Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/12

 You, Sir, that have added to your Birth and Fortune so strong and general a Love, that your Wit, Sweetness of Temper, and Honour, defeat that Envy which Merit usually raises, will naturally take care of those, whose Imployment it is to distinguish betwixt the Pretence, and Reality; the Man of true Sense and Bravery, and the Flashy Opiniator, and the vain Boaster of his own Deeds.

From you therefore I hope, Sir, a favourable Reception, when I shelter all our Dramatick Writers under the Protection of your Name; for in you we shall find a Manly, yet Modest Merit

Wit without Opiniatreture; but balanc'd with a true and penetrating Judgment; Bravery which has nobly distinguish'd you from the Remisness of the Inglorious Youth of the Age, witness your Voluntary Campaigns in Flanders; a Generosity that gets you the Esteem of all Men, while the sordid are the Contempt and Laughter of Men of Sense.

I need be no farther particular in the Enumeration of your Vertues, since where ever Generosity goes justly to the making up of a Character, there can be no Vertue wanting. On this Vertue