pofer will foon be taught the use of this cabinet, and how to manage all the registers of it, which will be drawn out much in the manner of thofe in an organ.

The keys of it must be kept in honest hands, by fome reverend prelate, or valiant officer, of unqueftioned loy alty and affection to every prefent establishment in church and state; which will fufficiently guard against any inif chief, that might otherwife be apprehended from it.

And being lodged in fuch hands, it may be at diferetion let out, by the day, to feveral great orators in both houles: from whence it is to be hoped much profit and gain will alfo accrue to our fociety.

CHAP. XIV.

How to make dedications, panegyrics, or fatires; and of the colours of honourable and dishonourable.

Now,

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 folid brains are not like other folid bodies, conftantly endowed with a velocity in fioking proportioned to their heaviness: for it is with the flowers of the bathus as with shofe of nature, which, if the careful gardiner brings not haftily to market in the morning, muft unprofitably perish and wither before night. And of all our productions none is fo fhort liv'd as the dedication and panegyric, which are often but the praife of a day, and become by the next utterly ufelefs, improper, indecent, and falfe. This is the more to be lamented, inafinuch as these two are the forts, whereon in a manner depends that profit, which must ftill be remembered to be the main end of our writers and Speakers.

We fhall therefore employ this chapter in fhewing the quickest method of compofing them; after which we will teach a short way to epic poetry. And thefe being con. felfedly the works of molt importance and difficulty, it is prefumed we may leave the reft to each author's own learning or practice.

I 2

First

First of panegyric. Every man is honourable, who is fu-by law, cuftoin, or title. The public are better judges. of what is honourable, than private men. The virtues of great men, like thofe 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 lofs he fpends. All great minifters, without either private or economical virtue, are virtuous by their pos; liberal and generous upon the public money; provident upon public fupplies; just by paying public interest; couragious 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 hare of the public flock of virtues; befides they are, by pre'cription immemorial, invelted in all the celebrated virtues of their predeceffors in the fame ftations, efpecially thofe of their own ancestors.

As to what are commonly called the colours of honourabie and difhonourable, they are various in different countries: in this they are blue, green, and red.

But forafanuch as the duty we owe to the public doth often require, that we fhould put fome things in a strong: 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 tranfor mation, which confifts in converting vices into their bor-dering virtues. A man who is a fpend thrift, and will not pay a juft debt, may have his injuftice transformed into liberality; cowardice may be metamorphofed into prudence; intemperance into good nature and good fellowship; corruption into patriotifm; and lewdnefs into tenderness 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 beftowed, especially 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 has ?

The reverse of these precepts will ferve for fatire, wherein we are ever to remark, that whofo lofeth his place, or becomes out of favour with the government, hath forfeited his hare in public praise and honour i

There

Therefore the truly public-fpirited writer ought in duty to ftrip him, whom the governmeut hath ftripped; which is the real poetical justice of this age, For a full collection of topics and epithets to be used in the praise and difpraife of minifterial and unministerial perfons, I refer to our rhetorical cabinet: concluding with an earneft 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,

Nepic poem, the critics agree, is the greatest work human nature is capable of. They have 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. Ithall Lere endeavour, for the benefit of my countrymen, to make it manifeft, that an epic poem, may be made without a genius, nay, without learning or much reading. This must neceffarily be of great ufe to all thofe, who confefs they never read, and of whom the world is convinced they never learn. Moliere obferves of making a dinner, that any man can do it with money, and · it a profeffed cook cannot do it without, he has his art for nothing: the fame may he faid of making a poem, it is eafily brought about by him that has a genius, but the kill lies in doing it without one. In pursuance of this end,. 1th prefent the reader with a plain and certain recipe, by which any author in the bathos may be qualified for e this grand performance.

For the FABLE:

Take out of any old poem, hiftory-book, romance, or legend (for instance, Geoffery of Monmouth, or Don Belianis of Greece), thofe parts o' the ftory which afford moft fcope for long defcriptions: put these pieces toge. ther, and throw all the adventures you fancy into one. tale. Then take a hero, whom you may chufe for the found

I 3

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 pre pared 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 youre hero or any unfortunate accident, that was too good to be thrown away; and it will be of ufe, 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 afterwards, at your leisure: be sure you firain them fufficiently.

For the MANNERS.

For thofe of the hero, take all the beft qualities you can find in the most celebrated heroes of antiquity; if they will not be reduced to a confiftency, lay them all on a heap upon him. But be fure they are qualities, which your patron would be thought to have; and to prevent any mistake which the world may be fubject to, elect from the alphabet thofe capital letters that compofe his name, and fet them at the head of a dedication before your poem. However, do not abfolutely obferve the exact quantity of thefe virtues, it not being determined whether or no it be neceffary for the hero of a poet to be au honeft man. For the under characters, gather them from Homer and Virgil, and change the names as occafion ferves.

For the MACHINES.

Take of Deities, male and female, as many as you can ule: feparate them in.o two equal parts, and keep Jupiter in the middle; let Juno put him in a ferment, and Venus mollify him. Remember, on all occafions, to make use of volatile Mercury. If you have need of

devils,

devils, draw them out of Milton's Paradife, and extract your Spirits from Taffo. The use of these machines is evident; fince no epic poem can poffibly fubfift without them, the wifeft way is to referve them for your greatest neceffities ; when you cannot extricate your hero by any human means, or yourself by your own wit, feek relief from heaven, and the gods will do your bufinels very readily. This is according to the direct prescription of Horace in his art of poetry.

Nec deus interfit, nifi dignus vindice nodus
Inciderit.

That is to say, a poet should never call upon the gods for their affifiance, but when he is in great perplexity.

For the DESCRIPTIONS.

For a tempeft. Take Eurus, Zephyr, Aufter, and Boreas, and caft them together in one verfe: add to these, of rain, lightning and thunder (the loudest you can) quantum fufficit." Mix your clouds and billows well to gether till they foam, and thicken your description here and there with a quick-fand, Brew your tempeft well in your head, before you fet it a-blowing.

For a battle. Pick a large quantity of images and defcriptions from Homer's Iliads, with a fpice or two of Virgil, and if there remain any overplus, you may lay them by for a skirmish. Season it well with fimilies, and it will make an excellent battle.

For a burning town. If fuch a defcription be neceffary (becaufe it is certain there is one in Virgil), old Troy is ready burnt to your hands. But if you fear that would be thought borrowed, a chapter or two of Burnet's Theory of the conflagration, well circumstanced and done into verle, will be a good fuccedaneum.

As for fimilies and metaphors, they may be found all over the creation; the molt ignorant may gather them, but the difficulty is in applying them. For this advise with your bookfeller.

СНАР,