be a very unreasonable request; since, by being inscribed to your
Ladyship, though without your knowledge, and from a concealed hand, you
cannot recommend them without some suspicion of partiality. My real
design is, I confess, the very same I have often detested in most
dedications; that of publishing your praises to the world. Not upon the
subject of your noble birth, for I know others as noble; or of the
greatness of your fortune, for I know others far greater; or of that
beautiful race (the images of their parents) which call you mother: for
even this may perhaps have been equalled in some other age or country.
Besides, none of these advantages do derive any accomplishments to the
owners, but serve at best only to adorn what they really possess. What I
intend, is your piety, truth, good sense, and good nature, affability,
and charity; wherein I wish your Ladyship had many equals, or any
superiors; and I wish I could say I knew them too, for then your
Ladyship might have had a chance to escape this address. In the
meantime, I think it highly necessary, for the interest of virtue and
religion, that the whole kingdom should be informed in some parts of
your character: For instance, that the easiest and politest
conversation, joined with the truest piety, may be observed in your
Ladyship, in as great perfection, as they were ever seen apart in any
other persons. That by your prudence and management under several
disadvantages, you have preserved the lustre of that most noble family
into which you are grafted, and which the immeasurable profusion of
ancestors for many generations had too much eclipsed. Then, how happily
you perform every office of life to which Providence has called you: In
the education of those two incomparable daughters, whose conduct is so
universally admired; in every duty of a prudent, complying, affectionate
wife; in that care which descends to the meanest of your domestics; and,
lastly, in that endless bounty to the poor, and discretion where to
distribute it. I insist on my opinion, that it is of importance for the