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 professed 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 effayed to pourtray or fhadow out this noble Imp of Fame. But now the impatient reader will be apt to say, If fo 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 fulleft harmony.

The good Scriblerus indeed, nay the World itself, might be imposed on, in the late spurious editions, by I can't tell what Sham Hero, or Phantom: But it was not so easy to impose on HIM whom this egregious error moft of all concerned. For no fooner had the fourth book laid open the high and fwelling fcene, 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 Majesty. Indeed not without caufe, he being there represented

as

as fast asleep; fo misbeseeming the Eye of Empire, which, like that of Providence, should never doze nor Лlumber. "Hah! (faith he) faft afleep, it feems! "that's a little too ftrong. Pert and dull at least you "might have allowed me, but as feldom asleep as any "fool 1." 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 live at least, though not awake; and in no worfe 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 disastrous knight being forely pressed or driven to make his answer by several perfons of quality, only replied with a figh, Patience and fhuffle the cards a.

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

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

1 Letter, P. 53.

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

m Letter, p. 1.

this

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

To all this we have, as we conceive, a sufficient anfwer from the Roman hiftorian, "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 worthieft. "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 greatness of his conceptions. Hear how he constantly paragons himself; at one time to Alexander the Great and Charles the XII of Sweden for the excefs and delicacy of his Ambition p; to Henry the IV. of France, for honeft Policy ; to the firft Brutus, for love of liberty r; and to Sir Robert Walpole, for good Government while in powers: At another time, to the godlike Socrates for his diverfions and amusements t : to Horace, Montaigne, and Sir William Temple, for an elegant Vanity that maketh them for ever read and

u

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

Nor did his actions fall short of the fublimity of his Conceit. In his early youth he met the Revolution 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 christening, 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 pass 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 Poefy fo requiring) that a Hero of more than mortal birth must

needs be had: Even for this we have a remedy. We can easily derive our Hero's Pedigree from a Goddess of no fmall power and authority amongst men; and legitimate and install him after the right claffical and authentic fashion: For, like as the ancient Sages found a Son of Mars in a mighty Warrior a Son of Neptune in a skilful Seaman; a Son of Phœbus in a harmonious Poet; fo have we here, if need be, a Son of FORTUNE in an artful Gamefter. And who fitter than the Offspring of Chance, to affift in restoring the Empire of Night and Chaos?

There is in truth another objection of greater weight, namely, "That this Hero ftill existeth, and hath not "yet finished his earthly course. For if Solon faid well, -ultima femper

Expectanda dies homini: dicique beatus

Ante obitum nemo fupremaque funera debet! "if no man can be called happy till his death, sure❝ly much less can any one, till then, be pronoun“ced a Hero: this fpecies of men being far more sub"ject than others to the caprices of Fortune and Hu"mour." But to this alfo we have an answer, that will (we hope) be deemed decifive. It cometh from himself; who, to cut this matter fhort, hath folemnly protested that he will never change or amend.

With regard to his Vanity, he declareth that nothing fhall ever part them. "Nature (faith he) hath amply "fupplied me in Vanity; a pleasure which neither the "pertness of Wit, nor the gravity of Wisdom, will

66 ever