While I am thus delineating my Features, permit me to own, that I wifh my Portrait might fhine in a Mezzotinto through the Glafs-Windows of Picture-Shops in Fleet-Street and St. Paul's ChurchYard; then fhould I be gazed on with Admiration by Mercers 'Prentices! But I will at leaft indulge my Vanity in appearing on a large Sheet of Paper, in a wooden Cut, which ingenious School-Boys may delight to colour, with yellow and red Ochre, What a glaring Figure fhall I then make in the long Piazzas of Covent-Garden! I fhall be furrounded by venerable old Ballads; and feveral of my Family Pieces, fuch as the Sinners Coat of Arms, and the dreadful Sketches of Death, Judgment, and Damnation! Thence fhall I be tranflated to the naked Walls of Country Ale-houses, Coblers Stalls, and Neceffary Houfes!--And thou, O R-me, thou who art my other Self! be this my Glory! however different our Fortunes, however unlike the Incidents of our Lives, yet whenfoever the Countenance of Ifcariot Hackney is feen, thy own dear Phiz will be called to Remembrance. Merit; In fhort, I am a perfect Town Author: I hate all Mankind, yet am occafionally a mighty Patriot. I am very poor, and owe my Poverty to my that is, to my Writings: I am as proud as I am poor; yet, what is feemingly a Contradiction, never ftick at a mean Action, when the Welfare of the Republic of Letters, or, in other Words, my own Intereft is concerned. My Pen, like the Sword of a Swiss, or the Pleading of a Lawyer, is generally employed for Pay. There is one Piece of Advice, Gentlemen, which I would propofe to you: If any Papers of a dead Wit should fall into the Hands of a Member of your Society, let him be fure to print them, though never fo derogatory to the Perfon's Reputation, to get himself Money; and if, among whole Heaps of indigefted Papers, he finds a few with 56471 large lange Corrections and Additions by another eminent Hand, (which he well knows) let him be fure to fupprefs that Circumftance in lis Publication, wor 18 But to return to myself My Pamphlets fell many more Impreffions than thofe of celebrated Writers; the Secret of this is, I learned from Gurll to clap a new Title-Page to the Sale of every half Hundred; fo that when my Bookfeller has fold two Hundred and Fifty Copies, my Book generally en ters into the Sixth Edition. 'Tis reckoned a villainous Action to write a Libel, but more for to father one on a Person who neither wrote it, nor approves it; now I own I never fcruple to do both. When a Man of Figure (perhaps an Ornament of his Country) has been cruelly aspersed in his Life-time, I love to revive the Afperfion at his Death: It is Mirth to me to grieve a whole Family, by infulting his Memory before his Body is cold in the Grave. In this I imitate the Author of Sarah the Quaker in the Shades, to Lothario lately deceased. Though I am fo ready to libel others, I am downright frightened if I but hear of a Satire where my Name is likely to be inserted. When a Perfon does me a Favour, I either fufpect he has fome Defign on me, or think it lefs than my Due, and that he is obliged to me, because an Author, for accepting it. I am very tefty if I am not allowed Dictator of my Company; nor had I ever a Friend, whom I did not in his Abfence facrifice to my Jeft. I contemn the Few who admire me, am angry with the Multitude who defpife me, and mortally hate all who have any ways obliged me. I affure you, I am very famous for feveral Treatifes in Defence of Ingratitude: I never fail to illustrate them with the Examples of Marcus Brutus among the Ancients, and very eminent Statefmen among the Moderns. My private Refentment, like that of other Great Men, is always a public Justice. Now, Now, Gentlemen, if you like me for a Corre fpondent, my Price is the Price of a fournalist, a Crown; and, in the Stile of a Love-Bargain, half wet, half dry! You may find me in a Morning at my Lucubrations overs a Quartern Pot in a Geneva Shop in Clare-Market; a Houfe where I propófe many learned Interviews with Orator Henley, who chas removed his Stage to that Place. I generally dine with a Brother Bard, at one of the little Cooks -Shops near St. Martin's Church, and probably spend the Evening with him at a Night-Cellar in the Strand, where I fhall be ready to enter into a Treaty with your FREDERICK Prince of WALES. mia won BY RICHARD SAVAGE, Esq; G REAT HOPE of BRITAIN! A Theme, which, to attempt alone, is Praise. Where never Science beam'd a friendly Ray, Let Let Thofe of Luxury, with These to vie, Magnificently ufclefs ftrike the Eye! What tho' no Streams, in fruitless Pomp difplay'd, On Fens, where Peftilence, with poifon'd Breath, Now, where the Flood deep rolls, or wile extends, When the funk Sun no homeward Sail befriends, Heav'n throws not round us Rocks and Seas in vain. Who digs the Mine or Quarry, digs with Glees Loid of Himfelf, his Choice and Gain are free: Him the fame Laws the fame Protection yield, Who plows the Furrow, as who owns the Field. |