I do not pretend to be fo ingenious as Montaigne ; but it is in my Power to be as ingenuous. I may, with the fame [b] Naïvité, remove the Veil from my mental as well as perfonal Imperfections; and expose them naked to the World. And when I have thus anatomized myself, I hope my Heart will be found found and untainted, and my Intentions honest and fincere. [c] Longinus fays, that Cecilius wrote of the Sublime in a low Way: on the contrary, Mr. [d] Pope calls Longinus" the great Sublime he draws." Let it be my Ambition to imitate Longinus in Style and Sentiment; and like Cecilius, to make these appear a Contraft to my Subject; to write of Deformity with Beauty; and by a finished Piece to attone for an ill-turned Person. If any Reader imagines, that [e] a Print of me in the Frontispiece of this Work would give him a clearer Idea of the Subject; I have no Objection, provided he will be at the Expence of engraving. But, for want of it, let him know, that I am scarce five Feet high; that my Back was bent in my Mother's Womb; and that in Perfon I resemble Æsop, the Prince of [b] Vertu Naïve, an Expression of Montaigne; and which Fontenelle puts into his Mouth in his Dialogue with Socrates. [c] In the Beginning of his Treatife on the Sublime. [d] In his Effay on Criticism. [e] It was a difobliging Stroke to a Lady; but it was faid of Mademoiselle de Gournai, that, to vindicate her Honour from Reflexion, she need only prefix her Picture to her Book. General Dictionary, under the Word (Gournai.) Orange, Orange, Marshal Luxemburg, Lord Treafurer Salif bury, Scarron, and Mr. Pope; not to mention Therfites and Richard the Third; whom I do not claim as Members of our Society: [f] the first being a Child of the Poet's Fancy; the laft mifrepresented by Hiftorians, who thought they muft draw the Devil in a bad Shape. But I will not (on this Occafion) accept of Richard's Statue from the Hand of any Hiftorian, or even of Shakespear himself; but only from that of his [g] own Biographer, who tells us (and he ought to know) that Richard was a handsome Man. As I have the greatest Reason to thank God, that I was born in this 'Ifland, and enjoy the Bleffings of his Majesty's Reign; let me not be unthankful, that I was not born in Sparta! where I had no fooner feen the Light, but I should have been deprived of it; and have been thrown as a useless Thing [b], into a Cavern by Mount Taygetus! Inhuman Lycurgus! thus to destroy your own Species! Surrounded by the Innocents, whom you have murdered, may I not haunt you among the Shades below for this Barbarity? That it was ill Policy, the glorious Lift of Names, which I have produced, is a Proof; your own Age [f] Tam mala Therfiten prohibebat forma latere, Quam pulchra Nireus confpiciendus erat. Ov. Ep. ex Ponto xiii. ver. 4. [g] George Buck, Efq. who, in his Hiftory of Richard the Third, endeavours to represent him as a Prince of much better Shape (both of Body and Mind) than he had been generally esteemed. And Bishop Nicolfon calls Buck a more candid Composer of Annals than Sir Thomas More. See his Hiftorical Library. [b] See Plutarch in the Life of Lycurgus. filaus confutes your Maxim; and I hope to confute it too by my own Behaviour. Is the Carcase the better Part of the Man? And is it to be valued by Weight, like that of Cattle in a Market? Inftead of this Lacedemonian Severity, thofe, who had the Care of my Infancy, fell into another Extreme; and, out of Tenderness, tried every Art to correct the Errors of Nature; but in vain: for (as, I think it is, Mr. Dryden says) God did not make his Works for Man to mend. When they could not do that, they endeavoured to conceal them; and taught me to be afhamed of my Person, instead of arming me with true Fortitude to defpife any Ridicule or Contempt of it. This has caufed me much Uneafinefs in my younger Days; and it required many Years to conquer this Weaknefs. Of which I hope now there are but little Remains left. This ill Management gave me too an infuperable Bashfulness; and although I have paffed the Course of my whole Life among the better Part of Mankind, I have always felt a Reluctance to produce a bad Figure, which may be fome Obstruction to a Man's Advancement in the World; but an Advantage in reftraining his Fondness for it. Unmerited Reflexions on a Man's Perfon are hard of Digestion. Men of Understanding have felt them. Even Mr. Pope was not invulnerable in this Part. For when the Dunces were foiled by his Writings, they 4 they printed a Caricatura of his Figure; and it is evident that this ftung him more than a better Anfwer; for [i] he ranks it among the moft atrocious Injuries. I never in my Life received the leaft Affront on this Head from any Gentleman I ever conversed with; or from any one who had the least Pretenfion to that Name: for I fhould be a Churl indeed, if I esteemed as fuch any little innocent Pleafantry of a Friend, which is rather an Inftance of fincere Kindness and Affection; and I fhould be unfit to fit at Table with him, fhould I refent his Congratulations on my emerging from an Eclipse of a Surloin of Roaft-beef, or of a Bowl of Punch, that ftood between us. But the Scene changes extremely when I get into a Mob, where Infolence grows in Proportion, as the Man finks in Condition; and where I can scarce pass without hearing some Affront. But I am now unmoved with that Scurrility, which used to affect me when I was young. Their Title of Lord I never much valued; and now I entirely despise, and yet they will force it upon me as an Honour, which they have a Right to beftow, and which I have none to refuse. This Abuse is grown into fuch a Habit with the Rabble, that an Irish Chairman often uses it, when he asks me to take a Chair ; and fometimes a Beggar, when he demands an Alms. This Difference of Behaviour towards me hath given me the strongest Idea of the Force of Educa [i] In his Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot are thefe Lines: The Morals blacken'd, when the Writings 'scape, H tion; tion; and taught me to fet a right Value upon it. It is certainly the Stamp of a Man's Character: it dif tinguishes the base from the valuable Metal; and is the Barrier between the Mob and the civilized Part of Mankind. This Ufage hath alfo been a great Advantage to me; for it hath made me (like [k] Horace) fly from the Vulgar to the Company and Conversation of my Superiors, where I am fure to be easy. I have ever enjoyed it; and though I want polite Qualities to recommend me, I cannot say I was ever ill received by them. Moreover, these Abuses from my Inferiors often furnish me with generous Reflexions. I fometimes recollect the Expreffion of Brutus in Shakespear, "Your Words pafs by me as the idle Wind which I regard not:" at other Times a Saying (I think) of Socrates; "Shall "I be angry if an Afs kick at me? It is his Nature "fo to do." [] But perfonal Reflexions of this kind are almost unknown among Perfons of high Rank. It must therefore be only a French Romance, that gave rise to the Report, that our great and glorious Deliverer once called Luxemburg crooked-back Fellow; who replied, that he could not know that he was fo, for he had never seen his Back. When, by fome uncommon Accident, I have been drawn into a Country Fair, Cockpit, Bear-garden, or the like riotous Affemblies, after I have got from Od. i. 1. 3. [*] Odi prophanum vulgus, & arceo. [] I might add another Bon Mot of Socrates ; when asked, how he could bear the Noise and Ill-manners of Xantippe, he replied, They that live in a trading Street are not difturbed at the Paffage of Carts. See the Spectator, No. 479., them, ་ |