all doubtful of the favourable Judgment I have made of him, and am quite uneasy to see him fo tender, in a Point he cannot but know he ought not himself to be Judge of; his Concern indeed, at another's Prejudice, or Disapprobation, may be natural; but, to own it, feems to me a natural Weakness. When a Work is apparently great, it will go without Crutches; your Art and Anxiety to heighten the Fame of it, then becomes low and little. He that will bear no Cenfure, must be often robb'd of his due Praife. Fools have as good a Right to be Readers, as Men of Sense have, and why not to give their Judgments too? Methinks it would be a fort of Tyranny in Wit, for an Author to be publickly putting every Argument to Death that appear'd against him; fo abfolute a Demand for Approbation, puts us upon our Right to dispute it; Praise is as much the Reader's Property, as Wit is the Author's; Applause is not a Tax paid to him as a Prince, but rather a Benevolence given to him as a Beggar; and we have naturally more Charity for the dumb Beggar, than the sturdy one. The Merit of a Writer, and a fine Woman's Face, are never mended by their talking of them: How amiable is fhe that seems not to know fhe is handfome! To conclude; all I have faid upon this Subject is much better contained in fix Lines of a Reverend Author, which will be an Answer to all critical Cenfure for ever. Time is the Judge; Time has nor Friend, nor Foe; While Snarlers ftrive with proud but fruitless Pain, CHA P. III. The Author's feveral Chances for the Church, the Court, and the Army. Going to the Univerfity. Met the Revolution at Nottingham. Took Arms on that Side. What he faw of it. A few Political Thoughts. Fortune willing to do for him. His Neglect of her. The Stage preferr'd to all her Favours. The Profeffion of an Actor confider'd. The Miffortunes and Advantages of it. AM now come to that Crifis of my The favour'd my Father's firft Defignation of me, he might then, perhaps, have had as fanguine Hopes of my being a Bishop, as I afterwards conceived of my being a General, when I first took Arms, at the Revolution. Nay, after that, I had a third Chance too, equally as good, of becoming an Under-propper of the State. How, at laft, I came to be none of all thefe, the Sequel will inform you. About About the Year 1687, I was taken from School to stand at the Election of Children into Winchester College; my being, by my Mother's Side, a Defcendant of William of Wickham, the Founder, my Father (who knew little how the World was to be dealt with) imagined my having that Advantage, would be Security enough for my Success, and fo fent me fimply down thither, without the leaft favourable Recommendation or Interest, but that of my naked Merit, and a pompous Pedigree in my Pocket. Had he tack'd a Direction to my Back, and fent me by the Carrier to the Mayor of the Town, to be chofen Member of Parliament there, I might have had juft as much Chance to have fucceeded in the one, as the other. But I must not omit in this Place, to let you know, that the Experience which my Father then bought, at my Coft, taught him, fome Years after, to take a more judicious Care of my younger Brother, Lewis Cibber, whom, with the Prefent of a Statue of the Founder, of his own making, he recommended to the fame College. This Statue now stands (I think) over the School-Door there, and was fo well executed, that it seem'd to fpeak-for its Kinfman. It was no fooner fet up, than the Door of Preferment was open to him. Here, one would think, my Brother had the Advantage of me, in the Favour of Fortune, by this his firft laudable Step into the World. I own, I was fo proud of his Succefs, that I even valued myself upon it; and yet it is but a melancholy Reflection to observe, how unequally his Profeffion and mine were provided for; when I, who had been the Outcast of Fortune, could find means, from my Income of the Theatre, before I was my own Mafter there, to fupply, in his highest Preferment, his common Neceffities. I cannot part with his Memory without telling you, I had as fincere a Concern for this Brother's Wellbeing, as my own. He had lively Parts, and more than ordinary Learning, with a good deal of natural Wit and Humour; but from too great a Difregard to his Health, he died a Fellow of New College in Oxford, foon after he had been ordained by Dr. Compton, then Bishop of London. I now return to the State of my own Affair at Winchester. After the Election, the Moment I was inform'd that I was one of the unsuccessful Candidates, I bleft myself to think what a happy Reprieve I had got, from the confin'd Life of a School-boy! and the fame Day took Poft back to London, that I might arrive time enough to see a Play (then my darling Delight) before my Mother might demand an Account of my travelling Charges. When I look back to that Time, it almost makes me tremble to think what Miferies, in fifty Years farther in Life, fuch an unthinking Head was liable to! To afk, why Providence afterwards took more Care of me, than I did of myself, might be making too bold an Enquiry into its fecret Will and Pleafure: All I can fay to E that that Point, is, that I am thankful, and amaz'd at it! "Twas about this time I firft imbib'd an Inclination, which I durft not reveal, for the Stage; for, befides that I knew it would difoblige my Father, I had no Conception of any means, practicable, to make my way to it. I therefore fupprefs'd the bewitching Ideas of fo fublime a Station, and compounded with my Ambition by laying a lower Scheme, of only getting the nearest way into the immediate Life of a Gentleman Collegiate. My Father being at this time employed at Chattsworth in Derbyshire, by the (then) Earl of Devonshire, who was raifing that Seat from a Gothick, to a Grecian Magnificence, I made use of the Leifure I then had, in London, to open to him, by Letter, my Difinclination to wait another Year for an uncertain Preferment at Winchester, and to entreat him that he would fend me, per faltum, by a fhorter Cut, to the Univerfity. My Father, who was naturally indulgent to me, feem'd to comply with my Request, and wrote word, that as foon as his Affairs would permit, he would carry me with him, and fettle me in fome College, but rather at Cambridge, where, (during his late Refidence at that Place, in making fome Statues that now ftand upon Trinity College New Library, he had contracted fome Acquaintance with the Heads of Houses, who might affift his Intentions for me. This I lik'd better than to go discountenanc'd to Oxford, to which it would |