University of Virginia Library

DEDICATION. TO THE EMPEROR OF CHINA.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,

WERE I to inscribe the following performance to Lord C*stl*r---gh, Mr. C*nn*ng, or any other illustrious Oppositionist, I should instantly be pronounced guilty of having composed it under his influence. Whereas, the various advantages attending a Dedication to your Majesty are obvious to all. A high title at the front of a book, is, I protest to

your Majesty, an indispensable point of decorum here. I therefore accomplish this important object to my heart's content, without being accused of seeking either places or pensions from my patron.

Another necessary ingredient in a Dedication is Flattery. Be a Poet's expressions ever so elegant, they will afford no satisfaction to the great man without it. He must rosin the bow, please your Majesty, or the fiddle will emit no music. With Flattery, then, your Majesty shall be plentifully supplied: and I shall thus do the duty of a Dedicator, without incurring the imputation of any sinister intent.

Allow me, then, to assure your Majesty, that the numberless graces you cannot avoid revealing, are few in number compared with the virtues you need not, and therefore do not reveal. Affable yet majestic, gentle without timidity, you cease to please only when you cease to be present. In short, your Majesty is just not a God, and yet you cannot be properly termed a mere mortal.

Whether this character be applicable or not, I cannot possibly make a guess, not having the honour of knowing your Majesty, even by hearsay; but as your Majesty will never read this Dedication, apologies, I humbly conceive would be merely mispending

time.I therefore conclude with assuring your Majesty how faithfully I am,

Your Majesty's slave, To command till death,