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glorious, any prophetical Knowledge or Preſcience of Futurity. Which, when we conſider how rarely regal Virtues are forgotten, how ſoon they are diſcovered, and how loudly they are celebrated, affords a probable Argument at leaſt, that none of them have laid any Claim to this Character. For why ſhould Hiſtorians have omitted to embelliſh their Accounts with ſuch a ſtriking Circumſtance? or if the Hiſtories of that Age are loſt by Length of Time, why was not ſo uncommon an Excellence tranſmitted to Poſterity in the more laſting Colours of Poetry? Was that unhappy Age without a Laureat? Was there then no Young or Philips, no Ward or Mitchel, to ſnatch ſuch Wonders from Oblivion, and immortalize a Prince of ſuch Capacities? If this was really the Caſe, let us congratulate ourſelves upon being reſerved for better Days, Days ſo fruitful of happy Writers that no princely Virtue can ſhine in vain. Our Monarchs are ſurrounded with refined Spirits, ſo penetrating that they frequently diſcover in their Maſters great Qualities inviſible
