Reprinted from the edition of 1733, London Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 68-58620 AMS PRESS, INC. To the Right Honourable JOHN EARL of ORRERY, Baron Boyle of Marston, &c. My LORD, AM proud that every of my Gratitude. This has particular Reasons to do fo; for Your Lordship was fo good to bespeak the Patronage of a part of my A "Shakespeare: Shakespeare: and my Duty could do no less than throw the Whole under Your Protection. I shall be casily pardon'd, tho' I should profess a Sorrow for being reduc'd to make You this unworthy Offering; because, I know, Your Lordship is truly a Mourner for the Neceffity. The good Lady Orrery (whofe Memory I most fincerely venerate) did me the Honour of making her early Claim: and it comes now to You by the melancholy Right of Executorship. Would it had Merit enough to plead its Intereft duly, as an Orphan and Relict from fo dear a Friend! It is a Maxim, I think, My Lord, of Monfieur Rochefoucault, that all our Actions and Defires flow from the Spring of Self-love. My ardent, but vain, Wishes that a long Life might crown the Countess of Orrery's Virtues, I may fay, fprung from a more generous Motive. I had Your Lordship's Joy and Interest principally in View: and wifh'd She She might survive, both to have made happy Your Bed, and shared in the Education of thofe dear Pledges, which She has left You, of your mutual Affection. caftum ut fervare Cubile Conjugis, & poffet parvos educere Natos. I have Your Lordship's Word for it, that She was, while living, my very good Friend: an Honour, that I would wish to repay, now She is no more, by raising a Monument of Gratitude to her Name. Without aiming at her Praise, I can barely hope to do Juftice to her Memory! Truth, in an Epitaph or Characteristic, may do the World fome Service, while it exhibits a Pattern to be follow'd but Flattery so exceeds all Proportion, that it leaves no Room for Imitation. I never left your Lordship's Houfe, without the ftrongest Impreffions of those Sweets, which endear Connubial Society. All the Qualities, that can make Woman laftingly amiable, were center'd A 2 center'd in Lady Orrery. The Fondness of a Wife, and tender Mother, were eminently confpicuous in all her Behaviour. It was a Pleasure to her to adapt her self to all Your Lordship's Sentiments: and You could honour None with any Degree.of your Friendship, but That was a Merit to recommend them to her Smiles. In her Conversation, the Vivacity of Youth was happily temper'd with the Sageness of the Matron. She knew how to be pleasant without Levity, and to display Wisdom divested of all its difagreeable Severities. With what Sweetness of Deportment She behav'd to her Domefticks, was visible in that Love and Reverence with which they obey'd her. She maintain'd the Respect due to her Rank, without being either fupercilious or affected: yet at the fame time knew, that her great Birth and Station ought not to fet her above being the Mistress of her Family. Hence, in the Point of your Table, while She confulted your Quality, She took |