae 
4 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE, 

No. 1X] 
Sh 

OCTOBER, 1796. 


[ Vou. If. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
Foy the Monthly Magazine. | 
Gw pHE CoNNxyCTION BETWEEN 
Love or PLEASURE AND GREAT= 
NESS OF CHARACTER. 
RAR. Gipson, remarking upon a pa- 
~"* vallel which has been drawn between 
the emperor Severus, and Julius Ceifar, 
obferves, in a’note, that ‘the idea Lucan 
gives of the latter hero, where he de-« 
icribes him at the fame time making love 
to Cleopatra; fuftaining a ficge againft 
the power of Egypt; and converfing 
with the fages of the country, is, in re- 
ality, the nobleft panegyric.”” Is is eafy 
for one acquainted with the mode of 
thinking of this hiftorian, to perceive 
that this obfervation is the offspring of 
that French {chcol of morals whence he 
has derived fo large a fhare of his fenti- 
ments; and of which it feems to be a 
favourite maxim, ‘* that a love of plea- 
fure, efpecially of the kind arifing from 
the commerce between the fexes, is an 
effential ingredient of a great and gene« 
rous character.”’ Voltaire hes drefled 
out this opinion in the moft alluring co- 
Jours, both in his profe and his poetry ; 
and Buffon has even extended it to the 
brute creation, and made it a fundamen- 
tal principle in natural-hiftory. Since, 
however, it appears to me not lefs falfe. 
than it is dangerous, I fhall endeavour to 
fhow hovwlittle fupport it receives either 
from faét or reafoning. 
_, [tis fcarcely worth while, in a general 
difcuffion, to enter into a critical exami- 
nation of the paflage in Lucan, which 
gave occafion to Gibbon’s remark ; yet it 
may not be improper, in order to difplay 
the levity with which it was made, to 
obferve, that the poet, in his narration, 
is fo far from countenancing any notion of 
ingenious or feptimental gallantry in this 
waking love of Cefar, that he reprefents 
it in plain terms as a bargain ftruck with 
Cleopatra, whereby her favours were 
Montury Mac. No. IX. 
made the price of his protection, noé 
without large prefents to boot. 
Nequidquam duras tentaffet Cxefaris aures ; 
Vultus adeft precibus, faciefque ineefta perorat. 
Exigit infandam corrupto judiee noétem. 
Pax ubi paita ducis, donifque ingentibus emta 
Cir, 
Excepére epule tantarum gaudia rerum, ’ 
In truth, no civilized people ever lefe 
entered into.the refinements of the amo- 
rous pailion than the Romans; and it 
does not appear that an idea of the con- 
nection between the propenfity to fexual 
indulgences, and aditpofition to perform 
great actions, ever entered into their 
heads. On the contrary, fucha notion 
would have oppofed the whole ftream of 
their primitive manners and fentiments. 
Continence, felf-command, and contempt 
of pleafure, were the charaéteriftics of 
all their diftinguifhed perfonages; and 
they had almott conquered the world, 
before they thought of enjoying it. 
To confider the fubjeét in a general 
point of view, we may, firft, obferve, thar 
as the original appetites and paffions of 
man all refult from his organization, a 
certain degree of ftrength and vigour in 
them is effential to the perfection of the 
human fyftem. If, therefore, it were 
afferted, that the individual who feebly, 
or not at all, feels the common impulfes 
of his nature, betrays an imperfeétion in 
‘his bodily frame, whence unfavourable 
conclufions may be drawn as to his men- 
tal faculties—the pofition would havea 
fair-analogy for its fupport, and might 
probably be confirmed by actual obferva~ 
tion. But fuch inflances being exceptions 
to the common law of the fpecies, in- 
ftances of the oppofite kind can be confi- 
dered as nothing extraordinary ; and it 
is abfurd to. lock forthe caufe of an 
thing whereby one man is diftincuifhed 
from another; in fumewhat which belongs 
tothe general definition of man. An 
49 ord nary 
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