Written in Montaigne's Essays, Given to the Duke of Shrewsbury in France, after the Peace, 1713.

Dictate, O mighty Judge, what Thou hast seen
 Of Cities, and of Courts, of Books, and Men;
 And deign to let Thy Servant hold the Pen. 

Thro' Ages thus I may presume to live;
 And from the Transcript of Thy Prose receive,
 What my own short-liv'd Verse can never give. 

Thus shall fair Britain with a gracious Smile
 Accept the Work; and the instructed Isle,
 For more than Treaties made, shall bless my Toil. 

Nor longer hence the Gallic Style preferr'd,
 Wisdom in English Idiom shall be heard;
 While Talbot tells the World, where Montaigne err'd.