I To the RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN LORD SOMMERS, MY LORD, SHOULD not act the part of an impartial Spectator, if I dedicated the following papers to one who is not of the most confumimate and moft acknowledged merit. flom gd s moirag hi hoit None but a perfon of a finifhed character, can be the proper patron of a work, which endeavours to cultivate and polifh human life, but promoting virtue and knowledge, and by recommending what-i foever may be either ufeful or ornamental to foci- ety. ga I know that the homage I now pay You, offer ing a kind of violence to one who is as folicitous to fhun applaufe, as he is affiduous to deferve it.. But, my Lord, this is perhaps the only particular in which your prudence will be always difappointed. Dovis While justice, candour, equanimity, a zeal for the good of your country, and the most fuafive eloquence in bringing over others to it, are Dit per valuable diftinctions, You are not to expect that the publick will fo far comply with your inclinati ons, as to forbear celebrating fuch extraordinary qualities. It is in vain that you have endeavoured VOL. I. a 2 to conceal your fhare of merit, in the many nati onal fervices which you have effected. Do what you will, the 'prefent age will be talking of your virtues, though pofterity alone will do them juftice. Other men pafs thro' oppofitions and contending interefts in the ways of ambition; but your great abilities have been invited to power, and importuned to accept of advancement. Nor is it ftrange that this fhould happen to your Lordship, who could. bring into the fervice of your fovereign the arts and policies of ancient Greece and Rome; as well as the most exact knowledge of our own conftitution in particular, and of the interefts of Europe în general; to which I must also add, a certain dignity in yourfelf, that (to fay the leaft of it) has been always equal to thofe great honours which have been conferred upon You.. It is very well known how much the Church. owed to You in the most dangerous day it ever faw, that of the arraignment of its prelates; and how far the civil power, in the late and prefent reign, has been indebted to your counfels and wif dom. But to enumerate the great advantages which the public has received from your adminiftration, would be a more proper work for an history than for an addrefs of this nature. Your Lordfhip appears as great in your private: life, as in the most important offices which you have borne. I would therefore rather chufe to fpeak of the pleafure you afford all who are admitted into your converfation, of your elegant tafte in all the polite parts of learning, of your great humani-ty and complacency of manners, and of the furprifing influence which is peculiar to You in making every one who converfes with your Lordship prefer You to himfelf, without thinking the lefs meanly of his own talents. But if I fhould take notice of all that might be obferved in your Lordfhip, I fhould have nothing new to fay upon any other character of distinction.. My LORD,. Your Lordship's I am, Moft obedient, moft devoted, humble Servant, The SPECTATOR, |