the genius your have to arms, that when the fervice of Britain or Ireland fhall require your courage and your conduct, you may exert them both to the benefit of either country. You began in the cabinet what you' afterwards practised in the camp; and thus both Lucullus and Cæfar (to omit a crowd of shining Romans) formed themselves to war by the study of history, and by the examples of the greateft captains, both of Greece and Italy, before their time. I name those two commanders in particular, because they were better read in chronicle than any of the Roman leaders; and that Lucullus in particular, having only the theory of war from books, was thought fit, without practice, to be fent into the field, against the most formidable enemy of Rome. Tully indeed was called the learned conful in derifion; but then he was not born a foldier: his head was turned another way: when he read the Tacticks, he was thinking on the bar, which was his field of battle. The knowledge of warfare is thrown away on a general who dares not make use of what he knows. I commend it only in a man of courage and refolution; in him it will direct his martial spirit; and teach him the way to the best victories, which are those that are leaft bloody, and which, though atchieved by the hand, are managed by the head. Science diftinguishes a man of honour from one of thofe athletic brutes whom undefervedly we call heroes. Curfed be the poet, who firft honoured with that name a meer Ajax, a man-killing ideot. The Ulyffes of Ovid upbraids his ignorance, that he understood not the shield

for

for which he pleaded: there were engraven on it, plans of cities, and maps of countries, which Ajax could not comprehend, but looked on them as ftupidly as his fellow-beaft the lion. But, on the other fide, your Grace has given yourself the education of his rival: you have studied every spot of ground in Flanders, which for these ten years past has been the scene of battles and of fieges. No wonder if you performed your part with fuch applause on a theatre which you underftood fo well.

If I defigned this for a poetical encomium, it were eafy to enlarge on fo copious a fubject; but, confining myself to the severity of truth, and to what is becoming me to fay, I must not only pass over many inftances of your military skill, but also those of your affiduous diligence in the war: and of your personal bravery, attended with an ardent thirst of honour; a long train of generosity; profusenefs of doing good; a foul unfatisfied with all it has done; and an unextinguished defire of doing more. But all this is matter for your own hiftorians; I am, as Virgil fays, Spatiis exclufus iniquis."

Yet, not to be wholly filent of all your charities, I must stay a little on one action, which preferred the relief of others to the confideration of yourself. When, in the battle of Landen, your heat of courage (a fault only pardonable to your youth) had transported you fo far before your friends, that they were unable to follow, much lefs to fuccour you; when you were not only dangerously, but in all appearance mortally wound

ed,

ed, when in that desperate condition you were made prifoner, and carried to Namur, at that time in poffeffion of the French; then it was, my lord, that you took a confiderable part of what was remitted to you of your own revenues, and as a memorable inftance of your heroic charity, put it into the hands of count Guifcard, who was governor of the place, to be diftributed among your fellow-prifoners. The French commander, charmed with the greatnefs of your foul, accordingly configned it to the use for which it was intended by the donor: by which means the lives of fo many miferable men were faved, and a comfortable provifion made for their fubfiftence, who had otherwise perished, had not you been the companion of their miffortune: or rather fent by Providence, like another Jofeph, to keep out famine from invading thofe whom in humility you called your brethren. How happy was it for those poor creatures, that your Grace was made their fellow-fufferer! and how glorious for you, that you chofe to want, rather than not relieve the wants of others! The heathen poet, in commending the charity of Dido to the Trojans, spoke like a chriftian; "Non ig nara mali, miferis fuccurrere difco." All men, even thofe of a different intereft, and contrary principles, muft praise this action, as the most eminent for piety, not only in this degenerate age, but almoft in any of the former; when men were made "de meliore luto;" when examples of charity were frequent, and when they were in being, "Teucri pulcherrima proles, magnanimi heroes nati melioribus annis." No envy can

detract from this: it will fhine in hiftory; and, like fwans, grow whiter the longer it endures: and the name of ORMOND will be more celebrated in his captivity, than in his greatest triumphs.

But all actions of your grace are of a piece; as waters keep the tenor of their fountains: your compaffion is general, and has the same effect as well on enemies as friends. It is fo much in your nature to do good, that your life is but one continued act of placing benefits on many, as the fun is always carrying his light to fome part or other of the world: and were it not that your reafon guides you where to give, I might almost fay that you could not help bestowing more, than is confifting with the fortune of a private man, or with the will of any but an Alexander.

What wonder is it then, that, being born for a blesfing to mankind, your fuppofed death in that engagement was fo generally lamented through the nation! The concernment for it was as univerfal as the lofs: and though the gratitude might be counterfeit in fome, yet the tears of all were real where every man deplored his private part in that calamity, and even thofe, who had not tafted of your favours, yet built so much on the fame of your beneficence, that they bemoaned the lofs of their expectations.

:

This brought the untimely death of your great father into fresh remembrance; as if the fame decree had paffed on two, short successive generations of the virtuous; and I repeated to myfelf the fame verfes, which I had formerly applied to him: "Oftendunt terris hunc tantùm

fata,

fata, nec ultrà effe finunt." But to the joy not only of all good men, but of mankind in general, the unhappy omen took not place. You are ftill living to enjoy the bleffings and applaufe of all the good you have performed, the prayers of multitudes whom you have obliged, for your long profperity; and that your power of doing generous and charitable actions may be as extended as your will; which is by none more zealously defired than by

Your GRACE'S

Moft humble,

Moft obliged, and

Moft obedient servant,

JOHN DRYDEN.

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