My LORD, A FTER having long celebrated the fuperiour Graces and Excellencies, among Men, in an Imaginary Character, I do my felf the Honour to show my Veneration for tranfcendent Merit, under my own Name, in this Address to your Lordfhip. The juft Application of thofe high Accomplishments of which you are Mafter, has been an Advantage to all your Fellow Subjects; and it is from the common Obligation you A 2 have have laid upon all the World, hat I, though a private Man, can pretend to be affected with, or take the Liberty to acknowledge your great Talents and publick Virtues. I THODI It gives a pleafing Profpect to your Friends, that is to fay, to the Friends of your Country, that you have paffed through the Highest Offices, at an Age when others ufually do but form to themselves the, Hopes of them. They may expect to fee you in the House of Lords as many Years as you were ascending to it. It is our common Good, that your Admirable Eloquence can now no longer be employed but in the Expression of your own Sentiments and Judgment, The skilful Pleader is now for ever changid into the Juft Judge, which latter Chara+ cter your Lordship exerts with so prevailing an Impartiality, that you win the Approbation, even of those who diffent from you, and you always obain Favour, because you are never moved by it, contutor edi moni e si This gives you a certain Dignity peculiar to your present Situation, and makes the Equity, even of a Lord High Chancellor, appear but a De gree towards the Magnanimity of a Peer of Great Britains de Ho ahil Ivy an o Forgive me, My Lord, when I can not conceal from you, that I shall never hereafter behold you, but I fhall behold you, as lately, defending the Brave, and the Unfortunate.. When we attend to your Lordship, engaged in a Difcourfe, we cannot but reflect upon the many Requifites which the vain glorious Speakers of Antiquity have demanded in a Man who is to excel in Oratory; I fay, My Lord, when we reflect upon the Precepts by viewing the Example, tho' there is no Excellence propofed by thofe Rhetoricians wanting, the whole Art feems to be refolved into that one Motive of Speaking, Sincerity in the Intention. The graceful Manner, the apt Gesture, and the affumed Concern, ΠΟΙ are are impotent Helps to Perfuafion, in Comparison of the honeft Countenance of him who utters what he really means. From hence it is, that all the Beauties which others attain with Labour, are in your Lordship but the natural Effects of the Heart that dictates. It is this noble Simplicity which makes you surpass Mankind in the Faculties, wherein Mankind are diftin guished from other Creatures, Reason and Speech. If thefe Gifts were communicated to all Men in Proportion to the Truth and Ardour of their Hearts, I should fpeak of you with the fame Force as you express your self on any other Subject. But I refift my present Impulse, as agreeable as it is to me; though indeed, had I any Pretenfions to a Fame of this Kind, I fhould, above all other Themes, attempt a Panegyrick upon My Lord Cowper : For the only fure Way to a Reputa .. tion |