Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/43

 true Character. Men had oftentimes medled in Publick Affairs, that they might have more ability to furnish for their Pleasures: Mecænas, by the honestest Hypocrisie that ever was, pretended to a Life of Pleasure, that he might render more effectual Service to his Master. He seem'd wholly to amuse himself with the Diversions of the Town, but under that Mask he was the greatest Minister of his Age. He wou'd be carried in a careless, effeminate posture thro' the Streets in his Chair, even to the degree of a Proverb, and yet there was not a Cabal of ill dispos'd Persons which he had not early notice of; and that too in a City as large as London and Paris, and perhaps two or three more of the most populous put together. No Man better understood that Art so necessary to the Great; the Art of declining Envy: Being but of a Gentleman's Family, not Patrician, he would not provoke the Nobility by accepting invidious Honours; but wisely satisfied himself that he had the Ear of Augustus, and the Secret of the Empire. Rh