My LORD,

*

THE Eminence of Your prefent Station, places you in fuch a Point of Sight, that many good Actions, which you performed as a private Gentleman, and which fingularly adorn'd you, nay, and were too, perhaps, Acts of Supererogation, at that Time of Day, are now become neceffary to you, as a Nobleman. And truly it is a no lefs rare than great Felicity, which I congratulate with You for, that You have habituated Yourself all Your Life, to thofe Actions, which make Dignity fit graceful and eafy upon you, and render Grandeur, at its firft Approach, familiar. And here I muft further congratulate with You, upon fome late Acceffions of Fortune, with which You are enabled to do Justice to the Greatnefs of Your Mind, and without which Your Largeness of Soul might, perhaps, have tempted You into fome beautiful Errors, and made You, out of Generofity to others, do fome Wrong to Your own private Fortunes. I am, my Lord, glad at my very Heart, that while I am only defcribing to Your Lordship, what a Nobleman ought to be, Numbers of People will be ready to proclaim, that You are, what You ought...

A Perfon, like Your Lordship, who hath at once within him, thofe Qualifications, which ufually recommend their Poffeffors to the acquiring of Honours, joined to the Advantage of having been derived from an illuftrious Line, the frequent Confequence of which is an hereditary Worth, is certainly very far above being willing to receive any Flattery. And when I fhall have fatisfied my own Ambition, and boasted the Honour of being related to You, You will like me for afferting, that I am my felf, above offering Flattery to any Man breathing. Truly here I must take the Opportunity of fpeaking of one amiable Part of Your Character, (the like of which Mr. Dryden took handfom notice of in a Nobleman of his Time,) that will probably guard You from having that worst of Things, Flattery, obtruded upon You by any other Perfon. It is this, that You have none of that Haughtiness, which too ufually attends Perfons advanced to the Nobility. But whenever You converfe any private Gentleman, You plainly fhew by Your Behaviour, that You never forgot that You had been one Your felf.

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BUT to return to what I was faying above: As these elegant Parts of Your

Beha

Behaviour, are what You owe to Your Forefathers, fo fince thofe, that come after You, are to wear a Title from You, You owe the fame to them likewise, as a Duty, and by way of Example, the Imitation of which may make them wor thy of being Nobles, and the Glory of which may enable them, many Centuries hence, to boaft of the Virtues and Merits 1 of the Perfon, on whom the Dignity was first conferred, and by whose Means it was tranfmitted down to them, and fo to be doubly honoured by the latest Times, for Your fake.

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1

YOU fee, my Lord, I only plainly put you in mind of one Debt, that You owe to thofe, who lived before You, and of another, which You owe to those, who are to live after You. For tho' I have 1 been, with fingular Satisfaction and incredible Delight, prefent my self, and a Witness in private to fome mighty wellplaced A&ts of Munificence done by You, yet I fhall take more Pleasure, in hearing (as I have done frequently) those, on whom they were conferred, fpeak publickly and feelingly of them, from their own Experience, than I could in mentioning them here my self.

My

My LORD,

YOU may have from hence this pleafing Thought, to confider, That fome future illustrious Youth defcended from You, will, as I have now mentioned to You your Heroic Ancestor, have the Honour to be told of My Lord GAGE, as a PATTERN of true Mérit. J

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THAT You may live long in the continued Exercise of those Virtues, for which You have already acquired an early Fame, because then You must live, in the manner I speak of, to Pofterity, is the hearty Wish of,

THE

SPECTATOR,

VOL. IX.

No 636. Monday, January 3. 1715.

Ha Nuga feria ducunt

HAVE been long a Guardian to a pretty young Gentleman of Quality, and his two Sifters; and I do frequently look upon 'em with a secret Ambition, as ftill having an indulgent Father in me; who am tickled with the Fancy, that, tho' a Batchelor, I am a Parent of a Noble, Virtuous and Beautiful Offspring, that will keep up my Name, as far as the Family fhall extend; which I need not wish them longer to continue unto them, than they can with Honour derive it, from their great Ancestor, down to their Time; to ⚫ think that thefe will talk with affectionate Veneration of me, and be telling their Children's Children, This is our Old Gentleman's Inftruction. Indeed it delights me much: And then again, my Name will be fpread VOL. IX. B

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In mala

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Hor.