Oh were I equal to the bold Design,
    Or cou’d I boast such happy Art as Thine! 
    That cou’d rude Shells in such sweet Order place,
    Give common Objects such uncommon Grace! 
    Like them my well-chose Words in ev’ry Line,
    As sweetly temper’d should as sweetly shine. 
    So just a Fancy shou’d my Numbers warm,
    Like the gay Piece shou’d the Description charm. 
    Then with superior Strength my Voice I’d raise,
    The echoing_ Grotto shou’d approve my Lays,
    Pleas’d to reflect the well-sung Founder’s Praise.

[Footnote 1:  His boast was that he had been the author of a book and father of a child for 20 years successively.]

* * * * *

No. 633.  Wednesday, December 15, 1714.  Z. Pearce.

  ’Omnia profecto, cum se a coelestibus rebus referet ad humanas,
  excelsius magnificentiusque et dicet et sentiet.’

  Cicer.

The following Discourse is printed, as it came to my Hands, without Variation.

  Cambridge, Dec. 12.

’It was a very common Enquiry among the Ancients why the Number of excellent Orators, under all the Encouragements the most flourishing States could give them, fell so far short of the Number of those who excelled in all other Sciences.  A Friend of mine used merrily to apply to this Case an Observation of Herodotus, who says, That the most useful Animals are the most fruitful in their Generation; whereas the Species of those Beasts that are fierce and mischievous to Mankind are but scarcely continued.  The Historian instances in a Hare, which always either breeds or brings forth; and a Lioness, which brings forth but once, and then loses all Power of Conception.  But, leaving my Friend to his Mirth, I am of Opinion, that in these latter Ages we have greater Cause of Complaint than the Ancients had.  And since that solemn Festival is approaching, which calls for all the Power of Oratory, and which affords as noble a Subject for the Pulpit as any Revelation has taught us, the Design of this Paper shall be to show, that our Moderns have greater Advantages towards true and solid Eloquence, than any which the celebrated Speakers of Antiquity enjoy’d.

’The first great and substantial Difference is, that their Common-Places, in which almost the whole Force of Amplification consists, were drawn from the Profit or Honesty of the Action, as they regarded only this present State of Duration.  But Christianity, as it exalts Morality to a greater Perfection, as it brings the Consideration of another Life into the Question, as it proposes Rewards and Punishments of a higher Nature, and a longer Continuance, is more adapted to affect the Minds of the Audience, naturally inclined to pursue what it imagines its greatest Interest and Concern.  If Pericles, as Historians report, could shake the firmest Resolutions