Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small]

ΤΟ ΤΗΣ

RIGHT HONOURABLE

WILLIAM LORD COWPER',

MY LORD,

BARON OF WINGHAM,

AFTER FTER having long celebrated the superior graces and excellencies among men, in an imaginary character, I do myself the honour to shew my veneration for transcendent: merit under my own name, in this address to your lordship. The just application of those high accomplishments of which you are master, has been an advantage to all your

He succeeded Sir Nathan Wright, as lord keeper of the great seal, in 1705; was created Baron Cowper of Wingham, 1706, and appointed lord chancellor, 1707; which post he held till 1710. On the accession of King George he was again appointed lord chancellor; and, on resigning the great seal, was created Earl Cowper, and Viscount Fordwich, March 18, 1717-18. His lordship died Oct. 10, 1723.

fellow-subjects; and it is from the common obligation you have laid upon all the world, that I, though a private man, can pretend to be affected with, or take the liberty to acknowledge, your great talents and public virtues.

It gives a pleasing prospect to your friends, that is to say, to the friends of your country, that you have passed through the highest offices, at an age when others usually do but form to themselves the hopes of them. They may expect to see 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 changed into the just judge; which latter character your lordship exerts with so prevailing an impartiality, that you win the approbation even of those who dissent from you, and you always obtain favour, because you are never moved by it.

This gives you a certain dignity peculiar to your present situation, and makes the equity, even of a lord high chancellor, appear but a degree towards the magnanimity of a peer of Great Britain.

Forgive me, my lord, when I cannot conceal from you, that I shall never hereafter behold you,

but I shall behold you, as lately, defending the brave and the unfortunate.

When we attend to your lordship engaged in a discourse, we cannot but reflect upon the many requisites which the vain-glorious speakers of antiquity have demanded in a man who is to excel in oratory; I say, my lord, when we reflect upon the precepts by viewing the example, though there is no excellence proposed by those rhetoricians wanting, the whole art seems to be resolved into that one motive of speaking, sincerity in the intention. The graceful manner, the apt gesture, and the assumed concern, are impotent helps to persuasion, in comparison of the honest countenance of him who utters what he really means. From whence 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 distinguished from other creatures, reason and speech.

If these gifts were communicated to all men in proportion to the truth and ardour of their hearts,

2 Meaning the duke of Marlborough.

« AnteriorContinuar »