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This being my firſt appearance in the character of an Orater, I would not, nay I durſt not truſt my memory with what I am about to deliver, eſpecially when I conſidered myſelf in the preſence of ſuch a polite and learned audience, capable of obſerving the minuteſt error either in Etymology or Syntax: and as it is the invariable practice of many of my learned brethren, Orators of a long ſtanding, to deliver their diſcourſes from a ſtudied munuſcript, even though the bulk of their audience are compoſed of the loweſt and moſt illiterate claſs, ſuch as Coblers, Kail-wives, Cinder-Wenches, &c. Therefore Gentlemen, I too hope to be excuſed, and indulged with the like aſſiſtance, eſpecially as I do not pretend to be inſpired with the ſpirit of enthuſiaſm or to be under the influence of any inward light, or ſupernatural gift of Oratory, that might enable me to hold forth extempore to the ſatisfaction of you Gentlemen, whom I think myſelf, in duty bound to acknowledge as judges both of Claudero and his Orations. To be brief then, I do not intend in the proſecution of my ſubjects, to quote other Orators purely with an intention of throwing dirt in their faces, as is to often the practice of many of my learned brethren, who thereby endeavour to inſinuate to their pupils, that their own capacities are ſo far ſuperior to all that ever ſpoke or wrote before them, that they bid fair to ſtand on the records of fame ſine qua non; And as it were bid defiance to future ages to treat them in the ſame ſcurvy manner — This method of depreciating others is by the moderns called oblique puffing. The direct puff again is, where Orators recomend and ſtamp a value upon themſelves in a more blunt and immediate way; for a ſpecimen of both, read the puffs and inaugural puffs of Dr Smouſe the dueliſt, who deſerves to be ſtruck out of the liſt of Orators for his bloody diſpoſition, and late invidious publications. But this deviating from my plan to deſcend to particulars, and when I do ſo for the future, it ſhall only be with a view to point not by an example, what would otherways take me up more time to illuſtrate by a definition.
