TO

Sir _ANDREW FONTAINE_


To Address a Man of your Character, gives me greater Concern than to
finish the most Elaborate Play, and support the various Conflicts which
naturally attend ev'ry Author; how the Town in general will receive it.

To harangue some of the First Quality, whose Titles are the greatest
Illustration we can give 'em, is a sort of Common-Place Oratory; which
Poets may easily vary in copying from one another; but, when I'm speaking
to the most finish'd young Gentleman any Age has produced, whose
distinguish'd Merits exact the nicest Relation, I feel my inability, and
want a Genius barely to touch on those extraordinary Accomplishments,
which You so early, and with so much ease, have made Your self perfect
Master of.

But, when I reflect on the Affability of Your Temper, the generous and
obliging Reception, You always gave me, and the ingaging Sweetness of Your
Conversation, I'm the more incourag'd to pay my Duty to You in this
Nature, fully persuading my self, You'll lay aside the Critick, by
considering, in how many Respects, Your condescending Goodness has shown
You are my Friend.

The vast stock of Learning You acquir'd in Your Non-age, has manifested to
the World, that a Scholar, and a fine Gentleman are not Inconsistent, and
rendered You so matchless an Ornament to the University of _Oxford_,
particularly to _Christ-Church-_College, where You imbib'd it.