Bravery, the fecond 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 fpirit 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 bravest 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, 66 which he was not content barely to poffefs but would likewife glory in," adds, "If I am mifguided, '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 justly boafteth) "than most in the "kingdom," and his Language to confift of what we must allow to be the moft daring Figure of Speech, that which is taken from the Name of God. Gentle Love, the next ingredient in the true Hero's compofition, is a meer bird of paffage, or (as Shakefpear calls it) fummer-teeming Luft, and evaporates in the heat of Youth; doubtlefs by that refinement it Life, p. 23. octavo, VOL. V. F fuffers in paffing through thofe certain ftrainers which our Poet somewhere 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 fitness for fuch an use: For not only the Ignorant may think it common, but it is admitted to be fo, even by Him who beft knoweth its value. "Don't "you think (argueth he) "to fay only a man "bas his Whore, ought to go for little or no"thing? Because defendit numerus; take the first "ten thousand men you meet, and, I believe, 66 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 feemeth not to have done juftice to himfelf: The man is fure enough a Hero, who hath his Lady at fourscore. 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, -Servetur ad IMUM Qualis ab incepto procefferat. Alluding to these lines in the Epift. to Dr. Arbuthnot a "His Butchers Henly, his Free-Mafons Moore? But here, in juftice both to the Poet and the Hero, let us farther remark, that the calling her bis whore, implieth fhe was bis own, and not his neighbour's. Truly a commendable Continence! and fuch as Scipio himself muft have applauded. For how much Self-denial was neceffary not to covet his Neigh bour'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 thefe, 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 Wifdom, 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 afhamed (God forbid he ever fhould be afhamed!) of this Character; who deemeth, that not Reafon but Rifibility diftinguisheth the human fpecies from the brutal. "As Nature (faith, this profound Philofopher) diftinguished our fpecies from Letter to Mr. P. p. 31. the mute creation by our Rifibility, her design 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 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 himfelf informeth us) in his very spirits; and whofe Os fublime is not fimply an erect face, but a brazen head, as fhould feem by his preferring it to one of Iron, faid to belong to the late king of Sweden *? But whatever perfonal qualities a Hero may have, the examples of Achilles and Æneas fhew us, that all thofe are of fmall avail, without the constant affiftance 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 reftore the decayed empire of Dulness. 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, muft first be drawn off and engaged in another Intereft, before the total fubverfion of them can be accomplished. To furmount, therefore, this laft Letter, p. 8. iLife, p. 23, 24. 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 Æneas, that, and much stronger is modern Incense, to engage Great in the party of Dulness. the Thus have we effayed to pourtray or shadow 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 fullest harmony. The good Scriblerus indeed, nay the World it. felf, might be impofed on in the late fpurious edi. tions, by I can't tell what Sham-Hero, or Phantom But it was not so easy to impose on HIм whom this egregious error most of all concerned. For no fooner had the fourth book laid open the high and fwelling 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 |