IT that I prefix your name to this epistle; when, in the Preface, I declare the book is published almost against my inclination. But, in all cases, my Lord, you have an hereditary right to whatever may be called mine. Many of the following pieces were written by the command of your excellent father; and most of the reft, under his protection and patronage. The particular felicity of your birth, my Lord; the natural endowments of your mind, which, without fufpicion of flattery, I may tell you, are very great; the good education with which these parts have been improved; and your coming into the world, and feeing men very early; make us expect from your Lordship all the good, which our hopes can form in favour of a young nobleman. "Tu Marcellus eris "Our eyes and our hearts are turned on you. You must be a judge and mafter of polite learning; a friend and patron to men of letters and merit; a faithful and able counfellor to your prince; a true patriot to your country; VOL. I. B an ornament and honour to the titles you poffefs; and, in one word, a worthy son to the great Earl of Dorfet. It is as impoffible to mention that name, without defiring to commend the perfon; as it is to give him the commendations which his virtues deserved. But I affure myself, the most agreeable compliment I can bring your Lordship, is to pay a grateful refpect to your father's memory': and my own obligations to him were fuch, that the world must pardon my endeavouring at his character, however I may miscarry in the attempt. A thousand ornaments and graces met in the compo fition of this great man, and contributed to make him univerfally beloved and esteemed. The figure of his body was ftrong, proportionable, beautiful: and were his picture well drawn, it must deserve the praise given to the portraits of Raphael; and, at once, create lové and refpect. While the greatness of his mien informed men, they were approaching the nobleman; the fweet, nefs of it invited them to come nearer to the patron. There was in his look and gefture fomething that is more eafily conceived than defcribed; that gained upon you in his favour, before he spake one word. His behaviour was easy and courteous to all; but diftinguished and adapted to each man in particular, according to his ftation and quality. His civility was free from the formality of rule, and flowed immediately from his good fenfe. Such were the natural faculties and strength of his mind, that he had occafion to borrow very little from education; and he owed thofe advantages to his own good good parts, which others acquire by ftudy and imitation. His wit was abundant, noble, bold. Wit in moft writers is like a fountain in a garden, supplied by, feveral streams brought through artful pipes, and playing fometimes agreeably. But the earl of Dorfet's was a fource rifing from the top of a mountain, which forced. its own way, and with inexhauftible fupplies delighted and enriched the country through which it paffed. This extraordinary genius was accompanied with fo true a judgement in all parts of fine learning, that, whatever fubject was before him, he difcourfed as properly of it, as if the peculiar bent of his study had been applied that way: and he perfected his judgement by reading and digesting the beft authors, though he quoted them very feldom. "Contemnebat potius literas, quam nefciebat:" and rather seemed to draw his knowledge from his own ftores, than to owe it to any foreign affiftance. The brightnefs of his parts, the folidity of his judgement, and the candour and generofity of his temper, diftinguished him in an age of great politenefs, and at a court abounding with men of the finest fenfe and learning. The most eminent masters in their feveral ways appealed to his determination. Waller thought it an honour to confult him in the foftnefs and har mony of his verfe: and Dr. Sprat, in the delicacy and turn of his profe. Dryden determines by him, under the character of Eugenius, as to the laws of dramatick poetry. Butler owed it to him, that the Court tasted his B 2 Hudibras: & Hudibras: Wycherley, that the Town liked his Plain Dealer and the late duke of Buckingham deferred to publifh his Rehearsal, till he was fure (as he expreffed it) that my lord Dorfet would not rehearse upon him again. If we wanted a foreign teftimony; La Fontaine and St. Evremond have acknowledged, that he was a perfect mafter in the beauty and fineness of their language, and of all that they call les Belles Letres. Nor was this nicety of his judgement confined only to books and literature; but was the fame in ftatuary, painting, and all other parts of art. Bermini would have taken his opinion upon the beauty and attitude of a figure; and king Charles did not agree with Lely, that my lady Cleveland's picture was finished, till it had the approbation of my lord Buckhurst. As the judgement which he made of others writings could not be refuted, the manner in which he wrote will hardly ever be equalled. Every one of his pieces is an ingot of gold, intrinfically and folidly valuable; fuch as, wrought or beaten thinner, would shine through a whole book of any other author. His thought was always new; and the expreffion of it fo particularly happy, that every body knew immediately it could only be my lord Dorfet's: and yet it was so easy too, that every body was ready to imagine himself capable of writing it. There is a luftre in his verses, like that of the fun in Claude Lorrain's landskips: it looks natural, and is inimitable. His love-verfes have a mixture of delicacy and ftrength: they convey the wit of Petronius in the foftness of Tibullus. His fatire indeed is fo feverely pointed, that in it he appears, what his great friend the earl of Rochester (that other prodigy of the age) fays he was, "The beft good man, with the worst-natur'd mufe:" yet even here, that character may juftly be applied to him, which Perfius gives of the beft writer of this kind that ever lived, "Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico "Tangit, & admiffus circum præcordia ludit :" and the gentleman had always so much the better of the fatirift, that the perfons touched did not know where to fix their refentments; and were forced to appear rather afhamed than angry. Yet fo far was this great author from valuing himself upon his works, that he cared not what became of them, though every body elfe did. There are many things of his not extant in writing, which however are always repeated: like the verses and sayings of the antient Druids, they retain an univerfal veneration, though they are preferved only by memory. As it is often feen, that thofe men who are least qualified for bufinefs love it moft; my lord Dorfet's character was, that he certainly understood it, but did not care for it. Coming very young to the poffeffion of two plentiful eftates, and in an age when pleafure was more in fashion than business, he turned his parts rather to books and converfation, than to politicks and what more immediately related to the publick. But, whenever the fafety |