d. To cherish the Dawn of Merit, and hasten its Maturity, was a
Work worthy a noble _Roman_ and a liberal Scholar. That Concern which is
described in the Letter, is to all the World the greatest Charm
imaginable: but then the modest Man must proceed, and shew a latent
Resolution in himself; for the Admiration of his Modesty arises from the
Manifestation of his Merit. I must confess we live in an Age wherein a
few empty Blusterers carry away the Praise of Speaking, while a Crowd of
Fellows over-stock'd with Knowledge are run down by them. I say
Over-stock'd, because they certainly are so as to their Service of
Mankind, if from their very Store they raise to themselves Ideas of
Respect, and Greatness of the Occasion, and I know not what, to disable
themselves from explaining their Thoughts. I must confess, when I have
seen _Charles Frankair_ rise up with a commanding Mien, and Torrent of
handsome Words, talk a Mile off the Purpose, and drive down twenty
bashful Boobies of ten times his Sense, who at the same time were
envying his Impudence and despising his Understanding, it has been
matter of great Mirth to me; but it soon ended in a secret Lamentation,
that the Fountains of every thing praiseworthy in these Realms, the
Universities, should be so muddied with a false Sense of this Virtue, as
to produce Men capable of being so abused. I will be bold to say, that
it is a ridiculous Education which does not qualify a Man to make his
best Appearance before the greatest Man and the finest Woman to whom he
can address himself. Were this judiciously corrected in the Nurseries of
Learning, pert Coxcombs would know their Distance: But we must bear with
this false Modesty in our young Nobility and Gentry, till they cease at
_Oxford_ and _Cambridge_ to grow dumb in the Study of Eloquence.

T.

[Footnote 1: The citation is from a charming letter in which Pliny (Bk.
v. letter 17) tells Spurinna the pleasure he had just received from a
recitation by a noble youth in the house of Calpurnius Piso, and how,
when it was over, he gave the youth many kisses and praises,
congratulated his mother and his brother, in whom, as the reciter tried
his powers, first fear for him and then delight in him was manifest. To
the sentences quoted above the next is

'Etenim, nescio quo pacto, magis in studiis homines timor quam fiducia
decet.'

'I don't know how it is, but in brain-work mistrust better becomes men
than self-confidence.']