# Memoirs of the Twentieth Century/Dedication

To His Royal Highness
Frederick Lewis,
May it please your Royal Highness,
IT would be highly proper even in a Stranger to Dedicate a Work, where the Growth of the Protestant Interest in Europe, and the Happiness deriv'd to these Nations from your Royal House do so often occur, to that Prince who will one Day wear the Title of the Defender of our Faith, as well as prove the Ornament of that Crown he is to inherit; and that Succession of our Princes, which he is e​qually born to perpetuate and adorn. But in one that has so long liv'd under, so often admir'd and experienc'd the happy Influence of that Constellation of Virtues, (if I may so speak) which exalts you as much above other Princes, as your Birth does above other Men, it would be equally insensible and ungrateful to have applied to any other Patron.
It is to be fear'd indeed, that the Work which I have the Honour to present to You, must seem less agreeable to your Royal Highness, who so frequently converse with the great Genius's of Greece and Rome; to You, Sir, who do not only steal many early Hours from the Pleasures of the Court, to give to their Labours, but whose constant Practice it has been, like Francis the First, to spend some time every Night before you Sleep, in attending to a Gentleman, whose Office it is to read them to you then for your Amusement.
But, as I have long observ'd, the Candour of excusing any unavoidable Errors is more agreeable both to your natural Temper and your settled Judgment, than the severer Delicacy of censuring them; so I must own I have with some Pleasure taken hold of this Opportunity of giving vent to the strongest Passion of my Heart, that Veneration or Admiration ​rather of your Royal Highness, which my Personal Knowledge of your Heroick Qualities, has imprest in the most indelible manner on my Soul.
Possibly I had been less liable to Censure, if I could have contented my self with paying You in private the secret Homage of my Heart, without giving any publick Testimony of that infinite Regard which I pretend to bear You.
Professions of this kind from a Subject to a Prince seem generally too Interested, to be very Sincere; and we may say of most of them, as well as of the false Patriot's Love for his Country, that, like some matrimonial Smithfield Bargains, tho' much Affection is pretended, there is no more meant by it, than a good Settlement for one's Family.
Nay in this case, the very Tribute of our Praise which we pay to such exalted Benefactors, is seldom taken by the World as current Payment, but is suspected to be mixt up with the basest Alloy. For Praise is so generally the common Incense offer'd up by the Idolaters of Power, that many Men are from the same Principle grown as perfect Infidels in matters of Panegyrick, as some pretend to be in Religion; who because they see so many false ​Gods set up for the publick Worship of the World, and ador'd with so much outward Profession of Zeal and Ardour; conclude, that all is but Mummery and Hypocrisy, that is paid even to the true One.
But if the Conduct of my Life cannot secure me from an Impeachment of this sort, your Royal Highness's uncontested Virtues so universally acknowledg'd by all, will surely stand as the strongest Proof, that the highest Professions of Veneration and Gratitude to such a Prince, may well be consistent with Sincerity of Heart, and unsuspected of the little Arts of fawning Sycophants.
And indeed, one may as well charge a Man with Hyprocrisy, for professing the Religion of his Country, as tax him with Flattery who owns himself an Admirer of your Royal Highness. For certainly as the one is as universally given into as the other by all our People; if it be Flattery, it is the Flattery of a Nation, and should no more be objected to a particular Person, than the Anglicisms of our common Speech, since 'tis the Language of the Country, and in the Mouths of all.
For who is there, Sir, in the most distant Corner of these Nations, that is so insensible ​of his own, or the general Happiness, as not to regard you with the sincerest Love, when you are only considered as the Heir apparent of the best Man and Woman, the best King and Queen, that ever adorn'd a Family, or blest a Nation: As their Son, who have so frequently given us the most delightful Prospect this World can afford, the Joy of seeing that infinite Desire of doing Good, which has so remarkably distinguish'd their Lives, join'd to as unlimited a Power of exercising it, by contriving for the Happiness and relieving the Miseries of Thousands: As their Son, I say, who have by so many Proofs, taught their Subjects no longer to consider a numerous Family as an intolerable Burthen, while they see such repeated Instances of their Solicitude to lighten it by particular Bounties, so many Laws to provide in general, for the Ease and Maintenance of the poorest of their Subjects, as well as such a parental Tenderness for every Calamity that befalls the greatest of them.
Your Royal Highness appears in a most amiable view, even to every common Eye, that regards you merely as a Descendant from such Princes, who have made the Happiness of their People the solid Basis of their Throne; who have govern'd us so, as to be Examples to all ​good, and Reproaches to all bad Rulers, and in a Word, whose Love of Justice, and Benignity of Spirit, whose natural Goodness of Heart, and hereditary Hatred of Oppression, have secur'd the same Blessings to their Subjects who live under a despotical Government, which we enjoy from them under a free One.
But how infinitely dearer, Sir, must you be to those who are inform'd of your amiable Character from others, or are so happy to observe you at a nearer Distance, and are as it were grown familiarly acquainted with that Complacency of Manners, that Candour and Openness of Soul, that winning Condescension, that fearless Courage, that Elevation of Mind, and Generosity of Heart, join'd with that filial Piety and Sweetness of Temper, which have made you, like Titus, the Delight of Humankind.
With what Pleasure to my self, with what Joy to others, have I been able to produce a thousand instances of this Nature, and convinc'd the most Incredulous, that tho' you promis'd such prodigious things in your Youth, as would have bankrupt the Virtue of any other Prince to have made good; yet your Reputation, how glorious soever then, like the dawning of the Morning, was but the glimmering ​that Day, which is now hast'ning to its Meridian height of Splendour.
'Tis the peculiar Happiness of your Royal Highness's Character, that there is nothing necessary to be concealed in it; and that, tho' there are few Princes, who must not have a Veil thrown over one half of theirs, in order to commend the other, who must not, like Hannibal, be drawn in Profil to cover their blind side, there are no Deformities, or accidental Blemishes that need to be disguis'd in Yours. But if there were, your Royal Highness is so entirely in the Possession of the Esteem of Men, that your very Imperfections would appear not only pardonable, but even amiable; and indeed, as to behold You is sufficient to make You lov'd, so to know You perfectly is the surest Method to make You admir'd.
And to speak the Truth, in what other Lights can we regard a Prince, who at an Age when others seem but to enter upon Life, has so happily emulated his Royal Father, as to have done more generous, more beneficent Actions, than he has liv'd Days; nay, more than would adorn the Annals of the longest Reigns? But I forget, that it is not allowable for me even to give the least hint to others, of those secret Depositories of your extensive Charities in this ​World, which are entirely paid to him, who only can and will reward them openly in the next.
I shall therefore stop my Pen, — nor had I indulg'd it so far, had I consider'd how greatly what I have already said might offend that Modesty, with which you conceal the best Actions with the same Care that others endeavour to hide their worst; or to express the noblest Quality (which to my shame I recollect too late) in the meanest Poetry,
I shall therefore turn the poor imperfect Tribute of my Praise, into what will become me more, my sincere Prayers for you; that you may so go on to copy all the Virtues of that best of Men and Princes, your Royal Father, that when worn with Cares and Years, God shall call him from that Crown he now adorns, to an eternal one, You may so fill his place, and so become in his stead a Father to your People, as to make his glorious Memory neither reproachful to You, nor too often honour'd with the Tears of your Subjects.
May You then reap the happy Fruits of all your Royal Virtues and his Majesty's prudent ​Counsels and perpetual Labours for the general good of his Kingdoms, and may they both concur to make us the happiest of Nations, and the best of Subjects under a race of Princes, against whom the little Clamours and Arts of Faction at Home, will be as impotent and contemptible, as the inveterate Malice of Rome, and the Enemies of our Peace Abroad.
In those Halcyon Days may God so bless your Reign as to give you no other object of your Cares, but to preserve to us those Blessings of Unity and Concord (the Seeds whereof are now so happily sown and growing up in our Land) and to encourage the Improvement of the rising Arts, and patronize the learned Sciences, till they gain new Life among us, and grow in proportion cultivated as our Manufactures, and extended as our Trade. In a word, may the Happiness of your People be then so universal and compleat, that your charitable and generous Spirit may search with equal Difficulty for distressed Families to relieve, as for Enemies to convert or pardon; and to sum up all, may you then so second the present pious Cares of your Royal Parents in combating the Vice and abandon'd Wickedness of a degenerate Age, that your Piety may shield us from the Vengeance of Heaven, if ever our Virtue ​and Religion should sink to a lower Ebb than they are fallen to at present.
And thus in Virgil's noble Prayer for young Augustus, I commit your Royal Highness to the Protection of the Almighty.
I am with the utmost Submission,
Your Royal Highness's
January 25, 1731.
Most Obedient
Most Devoted
Humble Servant
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