and magnanimous by the fleets and armies, magnificent upon the publick expences, and prudent by publick fuccefs. They have by their office a right to a fhare of the publick flock of virtues; besides they are by prescription immemorial invested in all the celebrated virtues of their predeceffors in the fame ftations, especially those of their own ancestors.

As to what are commonly called the colours of honourable and dishonourable, they are various in different countries in this they are blue, green, and red.

:

But forafmuch as the duty we owe to the publick doth often require, that we fhould put fome things in a ftrong light, and throw a fhade over others, I fhall explain the method of turning a vicious man into a hero.

The first and chief rule is the golden rule of transformation, which confists in converting vices into their bordering virtues. A man who is a spend-thrift, and will not pay a juft debt, may have his injustice aransformed into liberality; cowardice may be metamorphofed into prudence; intemperance into good nature and good

fellow

fellowship; corruption into patriotism; and lewdness into tenderness and facility.

The fecond is the rule of contraries : it is certain, the lefs a man is indued with any virtue, the more need he has to have it plentifully beftowed, especially those good qualities, of which the world generally believes he hath none at all: for who will thank a man for giving him that which he has ?

The reverfe of these precepts will ferve for fatire, wherein we are ever to remark, that whofo loseth his place, or becomes out of favour with the government, hath forfeited his fhare in publick praise and bonour. Therefore the truly-publick spirited writer ought in duty to ftrip him, whom the government hath ftripped; which is the real poetical juftice of this age.

For a

full collection of topicks and epithets to be used in the praise and difpraise of minifterial and unminifterial perfons, I refer to our rhetorical cabinet; concluding with an earnest exhortation to all my brethren to obferve the precepts here laid down, the neglect of which hath coft fome of them their ears in a pillory.

CHAP.

.

CHA P. XV.

A receipt to make an epic poem. AN epic poem, the critics agree, is the greatest work human nature is capable of. They have already laid down many mechanical rules for compofitions of this fort, but at the fame time they cut off almost all undertakers from the poffibility of ever performing them; for the firft qualification they unanimoufly require in a poet, is a genius. I fhall here endeavour (for the benefit of my countrymen) to make it manifeft, that epic poems may be made without a genius, nay without learning or much reading. This must neceffarily be of great use to all thofe, who confefs they never read, and of whom the world is convinced they never learn. Moliere obferves of making a dinner, that any man can do it with money, and if a profeffed cook cannot do it without, he has his art for nothing: the fame may be faid of making a poem, it is eafily brought about by him that has a genius, but the fkill lies in doing it without one.

In purfuance

fuance of this end, I fhall present the reader with a plain and certain recipe, by which any author in the bathos may qualified for this grand performance.

For the FABLE.

be

Take out of any old poem, historybook, romance, or legend (for inftance, Geoffery of Monmouth or Don Belianis of Greece) thofe parts of the ftory which afford most scope for long defcriptions: put these pieces together and throw, all the adventures you fancy into one tale. Then take a hero, whom you may chufe for the found of his name, and put him into the midst of these adventures: there let him work for twelve books; at the end of which you may take him out, ready prepared to conquer or to marry: it being neceffary that the conclufion of an epic poem be fortunate.

To make an EPISODE.

Take any remaining adventure of your former collection, in which you could no or any unfortu

way involve your bero: or any

nate accident, that was too good to be

thrown

thrown away; and it will be of use, applied to any other perfon, who may be loft and evaporate in the courfe of the work, without the leaft damage to the compofition.

For the MORAL and ALLEGORY.

These you may extract out of the fable afterwards, at your leifure: be fure you ftrain them fufficiently.

For the MANNERS.

For those of the hero, take all the best qualities you can find in the most celebrated heroes of antiquity: if they will not be reduced to a confiftency, lay them all on a heap upon him. But be fure they are qualities, which your patron would be thought to have ; and to prevent any mistake, which the world may be fubject to, felect from the alphabet thofe capital letters that compofe his name, and fet them at the head of a dedication before your poem. However, do not abfolutely obferve the exact quantity of these virtues, it not being determined whether or no it be neceffary for the hero of a poem to be

an