Page 48 [48]
$ 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 Ex¬
pence 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 un¬
premeditated, but fo much the more natural,
Difcourfe. My venting it ex tempore I would:
not have you think proceeds from any Princi¬
ples 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 Rea¬
fon of my not being provided beforehand is
_only becaufe it was always my Humour con¬
ftantly 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 Me¬
thod 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