My Lord,

I am proud that every Address of mine to You should begin with the Acknowledgments of my Gratitude. This has particular Reasons to do so; for Your Lordship was so good to bespeak the Patronage of a part of my

Shakespeare: and my Duty could do no less than throw the Whole under Your Protection.

I shall be easily pardon'd, tho' I should profess a Sorrow for being reduc'd to make You this unworthy Offering; because, I know, Your Lordship is truly a Mourner for the Necessity. The good Lady Orrery (whose Memory I most sincerely venerate) did me the Honour of making her early Claim: and it comes now to You by the melancholy Right of Executorship. Would it had Merit enough to plead its Interest duly, as an Orphan and Relict from so dear a Friend!

It is a Maxim, I think, My Lord, of Monsieur Rochefoucault, that all our Actions and Desires flow from the Spring of Self-love. My ardent, but vain, Wishes that a long Life might crown the Countess of Orrery's Virtues, I may say, sprung from a more generous Motive. I had Your Lordship's Joy and Interest principally in View: and wish'd

She might survive, both to have made happy Your Bed, and shared in the Education of those dear Pledges, which She has left You, of your mutual Affection.

I have Your Lordship's Word for it, that She was, while living, my very good Friend: an Honour, that I would wish to repay, now She is no more, by raising a Monument of Gratitude to her Name. Without aiming at her Praise, I can barely hope to do Justice to her Memory! Truth, in an Epitaph or Characteristic, may do the World some Service, while it exhibits a Pattern to be follow'd: but Flattery so exceeds all Proportion, that it leaves no Room for Imitation.

I never left your Lordship's House, without the strongest Impressions of those Sweets, which endear Connubial Society. All the Qualities, that can make Woman lastingly amiable, were

center'd in Lady Orrery. The Fondness of a Wife, and tender Mother, were eminently conspicuous in all her Behaviour. It was a Pleasure to her to adapt her self to all Your Lordship's Sentiments: and You could honour None with any Degree of your Friendship, but That was a Merit to recommend them to her Smiles. In her Conversation, the Vivacity of Youth was happily temper'd with the Sageness of the Matron. She knew how to be pleasant without Levity, and to display Wisdom divested of all its disagreeable Severities. With what Sweetness of Deportment She behav'd to her Domesticks, was visible in that Love and Reverence with which they obey'd her. She maintain'd the Respect due to her Rank, without being either supercilious or affected: yet at the same time knew, that her great Birth and Station ought not to set her above being the Mistress of her Family. Hence, in the Point of your Table, while She consulted your Quality, She

took Care of your Fortune. Elegance was so blended with Oeconomy in her Management, it shew'd Us the Difference betwixt Plenty and Ostentation.

I have presumed, Your Lordship will observe, to draw but the Outlines of the Picture; to sketch out that Symmetry, which distinguish'd her equally to every Beholder. To finish up the Colouring of the Whole, is above my Strength or Vanity. The peculiar Duties She paid either to Heaven, or your Lordship, are too sacred to be touch'd here. They stand forbid to a vulgar Approach; and I choose, as in the Jewish Temples, to draw a Curtain across that Altar. It might be a childish Superstition, perhaps, to imagine her too good for this World; but we feel to our Concern, that what made her revered on Earth, qualified her too early for a Saint in Heaven.

I should fear, my Lord, to awake your Sorrows even with this faint Recapitulation of her Virtues, did I not know, the Image of them is engraven on your Heart; and I am paying but the Rites of a pious and sympathetick Respect. As I am proud to be thought a Client and Servant of your Family, and claim Your Lordship's Patronage as it were by Descent from your Noble Father, I would profess a becoming Interest in whatever affects my Patron.

If my Duty, My Lord, be too bold, I have it to plead in Excuse, that it is in some Measure warranted by your own Conduct and Behaviour. That Easiness of Address with which I have been receiv'd by You, and that Indulgence which you are pleas'd to shew me on every Occasion, ground a sort of habitual Freedom. In Conversations with Your Lordship, tho' we cannot but remember the Distance due to your Quality, yet we find something so engaging on your part, that we imperceptibly slide

on the very Confines of Friendship. Your Sweetness and Assability always put me in mind of Ovid's Apollo; he restrain'd the Lustre of his Godhead, when he was to converse with a mortal Son;

So, You, my Lord, will not suffer your Quality to glare upon your Inferiors: You abate of the Splendour of a Patrician, and descend to Us in the Light of the easy agreeable Gentleman.

If You ever shew any Reserve, it is with Regard to your own Modesty. You there labour to retire within Your self; and would fain shut Us out from the Discovery of Talents, which you cannot restrain from starting to Observation. Your Behaviour resembles That of Pyramus and Thisbe's Parents, in a Passage which has employ'd the Criticks;