TO THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. MY LORD, As it is natural to have a Fondness for what has cost us much Time and Attention to produce, I hope Your Grace will forgive an Endeavour to pre serve this Work from Oblivion, by affixing it to Your memorable Name, I shall not here presume to mention the illustrious Passages of Your Life, which are celebrated by the whole Age, and have been the Subject of the most sublime Pens; but if I could convey You to Posterity in Your private Character, and describe the Stature, the Behaviour and Aspect of the Duke of Marlborough, I question not but it would fill the Reader with more agreeable Images, and give him a more delightful Entertainment than what can be found in the follow ing, or any other Book One cannot indeed without Offence, to Yourself, observe, that You excel the rest of Mankind in the least, as well as the greatest Endowments. Nor were it a Circumstance to be mentioned, if the Graces and Attractions of Your Person were not the only Preh eminence You have above others, which is left, almost, unobserved by greater Writers, Yet how pleasing would it be to those who shall read the surprising Revolutions in Your Story, to be made acquainted with Your ordinary Life and Deport ment? How pleasing would it be to hear that the same Man who had carried Fire and Sword into the Countries of all that had opposed the Cause of Liberty, and struck a Terrour into the Armies of France, had in the midst of His high Station a Behaviour as gentle as is usual in the first Steps towards Greatness? And if it were possible to express that easy Grandeur, which did at once persuade and command; it would appear as clearly to those to come, as it does to His Con temporaries, that all the great Events which were brought to pass under the Conduct of so well-govern'd a Spirit, were the Blessings of Heaven upon Wisdom and Valour; and all which seem adverse fell out by divine Permission, which we are not to search into. You have pass'd that Year of Life wherein the most able and fortunate Captain, before Your Time, declared he had lived enough both to Nature and to Glory: and Your Grace may make that Reflection with much more Justice. He spoke it after he had arrived at Empire, by an Usurpation upon those whom he had enslaved; but the Prince of Mindelheim may rejoyce in a Soveraignty which was the Gift of Him whose Dominions He had preserved. Glory established upon the uninterrupted Success of honourable Designs and Actions is not subject to Diminution; nor can any Attempts prevail against it, but in the Proportion which the narrow Circuit of Rumour bears to the unlimited Extent of Fame. We may congratulate Your Grace not only upon Your high Atcheivements, but likewise upon the happy Expiration of Your Command, by which Your Glory is put out of the Power of Fortune: And when Your Person shall be so too, that the Author and Dis poser of all Things may place You in that higher Mansion of Bliss and Immortality which is prepared for good Princes, Lawgivers, and Heroes, when HE in HIS due Time removes them from the Envy of Man kind, is the hearty Prayer of My LORD, Your Grace's Most Obedient, Most Devoted Humble Servant, THE SPECTATOR I Erranti, passimque oculos per cuncta ferenti.—Virg. 'Mr. SPECTATOR, upon AM very sorry to find by your Discourse the Eye, that you have not thoroughly studied the Nature and Force of that Part of a beauteous Face. Had you ever been in Love, you would have said ten thousand Things, which it seems did not occur to you: Do but reflect upon the Nonsense it makes Men talk, the Flames which it is said to kindle, the Transport it raises, the Dejection it causes in the bravest Men; and if you do believe those Things are expressed to an Extravagance, yet you will own, that the Influence of it is very great which moves Men to that Extrava gance. Certain it is, that the whole Strength of the Mind is sometimes seated there; that a kind Look imparts all, that a Year's Discourse could give you, in one Moment. What matters it what she says to you, see how she looks is the Language of all who know what Love is. When the Mind is thus summed up and expressed in a Glance, did you never observe a sudden Joy arise in the Countenance of a Lover? Did you never see the Attendance of Years paid, over paid, in an Instant? You SPECTATOR, and not know that the Intelligence of Affection is carried on by the Eye only; that Good-breeding has made the Tongue falsify the Heart, and act a Part of continual Constraint, while Nature has preserved the Eyes to her self, that 3 II 165 L she |