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Printed for C. BATHURST and T. LOWNDS, Fleet-street.

MDCCLXVI.

M. adds. 107. e. 29

IBODL LIBR.

OXFORD

TO HER GRACE the

DUTCHESS of Portsmouth.

MADAM,

W

ERE it possible for me to let the World know, how intirely Your Grace's Goodness has devoted a poor Man to your Service. Where there Words enough in Speech to express the mighty Sense I have of your great Bounty towards me; furely I should write and talk of it for ever: But your Grace has given me fo large a Theme, and laid so very vast a Foundation, that Imagination wants Stock to build upon it; I am as one dumb when I would speak of it; and when I strive to write, I want a Scale of Thought sufficient to comprehend the Height of it. Forgive me then, Madam, if (as a poor Peasant once made

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made a Present of an Apple to an Emperor) I bring this small Tribute, the humble Growth of my little Garden, and lay it at your Feet. Believe it is paid you with the utmost Gratitude: Believe, that, so long as I have Thought to remember how very much I owe your generous Nature, I will ever have a Heart that shall be grateful for it too. Your Grace, next Heaven, deserves it anıply from me: That gave me Life, but on a hard Condition; till your extended Favour taught me to prize the Gift, and took the heavy Burden it was clogged with from me, I mean, hard Fortune. When I had Enemies, that with malicious Power kept back and fhaded mefrom those royal Beams, whose Warmth is all I have, or hope to live by; Your noble pity and Compaffion found me, where I was cast backward from my Bleffing, down in the Rear of Fortune, called me up, placed me in the Shine, and I have felt its Comfort. You have in that restored me to my native Right, for a steady Faith and Loyalty to my prince was all the Inheritance my Father left me ; and however hardly my ill Fortune deal with me, 'tis what I prize so well, that I never pawn'd it yet, and hope I shall never part with it. Nature and Fortune were certainly in League, when You were born; and as the first took Care to give you Beauty enough enough to enslave the Hearts of all the World; fo the other resolv'd to do its Merit Justice, that none but a Monarch fit to rule the World should e'er possess it; and in it he had an Empire. The young Prince You have given him, by his blooming Virtues early declares the mighty Stock he came from: And as you have taken all the pious Care of a dear Mother, and a prudent Guardian, to give him a noble and generous Education; may it fucceed according to his Merits and Your Wishes : May he grow up to be a Bulwark to his ilJustrious Father, and a Patron to his loyal Subjects; with Wisdom and Learning to assist him, whenever call'd to his Councils; to defend his Right against the Incroachments of Republicans in his Senates; to cherish such Men as shall be able to vindicate the Royal Cause ; that good and fit Servants to the Crown may never be lost for want of a Protector. May he have Courage and Conduct fit to fight his Battles Abroad, and terrify his Rebels at Home: And, that all these may be yet more fure, may he never, during the Spring-time of his Years, when those growing Virtues ought with Care to be cherish'd in order to their Ripening; may he never meet with vicious Natures, or the Tongues of faithless, fordid, infipid Flatterers, to blast 'em. To A 3

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