D U KE oils to foco ÓB Suoda, MARLBOROUGH ' 25

Cove Soldanes sin ikinus MY LORD

Born 1051 So it is to Fondness for what has coft us much Time and

Altterition to produce, Hope Your Grace will forgive an Endeavour to preserve this Work Vol. IV. A

from

I have a

from Oblivion, by affixing to it Your memorable Name.

I shall not here presume to mention the illustrious Passages of Your Life, which are celebrated by the whole Age, and have been the Subject of the most sublime Pens; but if I could convey You to Posterity in your private Character, and describe the Stature, the Behaviour and Aspect 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, observe, that You excel the rest of Mankind in the least, as well as the greatest

En

Endowments. Nor were it a Circumstance to be mentioned, if the Graces and Attractions of Your Person were not the only Preeminence You have above others, which is left, almost, unobserved by greater Writers.

YET how pleasing would it be to those who fhall read the surprising Revolutions in your Story, to be made acquainted with your ordinary Life and Deportment? How pleasing would it be to hear that the fame Man, who had carried Fire and Sword into the Countries of all that had opposed the Cause of Liberty, and struck a Terrour into the Armies of France, had, in the midst of His high Station, a Behaviour as gentle as is usual in the first Steps towards Greatness? And if it were possible

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