_Dionysius_ of _Halicarnassus_ confesses, that he
could not find those great Strokes, which he calls the _terrible
Graces_, in any of the Historians, which he frequently met with in
_Homer_. I believe, the Success would be the same likewise, if we
sought for them in any other of _our_ Authors besides our _British_
HOMER, _Shakespeare_. This Description of the Condition of
Conspirators has a Pomp and Terror in it, that perfectly astonishes.
Our excellent Mr. _Addison_, whose Modesty made him sometimes
diffident in his own Genius, but whose exquisite Judgment always led
him to the safest Guides, as we may see by those many fine Strokes
in his _Cato_ borrow'd from the _Philippics_ of _Cicero_, has
paraphrased this fine Description; but we are no longer to expect
those _terrible Graces_, which he could not hinder from evaporating
in the Transfusion.

O think, what anxious Moments pass between
The Birth of Plots, and their last fatal Periods.
Oh, 'tis a dreadful Interval of Time,
Fill'd up with Horror all, and big with Death.

I shall observe two Things on this fine Imitation: first, that the
Subjects of these two Conspiracies being so very different, (the
Fortunes of _Caesar_ and the _Roman_ Empire being concern'd in the
First; and That of only a few Auxiliary Troops, in the other;)
Mr. _Addison_ could not with Propriety bring in that magnificent
Circumstance, which gives the terrible Grace to _Shakespeare_'s
Description.

The Genius and the mortal Instruments
Are then in Council.----

For Kingdoms, in the poetical Theology, besides their good, have
their evil _Genius_'s likewise: represented here with the most
daring Stretch of Fancy, as fitting in Council with the Conspirators,
whom he calls the _mortal Instruments_. But this Would have been
too great an Apparatus to the Rape, and Desertion, of _Syphax_, and
_Sempronius_. Secondly, The other Thing very observable is, that Mr.
_Addison_ was so warm'd and affected with the Fire of _Shakespeare_'s
Description; that, instead of copying his Author's Sentiments, he
has, before he was aware, given us only the Image of his own
Impressions on the reading his great Original. For,

Oh, 'tis a dreadful Interval of Time,
Fill'd up with Horror all, and big with Death;

are but the Affections raised by such forcible Images as these;

----All the _Int'rim_ is
Like a Phantasma, or a hideous Dream.
----the State of Man,
Like to a little Kingdom, suffer