to the very dregs the same he was from the begin ning, Servetur ad imum Qualis ab incepto processerat.-------- But here, in justice both to the poet and the hero, let us farther remark, that the calling her his whore implied she was his own, and not his neighbour's. Truly a commendable continence! and such as Scipio himself must have applauded. For how much self-denial was necessary not to covet his neighbour's whore? and what disorders must the coveting her have occasioned in that society, where (according to this political calculator) nine in ten of all ages have their concubines! We have now, as briefly as we could devise, gone through the three constituent qualities of either hero. But it is not in any, or in all of these, that heroism properly or essentially resideth. It is a lucky result rather from the collision of these lively qualities against one another. Thus, as from wisdom, bravery, and love, ariseth magnanimity, the object of admiration, which is the aim of the greater epic; so from vanity, assurance, and debauchery, springeth buffoonery, the source of ridicule, 'that laughing ornament,' as he well termeth it*, of the little epic. He is not ashamed (God forbid he ever should be ashamed!) of this character, who deemeth that not reason but risibility distinguisheth the human species from the brutal. As nature,' saith this pro found philosopher, distinguished our species from the mute creation by our risibility, her design must have been by that faculty as evidently to raise our happiness, as by our os sublime (our erected faces) to lift the dignity of our forin above themt.' All this considered, how complete a hero must he be, as well as how happy a man, whose risibility lieth, not barely in his muscles, as in the common sort, + Life, p. 23, 24. Letter to Mr. P. p. 31. but (as himself informeth us) in his very spi rits? and whose os sublime is not simply an erect face, but a brazen head; as should seem by his preferring it to one of iron, said to belong to the late king of Sweden*? But whatever personal qualities a hero may have, the examples of Achilles and Æneas show us, that all those are of small avail, without the constant assistance of the gods; for the subversion and erection of empires have never been adjudged the work of man. How greatly soever then we may esteem of his high talents, we can hardly conceive his personal prowess alone sufficient to restore the decayed empire of dulness. So weighty an achievement must require the particular favour and protection of the great; who being the natural patrons and sup. porters of letters, as the ancient gods were of Troy, must first be drawn off and engaged in another interest, before the total subversion of them can be accomplished. To surmount, therefore, this last 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 essayed to portray or shadow out this noble imp of fame. But now the impatient reader will be apt to say, If so many and various graces go to the making up a hero, what mortal shall suffice to bear his character?' Ill hath he read, who seeth not, in every trace of this picture, that individual, all-accomplished person, in whom these rare virtues and lucky circumstances have agreed to meet and concentre with the strongest lustre and fullest harmony. The good Scriblerus indeed, nay, the world itself, might be imposed on, in the late spurious editions, * Letter to Mr. P. p. 8. by I can't tell what sham-hero or phantom; but it was not so easy to impose on him whom this egregious error most of all concerned. For no sooner had the fourth book laid open the high and swelling scene, but he recognized his own heroic acts and when he came to the words, Soft on her lap her laureat son reclines, (though laureat imply no more than one crowned with laurel, as befitteth any associate or consort in empire), he loudly resented this indignity to violated Majesty. Indeed, not without cause, he being there represented as fast asleep; so misbeseeming the eye of empire, which, like that of Providence, should never doze nor slumber. 'Ha!' saith he, fast asleep, it seems! that's a little too strong. Pert and dull at least you might have allowed me, but as seldom asleep as any fool*.' However, the injured hero may comfort himself with this reflection, that though it be a sleep, yet it is not the sleep of death, but of immortality. Here he willt live at least, though not awake; and in no worse condition than many an enchanted warrior before him. The famous Durandante, for instance, was, like him, cast into a long slumber by Merlin the British bard and necromancer; and his example for submitting to it with a good grace, might be of use to our hero. For that disastrous knight being sorely pressed or driven to make his answer by several persons of quality, only replied with a sigh, Patience, and shuffle the cardst.' But now, as nothing in this world, no not the most sacred and perfect things, either of religion or government, can escape the sting of envy, methinks I already hear these carpers objecting to the clearness of our hero's title. 'It would never', say they, have been esteemed sufficient to make a hero for the Iliad or Æneis, * Letter to Mr. P. p. 53. + Letter, p. 1. Don Quixote, part ii. book ii. ch, 22. that Achilles was brave enough to overturn one em. pire, or Æneas pious enough to raise another, had they not been goddess-born, and princes bred. What then did this author mean, by erecting a player instead of one of his patrons (a person, never a hero even on the stage*"), to this dignity of colleague in the empire of dulness, and achiever 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 sufficient auswer from the Roman historian, fabrum esse sua quemque fortuna: that every man is the smith of his own fortune.' The politic Florentine, Nicholas Machiavel, goeth still further, and affirmeth that a man needeth but to believe himself a hero to be one of the worthiest. 'Let him,' saith he, "but fancy himself capable of the highest things, and he will of course be able to achieve them.' From this principle it follows, that nothing can exceed our hero's prowess; as nothing ever equalled the greatness of his conceptions. Hear how he constantly paragons himself; at one time to Alexander the Great and Charles XII. of Sweden, for the excess and delicacy of his ambitiont; to Henry IV. of France, for honest policy; to the first Brutus, for love of liberty; and to sir Robert Walpole, for good government while in power: at another time, to the godlike Socrates for his diversions and amusements; to Horace, Montaigne, and sir William Temple, for an elegant vanity that maketh them for ever read and admired**: to two lord chancellors, for law, from whom, when confederate against him at the bar, he carried away the prize of eloquencett; and, to say all in a word, to the right reverend the lord bishop of London himself, in the art of writing pastoral letters. Nor did his actions fall short of the sublimity 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 so honourable mention in one of his immortal odes. But he shone in courts as well as in camps: he was called up when the na tion fell in labour of this Revolutiont; and was a gossip at her christening, with the bishop and the ladiest. As to his birth, it is true he pretendeth no rela tion either to heathen god or goddess; but, what is as good, he was descended from a maker of both §. 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 sensible he had it in his power to be thought nobody's son at all: and what is that but coming into the world a hero? But be it (the punctilious laws of epic poesy so 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 small power and authority amongst men; and legitimate and instal him after the right classical and authentic fashion: for, like as the an cient sages found a son of Mars in a mighty warrior; a son of Neptune in a skilful seaman; a son of Phoebus in a harmonious poet; so have we here, if need be, a son of Fortune in an artful gamester. And who fitter than the offspring of chance, to as sist in restoring the empire of Night and Chaos? There is, in truth, another objection of greater weight, namely, That this hero still existeth, and hath not yet finished his earthly course. For if Solon said well, * See Life, p, 47. † P. 57. P. 58, 59. |