till the race has, by long continuance, after many generations, been naturalized and affimilated.

They have been ready upon all occafions to prefer the petty interests of their own country, though perhaps only fome defolate and worthless corner of the world. They have employed the wealth of England, in paying troops to defend mud-wall towns, and uninhabitable rocks, and in purchasing barriers for territories, of which the natural fterility fecured them from invasion.

This argument, which wants no particular inftances to confirm it, is, I confefs, of the greatest weight in this queftion, and inclines me ftrongly to believe, that the benevolent author of this prediction must have been BORN a BRITON.

The learned discoverer of the infcription was pleased to insist with great warmth upon the etymology of the word Patria, which fignifying, fays he, the land of my. father, could be made ufe of by none, but fuch whose ancestors had refided here: but in anfwer to this demon-, stration, as he called it, I only defired him to take notice, how common it is for intruders of yesterday, to pretend the fame title with the ancient proprietors, and having just received an eftate by voluntary grant, to erect a claim of hereditary right.

Nor is it lefs difficult to form any fatisfactory conjecture, concerning the rank or condition of the writer, who, contented with a confcioufness of having done his duty, in leaving this folemn warning to his country, feems ftudioufly to have avoided that veneration, to which his knowledge of futurity undoubtedly entitled him, and

those

thofe honours which his memory might juftly claim from the gratitude of pofterity, and has therefore left no trace, by which the moft fagacious and diligent enquirer can hope to discover him.

This conduct alone ought to convince us, that the prediction is of no fmall importance to mankind, fince the author of it appears not to have been influenced by any other motive than that noble and exalted philanthropy, which is above the narrow views of recompense or applause.

That interest had no fhare in this infcription, is evident beyond difpute, fince the age in which he lived received neither pleasure nor inftruction from it. Nor is it less apparent from the fuppreffion of his name, that he was equally a stranger to that wild defire of fame, which has fometimes infatuated the nobleft minds.

His modefty, however, has not been able wholly to extinguish that curiosity, which so naturally leads us, when we admire a performance, to enquire after the author. Those whom I have confulted on this occafion, and my zeal for the honour of this benefactor of my country, has not suffered me to forget a single antiquary of reputation, have almost unanimoufly determined, that it was written by a King. For where elfe, faid they, are we to expect that greatnefs of mind, and that dignity of expreffion, fo eminently confpicuous in this infcription?

It is with a proper fenfe of the weakness of my own abilities, that I venture to lay before the public, the rear fons which hinder me from concurring with this opinion, which I am not only inclined to favour by my refpect for the authors of it, but by a natural affection for monarchy,

monarchy, and a prevailing inclination to believe, that every excellence is inherent in a king.

To condemn an opinion fo agreeable to the reverence due to the regal dignity, and countenanced by fo great authorities, without a long and accurate discussion, would be a temerity justly, liable to the fevereft cenfures. A fupercilious and arrogant determination of a controversy of fuch importance, would doubtless be treated by the impartial and candid with the utmoft indignation.

But as I have too high an idea of the learning of my contemporaries, to obtrude any crude, hafty, or indigefted notions on the public, I have proceeded with the utmost degree of diffidence and caution; I have frequently reviewed all my arguments, traced them backwards to their firft principles, and used every method of examination to difcover whether all the deductions were natural and just, and whether I was not impofed on by fome fpecious fallacy; but the farther I carried my enquiries, and the longer I dwelt upon this great point, the more was I convinced, in fpite of all my prejudices, that this wonderful prediction was not written by á king.

For after a laborious and attentive perufal of histories, memoirs, chronicles, lives, characters, vindications, panegyrics and epitaphs, I could find no fufficient authority for afcribing to any of our English monarchs, however gracious or glorious, any prophetical knowledge or prefcience of futurity: which, when we confider how rarely regal virtues are forgotten, how foon they are difcovered, and how loudly they are celebrated, affords a probable argument at leaft, that none of them have laid

any

any claim to this character. For why fhould hiftorians have omitted to embellifh their accounts with fuch a striking circumftance? or if the hiftories of that age are loft by length of time, why was not fo uncommon an excellence tranfmitted to posterity in the more lafting colours of poetry? Was that unhappy age without a Laureat? Was there then no Young* or Philips †? no Ward or Mitchel to fnatch fuch wonders from oblivion, and immortalize a prince of fuch capacities? If this was really the cafe, let us congratulate ourselves upon being referved for better days; days fo fruitful of happy writers, that no princely virtue can thine in vain. Our monarchs are furrounded with refined fpirits, fo penetrating that they frequently difcover in their mafters great qualities invisible to vulgar eyes, and which, did not they publish them to mankind, would be unobferved for ever.

Nor is it easy to find in the lives of our monarchs many inftances of that regard for pofterity, which feems to have been the prevailing temper of this venerable man. I have seldom in any of the gracious fpeeches delivered from the throne, and received with the highest gratitude and fatisfaction by both Houses of Parliament, discovered any other concern than for the current year, for which fupplies are generally demanded in very preffing terms,

Dr. Edward Young. E.

+Ambrofe Philips, author of The Diftreft Mother, &c. E. ↑ Edward Ward. See Dunciad, and Biographia Dramatica. E. Jofeph Mitchel. See Biographia Dramatica. E.

and

and fometimes fuch as imply no remarkable folicitude for pofterity.

Nothing indeed can be more unreasonable and abfurd, than to require that a monarch, distracted with cares and furrounded with enemies, fhould involve himself in fuperfluous anxieties, by an unneceffary concern about future generations. Are not pretenders, mock-patriots, masquerades, operas, birth-nights, treaties, conventions, reviews, drawing-rooms, the births of heirs, and the deaths of queens, fufficient to overwhelm any capacity but that of a king? Surely he that acquits himself fuccessfully of fuch affairs, may content himself with the glory he acquires, and leave pofterity to his fucceffors.

That this has been the conduct of moft princes, is evident from the accounts of all ages and nations; and therefore I hope it will not be thought that I have, without just reasons, deprived this infcription of the veneration it might demand as the work of a king.

With what laborious struggles against prejudice and inclination, with what efforts of reasoning, and pertinacity of felf-denial, I have prevailed upon myself to facrifice the honour of this monument to the love of truth, none who are unacquainted with the fondness of a commentator will be able to conceive. But this instance will be, I hope, fufficient to convince the public, that I write with fincerity, and that whatever my fuccefs may be, my intentions are good.

Where we are to look for our author, it ftill remains to be confidered; whether in the high road of public employments, or the by-paths of private life.