He is not afhamed (God forbid he ever fhould be afhamed!) of this Character; who deemeth, that not Reafon but Rifibility diftinguifheth the human fpecies from the brutal. "As Nature (faith this profound "Philofopher) diftinguished our fpecies from the mute "creation by our Rifibility, her defign MUST have "been by that faculty as evidently to raise our HAP"PINESS, as by our Os fullime (OUR ERECTED FA"CES) to lift the dignity of OUR FORM above them," All this confidered, how complete a Hero must he be, as well as how happy a Man, whofe Rifibility lieth not barely in his Mufcles, as in the common fort, but (as himself informeth us) in his very spirits ? and whofe Os fublime is not fimply an erect face, but a Brazen Head; as fhould feem by his preferring it to one of Iron, faid to belong to the late king of Sweden * ?

But whatever perfonal qualities a Hero may have, the examples of Achilles and Æneas fhew us, that all thofe are of fmall avail, without the constant assistance of the GODS: for the fubverfion and erection of Empires have never been adjudged the work of Man. How greatly foever then we may esteem of his high talents, we can hardly conceive his perfonal prowels alone fufficient to restore the decayed empire of Dulnefs. So weighty an atchievement must require the particular favour and protection of the GREAT; who being the natural patrons and fupporters of Letters, as the ancient Gods were of Troy, must first be drawn

i Life, p. 23, 24,

* Letter, p. 8.

off:

off and engaged in another Intereft, before the total fubverfion of them can be accomplished. To furmount, therefore, this laft and greatest difficulty, we have, in this excellent man, a profeffed Favourite and Intimado of the Great. And look, of what force ancient Piety was to draw the Gods into the party of Æneas, that, and much stronger is modern Incense, to engage the Great in the party of Dulness.

"Thus have we essayed to pourtray or shadow out this noble Imp of Fame. But now the impatient reader will be apt to fay, If so many and various graces go to the making up a Hero, what mortal fhall fuffice to bear his character? Ill hath he read, who feeth not, in every trace of this picture, that individual, ALL-ACCOMPLISED PERSON, in whom thefe rare virtues and lucky circumstances have agreed to meet and concenter with the strongest luftre and fullest harmony.

The good Scriblerus indeed, nay the World itself, might be impofed on, in the late fpurious editions, by I can't tell what Sham Hero, or Phantom: But it was not fo easy to impofe on HIM whom this egregious error most of all concerned. For no fooner had the fourth book laid open the high and fwelling scene, but he recognized his own heroic Acts: And when he came to the words,

"Soft on her lap her Laureat fon reclines,”

(though Laureat imply no more than one crowned with laurel, as befitteth any Affociate or Confort in Empire) he loudly refented this indignity to violated Majefty.. Indeed not without caufe, he being there reprefented

as

as faft afleep; fo mifbefeeming the Eye of Empire, which, like that of Providence, fhould never doze nor flumber. "Hah! (faith he) faft afleep, it seems! "that's a little too ftrong. Pert and dull at least you "might have allowed me, but as feldom afleep as any "fool." However, the injured Hero may comfort himself with this reflection, that though it be a fleep, yet is not the fleep of death, but of immortality. Here he will m live at least, though not awake; and in no worse condition than many an enchanted Warrior before him. The famous Durandante, for inftance, was, like him, caft into a long flumber by Merlin the British Bard and Necromancer; and his example for fubmitting to it with a good grace, might be of ufe to our Hero. For that difaftrous knight being forely preffed or driven to make his anfwer by feveral perfons of quality, only replied with a figh, Patience and fhuffle the cards n.

But now, as nothing in this world, no not the moft facred and perfect things, either of Religion or Government, can escape the fting of Envy, methinks I already hear thefe carpers objecting to the clearness of our Hero's title.

It would never (fay they) have been efteemed fufficient to make an Hero for the Iliad or neis, that Achilles was brave enough to overturn one Empire, or Æneas pious enough to raise another, had they not been Goddefs-born, and Princes bred. What then did

1 Letter, P. 53.

m Letter, p. 1.

this

n Don Quixote, Part ii. Book ii. ch. 22.

this Author mean, by erecting a Player inftead of one of his Patrons (a perfon, "never a hero even on the "ftage o"), to this dignity of Collegue in the Empire of Dulnefs, and Atchiever of a work that neither old Omar, Attila, nor John of Leyden, could entirely bring to pass.

To all this we have, as we conceive, a fufficient anfwer from the Roman historian, "Fabrum effe fuæ quemque fortunæ" That every man is the Smith of his own fortune. The politic Florentine, Nicholas Machiavel, goeth ftill further, and affirmeth that a man needeth but to believe himself a Hero to be one of the worthiest. "Let him (faith he) but fancy himself capable of the "highest things, and he will of course be able to at"chieve them." From this principle it follows, that nothing can exceed our Hero's prowefs; as nothing ever equalled the greatnefs of his conceptions. Hear how he conftantly paragons himself; at one time to Alexander the Great and Charles the XII. of Sweden for the excess and delicacy of his Ambition p; Henry the IV. of France, for honeft Policy ; to the firft Brutus, for love of liberty; and to Sir Robert Walpole, for good Government while in powers: At another time, to the godlike Socrates for his diverfions and amufements: to Horace, Montaigne, and Sir William Temple, for an elegant Vanity that maketh them for ever read and

• See Life, p. 148. · P. 366.

to

• P. 457.

admired;

admired "; to two Lord Chancellors, for law, from whom, when confederate against him at the bar, he carried away the prize of Eloquence w; and, to fay all in a word, to the right reverend the Lord Bishop of London himself, in the art of writing paftoral letters x.

Nor did his actions fall fhort of the sublimity of his Conceit. In his early youth he met the Revolution y face to face in Nottingham; at a time when his betters contented themselves with following her. It was here he got acquainted with Old Battle-array, of whom he hath made fo honourable mention in one of his immortal Odes. But he fhone in Courts as well as in Camps: He was called up when the nation fell in labour of this Revolution z; and was a goffip at her chriftening, with the Bishop and the Ladies a.

As to his Birth, it is true he pretendeth no relation either to Heathen God or Goddefs; but, what is as good, he was defcended from a Maker of both b. And that he did not pafs himself on the world for a Hero, as well by birth as education, was his own fault: For his lineage he bringeth into his life as an Anecdote, and is fenfible he had it in his power to be thought nobody's fon at all: And what is that but coming into the world a Hero ?

But be it (the punctilious Laws of Epic Poesy fo requiring) that a Hero of more than mortal birth must

u

Life, p. 425. w P. 436, 437. * P. 52. y P. 47.

z P. 57.

a P. 58, 59.

·F

b A Statuary.

c P. 6.

needs