’Tis a short Chronicle of those Lives that possibly wou’d be forgotten by other Historians, or lye neglected there, however deserving an immortal Fame for Men of eminent Parts are as Exemplary as even Monarchs themselves and Virtue is a noble Lesson to be learn’d, and ’tis by Comparison we can Judge and Chuse. A Poet is a Painter in his way he draws to the Life, but in another kind we draw the Nobler part, the Soul and Mind the Pictures of the Pen shall out-last those of the Pencil, and even Worlds themselves.
An ill Hand may diminish, but a good Hand cannot augment its Beauty. My Lord, a Picture-drawer, when he intends to make a good Picture, essays the Face many Ways, and in many Lights, before he begins that he may chuse, from the several turns of it, which is most Agreeable, and gives it the best Grace and if there be a Scar, an ungrateful Mole, or any little Defect, they leave it out and yet make the Picture extreamly like: But he who has the good Fortune to draw a Face that is exactly Charming in all its Parts and Features, what Colours or Agreements can be added to make it Finer? All that he can give is but its due and Glories in a Piece whose Original alone gives it its Perfection.
This, my Lord, is for want of thinking Rightly if Men wou’d consider with Reason, they wou’d have another sort of Opinion, and Esteem of Dedications and wou’d believe almost every Great Man has enough to make him Worthy of all that can be said of him there. The most part of Dedications are charg’d with Flattery and if the World knows a Man has some Vices, they will not allow one to speak of his Virtues.
Patron, one who financially supports an author Since the World is grown so Nice and Critical upon Dedications, and will Needs be Judging the Book, by the Wit of the Patron we ought, with a great deal of Circumspection, to chuse a Person against whom there can be no Exception and whose Wit, and Worth, truly Merits all that one is capable of saying upon that Occasion. To the Right Honourable the Lord Maitland
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