It is hardly a mark of perfect skill that there are five or six thousand of such dry lines in Blackmore’s poem, and not even one that should lead a critic to speak in the same breath of Blackmore and Milton.]

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No. 340 Monday, March 31, 1712.  Steele.

  Quis novus hic nostris successit sedibus Hospes? 
  Quem sese Ore ferens! quam forti Pectore et Armis!

  Virg.

I take it to be the highest Instance of a noble Mind, to bear great Qualities without discovering in a Man’s Behaviour any Consciousness that he is superior to the rest of the World.  Or, to say it otherwise, it is the Duty of a great Person so to demean himself, as that whatever Endowments he may have, he may appear to value himself upon no Qualities but such as any Man may arrive at:  He ought to think no Man valuable but for his publick Spirit, Justice and Integrity; and all other Endowments to be esteemed only as they contribute to the exerting those Virtues.  Such a Man, if he is Wise or Valiant, knows it is of no Consideration to other Men that he is so, but as he employs those high Talents for their Use and Service.  He who affects the Applauses and Addresses of a Multitude, or assumes to himself a Pre-eminence upon any other Consideration, must soon turn Admiration into Contempt.  It is certain, that there can be no Merit in any Man who is not conscious of it; but the Sense that it is valuable only according to the Application of it, makes that Superiority amiable, which would otherwise be invidious.  In this Light it is considered as a Thing in which every Man bears a Share:  It annexes the Ideas of Dignity, Power, and Fame, in an agreeable and familiar manner, to him who is Possessor of it; and all Men who are Strangers to him are naturally incited to indulge a Curiosity in beholding the Person, Behaviour, Feature, and Shape of him, in whose Character, perhaps, each Man had formed something in common with himself.  Whether such, or any other, are the Causes, all Men have [a yearning [1]] Curiosity to behold a Man of heroick Worth; and I have had many Letters from all Parts of this Kingdom, that request I would give them an exact Account of the Stature, the Mein, the Aspect of the Prince [2] who lately visited England, and has done such Wonders for the Liberty of Europe.  It would puzzle the most Curious to form to himself the sort of Man my several Correspondents expect to hear of, by the Action mentioned when they desire a Description of him:  There is always something that concerns themselves, and growing out of their own Circumstances, in all their Enquiries.  A Friend of mine in Wales beseeches me to be very exact in my Account of that wonderful Man, who had marched an Army and all its Baggage over the Alps; and, if possible, to learn whether the Peasant who shew’d him the Way, and is drawn in the Map, be yet living.  A Gentleman from the University, who is deeply intent