and supporters of letters, as the ancient gods were of Troy, must first be drawn off and engaged in ano ther interest, before the total subversion of them can be accomplished. To surmount, therefore, this last and greatest difficulty, we have, in this ex-cellent 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 Dullness.

Thus we have essayed to pourtray or shadow out this noble imp of Fame. But now the impatient reader will be apt to say, if so many and va rious 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 it self, might be imposed on in the late spurious editions, by I cannot 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 these 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. • Hah! (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 a sleep as any fool*.' However, the injured Laureat may comfort himself with this reflection,, that though it be asleep, yet it is not the sleep of death, but of immortality. Here he will live at least, though not awake, and in no worse condition than many an enchanted hero before him. The famous Durandarte, 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 service 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 cards §.'

But now, as nothing in this world, no not the most sacred and perfect things, either of religion

+ lbid. p. 1.

C. Cibber's Letter, p. 53.
See Cibber's Letter to Mr. P.
? Don Quixote, Part II. Book ii. ch. 22.

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 an hero for the Iliad or Æneis, that Achilles was brave enough to overturn one empire, 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 Dullness, 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 answer from the Roman historian, Fabrum esse suæ quemque fortuna: That every man is the carver

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 that ever breathed. Let him (saith he) but fancy himself capable of high things, and he will of course be able to achieve the highest.' From this principle it followeth, that nothing can exceed our Hero's prow ess, as nothing ever equalled the greatness of his conceptions. Hear how he constantly paragons himself; at one time to Alexander the Great and

• See C, Cibber's Life, p. 148.

Charles XII. of Sweden, for the excess and delicacy of his ambition *; 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 LordChancellors for law, from whom, when confederate against him at the bar, he carried away the prize of Eloquence ++; and, to say all in a word to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Lon、 don 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 other patriots contented themselves to follow her. It was here he got acquainted with Old Battlearray of whom he hath made so honorable mention in one of his immortal odes . But he shone in courts as well as camps: he was called up when the nation fell in labor of this Revolution*, and was a gossip at her christening, with the bishop and the ladies t.

"Old Battle-array in confusion is fied;

And olive-rob'd Peace is come in his stead," &c.

Cibber's Birth; or, New Year's Day Ode.

As to his birth, it is true, he pretendeth no relation 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 anecdote, and is sensible he had it in his power to be thought no body's son at allt: and what is that, I pray you, 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 procured for this achievement; even for this we have a resourse. We can easi❤ ly derive our Hero's pedigree from a goddess of no small power and authority amongst men, and ligitimate and instal him after the right classical and authentic fashion: for like as the ancient 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, I pray you, fitter than the offspring of Chance, to assist 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. Solon said well,

For if