то

His Grace the DUKE of ORMOND.

MY LORD,

Anno 1699.

SOME eftates are held in England, by paying a

fine at the change of every lord: I have enjoyed the patronage of your family, from the time of your excellent grandfather to this prefent day. I have dedicated the tranflation of the lives of Plutarch to the firft Duke; and have celebrated the memory of your heroic father. Though I am very fhort of the age of Neftor, yet I have lived to a third generation of your house; and by your Grace's favour am admitted still to hold from you by the fame tenure.

I am not vain enough to boast that I have deserved the value of fo illuftrious a line; but my fortune is the greater, that for three defcents they have been pleased to distinguish my poems from those of other men ; and have accordingly made me their peculiar care. May it be permitted me to fay, That as your grandfather and father were cherished and adorned with honours by two fucceffive monarchs, fo I have been efteemed and patronized by the grandfather, the father, and the fon, defcended from one of the most antient, most confpicuous, and moft deferving families in Europe.

It is true, that by delaying the payment of my last fine, when it was due by your Grace's acceffion to the

titles and patrimonies of your house, I may feem, in rigour of law, to have made a forfeiture of my claim; yet my heart has always been devoted to your service: and fince you have been graciously pleased, by your permiffion of this address, to accept the tender of my duty, it is not yet too late to lay these volumes at your feet.

The world is fenfible that you worthily fucceed, not only to the honours of your ancestors, but also to their virtues. The long chain of magnanimity, courage, eafinefs of accefs, and defire of doing good even to the prejudice of your fortune, is fo far from being broken in your Grace, that the precious metal yet runs pure to the newest link of it: which I will not call the laft, because I hope and pray, it may defcend to late pofterity and your flourishing youth, and that of your excellent Dutchefs, are happy omens of my wish.

It is obferved by Livy and by others, that fome of the nobleft Roman families retained a resemblance of their ancestry, not only in their fhapes and features, but alfo in their manners, their qualities, and the diftinguishing characters of their minds: fome lines were noted for a stern, rigid virtue, favage, haughty, parfimonious, and unpopular: others were more sweet, and affable; made of a more pliant paste, humble, courteous, and obliging; ftudious of doing charitable offices, and diffufive of the goods which they enjoyed. The last of thefe is the proper and indelible character of your Grace's family. God Almighty has endued you with a softness, a beneficence, an attractive beha