1

Graingerte:

That all may laugh to see that glaring lights.
Which lately shone so fierce and bright P
End in a Stink at last, and vanish into night.

Anon.

SPECTAT O R.

VOLUME THE FOURTH

1

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. COOTE, No. 14. RED-LION-STREET,

CLERKENWELL,

BY VIRTUE OF A LATE DECISION IN THE HOUSE OF PEERS.

MDCCLXXVIII,

TO THE

DUKE of MARLBOROUGH.

MY LORD,

S it is natural to have a fondnefs for what has coft us much time and attention to produce, I hope your Grace will forgive an endeavour to preferve this work from oblivion, by affixing to it your memorable name.

I fhall not here prefume to mention the illuftrious paffages of your life, which are celebrated by the whole age, and have been the fubject of the moft fublime, pens; but if I could convey you to pofterity in your private character, and defcribe the ftature, the behaviour, and afpect of the Duke of Marlborough, I question not but it would fill the reader with more agreeable images, and give him a more delightful entertainment than what can be found in the following, or any other book.

One cannot indeed, without offence to yourself, obferve, that you excel the reft of mankind in the leaft, as well as the greatest endowments. Nor were it a circumftance to be mentioned, if the graces and attraction of your perfon were not the only pre-eminence you have above others, which is left, almoft, unobserved by greater writers.

Yet how pleafing would it be to thofe who fhall read the furprifing revolutions in your ftory, to be made acquainted with your ordinary life and deportment? How pleafing would it be to hear that the fame man, who had carried fire and fword into the countries of all that had opposed the caufe of liberty, and ftruck a terror into the armies of France, had, in the midst of his high ftation, a behaviour as gentle as is ufual in the first steps towards greatnefs? And if it were poffible to exprefs that eafy grandeur,