foftning the Expreffion of Fortune, if the Preacher or the Writer thinks 'twill be of Advantage to him to make use of the Term; as thus in the Works of an ingenious Author; Fortune, or to speak more like a Chriftian, Providence diftributes the Parts that ev'ry one are to act on the great Stage of the World. The fame Rule is to be the Guide of the Hiflorian in Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, as of the Preacher in his Sermons. Ifhou'd not have faid, as a certain Author does in his Hiftory of the Religious War in Bohemia, fpeaking of Zifca, the famous Leader of the Huffites, who led their Armies, and obtain'd Victories, after he had loft his Sight; As if Fortune, who is blind her felf, took Pleafure in favouring one that was blind, which feems to me to be as much against good Senfe, as Religion. I fhou'd rather fay with Cicero, Non folum ipfa Fortuna caca eft, fed ecs etiam plerumque efficit cæcos quos complexa eft. Fortune is not only blind her felf, but he very often makes thefe blind whom she embraces. Indeed there's hardly any Thing more fhocking, than to find this Phantom, Fortune, made ufe of in Difcourfes of Piety, efpecially when the Part fhe acts there is unworthy of Divine Wifdom. I cou'd much better bear what is faid by a Gentleman in the Memoirs of his Life; The Unfortunate are not always fo, and even Fortune, by her Inconftancy teaches us, that the Unhappy are to hope, and Happy to fear; and what we read in a Comical Hiftory; If I am nothing more than an unfortunate Comedian, 'tis doubtless becaufe Fortune wou'd be reveng'd of Nature, who was for making something of me without her Confent; or if you will, because Nature Sometimes takes Delight in favouring those to whom Fortune bas taken an Averfion.

WE fo often meet with Fortune in our Country Sermons, that what Father Bouhours has faid againft ufing the Word in the Pagan Senfe, is very inftructing. One wou'd think the Defcription is often taken from her Picture on the Walls of Inns, and Ale-houfes, where her Wheel expofes the Perfon on the Top, as well as at the Bottom, to the Mirth of the Company. The laft Duke of Buckingham's Verfes upon her, will teach both Preachers and Writers how to behave, with Regard to this imaginary Deity, better than all the French Jefuit's Leffons.

Fortune made up of Toys and Impudence,
Thou common Fade, that haft not common Sense!

But

But fond of Bufinefs infolently dares
Pretend to rule and Spoil the World's Affairs.
She flutt'ring up and down her Favours throws
On the next met, not minding what he does,
Nor why, nor whom he helps, or injures knows.
Sometime fhe Smiles, than like a Fury raves,
And feldom truly loves but Fools or Knaves.
Let her love whom the pleafe, I fcorn to woe her,
While fhe ftays with me, I'll be civil to her.
But if he offer once to move her Wings,
I'll fling her back all her vain gewgaw Things;
And arm'd with Virtue will more glorious fland,
Than if the filt ftill bow'd at my Command.
I'll marry Honefty, tho' ne'er fo poor,

Rather than follow fuch a blind dull Whore.

Epiftles Dedicatory.

FATHER Bouhours does not forget the Errours in Thought against Truth in Epiftles Dedicatory, one of the moft copious Subjects in the World for Reflection on irregular and extravagant Thinking. No Authors have err'd more in this than the English Poets: Their Patrons have fuffer'd under fo much Flattery, that 'tis not eafy to determine whofe Modesty has been moft put it; the Poets to fay fo many fulfome Things, or the Patrons to read them. Such Thoughts muft neceffarily be falfe, and of that wretched Kind of Falfehood, which in plain English is call'd Lying; for the Poet often knows his Heroe to be a Scoundrel, and the Patron receives the Man for a Wit, whom he alfo knows to be a Blockhead, or a Coxcomb. What the Tatler fpeaks in Merriment, may be taken feri oufly with Refpect to the Dedications of the Focts, No. 214. That antient Lyrick, Mr. Durfey, fome Years ago writ a Dedication to a certain Lord, in which he celebrated him for the greatest Poet and Critick of that Age, upon a Mifinformation in Dyer's Letter, that his noble Patron was made Lord Chamberlain. The learned French Critick generally makes Choice of Authors of Eminence for his Examples, that the Inftruction may be the more fure; for if fuch Writers fall into fuch Miftakes, how careful ought the Men of Mediocrity to be if they can't forbear writing. A great Author in France, who treated of Cefar's Conquefts, made no Difficulty of telling a Prince to whom he dedicated his Book; See here the Conqueror of the Gauls,

E 4

who

ho is come to do you Homage. And another writing of Hypolitus, or rather Monfieur Hypolite as Dryden calls him, tells his Patron in his Dedication, Hypclitus leaves the inmoft Receffes of the Groves, on purpoje to make his Court to you; nothing can be falfer than this. 'Tis a Jest to confound the Book that is dedicated with the Heroe whom it treats of, and make them the fame Thing. Mr. Rowe is guilty of this Fault, in the Dedication of the Lady Fane Gray, a Tragedy, to her Royal Highness; A Princess of the fame Royal Blood, to whom you are fo clofely and fo happily ally'd, prefumes to throw her felf at the Feet of your Royal Highness: Here the Lady Fane, and the Tragedy are confounded; and till this Criticism of Pere Bouhours comes to be known, I doubt not that Paffage, and a hundred fuch Paffages in the Dedications of our most renowned Poets, will pafs for fome of the most fhining Examples of English Eloquence.

THE very learned and polite Dr. Burnet, in the Dedication of the Theory of the Earth, begins his Address to the King thus; New found Lands and Countries accrue to the Prince whofe Subject makes the first Discovery, and having retrieved a World that had been loft for fome Thousands of Years out of the Memory of Man, and the Records of Time; I thought it my Duty to lay it at your Majesty's Feet. This Thought is very Fine and Juft, if you look on it as a juft Theory, as which the Author prefents it to the King; for tho' he does not throw the Globe at his Majesty's Feet; yet he lays there rhe Defcription of it, and fuch a Defcription as has triumph'd over the Cavils and Criticifms of other Theorists and Philofophers; and as much as I refpect the Names of Woodward, Keil, Whifton, who have objected against Dr. Burnet's Theory; I am fatisfy'd his beautiful Imagination, and fublime Stile, will preferve that Work, when all other Theories, and Criticisms upon Theories, fhall be as much in the State of Oblivion as the Chaos out of which the eloquent Doctor raifes the fair Creation.

O pectus ingens! Oh animum gravem,
Mundi capacem! fi bonus auguror,
Te, noftra quo tellus fuperbit,
Accipiet renovata Civem.

The laft Lines of Mr. Addifon's excellent Ode, on the great
Author, which I find thus tranflated before the Theory.

Oh,

Oh, fay, thou great, thou facred Name,
What Scenes thy thoughtful Breaft employ,
Capacious as that mighty Frame,

You raife with Eafe, with Eafe deftroy.
Each World Jhall boaft thy Fame; and you,
Who charm'd the Old, fhou'd grace the New.

Unless the Philofophers cou'd have fettled the Matter better among themselves, and not have left it all guefs Work, as they have plainly done, they might have fpar'd Dr. Burnet's Theory; which if not literally True in Fact, is most beautiful in Imagination, and we cannot fay fo much of the Works of his Antagonists, tho' more ornamented with Technical Cant, and Philofophical Phrafes.

To return to Father Bouhours. There is one Way of confounding the Heroe with the Book which speaks of him in a Dedication, and that is when the Author, by a Kind of Fiction, makes his Heroe or Heroine fpeak inftead of fpeaking himself, as one of the French Poets has wittily done in the Dedication of a Play of his.

VOITURE has confounded the Heroe with the Book, and taken the one for the other in two of his Letters: As in that to the Duke De Bellegarde, when he fent him Amadis de Gaul; "My Lord, there is fuch a Confufion now "in Hiftory, that I thought I might venture to fend you "fome Fables; and being in a Place where your Intention " is only to unbend your Mind, you may as well afford "Amadis fome of your Time, as the Gentlemen of the

k

Country. I hope he will divert you in your Solitude, by telling you agreeably his Adventures, which will "without doubt, be the best in the World, till you please "to let us know your own." In the Title, the Book Amadis is only intended, in the Letter he speaks of Amadis de Gaul himfelf. He does the fame in the before-mention'd Letter to Madam de Saintot, when he fent her the Orlando Furiofo of Ariofto; This Madam is doubtless the faireft Adventure which ever happen'd to Orlando: When be alone defended the Crown of Charlemaine, and wrested Scepters out of the Hands of Kings, it was not fo glorious for him as at this Time, when he has the Honour to kiss your Hands.

If Voiture forgets himself a little here, we must confider, that he is playing with his Subject, and that Letters of Gallantry do not require fuch fevere Truth as Epi

fles

ftles Dedicatory, which are of themfelves grave and ferious.

66

THERE has been much faid in France, within these forty or fifty Years, about Le Cœur, and l'Efprit, the Heart and the Mind occafion'd by this Expreffion, Le Cœur eft plus ingenieux que l'Esprit, in an eminent Author. It became a Topick in all polite Converfation; the Heart and the Mind were play'd against one another, and at laft a Book appear'd call'd Le Demêle du Cœur & de l' Esprit, A Difpute between the Heart and the Mind; nay the Preachers had it up in their Pulpits, and the Heart and the Mind was very often one of the Divifions or Subdivifions of their Difcourfes. Voiture was the first that oppos'd them. one to the other, in a Letter to the Marchiones de Sable. My Letters are written with fo much Affection, that "if you take them right, you will value them more than "thofe you again demand of me; the latter came from "my Mind only, the former from my Heart." By Mind here the French intend Understanding; and then the Saying is no more, than that Mens Paffions are too ftrong for their Reafon; their Heart is too hard for their Understanding. The Author of Reflections Morales, refines upon Voiture, where he fays; The Mind is always a Bubble to the Heart; that every one speaks well of his Heart, but no body dares fay fo much of his Mind; that the Mind cannot long act the Part of the Heart; which Expreffions are of the Nature of Paradoxes, true and falfe at the fame Time, according to the different Lights they are taken in. For, may I fo fay, if you look on the Rind of the Thought, and go according to the Letter, it is falfe, that the Heart has more Understanding, than the Understanding itself, or the Mind, which you pleafe; but if you go to the Bottom of the Matter, and not amufing your felf about the Words come to the Senfe, you will find it true, That a Perfon, who is in Love, has more Views, more Experience, and more Addrefs to obtain his Ends, in what relates to his Paffion, than another perhaps more witty and able has, who is not in Love. Two learned Men in France, Monfieur Coftar, and Monfieur Girac, had a Difpute about the Truth or Falsehood of this Expreflion; Fe vous ay fauve la vie, 5 je viens de mourir pour vous. 'Twas faid by a Perfian Knight, who met with a Scythian Woman in Battle, and difmounted her. Finding the Enemy to be young and fair, he gave her Life and Liberty;

but