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as the best Laws, would prove of small use, if there were no Examples to inforce them. To attack Vices in the abstract, without touching Perfons, may be fafe fighting indeed, but it is fighting with Shadows. General propofitions are obfcure, mifty,. and uncertain, compar'd with plain, full, and home examples: Precepts only apply to our Reason, which in most men is but weak: Examples are pictures, and ftrike the Senfes, nay raise the Paffions, and call in thofe (the strongest and most general of all motives) to the aid of reformation. Every vicious man makes the cafe his own; and that is the only way by which fuch men can be affected, much lefs deterr'd. So that to chaftife is to reform. The only fign by which I found my writings ever did any good, or had any weight, has been that they rais'd the anger of bad men. And my greatest comfort, and encouragement to proceed, has been to fee, that those who have no Thame, and no fear of any thing else, have appear'd touch'd by my Satires."

As to your kind concern for my Safety, I can guess what occafions it at this time. Some Characters I have drawn are such, that if there be any who deferve them, 'tis evidently a service to mankind to point those men out; yet fuch as, if all the world gave them, none, I think, will own they take to themselves. But if they fhould, thofe of whom all the world think in fuch a manner, must be men I cannot fear. Such in particular as have the meanness to do mischiefs in the dark, have seldom the courage to justify them in the face of day; the talents that make a Cheat or a Whisperer, are not the fame that qualify a man for an Infulter; and as to private villainy, it is not so safe to join

The Character of Sporus in the Epiftle to Dr. Arbuthnot.

in an Affaffination, as in a Libel *. I will confult my fafety so far as I think becomes a prudent man: but not fo far as to omit any thing which I think becomes an honest one. As to perfonal attacks beyond the law, every man is liable to them: as for danger within the law, I am not guilty enough to fear any. For the good opinion of all the world, I know, it is not to be had: for that of worthy men, I hope, I fhall not forfeit it: for that of the Great, or those in power, I may wish I had it; but if thro' mifrepresentations (too common about perfons in that station) I have it not, I fhall be forry, but not miferable in the want of it.

It is certain, much freer Satirifts than I, have enjoy'd the encouragement and protection of the Princes under whom they lived. Auguftus and Mæcenas made Horace their companion, though he had been in arms on the fide of Brutus; and, allow me to remark, it was out of the suffering Party too, that they favour'd and distinguish'd Virgil. You will not fufpect me of comparing myself with Virgil and Horace, nor even with another Court-favourite, Boileau t. I have always been too modeft to imagine my Panegyrics were Incense worthy of a Court; and that, I hope, will be thought the true reafon why I have never offer'd any. I would only have obferv'd, that it was under the greatest Princes and beft Minifters, that moral Satirists were moft encouraged; and that then Poets exercised the fame jurifdiction over the Follies, as Hiftorians did over the Vices of men. It may alfo be worth confidering, whether Auguftus himself makes the great❤ er figure, in the writings of the former, or of the latter? and whether Nero and Domitian do not ap

* See the following Letter to a noble Lord. + See Letter c111. to Mr. Warburton.

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pear as ridiculous for their false Tafte and Affectation, in Perfius and Juvenal, as odious for their bad Government in Tacitus and Suetonius? In the first of these reigns it was, that Horace was protected and carefs'd; and in the latter that Lucan was put to death, and Juvenal banish'd.

I would not have faid fo much, but to fhew you my whole heart on this subject; and to convince you, I am deliberately bent to perform that Request which you make your last to me, and to perform it with Temper, Juftice, and Refolution. As your Approbation (being the testimony of a found head and honeft heart) does greatly confirm me herein, I wish you may live to fee the effect it may hereaf ter have upon me, in fomething more deferving of that approbation. But if it be the Will of God, (which, I know, will also be yours) that we must feparate, I hope it will be better for You than it can be for me. You are fitter to live, or to die, than any man I know. --Adieu, my dear friend! and may God preserve your life eafy, or make your death happy*.

This excellent perfon died Feb. 27, 1734-5,

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[We find by Letter xix. that the Duchefs of Buckinghamshire would have had Mr. Pope to draw her husband's Character. But though he refuled this office, yet in his Epiftle, on the Characters of Women, these lines,

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To beirs unknown defcends th' unguarded stone,

Or wanders, heav'n directed, to the paar.

are fuppofed to mark her out in fuch a manner as not to be mistaken for another; and having faid of himself, that be held a lye in profe and verfe to be the fame: All this together gave a handle to his enemies, fince his death, to publifh the following Paper (intitled The Character of Katharine, &c.) as written by him. To which (in vindication of the deceafed Poet) we have fubjoined a Letter to a friend, that will let the Reader fully into the history of the writing and publication of this extraordinary CHARACTER.]

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HE was the daughter of James the fecond, and

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of the Countefs of Dorchefter, who inherited the Integrity and Virtue of her father with happier fortune. She was married firft to James earl of Anglefey; and fecondly, to John Sheffield duke of Buckinghamshire and Normanby; with the former the exercised the virtues of Patience and Suffering, as long as there was any hopes of doing good by either; with the latter all other Conjugal virtues. The man of fineft fenfe and fharpeft difcernment, fhe had the happiness to please; and in that, found

her

her only pleasure. When he died, it feemed as if his fpirit was only breathed into her, to fulfil what he had begun, to perform what he had concerted, and to preserve and watch over what he had left, his only fon; in the care of whofe Health, the forming of whofe Mind, and the improvement of whofe Fortune, fhe acted with the conduct and fenfe of the Father, foften'd, but not overcome, with the tenderness of the Mother. Her Understanding was fuch as must have made a figure, had it been in a man; but the Modefty of her fex threw a veil over its luftre, which nevertheless fupprefs'd only the expreffion, not the exertion of it; for her fenfe was not fuperior to her Refolution, which, when once fhe was in the right, preferv'd her from making it only a tranfition to the wrong, the frequent weakness even of the best women. She often followed wife counsel, but fometimes went before it, always with fuccefs. She was poffeffed of a spirit, which affifted her to get the better of those accidents which admitted of any redress, and enabled her to support outwardly, with decency and dignity, thofe which admitted of none; yet melted inwardly, through almost her whole life, at a fucceffion of melancholy and affecting objects, the lofs of all her Children, the misfortunes of Relations and Friends, public and pri vate, and the death of those who were dearest to her. Her Heart was as compaffionate as it was great: Her Affections warm even to follicitude: her Friendship not violent or jealous, but rational and perfevering: her Gratitude equal and conftant to the living; to the dead boundless and heroical. What perfon foever fhe found worthy of her efteem, The would not give up for any power on earth; and the greateft on earth whom he could not esteem, obtain'd from her no farther tribute than Decency, Her Good-will was wholly directed by merit, not by accident; not measured by the regard they profefs'd

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