fion of which, Mr. Anftis and Mr. DENNIS ought to have a conference. I apprehend here two difficulties: One, of procuring an elephant; the other of teaching the poet to ride him: Therefore I should imagine the next animal in fize or dignity would do beft; either a mule or a large afs; particularly if that noble one could be had, whose portraiture makes fo great an ornament of the Dunciad, and which (unless I am mifinformed) is yet in the park of a nobleman near this city :---Unless Mr. CIBBER be the man ; who may, with great propriety and beauty, ride on a dragon, if he goes by land; or if he choose the water, upon one of his own fwans from Cæfar in Egypt.

We have spoken fufficiently of the ceremony; let us now speak of the qualifications and privileges of the Laureate. First, we see he must be able to make verses extempore, and to pour forth innumerable, if required. In this I doubt Mr. TIB

BALD. Secondly, he ought to fing, and intrepidly, patulo ore: Here, I confefs the excellency of Mr. CIBBER. Thirdly, he ought to carry a lyre about with him: If a large one be thought too cumbersome, a small one may be contrived to hang about the neck, like an order; and be very much a grace to the perfon. Fourthly, he ought to have a good flomach, to eat and drink whatever his betters think fit; and therefore it is in this high office as in many others, no puny constitution can discharge it. I do not think CIB

BER OF TIBBALD here fo happy but rather a stanch, vigorous, seafon'd, and dry old gentleman, whom I have in my eye.

I could also wish at this juncture, fuch a perfon as is truly jealous of the honour and dignity of poetry; no joker, or trifler; but a bard in good earnest; nay, not amiss if à critic, and the better if a little obftinate. For when we confider what great privileges have been loft from this office (as we fee from the forecited authentick record of Jovius) namely those of feeding from the prince's table, drinking out of his own flaggon, becoming even his domeftick and companion; it requires a man warm and refolute, to be able to claim and obtain the restoring of these high honours. I have cause to fear, most of the candidates would be liable, either through the influence of ministers, or for rewards or favours, to give up the glorious rights of the Laureate: Yet I am not without hopes, there is one, from whom a serious and freddy affertion of these privileges may be expected; and, if there be fuch a one, I must do him the juftice to fay, it is Mr. DENNIS the worthy prefident of our fociety.

(308

GUARDIANS.

N°. 4.

March 16, 1713.

HOUGH moft things which are wrong.

TH

in their own nature are at once confeffed and absolved in that fingle word, the Custom; yet there are some, which as they have a dangerous tendency, a thinking man will the less excufe on that very account. Among these I cannot but reckon the common practice of Dedications, which is of fo much the worse consequence as 'tis generally used by people of politeness, and whom a learned education for the most part ought to have inspired with nobler and juster sentiments. This proftitution of Praife is not only a deceit. upon the grofs of mankind, who take their notion of characters from the Learned; but also the better fort must by this means lofe fome part at least of that defire of Fame which is the incentive to generous actions, when they find it promifcuously bestowed on the meritorious and undeferving. Nay, the author himself, let him be fuppofed to have ever fo true a value for the patron, can find no terms

to express it, but what have been already used, and rendered suspected by flatterers. Even Truth itself in a Dedication is like an honest man in a difguife or Vizor-Masque, and will appear a Cheat by being drest fo like one. Tho' the merit of the person is beyond dispute, I see no reason, that because one man is eminent, therefore another has a right to be impertinent, and throw praises in his face. 'Tis just the reverse of the practice of the ancient Romans, when a perfon was advanced to triumph for his fervices: they hired people to rail at him in that Circumstance, to make him as humble as they could; and we have fellows to flatter him, and make him as proud as they can. Suppofing the writer not to be mercenary, yet the great man is no more in reason obliged to thank him for his picture in a Dedication, than to thank the painter for that on a fign-poft; except it be a less injury to touch the most facred part of him, his character, than to make free with his countenance only. I should think nothing justified me in this point, but the patron's permiffion beforehand, that I should draw him as like as I could; whereas most authors proceed in this affair just as a dawber I have heard of, who, not being able to draw portraits after the life, was used to paint faces at random, and look out afterwards for people whom he might perfuade to be like them. To exprefs my notion of the thing in a word: to fay more to a man than one thinks, with a prof

pect of intereft, is difhoneft; and without it, fools ish. And whoever has had fuccefs in fuch an undertaking, muft of neceffity at once think himself in his heart a knave for having done it, and his patron a fool for having believed it.

I have fometimes been entertained with confidering Dedications in no very common light. By obferving what qualities our writers think it will be most pleasing to others to compliment them with, one may form fome judgment which are moft fo to themselves; and, in confequence, what fort of people they are. Without this view one can read very few Dedications, but will give us cause to wonder, either how fuch things came to be faid at all, or how they were faid to fuch perfons, I have known an Hero complimented upon the decent majefty and state he affumed after a victory; and a nobleman of a different character applauded for his condefcenfion to inferiors. This would have feemed very strange to me but that I happened to know the authors: He who made the first compliment was a lofty gentleman, whose air and gait discovered when he had published a new book; and the other tippled every night with the fellows who laboured at the prefs while his own writings were working off. 'Tis obfervable of the female poets and ladies dedicatory, that there (as elsewhere) they far exceed us in any strain or rant. As beauty is the thing that fex are piqu'd upon, they speak of it generally in a more elevated