Demonftrative, and the lowest for the Judicial. Thefe fhall be fubdivided into Loci or Places, being repofitories for Matter and Argument in the feveral kinds of oration or writing; and every drawer shall again be fubdivided into Cells, resembling those of Cabinets for Rarities. The apartment for Peace or War, and that of the Liberty of the Prefs, may in a very few days be filled with several arguments perfectly new; and the Vituperative Partition will as easily be replenished with a moft choice collection, entirely of the growth and manufacture of the prefent age. Every compofer will foon be taught the ufe of this Cabinet, and how to manage all the Registers of it, which will be drawn out much in the manner of thofe in an Organ.

The Keys of it must be kept in honeft hands, by fome Reverend Prelate, or Valiant Officer, of unqueftionable Loyalty and Affection to every present Eftablishment in Church and State; which will fufficiently guard against any mifchief which might otherwise be apprehended from it.

And being lodged in fuch hands, it may be at difcretion let out by the Day, to feveral great Orators in both Houses; from whence it is to be hoped much Profit and Gain will accrue to our Society. IBID. p. 182.

DEDICATIONS AND PANEGYRICS. NOW of what neceffity the foregoing Project may prove, will appear from this fingle confideraX

tion,

tion, that nothing is of equal confequence to the fuccefs of our Works as Speed and Dispatch. Great pity it is, that folid brains are not, like other folid bodies, conftantly endowed with a velocity in finking proportionable to their heavinefs: For it is with the flowers of the Bathos as with those of Nature, which, if the careful gardener brings not haftily to market in the Morning, muft unprofitably perish and wither before Night. And of all our Productions none is fo fhort-lived as the Dedication and Panegyric, which are often but the Praife of a Day, and become by the next utterly ufelefs, improper, indecent, and falfe. This is the more to be lamented, inasmuch as these two are the forts whereon in a manner depends that Profit, which muft ftill be remembered to be the main end of our Writers and Speakers.

We fhall therefore employ this chapter in fhewing the quickest method of compofing them after which we will teach a short way to Epic Poetry. And these being confeffedly the works of most Importance and Difficulty, it is prefumed we may leave the reft to each author's own learning or practice.

First of Panegyric. Every man is bonourable, who is fo by Law, Custom, or Title. The Public are better judges of what is honourable than private Men. The Virtues of great Men, like those of Plants, are inherent in them, whether they are exerted or not; and the more strongly inherent, the

lefs

lefs they are exerted; as a man is the more rich, the lefs he spends. All great Minifters, without either private or œconomical Virtue, are virtuous by their Pofts, liberal and generous upon the Public Money, provident upon Public Supplies, juft by paying Public Intereft, courageous and magnanimous by the Fleets and Armies, magnificent upon the Public Expences, and prudent by Public Succefs. They have by their Office a right to a fhare of the Public Stock of Virtues; befides, they are by Prefeription immemorial invested in all the celebrated virtues of their Predeceffors in the fame ftations, efpecially those of their own Ancestors.

As to what are commonly called the Colours of Honourable and Dishonourable, they are various in different Countries: In this, they are Blue, Green, and Red.

But, forafmuch as the duty we owe to the Public doth often require that we should put fome things in a strong light, and throw a fhade over others, I fhall explain the method of turning a vicious Man into a Hero.

The firft and chief rule is the Golden Rule of Transformation; which confifts in converting Vices into their bordering Virtues. A Man who is a Spendthrift, and will not pay a juft Debt, may have his Injuftice transformed into Liberality; Cowardice may be metamorphofed into Prudence; In

temperance into Good-nature and Good-fellowship; Corruption into Patriotifm; and Lewdness into Tendernefs and Facility.

The fecond is the Rule of Contraries: It is certain, the lefs a man is endued with any Virtue, the more need he has to have it plentifully beftowed, especially thofe good qualities of which the world generally believes he has none at all: For who will thank a Man for giving him that which he has ?

The Reverse of thefe Precepts will ferve for Satire; wherein we are ever to remark, that whoso loseth his place, or becomes out of favour with the Government, hath forfeited his share in public Praise and Honour. Therefore the truly public-spirited writer ought in duty to ftrip him whom the Government hath ftripped; which is the real poetical Justice of this age. For a full collection of Topics and Epithets to be used in the Praise and Difpraise of Ministerial and Unministerial Perfons, I refer to our Rhetorical Cabinet; concluding with an earnest exhortation to all my brethren, to observe the Precepts here laid down; the neglect of which has coft fome of them their Ears in a Pillory.

IBID. P. 184.

A RECEIPT TO MAKE AN EPIC POEM.

AN Epic Poem, the Critics agree, is the greateft work human nature is capable of. They have already laid down many mechanical rules for compofitions of this fort, but at the fame time they

cut

cut off almoft all undertakers from the poffibility of ever performing them; for the firft qualification they unanimously require in a Poet, is a Genius. I fhall here endeavour (for the benefit of my countrymen) to make it manifeft, that Epic Poems may be made without a Genius, nay without Learning or much Reading. This muft neceffarily be of great ufe to all those who confefs they never Read, and of whom the world is convinced they never Learn. Moliere obferves of making a dinner, that any Man can do it with Money; and if a profeffed Cook cannot do without it, he has his Art for nothing: the fame may be said of making a Poem; it is easily brought about by him that has a Genius, but the fkill lies in doing it without one. In pursuance of this end, I fhall prefent the reader with a plain and fure Recipe, by which any author in the Bathos may be qualified for this grand performance.

IBID. P. 185.

TO MAKE AN EPIC POEM.

FOR THE FABLE

TAKE out of any old Poem, History-book, Romance, or Legend (for inftance, Geoffry of Monmouth, or Don Belianis of Greece), thofe parts of ftory which afford moft fcope for long Defcriptions Put these pieces together, and throw all the adventures you fancy into one Tale. Then take a Hero, whom you may chufe for the found of his name, and put him in the midst of these adventures :