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To the Right Honourable

JO

H N

EARL of ORRERT,

Baron Boyle of Marston, &c.

My LORD,

fo; for Your

AM proud that every

Address of mine to You should begin with the Acknowledgments

of

my Gratitude. This has particular Reafons to do Lordship was fo good to

bespeak the Patronage of a part of my

A Shakespeare:

Shakespeare: and my Duty could do no lefs than throw the Whole under Your Protection.

I fhall be cafily pardon'd, tho' I should profess a Sorrow for being reduc'd to make. You this unworthy Offering; because, I know, Your Lordship is truly a Mourner for the Neceffity. The good Lady Orrery (whofe Memory I most fincerely venerate) did me the Honour of making her early Claim: and it comes now to You by the melancholy Right of Executorship. Would it had Merit enough to plead its Intereft duly, as an Orphan and Relict from so dear a Friend!

It is a Maxim, I think, My Lord, of Monfieur Rochefoucault, that all our Actions and Defires flow from the Spring of Self-love. My ardent, but vain, Wishes that a long Life might crown the Countels of Orrery's Virtues, I may fay, fprung from a more generous Motive. I had Your Lordship's Joy and Interest principally in View: and with'd

She

She might survive, both to have made happy Your Bed, and fhared in the Education of those dear Pledges, which She has left You, of your mutual Affection.

caftum ut fervare Cubile

Conjugis, & poffet parvos educere Natos.

I have Your Lordship's Word for it, that She was, while living, my very good Friend: an Honour, that I would wish to repay, now She is no more, by raising a Monument of Gratitude to her Name. Without aiming at her Praise, I can barely hope to do Justice to her Memory! Truth, in an Epitaph or Characteristic, may do the World fome Service, while it exhibits a Pattern to be follow'd; but Flattery so exceeds all Proportion, that it leaves no Room for Imitation.

I never left your Lordship's Houfe, without the strongeft Impreffions of thofe Sweets, which endear Connubial Society. All the Qualities, that can make Woman laftingly amiable, were center'd

A 2

center'd in Lady Orrery. The Fondness of a Wife, and tender Mother, were eminently confpicuous in all her Behaviour. It was a Pleasure to her to adapt her felf to all Your Lordship's Sentiments: and You could honour None with any Degree of your Friendship, but That was a Merit to recommend them to her Smiles. In her Conversation, the Vivacity of Youth was happily temper'd with the Sageness of the Matron. She knew how to be pleasant without Levity, and to display Wisdom divested of all its difagreeable Severities. · With what Sweetness of Deportment She behav'd to her Domefticks, was visible in that Love and Reverence with which they obey'd her. She maintain'd the Respect due to her Rank, without being either fupercilious or affected: yet at the fame time knew, that her great Birth and Station ought not to fet her above being the Mistress of her Family. Hence, in the Point of your Table, while She confulted your Quality, She

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