MADAM, A S your Grace ftill feems to retain that Fire which render'd you fo confpicuous in Power, and fo impatient on being turned out, I make no question but you will denounce it an unpardonable Presumption in any nameless Writer, of whatever Sex or Rank, to fhew more Concern for the Character of the late excellent Queen A 1 Queen Anne, your once Royal Mistress, and her no less excellent Sifter Q. Mary, than yours; and especially to do Justice to their injured Memories, at your Grace's Expence. But, Madam, before you fuffer your Re fentments to transport you too far, be pleased to take into Confideration, that Authorship, as well as Love, fets all Mankind on a Level; and that whoever draws a Pen is as liable to be called to an Account for the Ufe made of it, as he that draws a Sword. The Laws of Criticism, as well as those of Equity, have made no Exceptions in favour of Titles, Wealth, and Power; and I intend to employ both fo confcientiously, that I may be able to finish my Work with that celebrated Sentence of your Grace's : All this I know to be true. Your Grace has reprefented Fame, even after Life, as a real Good; and been at fome Pains to establish your own, as the noblest Monument. Both the Defign, and the Septiment on which it is founded, are far from blameable: But the World will by no means be perfuaded to endure, that you should fet up up your own Statue in the Place of hers, who raised you out of the Duft, if I may be allowed to borrow a pointed Phrase of your own; and without whom, 'tis more than poffible, Pofterity would never have known that fuch a Perfon as your Grace, a Daughter of Mrs. Jennings, ever had a Being. Perhaps, Madam, you may think it worth. your while to proteft that this was never your Intention; and Charity may induce us to believe that your Trefpafs was not owing to premeditated Malice. But Vanity is a moft feducing Guide, and your Grace has flid, I hope infenfibly, into a Fault, which it may be equally hard to acknowledge, or excuse. *This makes dear Self on well-bred Tongues prevail, Para And the little Hero of each Tale, fays the Satirift. 'Tis a fhrewd Remark, and occurs to Mind in almost every graph of your Grace's notable Performance; in which Mrs. Freeman is every where the Heroine, and poor Mrs. Morley no better A 2 * Young's Univerfal Paffion. than than a Foil to fet her off to the more Ad vantage. Fond, therefore, as your Grace has declared yourself to be of Fame, that Fondness should not have mifled you to trespass on the Bounds of Decorum: Nor had you fucceeded worse, if you had recollected, when you firft fet out in search of that infatuating Goddess, that according to the ingenious, tho' plain-dealing Antients, the right Road lay through the Temple of Virtue, of which GRATITUDE is the Corner-Stone. To blow one's own Trumpet carries with it a very mortifying Infinuation; and those who do, tho' they tickle their own Ears, only infult other People's. A Perfon of your Grace's incredible Opulency, could be under no Neceffity to become your own Advocate Had your good Works been vifible, you could not have failed of Glory. Those of the Great cannot escape Notice, cannot want Acknowledgments, cannot mifs of Applaufe: In that Cafe, you need not have followed Fame ; for Fame would have taken a Pride to fol low you. But |