proceeds from _Vanity_. An ostentatious Man will rather relate a Blunder
or an Absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his
own dear Person.

Some very great Writers have been guilty of this Fault. It is observed
of _Tully_ in particular, that his Works run very much in the First
Person, and that he takes all Occasions of doing himself Justice.

'Does he think, says _Brutus_, that his Consulship deserves more
Applause than my putting _Caesar_ to Death, because I am not
perpetually talking of the Ides of _March_, as he is of the Nones of
_December_?'

I need not acquaint my learned Reader, that in the Ides of _March,
Brutus_ destroyed _Caesar_, and that _Cicero_ quashed the Conspiracy of
_Cataline_ in the Calends of _December_. How shocking soever this great
Man's talking of himself might have been to his Contemporaries, I must
confess I am never better pleased than when he is on this Subject. Such
Openings of the Heart give a Man a thorough Insight into his Personal
Character, and illustrate several Passages in the History of his Life:
Besides that, there is some little Pleasure in discovering the Infirmity
of a great Man, and seeing how the Opinion he has of himself agrees with
what the World entertains of him.

The Gentlemen of _Port-Royal_, who were more eminent for their Learning
and their Humility than any other in _France_, banish'd the way of
speaking in the First Person out of all their Works, as arising from
Vain-Glory and Self-Conceit. To shew their particular Aversion to it,
they branded this Form of Writing with the Name of an _Egotism_; a
Figure not to be found among the ancient Rhetoricians.

The most violent Egotism which I have met with in the Course of my
Reading, is that of Cardinal _Wolsey, Ego et Rex meus, I and my King_;
as perhaps the most eminent Egotist that ever appeared in the World, was
_Montagne_ the Author of the celebrated Essays. This lively old _Gascon_
has woven all his bodily Infirmities into his Works, and after having
spoken of the Faults or Virtues of any other Man, immediately publishes
to the World how it stands with himself in that Particular. Had he kept
his own Counsel he might have passed for a much better Man, though
perhaps he would not have been so diverting an Author. The Title of an
Essay promises perhaps a Discourse upon _Virgil_ or _Julius Caesar_; but
when you look into it, you are sure to meet with more upon Monsieur
_Montagne_, than o