ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN Lord SOMMERS, BARON OF EVESHAM. 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 confummate and moft acknowledged merit. NONE but a perfon of a finished character, can be the proper patron of a work, which endeavours to cultivate and polifh human life, by promoting virtue and knowledge, and by recommending whatfoever may be either ufeful or ornamental to fociety. I KNOW that the homage I now pay you, is offering a kind of violence to one who is as folicitous 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. WHILE juftice, candour, equanimity, a zeal for the good of your country, and the moft perfuafive eloquence in bringing over others to it, are valuable diftinctions, you are not to expect that the public will so far comply with your inclinations, as to forbear cele brating fuch extraordinary qualities. It is in vain that you have endeavoured to conceal your fhare of merit, in the many national fervices which you have effected. Do what you will, the prefent age will be talking of your virtues, though posterity alone will do them justice. OTHER men pafs through oppofitions and contending interest 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 Sovereign the arts and policies of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the the most exact knowledge of our own con Atitution in particular, and of the interefts of Europe in general; to which I muft alfo add, a certain dignity in yourself, 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 councils and wisdom. BUT to enumerate the great advantages which the public has received from your administration, would be a more proper work for an history than for an addrefs of this nature. YOUR Lordship 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 pleasure you afford all who are admitted into your converfation, of your clegant tafte in all the polite parts parts of learning, of your great humanity and complacency of manners, and of the furprising influence which is peculiar to you, in making every one who converfes with your Lordship prefer you to himself, without thinking the lefs meanly of his own talents. But if I should take notice of all that might be obferved in your Lordship, I fhould have nothing new to fay upon any other cha racter of diftinction. I am,, My LORD, Your Lordship's most obedient, moft devoted, bumble fervant, THE SPECTATOR, |