emporary thing, and your
lordship's, however lasting and laborious, is at length brought to a
period. My lord, if it so pleases the sovereign disposer of all things,
I would be very well satisfied to remain in this sublunary state for
some years longer, if it were only that I might live to rejoice in the
exemplification of my precepts in the conduct of my pupil. But, if this
boon be granted to my merits and my prayers, at any rate I shall from
this moment retire from the world. From henceforth my _secret influence_
is brought to its close. I will no longer be the unseen original of the
grand movements of the figures that fill the political stage. I will
stand aloof from the giddy herd. I will not stray from my little vortex.
I will look down upon the transactions of courts and ministers, like an
etherial being from a superior element. There I shall hope to see your
lordship outstrip your contemporaries, and tower above the pigmies of
the day. To repeat an idea before delivered, might be unbecoming in a
fine writer, but it is characteristic and beautiful under the personage
of a preceptor. The fitnesses which nature bestowed upon your frame
would not have done alone. But joined with the lessons I have taught
you, they cannot fail, unless I grossly flatter myself, to make the part
which your lordship shall act sufficiently conspicuous.

Receive then, my lord, with that docility and veneration, which have at
all times made the remembrance of you pleasant and reviving to my heart,
the last communications of the instructor of your choice. Yes, my lord,
from henceforth you shall see me, you shall hear from me no more. From
this consideration I infer one reason why you should deeply reflect upon
the precepts I have now to offer. Remembering that these little sheets
are all the legacy my affection can bestow upon you, I shall concenter
in them the very quintessence and epitome of all my wisdom. I shall
provide in them a particular antidote to those defects to which nature
has made you most propense.

But I have yet another reason to inforce your attention to what I am
about to write. I was, as I have said, the instructor of your choice.
When I had yet remained neglected in the world, when my honours were
withered by the hand of poverty, when my blossoms appeared in the eyes
of those who saw me of the most brown and wintery complexion, and, if
your lordship will allow me to finish the metaphor, when I stank in
their noses, it w