how to manage all the registers of it, which will be drawn out much in the manner of those in an organ.

The keys of it must be kept in honeft hands, by fome reverend prelate, or valiant officer, of unqueftionable loyalty and affection to every prefent eftablishment in church and state; which will fuffi ciently guard against any mischief which might otherwise be apprehended from it.

And being lodged in fuch hands, it may be at difcretion let out by the day, to several great orators in both Houfes; from whence it is to be hoped much profit and gain will also accrue to our fociety.

CHA P. XIV.

How to make Dedications, Panegyrics, or Satires, and of the Colours of Honourable aud Dishonourable.

Now of

TOW of what neceffity the foregoing project may prove, will appear from this fingle confideration, that nothing is of equal confequence to the fuccefs of our works as speed and dispatch. Great pity it is, that solid brains are not like other folid bodies, conftantly endowed with a velocity in finking, proportioned to their heaviness: For it is with the flowers of the Bathos as with those of nature, which if the careful gardiner brings not haftily to market in the morning, muft unprofita ably perish and wither before night. And of all our productions none is fo fhort-lived as the dedication and panegyrie, which are often but the praise f a day, and become by the next utterly useless, improper,

improper, indecent, and falfe. This is the more to be lamented, inafmuch as these two are the forts whereon in a manner depends that profit which must still be remembered to be the main end of our writers and fpeakers.

We shall therefore employ this chapter in fhewing the quickest method of compofing them; after which we will teach a short way to Epic Poetry. And these being confeffedly the works of moft importance and difficulty, it is prefumed we may leave the reft to each authors own learning or practise.

First of Panegyric, Every man is honourable, who is fo by law, cuftom, or title. The public are better judges of what is honourable than private men. The virtues of great men, like those of plants, are inherent in them whether they are exerted or not; and the more strongly inherent, the lefs they are exerted; as a man is the more rich the lefs he spends. All great minifters, without either private or œconomical virtue, are virtuous by their posts; liberal and generous upon the public money, provident upon public fupplies, juft by paying public intereft, courageous and magnanimous by the fleets and armies, magnificent upon the public expences, and prudent by public fuccefs. They have, by their office, a right to a share of the public flock of virtues; befides, they are by prefcription immemorial invefted in all the celebrated virtues of their predeceffors in the same stations, efpecially those of their own ancestors.

As to what are commonly called the colours of bonourable and dishonourable, they are various in different

different countries: In this they are blue, green,

and red.

But forafmuch as the duty we owe to the public doth often require that we should put fome things in a ftrong light, and throw a fhade over others, I fhall explain the method of turning a vicious man into a hero.

The first and chief rule is the golden rule of transformation, which confifts in converting vices into their bordering virtues. A man who is a fpendthrift, and will not pay a just debt, may have his injuftice transformed into liberality; cowardice may be metamorphosed into prudence; intemperance into good nature and good fellowship; corruption into patriotifm; and lewdnefs into tendernefs and facility.

The fecond is the rule of contraries. It is certain, the less a man is endowed with any virtue, the more need he has to have it plentifully beflowed, efpecially thofe good qualities of which the world generally believes he hath none at all: for who will thank a man for giving him that which he bas?

The reverse of these precepts will ferve for fatire, wherein we are ever to remark, that whoso lofeth his place, or becomes out of favour with the government, hath forfeited his fhare in public praife and honour. Therefore the truly publicfpirited writer ought in duty to ftrip him whom the government hath ftripped; which is the real poetical juflice of this age. For a full collection of topics and epithets to be used in the praise and difpraife of minifterial and unminifterial perfons, I refer to our rhetorical cabinet; concluding with

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an earnest exhortation to all my brethren, to obferve the precepts here laid down, the neglect of which hath coft fome of them their ears in a pillory.

CHA P. XV.

A Receipt to make an Epic Poem.

AN critics capable of. They N Epic Poem, the critics agree, is the greathave already laid down many mechanical rules for compofitions of this fort, but at the fame time they cut off almost all undertakers from the poffibility of ever performing them; for the first qualification' they unanimously require in a poet, is a genius. I fball here endeavour (for the benefit of my countrymen) to make it manifeft, that epic poems may be made without a genius, nay, without learning, or much reading. This must neceffarily be of great ufe to all those who confess they never read, and of whom the world is convinced they never learn. Moliere observes of making a dinner, that any man can do it with money, and if a profeffed cook cannot do it without, he has his art for nothing; the fame may be faid of making a poem; it is eafily brought about by him that has a genius, but the skill lies in doing it without one. In purfuance of this end, I fhall prefent the reader with a plain and certain recipe, by which any author in the Bathos may be qualified for this grand performance.

-For

For the FABLE.

Take out of an old poem, history-book, romance, or legend, (for instance, Geoffry of Monmonth, or Don Belianis of Greece), thofe parts of the ftory which afford moft fcope for long defcriptions: put thefe pieces together, and throw all the adventures you fancy into one tale. Then take a hero, whom you may chufe for the found of his name, and put him into the midst of these adventures. There let him work for twelve books; at the end of which you may take him out, ready prepared to conquer or to marry; it being neceffary that the conclufion of an epic poem be fortunate,

To make an EPISODE.

Take any remaining adventure of your former collection, in which you could no way involve your hero'; or any unfortunate accident that was too good to be thrown away; and it will be of use, applied to any other perfon, who may be loft and evaporate in the courfe of the work, without the leaft damage to the compofition,

For the MORAL and ALLEGORY.

Thefe you may extract out of the fable after, wards, at your leifure: Be fure to ftrain them fuf, ficiently.

For the MANNERS.

For those of the hero, take all the best qualities

you