The speaker, or Miscellaneous pieces, selected from the best English writers ...

Picture of a good Man.

WITH aspect mild, and elevated eye,

Behold him seated on a mount serene,

Above the fogs of Sense, and Passion's storm::
All the black cares, and tumults of this life,
Like harmless thunders, breaking at his feet,
Excite his pity, not impair his peace.

Earth's genuine son's, the sceptred and the slave,,
A mingled mob! a wand'ring herd! he sees,
Bewilder'd in the vale; in all unlike!.

His full reverse in all! what higher praise?
What stronger demonstration of the right?
The present all their care; the future his.
When public welfare calls, or private want,.
They give to fame; his bounty he conceals.
Their virtues varnish nature; his exalt.
Mankind's esteem they court; and he his own.
Theirs the wild chase of false felicities;
His, the compos'd possession of the true.
Alike throughout in his consistent piece,
All of one colour, and an even thread;
While party-colour'd shreds of happiness
With hideous gaps between, patch up
for them
A madman's robe; each puff of fortune blows
The tatters by, and shews their nakedness.

He sees with other eyes than theirs: Where they Behold a sun, he spies a Deity:

What makes them only smile, makes him adore..
Where they see mountains, he but atoms sees,;,
An empire in his balance, weighs a grain.
They things terrestrial worship, as divine :
His hopes immortal blow them by, as dust
That dims his sight, and shortens his survey,
Which longs, in infinite, to lose all bound.
Titles and honours (if they prove his fate).
He lays aside to find his dignity;
No dignity they find in aught besides..
They triumph in externals, (which conceal

Man's real glory,) proud of an eclipse:
Himself too much he prizes to be proud;
And nothing thinks so great in man, as man.
Too dear he holds his int'rest, to neglect
Another's welfare, or his right invade;
Their int'rest, like a lion, lives on prey.
They kindle at the shadow of a wrong;
Wrong he sustains with temper, looks on heav'n,
Nor stoops to think his injurer his foe;
Nought, but what wounds his virtue, wounds his

peace.

A cover'd heart their character defends;
A cover'd heart denies him half his praise.
With nakedness his innocence agrees,

While their broad foilage testifies their fall!
Their no joys end, where his full feast begins:
His joys create, theirs murder, future bliss.
To triumph in existence, his alone;
And his alone triumphantly to think
His true existence is not yet begun.

His glorious course was, yesterday, complete:
Death, then, was welcome; yet still life is sweet.-

YOUNG.

XVIII. Douglas to Lord Randolph.

VI.

VII.

ΒΟΟΚ

DIDACTIC

On Modesty.

III.

PIECES.

XI.

XII.

On the Knowledge of the World. ibid. 74

On the Advantage of uniting Gentle-

ness of Manners with Firmness

of Mind.

Ld. Chesterfield. 76

Hamlet's Instructions to the Players.

The present Condition of Man vindi-

Melmoth.

Bacon.

XIX. Against Indolence; an Epistle.

Elegy to a young Nobleman. Mason, 100

On the Miseries of Human Life.

XX.

XXI.

Reflections on a Future State. ibid. 102

XXII.

XXIII. On Procrastination.

XXIV. The Pain arising from Virtuous Emo-

tions attended with Pleasure. Aken.

XXVI. The Pleasures arising from a culti

vated Imagination.

ibid. 109

BOOK I V.

ARGUMENTATIVE PIECES.

Page.

Holland. 111

Virtue our highest Interest. Harris. 118

The same subject.

On the Immortality of the Soul. Spec-

IV.

tator. ib.

III..

IV.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

Junius Brutus over the dead Body of

Lucretia.

Hannibal to his Soldiers.

Livy. 126

ibid. 128

C. Marius to the Romans, on their
hesitating to appoint him, General
in the Expedition against Jugurtha,
merely on account of his Extrac-
tion.
Sallust. 13
Calisthenes's Reproof of Cleon's Flat-

tery to Alexander. Q. Curtius. 135

The Scythian Ambassadors to Alex-

ander.
ibid. 136

Galgacus the General of the Caledonii

to his Army, to incite them to Ac-

tion against the Romans. Tacitus. 140

The Earl of Arundel's Speech propos-

ing an Accommodation between

Henry II. and Stephen. Lord Lyt-

telton. 143

Mr. Pulteney's Speech on the Motion

for reducing the Army..