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#The Tatler#
Edited by
George A. Aitken




In Four Volumes
Volume Three




#The Tatler#


Edited with Introduction & Notes
by
George A. Aitken


_Author of_
"The Life of Richard Steele," &c.




VOL. III


New York
Hadley & Mathews
156 Fifth Avenue
London: Duckworth & Co.
1899

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press




     _To the_ Right Honourable
     #William Lord Cowper#
     Baron of Wingham[1]


     MY LORD,

     After having long celebrated the superior graces and excellences
     among men, in an imaginary character, I do myself the honour to
     show 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 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.[2] 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.[3]

     When we attend to your lordship, engaged in a discourse, we cannot
     but reflect upon the many requisites which the vainglorious
     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 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 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, I should speak of you with the
     same force as you express yourself on any other subject. But I
     resist my present impulse, as agreeable as it is to me; though
     indeed, had I any pretensions to a fame of this kind, I should,
     above all other themes, attempt a panegyric upon my Lord Cowper:
     for the only sure way to a reputation for eloquence, in an age
     wherein that perfect orator lives, is to choose an argument, upon
     which he himself must of necessity be silent. I am,

                              My Lord, your Lordship's
                                Most devoted, most obedient, and
                                               Most humble Servant,
                                                      RICHARD STEELE.


[Footnote 1: William Cowper was appointed King's counsel about 1694; he
succeeded Sir Nathan Wright, as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal