therefore shut the Door against them, while I am thus privately addreffing you, I have little to apprehend, from either of them. J Under this Shelter, then, I may safely tell you, That the greatest Encouragement, I have had to publish this Work, has risen from the feveral Hours of Patience you have lent me, at the Reading it. It is true, I took the Advantage of your Leifure, in the Country, where moderate Matters serve for Amusement; and there indeed, how far your Good-nature, for an old Acquaintance, or your Reluctance to put the Vanity of an Author out of countenance, may have carried A 3 you, you, I cannot be fure; and yet Appearances give me ftronger Hopes: For was not the Complaisance of a whole Evening's Attention, as much as an Author of more Importance ought to have expected? Why then was I defired the next Day, to give you a fecond Lecture? Or why was I kept a third Day, with you, to tell you more of the fame Story? If thefe Circumftances have made me vain, fhall I fay, Sir, you are accountable for them? No, Sir, I will rather fo far Aatter myself, as to fuppofe it poffible, That your having been a Lover of the Stage (and one of thofe few good Judges, who know the Ufe and Value of it, under a right Regulation) might incline you to think fo copious an Account of it a lefs tedious Amufement, than it may naturally be, to others of different good Senfe, who may have lefs Concern, or Tafte for it. But be all this as it may; the Brat is now born, and rather, than fee it ftarve, upon the Bare Parish Provifion, I chufe thus clandeftinely, to drop it at your Door, that it exercise One of your many Virtues, your Charity, in fupporting it. may If the World were to know, into whofe Hands I have thrown it, their Regard to its Patron might incline them to treat it as one of his Family: But in the Confcioufnefs of what I am, I chufe not, Sir, to fay who you ore. If your Equal, in Rank, were to do publick Justice to your Character, then, indeed, the Concealment of your Name, might be an unneceffary Diffidence: But am I, Sir, of Confequence enough, in any Guife, to do Honour to Mr.? were I to fet him, in the most laudable Lights, that Truth, and good Senfe could give him, or his own Likeness would require; my officious Mite would be loft in that general Efteem, and Regard, which People of the firft Confequence, even of different Parties, have a Pleasure in paying him. Encomiums to Superiors from Authors of lower Life, as they are naturally hable to Sufpicion, can add very little Luftre, to what before was vifible to the publick Eye: Such Offerings (to use the Stile they are generally dreffed in) like Pagan Incense, evaporate, on the Altar, and rather gratify the Prieft, than the Deity. But you, Sir, are to be approached in Terms, within the Reach of common Sense: The honeft Oblation of a chearful Heart, is as much as you defire, or I am able to bring you: A Heart, that has juft Senfe enough, to mix Refpect, with Intimacy, and is never more delighted, than when your rural Hours of Leifure admit me, with all my laughing Spirits, to be my idle felf |