« 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 single finner of them, one "with another, had been guilty of the same frailty." But here he seemeth not to have done juftice to himfelf: the man is fure enough a hero, who hath his lady at fourfcore. How doth his modefty 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,

"Qualis ab incepto procefferat."

But here, in justice both to the poet and the hero, let us farther remark, that the calling her his whore, implied fhe was his own, and not his neighbour's. Truly a commendable continence! and fuch as Scipio himself must have applauded. For how much felfdenial was neceffary not to covet his neighbour's whore? and what disorders muft the coveting her have occafioned in that fociety, where (according to this political calculator) nine in ten of all ages have their concubines!

We have now, as briefly as we could advise, 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 thefe 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, affurance, and debauchery, springeth buffoonry, the fource of ridicule, that " laughing ornament,' as he well termeth it, of the little Epic.

He is not ashamed (God forbid he ever should be afhamed!) of this character; who deemeth, that not reafon but rifibility distinguisheth the human species 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 ERECT"ED FACES) to lift the dignity of OUR FOR M above "them." All this confidered, how complete a hero must he be, as well as how happy a man, whose rifibility lieth, not barely in his muscles, as in the common fort, but (as himself informeth us) in his very fpirits? 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 thofe are of small avail, without the conftant affistance

h Letter to Mr. P. p. 31. k Letter, p. 8.

i Life, p. 23, 24.

of the Gods: for the fubverfion and erection of empires have never been adjudged the work of man. How greatly foever then we may esteem of his high talents, we can hardly conceive his perfonal prowess alone fufficient to restore the decayed empire of Dulnefs. So weighty an atchievement must 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 ftronger is modern incenfe, to engage the Great in the party of Dulness.

Thus have we effayed to pourtray 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 fhall fuffice to bear his character? Ill hath he read, who feeth not, in every trace of this picture, that individual, ALLACCOMPLISHED PERSON, in whom these rare virtues and lucky circumstances have agreed to meet and concenter with the strongest luftre and fullest harmony.

The good Scriblerus indeed, nay the world itself, might be imposed on, in the late fpurious editions, 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 fooner 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 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 cause, he being there represented as faft afleep; fo misbeseeming the eye of empire, which, like that of Providence, fhould never doze nor flumber. "Hah! (faith he,) fast

afleep, it seems! that's a little too ftrong. Pert "and dull at least you might have allowed me, but "as feldom afleep as any fool1." However, the injured Hero may comfort himself with this reflection, that though it be a fleep, yet it is not the fleep of death, but of immortality. Here he will live at leaft, though not awake; and in no worse condition than many an enchanted warrior before him. The famous Durandante, 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 disastrous knight being forely preffed or driven to make his answer by several persons of quality, only replied with a figh, Patience, and fhuffle the cards".

1 Letter, p. 53.

m Letter, p. I. n Don Quixote, part ii. book ii. ch. 22.

But now, as nothing in this world, no not the most facred 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 (fay they) have been esteemed 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 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 "ftage"), to this dignity of colleague in the empire of Dulness, and atchiever 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 fufficient anfwer from the Roman hiftorian, "Fabrum effe fuæ quemque fortunæ :" that every man is the fsmith 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 worthieft. "Let him (faith 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 prowefs; as nothing ever equalled the greatnefs of his conceptions. Hear how he conftantly paragons himself; at one time to Alexander the Great

• See Life, p. 148.