CHARLES Earle of Dorfctie
To the Right Honourable
CHARLES
Earl of Dorfet and Middlesex,
Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's Houshold, Knight of the Most Noble ORDER of the GARTE R, &c.
HE Wishes and Defires of all good
Men, which have attended your Lord-
ship from your First Appearance in the
World, are at length accomplish'd in
your obtaining those Honours and Dignities, which you have so long deserv'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 Vespasian was not more the Delight of Human-kud. The Universal Empire made him only more known, and
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 less: And tho
you cou'd not extend your Beneficence to so many
Persons, yet you have lost as few Days as that ex-
cellent Emperor; and never had his Complaint to
make when you went to bed, that the Sun had
thone upon you in vain, when you had the Op-
portunity of relieving some unhappy Man. This,
my Lord, has justly acquir'd you as many Friends,
as there are Persons 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
so generally acknowledg'd, that it needs no Proof:
'Tis of the Nature of a first Principle, which is re-
ceiv'd as soon as it is propos'd; and needs not the
Reformation which Descartes us'd to his: For we
doubt not, neither can we properly say, we think
we admire and love you, above all other Men:
There is a Certainty in the Proposition, and we
know it. With the same Afsurance can I say, you
neither have Enemies, nor can scarce 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 Testimony 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 see the Sun.
'Tis true, I have one Privilege which is almost
particular to my self, that I saw you in the East
at your first arifing above the Hemisphere: I was
as foon sensible as any Man of that Light, when
it was but just shooting out, and beginning to travel upwards to the Meridian. I made my early Addresses to your Lordship, in my Effay of Dramatick Poetry; and therein bespoke you to the World; wherein I have the Right of a First Difcoverer. When I was my self, 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 Master 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 justly; and Johnson, who by studying Horace, had been acquainted with the Rules, yet seemed to envy to Posterity that Knowledge, and like an Inventer of some useful Art, to make a Monopoly of his Learning: When thus, as I may say, before the Use of the Loadstone, or Knowledge of the Compass, 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 reason of their opposite Taste; yet even then, I had the Presumption 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 Essay. Yet I was stronger in Prophecy than I was in Criticism; I was inspir'd to foretel You to Mankind, as the Restorer of Poetry, the greatest Genius, the trueft Judge, and the best Patron.
Good Sense and good Nature are never separated, tho' the ignorant World has thought otherwife. Good Nature, by which I mean Benefi
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 absolutely 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 possess, 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 Philosophy, without knowing that they ever study'd them.
There is not an English Writer this Day living, who is not perfectly convinc'd, that your Lordship excels all others, in all the several parts of Poetry which you have undertaken to adorn. The most Vain, and the most Ambitious of our Age, have not dar'd to assume so much, as the Competitors of Themistocles: They have yielded the first Place without dispute; e; and have been arrogantly content to be esteem'd as Second to your Lordship; and even that also with a Longa, Sed 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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