Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Speech
often strike on such as are obliged to exert any talent before them , this first essay , however wrote or delivered , I hope will neither discredit my person nor my office . It has been said , by one that knew it well , that one would think there was some kind of fascination in the eyes of a large circle of people , darting all together on one person , which has made many a brave fellowwho has put his to fliht in the field
, enemy g , tremble in the delivering of a speech before a body of his friends at home . _ Whatever will be the event of this , I hope the good design I do it with , shall , b y the candour ' of my brethren , be admitted for an excuse , and in some measure compensate for the loss of time , which , I doubt not , might be much better employed on this important occasion .
Human society , gentlemen , taken m general terms , is one of the greatest blessings of life . For this end speech or language was g iven us , which does so sublimel y distinguish us above the rest of the works of the creation ; the different empires , kingdoms , and commonwealths , in the universe , are only so many greater or lesser communities or societies of mankind collected together ; and , for the most part , have invented the laws and language they now speak and are . governed by .
Society has _ harmony in the very sound of the word ; but much more in the application of it : for it is to it we owe all arts and sciences * whatever . To this end , all schools , seminaries , and colleges , were erected by our wise progenitors ; not to mention those numberless noble edifices set apart for congregated societies in divine worship . How useful thisof our own has been in these remarkable particulars , I shall have sufficient reason to speak of in the sequel . Et adcle tot egregias Urbes , opcrumquc laborem , Tot congesta manu pneruptis oppida Saxis . VIRG .
But when we come to view society and its usefulness in a nearer perspective , ive shall find it magnify upon us prodigiously , and require a pencil more delicate than mine to draw it in perfection ; I shall confine myself , therefore , to a few sli ght touches , which , even from my hand , may perhaps give some idea of the beauty of the whole . It is a maxim indisputably true , that we ought to read men as well as books . What an unsociable animal is a learned pedant , who has shut himself up all his life with Plato and Aristotle ? For , till the dust and cobwebs of his study are brushed off of him b y conversation , he is utterly unfit for human society . '
_ A good genius can only be cultivated this way ; it lies like a rich diamond whose beauty is indiscernable till polished . Good m ? . nners , the chief characteristic of a fine gentleman , is only attainable this way : for we learn , by seeing how odious a brute is , to shun brutality . Good sense , which indeed is a genius , yet can no way be so readily
improved as by frequent observing in good company nonsense and ribaldry exploded . In fine , neither our health nor wealth would suffer by it , but be both of them increased and amended , did not the pernicious custom of drinking too 'deep , which we of our nation too much indulge , invert the order and ceconomy of all society . There is no conversation to be kept up in the world without good nature , or something
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Speech
often strike on such as are obliged to exert any talent before them , this first essay , however wrote or delivered , I hope will neither discredit my person nor my office . It has been said , by one that knew it well , that one would think there was some kind of fascination in the eyes of a large circle of people , darting all together on one person , which has made many a brave fellowwho has put his to fliht in the field
, enemy g , tremble in the delivering of a speech before a body of his friends at home . _ Whatever will be the event of this , I hope the good design I do it with , shall , b y the candour ' of my brethren , be admitted for an excuse , and in some measure compensate for the loss of time , which , I doubt not , might be much better employed on this important occasion .
Human society , gentlemen , taken m general terms , is one of the greatest blessings of life . For this end speech or language was g iven us , which does so sublimel y distinguish us above the rest of the works of the creation ; the different empires , kingdoms , and commonwealths , in the universe , are only so many greater or lesser communities or societies of mankind collected together ; and , for the most part , have invented the laws and language they now speak and are . governed by .
Society has _ harmony in the very sound of the word ; but much more in the application of it : for it is to it we owe all arts and sciences * whatever . To this end , all schools , seminaries , and colleges , were erected by our wise progenitors ; not to mention those numberless noble edifices set apart for congregated societies in divine worship . How useful thisof our own has been in these remarkable particulars , I shall have sufficient reason to speak of in the sequel . Et adcle tot egregias Urbes , opcrumquc laborem , Tot congesta manu pneruptis oppida Saxis . VIRG .
But when we come to view society and its usefulness in a nearer perspective , ive shall find it magnify upon us prodigiously , and require a pencil more delicate than mine to draw it in perfection ; I shall confine myself , therefore , to a few sli ght touches , which , even from my hand , may perhaps give some idea of the beauty of the whole . It is a maxim indisputably true , that we ought to read men as well as books . What an unsociable animal is a learned pedant , who has shut himself up all his life with Plato and Aristotle ? For , till the dust and cobwebs of his study are brushed off of him b y conversation , he is utterly unfit for human society . '
_ A good genius can only be cultivated this way ; it lies like a rich diamond whose beauty is indiscernable till polished . Good m ? . nners , the chief characteristic of a fine gentleman , is only attainable this way : for we learn , by seeing how odious a brute is , to shun brutality . Good sense , which indeed is a genius , yet can no way be so readily
improved as by frequent observing in good company nonsense and ribaldry exploded . In fine , neither our health nor wealth would suffer by it , but be both of them increased and amended , did not the pernicious custom of drinking too 'deep , which we of our nation too much indulge , invert the order and ceconomy of all society . There is no conversation to be kept up in the world without good nature , or something