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moured owner, far beyond it?"Let the world (will "fuch an one fay) impute to me what folly or weakness "they pleafe; but till Wisdom can give me fomething "that will make me more heartily happy, I am content to be GAZED AT." This, we fee, is Vanity according to the heroic gage or meafure; not that low and ignoble fpecies which pretendeth to Virtues we have not, but the laudable ambition of being gazed at for glorying in those Vices, which every body knows we have. "The "world may afk (fays he) why I make my follies pub"lick? Why not? I have paffed my time very pleasantly "with them." In fhort, there is no fort of Vanity such a Hero would fcruple, but that which might go near to degrade him from his high station in this our Dunciad; namely, "Whether it would not be Vanity in him, to take fhame to himself for not being a wife man?”

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Bravery, the second attribute of the true Hero, is Courage manifefting itself in every limb; while its correfpondent virtue in the mock Hero, is, that fame Courage all collected into the Face. And as Power when drawn together, muft needs have more force and spirit than when difperfed, we generally find this kind of courage in fo high and heroic a degree, that it infults not only Men, but Gods. Mezentius is, without doubt, the braveft character in all the Æneis: But how? His bravery, we know, was an high courage of blafphemy. And can we fay lefs of this brave man's, who having told us that he placed "his Summum bonum in thofe follies, which "he was not content barely to poffefs but would like"wife glory in," adds, "If I am misguided, 'TIS NATURE'S FAULT, and I follow HER"." Nor can we be mistaken in making this happy quality a fpecies of Courage, when we confider thofe illuftrious marks of it, which made his FACE more known (as he juftly boafteth) "than most in the kingdom," and his Language to confift of what we must allow to be the moft daring

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b Dedication to the Life of C. C. d Life, ibid. e Life, p. 23, octavo.

Life, p. 2, octavo Edit.

3

Figure of Speech, that which is taken from the Name of God.

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Gentle Love, the next ingredient in the true Hero's compofition, is a mere bird of paffage, or (as Shakefpear calls it) fummer-teeming Luft, and evaporates in the heat of Youth; doubtlefs by that refinement it fuffers in paffing through thofe certain ftrainers which our Poet fomewhere fpeaketh of. But when it is let alone to work upon the Lees, it acquireth ftrength by Old age; and becometh a lafting ornament to the little Epic. It is true, indeed, there is one objection to its fitnefs for fuch an ufe: For not only the Ignorant may think it common, but it is admitted to be fo, even by Him who best knoweth its value. "Don't you think (argueth he) to fay only a man has his Whore, ought to go for little or "nothing? Because defendit numerus, take the first ten "thousand men you meet, and, I believe, you would "be no lofer if you betted ten to one, that every fingle "finner of them, one with another, had been guilty of "the fame frailty ." But here he seemeth not to have done juftice to himself: The man is fure enough a Hero, who hath his Lady at fourfcore. How doth his Modesty herein leffen the merit of a whole well-fpent, Life not taking to himself the commendation (which Horace accounted the greatest in a theatrical character) of continuing to the very dregs, the fame he was from the beginning,

-Servetur ad IMUM

Qualis ab incepto processerat,

But here, in juftice both to the Poet and the Hero let us farther remark, that the calling her his whore, implieth fhe was his own, and not his neighbour's. Truly a commendable Continence! and fuch as Scipio himself

f Alluding to these lines in the Epift. to Dr. Arbuthnot,

"And has not Colly ftill bis Lord and Whore,

"His Butchers Henly, bis Free-Masons Moore? 8 Letter to Mr. P. p. 46.

d

muft have applauded. For how much Self-denial was exerted not to covet his Neighbour's whore? and what disorders must the coveting her have occafioned 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 devife, gone through the three conftituent Qualities of either Hero. But it is not in any, or in all of these, that Heroifm properly or effentially refideth. It is a lucky refult rather from the collifion of these lively Qualities against one another. Thus, as from Wisdom, Bravery, and Love, arifeth Magnanimity, the object of Admiration, which is the aim of the greater Epic; fo from Vanity, Impudence, and Debauchery, fpringeth Buffoonry, the fource of Ridicule, that " laughing ornament, as he well term

eth it, of the little Epic.

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He is not ashamed (God forbid he ever fhould be afhamed!) of this Character; who deemeth, that not Reafon but Rifibility diftinguifheth the human fpecies from the brutal. "As Nature (faith this profound Philofopher) diftinguished our fpecies from the mute creation by our "Rifibility, her defign MUST have been by that faculty as evidently to raise our HAPPINESS, as by OUR OS fublime (OUR ERECTED FACES) to lift the dignity of 66 our FORM above them." All this confidered, how complete a Hero muft he be, as well as how happy a Man, whofe Rifibility lieth not barely in his muscles, as in the common fort, but (as himself informeth us) in his very Spirits? And whofe Os fublime is not fimply an erect face, but a brazen head, as should seem by his preferring it to one of Iron, faid to belong to the late king of Sweden k!

But whatever perfonal qualities a Hero may have, the examples of Achilles and Æneas fhew us, that all those are of fmall avail, without the conftant affifiance of the GODS: for the fubverfion and erection of Empires have i Life, p. 23, 24. k Letter,

h Letter to Mr. P. p. 31. page 8.

never been adjudged the work of Man. How greatly foever then we may efteem of his high talents, we can hardly conceive his perfonal prowefs alone fufficient to reftore the decayed empire of Dulnefs. So weighty an atchievement muft require the particular favour and protection of the GREAT: who being the natural patrons and fupporters of Letters, as the ancient Gods were of Troy, must first be drawn off and engaged in another Intereft, before the total fubverfion of them can be accomplished. To furmount, therefore, this laft and greatest difficulty, we have, in this excellent man, a profeffed Favourite and Intimado of the Great. And look, of what force ancient Piety was to draw the Gods into the party of Eneas, that, and much stronger is modern Incenfe, to engage the Great in the party of Dulness.

Thus have we essayed to pourtray or fhadow out this noble Imp of Fame. But now the impatient reader will be apt to fay, if fo many and various graces go to the making up a Hero, what mortal fhall fuffice to bear his character? Ill hath he read, who feeth not, in every trace of this picture, that individual, ALL-ACCOMPLISHED PERSON, in whom these rare virtues and lucky circumftances have agreed to meet and concentre with the strongest luftre and fulleft harmony.

The good Scriblerus indeed, nay the World itself might be impofed on in the late fpurious editions, by I can't tell what Sham Hero, or Phantom: But it was not so easy to impofe on HIM whom this egregious error moft of all concerned. For no fooner had the fourth book laid open the high and fwelling fcene, but he recognized his own heroic Acts: And when he came to the words,

Soft on her lap her Laureat fon reclines,

(though Laureat imply no more than one crowned with laurel, as befitteth any Affociate or Confort in Empire) he loudly refented this indignity to violated Majefty. Indeed not without caufe, he being there reprefented as faft afleep; fo mifbefeeming the eye of Empire, which, like

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that of Providence, fhould never doze nor flumber. "Hah! (faith he) fast asleep, it feems! that's a little too ftrong. Pert and dull at least you might have allowed me, but as feldom afleep as any fool." However, the injured Hero may comfort himself with this reflexion, that tho' it be a fleep, yet it is not the fleep of death, but of immortality. Here he will live at least, tho' not arwake; and in no worfe condition than many an enchanted Warrior before him. The famous Durandarte, for inftance, was, like him, caft into a long flumber by Merlin the British Bard and Necromancer: and his example, for fubmitting to it with a good grace, might be of ufe to our Hero. For that difaftrous knight being forely preffed or driven to make his anfwer by feveral perfons of quality, only replied with a figh, Patience, and Shuffle the cards".

But now, as nothing in this world, no not the most facred or perfect things either of Religion or Government, can efcape the fting of Envy, methinks I already hear these carpers objecting to the clearness of our Hero's title.

It would never (fay they) have been efteemed fufficient 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 Goddefs-born, and Princes bred. What then did this Author mean, by erecting a Player instead of one of his Patrons, (a perfon "never a hero even on the stage",") to this dignity of Collegue in the empire of Dulness, and Atchiever of a work that neither old Omar, Attila, nor John of Leiden could entirely bring to pass.

To all this we have, as we conceive, a fufficient anfwer from the Roman hiftorian, Fabrum effe fuæ quemque fortuna: That every man is the Smith of his own fortune. The politic Florentine, Nicholas Machiavel, goeth ftill farther, and affirmeth that a man needeth but to believe

1 Letter, P. 53. Book i. ch. 22.

m Ibid. p. 1.
• See Life, p. 148.

n Don Quixote, Part i.

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