it.  It may seem very marvellous to a saucy Modern, that Multum sanguinis, multum verecundiae, multum sollicitudinis in ore; to have the Face first full of Blood, then the Countenance dashed with Modesty, and then the whole Aspect as of one dying with Fear, when a Man begins to speak; should be esteem’d by Pliny the necessary Qualifications of a fine Speaker [1]. Shakespear has also express’d himself in the same favourable Strain of Modesty, when he says,

    ’—­In the Modesty of fearful Duty
    I read as much as from the rattling Tongue
    Of saucy and audacious Eloquence—­’ [2]

Now since these Authors have profess’d themselves for the Modest Man, even in the utmost Confusions of Speech and Countenance, why should an intrepid Utterance and a resolute Vociferation thunder so successfully in our Courts of Justice?  And why should that Confidence of Speech and Behaviour, which seems to acknowledge no Superior, and to defy all Contradiction, prevail over that Deference and Resignation with which the Modest Man implores that favourable Opinion which the other seems to command?

As the Case at present stands, the best Consolation that I can administer to those who cannot get into that Stroke of Business (as the Phrase is) which they deserve, is to reckon every particular Acquisition of Knowledge in this Study as a real Increase of their Fortune; and fully to believe, that one day this imaginary Gain will certainly be made out by one more substantial.  I wish you would talk to us a little on this Head, you would oblige,

  SIR,

  Your most humble Servant.

The Author of this Letter is certainly a Man of good Sense; but I am perhaps particular in my Opinion on this Occasion; for I have observed, that under the Notion of Modesty, Men have indulged themselves in a Spiritless Sheepishness, and been for ever lost to themselves, their Families, their Friends, and their Country.  When a Man has taken care to pretend to nothing but what he may justly aim at, and can execute as well as any other, without Injustice to any other; it is ever want of Breeding or Courage to be brow-beaten or elbow’d out of his honest Ambition.  I have said often, Modesty must be an Act of the Will, and yet it always implies Self-Denial:  For if a Man has an ardent Desire to do what is laudable for him to perform, and, from an unmanly Bashfulness, shrinks away, and lets his Merit languish in Silence, he ought not to be angry at the World that a more unskilful Actor succeeds in his Part, because he has not Confidence to come upon the Stage himself.  The Generosity my Correspondent mentions of Pliny, cannot be enough applauded.  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