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$ A PANEGYRICK x Lastry, Il verife the old Obfervation, | that allows him a Right of praifing himſelf | who has no body elfe to do it for him: For | really I cannot but admire at that Ingtatitude, — fhall I term it, or Blockifhnefs of Mankind, who when they all willingly pay to me their refpective Obligations ; that notwithftanding this, there fhould have been none fo grateful or complaiſant as to have beſtowed on me a Commendatory Oration, eſpecially when there ‘have not been wanting ſuch as at a great Expence of Sweat, and lofs of Sleep, have in Elaborate Speeches given high Encomiums to Tyrants, Agues, Flies, Baldnefs, and fuch like Trumperies. I ſhall entertain you with a hafty and unpremeditated, but fo much the more natural, Difcourfe. My venting it ex tempore I would: not have you think proceeds from any Principles of Vain-Glory, by which ordinary Orators | iquare their Attempts, who (as it is caſe to obſerve) when they are delivered of a Speech that has been Thirty Years a conceiving, nay, perhaps at laft none of their own, yet they ll fwear they wrote it in a great Hurry, and — upon very fhort Warning : Whereas the Reafon of my not being provided beforehand is _only becaufe it was always my Humour conftantly to ſpeak that which lyes Uppermoft. Next, let no one be fo fond as to imagine that 1 ſhould ſo far ftint my Invention to the Method of other Pleaders, as fir to define, and then divide, my Subje&, i. e. myfelf. For it is equally hazardous to attempt the crowding her
