4

The LIFE of the

Here, Madam, were I to follow those famous Au-thors, who have given us the Lives of the ancient Heroesand Poets, I should entertain your Grace with theScene of all the extraordinary Accidents and prettyEvents of his Childhood, not forgetting any of thoselittle pert Sayings or Actions, which might be the Fore-runners of that eminent Excellence he discovered whenhe came to Man's Estate. Nay, if all these importantAffairs, by the Negligence of those who should haveconveyed them to us, were lost, I should, to raise theCharacter of our Hero, give so necessary an Indulgenceto Invention, as by that to form some wonderful andearly Promises of his future Greatness: But not being sofond of my own Fancy, as to write fictitious Wondersof his Childhood, and all those that were real, beingnot to be found in the authentick Records of Time, Ishall not presume to amuse your Grace with insipidFables, which can neither entertain nor instruct ; but on-ly let you know, that he was so extremely docile, andmade such an easy Progress in Learning, on his first Ap-plication to Letters at School, as discovered the Seeds ofthat great Genius which afterwards appeared more con-spicuously in his riper Years: For there, among Boys,first shone those sprightly Parts which afterwards dazzledthe Eyes, and drew the Admiration of Men, and theHearts of the Ladies.

We may venture to fay, that it was at School he laidsuch a Foundation of the Latin Tongue, and obtained sogreat a Mastery of it, that he never lost a true Taste ofany peculiar Beauty of those great Authors in that Lan-guage in its most flourishing Age ; I mean that of Horace,Virgil, Ovid, and the like; in which he found those tran-sporting Pleasures, Madam, which cannot be conveyedto your Grace thro' any of the Translations we have;

tho'