Be pleased, my lord, to accept with your wonted goodness this
unworthy present which I make you. I have taken off one trouble
from you, of defending it, by acknowledging its imperfections; and
though some part of them are covered in the verse (as Ericthonius
rode always in a chariot to hide his lameness), such of them as
cannot be concealed you will please to connive at, though in the
strictness of your judgment you cannot pardon. If Homer was allowed
to nod sometimes, in so long a work it will be no wonder if I often
fall asleep. You took my "Aurengzebe" into your protection with all
his faults; and I hope here cannot be so many, because I translate
an author who gives me such examples of correctness. What my jury
may be I know not; but it is good for a criminal to plead before a
favourable judge: if I had said partial, would your lordship have
forgiven me? Or will you give me leave to acquaint the world that I
have many times been obliged to your bounty since the Revolution?
Though I never was reduced to beg a charity, nor ever had the
impudence to ask one, either of your lordship or your noble kinsman
the Earl of Dorset, much less of any other, yet when I least
expected it you have both remembered me, so inherent it is in your
family not to forget an old servant.
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