h
the mud and filth with which it is encompassed. These are they, who,
wanting wit, affect gravity, and go by the name of solid men; and a
solid man is, in plain English, a solid, solemn fool. Another disguise
they have, (for fools, as well as knaves, take other names, and pass
by an _alias_) and that is, the title of honest fellows. But this
honesty of theirs ought to have many grains for its allowance; for
certainly they are no farther honest, than they are silly: They are
naturally mischievous to their power; and if they speak not
maliciously, or sharply, of witty men, it is only because God has not
bestowed on them the gift of utterance. They fawn and crouch to men of
parts, whom they cannot ruin; quote their wit when they are present,
and, when they are absent steal their jests; but to those who are
under them, and whom they can crush with ease, they shew themselves in
their natural antipathy; there they treat wit like the common enemy,
and giving no more quarter, than a Dutchman would to an English vessel
in the Indies; they strike sail where they know they shall be
mastered, and murder where they can with safety.

This, my lord, is the character of a courtier without wit; and
therefore that which is a satire to other men, must be a panegyric to
your lordship, who are a master of it. If the least of these
reflections could have reached your person, no necessity of mine could
have made me to have sought so earnestly, and so long, to have
cultivated your kindness. As a poet, I cannot but have made some
observations on mankind; the lowness of my fortune has not yet brought
me to flatter vice; and it is my duty to give testimony to virtue. It
is true, your lordship is not of that nature, which either seeks a
commendation, or wants it. Your mind has always been above the
wretched affectation of popularity. A popular man is, in truth, no
better than a prostitute to common fame, and to the people. He lies
down to every one he meets for the hire of praise; and his humility is
only a disguised ambition. Even Cicero himself, whose eloquence
deserved the admiration of mankind, yet, by his insatiable thirst of
fame, he has lessened his character with succeeding ages; his action
against Catiline may be said to have ruined the consul, when it saved
the city; for it so swelled his soul, which was not truly great, that
ever afterwards it was apt to be over-set with vanity. And this made
his virtue so suspected by his friends, th