Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/67

xxxvi of the best. "Let him (saith he) but fancy himself capable of the highest things, and he will of course be able to atchieve them." Laying this down as a principle, it will certainly and incontestably follow, that, if ever Hero was such a character, is: For if ever man thought himself such,  doth. Hear how he constantly paragons himself, at one time to the Great and  the XII. of Sweden, for the excess and delicacy of his Ambition ; to the IV. of, for honest Policy ; to the first , for love of Liberty ; and to Sir , for good Government while in power : At another time, to the godlike Portal:Socrates, for his diversions and amusements ; to Author:Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Author:Michel de Montaigne, and Sir , for an elegant Vanity that makes them for ever read and admired ; to Lord , for Law, from whom, when confederate against him at the bar, he carried away the prize of Eloquence ; and, to say all in a word, to the right reverend the Lord  of  himself, in the art of writing pastoral letters.

Nor did his Actions fall short of the sublimity of his Conceptions. In his early youth he met the Revolution at Nottingham face to face, at a time when his betters contented themselves with following her. But he shone in Courts as well as Camps: He was called up when the nation fell in labour of this Revolution : and was a gossip at her christening, with the Bishop and the ladies.

As to his Birth, it is true he pretendeth no relation either to Heathen God or Goddess; but, what is as good, he was descended from a Maker of both. And that he did not pass himself on the world for a Hero, as well by birth as education, was his own fault: For, his lineage he bringeth into his life as an Anecdote, and is sensible he had it in his power to be thought no body's son at all : And what is that but coming into the world a Hero.

There is in truth another objection of greater weight, namely, "That this Hero still existeth, and hath not yet finished his earthly course. For if Solon said well, that no man could be called happy till his death, surely much less can any one, till then, be pronounced a Hero: this species of men being far more subject than others to the caprices of Fortune and Humour." But to this also we have an answer, that will be deemed (we hope) decisive. It cometh from himself, who, to cut this dispute short, hath solemnly protested that he will never change or amend.