Collonel Codrington.

The unjust Sentence this Play met with before very partial Judges in the
Acting, will, I'm pretty sure, be revers'd by the more unprejudiced
Readers, and it's evident, Merit will exert itself so far, as to justify
my Presumption in Dedicating it, notwithstanding its small success, to
you, Sir, for whom I must always profess the highest Esteem and Value,
sprung from that Nobleness of your Nature that takes a God-like Delight
in redressing the Misfortunes of 'em, more than fly to you for their
unhappiness; a generous Soul indeed, never gives a greater Proof of her
Excellence, than in her Protection of the Unfortunate; for tho suffering
Merit challenges a Regard from all, yet it meets with it from none but
such as you, Sir, who are so Eminent for that Vertue, which more than
all the rest, commands the Esteem and Veneration of the Thinking World,
your Generosity I mean, Sir, which gives the most Perfect Touches of
that likeness, man can have to his Almighty Original; for those are but
scurvey awkard Copies of Him that want it. 'Tis, I may say, the very
Essence of God, Who with our _Beings_, dispenses the grateful Knowledge
of Himself in the Benefits He bestows.

The narrow Virtues of the Old Philosophers, [which] were rather Vices,
if winnow'd well, form'd to gratify their Proud, Lazy, Superiority, at
the Expence of all the Publick Duties incumbent on mankind, whom they
pretend to Purge from his Passions, to make him happy, by that means to
amuse our Curiosity with Chymera's, whilst we lost our real Good, will
still naturally flow from those Springs of Pleasure, Honour, Glory, and
Noble Actions, the Passions given us by Heaven for our common Good. But
their own Practice generally shew'd the Vanity of their Emperic Boasts,
when they Buried all the Nobler Pleasures of the Mind in Avarice, and
Pedantick Pride, as _Lucian_ has pleasantly made out in _Hermotimus_.

Those Notional Excellencies that divert us from, or weaken a Publick
Spirit, are always False and Hypocritical, that under a gaudy out-side
conceals a rotten Carcass, full of Infectious Distempers that destroy
the noblest end of our Being, _The doing good to one another_. Vanity
has always been the Refuge of little Souls, that place their Value in a
False Greatness, Hyppocrisie, and great Titles. What a seeming Holiness
does for the Avaritious, Designing Saint; Titles do for the proud
Avarice of the meer Man of Quality, cheaply Purchasing a Re