Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

3

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

PHILIP,

EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, &c.
Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter.

[ocr errors]

MY LORD,

THAT you may be induced to read this dedication

▲ through, I shall begin by assuring you, that I do not intend to pay you one compliment. To praise you is unnecessary on all hands; to your Lordship, it is offensive; and for the public, they do not want to be informed of your character: it lives, at present, in the mouths of all men, and posterity will find it in the history of Europe.

My design, my Lord, is to express my own gratitude, not to delineate your merit. 'Twas your Lordship first took notice of me, in my original obscurity, whence you brought me into life, and have since continued to encourage me by your countenance and favour; and I cannot help confessing, that I have a kind of honest pride in having it known, that your Lordship thought me worthy to be taken under your protection.

These, my Lord, are the general obligations that I owe you, of which I have wished to raise some monu

ment, that may remain as long as my name shall be remembered; but I have more particular reasons for presenting you with this tragedy, as it was your Lordship first pointed out to me the subject, and when it was finished gave me the first assurance of its success, by your approbation. I could not therefore avoid taking advantage of this opportunity, to acknowledge, publicly, all these favours; and to assure you, that I

am

Your Lordship's most obliged,

Most obedient, and

Very humble servant,

HENRY JONES.

[blocks in formation]

GENIUS is perhaps of no country-it is also attached to no condition-JONES was a Bricklayer, and some genius, it may be presumable, there was where we know there was no culture. He was born in IRELAND, where genius is by no means

rare.

When the great Lord CHESTERFIELD went over there, as Lord Lieutenant of that kingdom, the talents of JONES were recommended to his Lordship's protection, and the consequence was his drawing our author over to this country with him, and by his patronage endeavouring to promote his interest and advance his reputation.

JONES, with the kind assistance of his patron, had completed his tragedy of the EARL of ESSEX; and upon its performance, he rose considerably in public estimation-the play ran twelve nights. And now little seemed wanting to complete his future success in life-his muse and himself thus powerfully supported.

But there appears to be no axiom more settled in the code of human conduct, than that success inflates a mean mind, and lifts it up to arrogance; that he whose merit achieves exalted countenance and protection, soon imagines the benefits reciprocal, and that ability is an universal magnet, which if the hand of one man should be shut, will infallibly open the generosity of another. Perhaps where there is pecuniary prudence this may be so; but when there is not, we know that beggary and wretchedness are the sure attendants. of the unhappy self-deceiver.

JONES, who had in early life sacrificed to vanity, grew sturdy and unpropitiating, and thus, offering no more the food expected by the GREAT, the food he expected from them was with-held of He died, April 1770, in a garret belonging to the master of Bedford Coffee-house, upon whose charity he had some time lingered out a miserable existence.

course.

He left an unfinished play called The Cave of Idra-which Hiffernan afterwards completed, and brought out under the title of The Heroine of the Cave.

« НазадПродовжити »