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To the Right Honourable

CHARLES

Earl of Dorset and Middlefex,

Lord Chamberlain of His Majefty's Houfhold, Knight of the Moft Noble ORDER of the GARTER, &c.

My LORD,

HE Wishes and Defires of all good Men, which have attended your Lordship from your Firft Appearance in the World, are at length accomplish'd in on your obtaining thofe Honours and Dignities, which you have fo long deferv'd. There are no Factions, tho' irreconcilable to one another, that are not united in their Affection to you, and the Respect they pay you. They are equally pleas'd in your Profperity, and wou'd be equally concern'd in your Affliction. Titus Vefpafian was not more the Delight of Human-kid. The Univerfal Empire made him only more known, and

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more powerful, but cou'd not make him more belov'd. He had greater Ability of doing Good, but your Inclination to it, is not lefs: And tho' you cou'd not extend your Beneficence to fo many Perfons, yet you have loft as few Days as that excellent Emperor; and never had his Complaint to make when you went to bed, that the Sun had fhone upon you in vain, when you had the Opportunity of relieving fome unhappy Man. This, my Lord, has justly acquir'd you as many Friends, as there are Perfons who have the Honour to be known to you: Meer Acquaintance you have none; you have drawn them all into a nearer Line: And they who have convers'd with you, are for ever after inviolably yours. This is a Truth fo generally acknowledg'd, that it needs no Proof: 'Tis of the Nature of a firft Principle, which is receiv'd as foon as it is propos'd; and needs not the Reformation which Defcartes us'd to his: For we doubt not, neither can we properly fay, we think we admire and love you, above all other Men: There is a Certainty in the Propofition, and we know it. With the fame Affurance can I fay, you neither have Enemies, nor can fcarce have any; for they who have never heard of you, can neither Love or Hate you; and they who have, can have no other Notion of you, than that which they receive from the Publick, that you are the best of Men. After this, my Teftimony can be of no farther use, than to declare it to be Day-light at High-noon: And all who have the Benefit of Sight, can look up as well, and fee the Sun.

'Tis true, I have one Privilege which is almost particular to my felf, that I faw you in the East at your first arifing above the Hemifphere: I was as foon fenfible as any Man of that Light, when

it was but juft fhooting out, and beginning to travel upwards to the Meridian. I made my early Addreffes to your Lordship, in my Effay of Dra matick Poetry; and therein befpoke you to the World; wherein I have the Right of a First Difcoverer. When I was my felf, in the Rudiments of my Poetry, without Name or Reputation in the World, having rather the Ambition of a Writer, than the Skill; when I was drawing the Out-lines of an Art, without any living Mafter to instruct me in it; an Art which had been better prais'd than study'd here in England, wherein Shakespear, who created the Stage among us, had rather written happily, then knowingly and juftly; and Johnson, who by ftudying Horace, had been acquainted with the Rules, yet feemed to envy to Pofterity that Knowledge, and like an Inventer of fome useful Art, to make a Monopoly of his Learning: When thus, as I may fay, before the Ufe of the Loadftone, or Knowledge of the Compafs, I was failing in a vaft Ocean, without other help than the Pole-Star of the Ancients, and the Rules of the French Stage amongst the Moderns, which are extremely different from ours, by reafon of their oppofite Tafte; yet even then, I had the Prefumption to Dedicate to your Lordship: A very unfinish'd Piece, I must confefs, and which only can be excus'd by the little Experience of the Author, and the Modefty of the Title, An Efay. Yet I was stronger in Prophecy than I was in Criticism; I was infpir'd to foretel You to Mankind, as the Reftorer of Poetry, the greatest Genius, the truest Judge, and the best Patron.

Good Senfe and good Nature are never fepara-1 ted, tho' the ignorant World has thought otherwife. Good Nature, by which I mean Benefi

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cence and Candor, is the Product of right Reafon; which of neceffity will give allowance to the Failings of others, by confidering that there is nothing perfect in Mankind; and by diftinguishing that which comes nearest to Excellency, tho' not abfolutely free from Faults, will certainly produce a Candor in the Judge. 'Tis incident to an elevated Understanding, like your Lordship's, to find out the Errors of other Men: But 'tis your Prerogative to pardon them; to look with Pleasure on thofe things, which are fomewhat congenial, and of a remote Kindred to your own Conceptions: And to forgive the many Failings of those, who with their wretched Art, cannot arrive to those Heights that you poffefs, from a happy, abundant, and native Genius. Which are as inborn to you, as they were to Shakespear; and for ought I know, to Homer; in either of whom we find all Arts and Sciences, all Moral and Natural Philofophy, without knowing that they ever ftudy'd them.

There is not an English Writer this Day living, who is not perfe&ly convinc'd, that your Lordfhip excels all others, in all the feveral parts of Poetry which you have undertaken to adorn. The moft Vain, and the most Ambitious of our Age, have not dar'd to affume fo much, as the Compe titors of Themistocles: They have yielded the first Place without difpute; and have been arrogantly content to be efteem'd as Second to your Lordhip; and even that alfo with a Longa, fed proximi Intervallo. If there have been, or are any, who go farther in their Self-conceit, they must be very fingular in their Opinion: They must be like the Officer, in a Play, who was call'd Captain, Lieuteenant and Company. The World will easily conclude, whether fuch unattended Generals can

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