The Admirable Crichton. 107 



statues of Demetrius or the Triumphs of Consuls. For what 

 more responsible or honourable function could be assigned to a 

 stranger and a wanderer, to a Scottish man born in far-off Britain, 

 on his first arrival at your threshold, than the privilege of speak- 

 ing of the affairs of your Republic from this most illustrious 

 Tribune? Such a reflection, when it has received from me the 

 respectful consideration which is its due, strongly urges me, with 

 a tempered and sedate over-ruling of my conflicting emotions and 

 the casting aside of all anxiety, that I should brace up my mind 

 for the execution of this task, lest, in the rejoicing, so great and 

 so reasonable, of the nobles and people of Genoa, and in this 

 place most glorious for acting and most sumptuously equipped for 

 speech, and amidst such great distinction conferred upon me by 

 the highest princes and the most illustrious citizens, I alone 

 should fail in dutifulness to you all, and, as if I were some 

 enemy, should lessen by my timidity the joy and dignity of such 

 an occasion. Wherefore, in order that you on your part may 

 confirm your commission to me, favour me for a little while with 

 your thoughtful attention. Who is the orator so foolish or of so 

 little skill — if, indeed, he has acquired ever so slight degree of 

 knowledge and of eloquence — who in so great a crowd of affairs, 

 and in such unanimous anticipation of his hearers, would not 

 even fluently say many things concerning the condition of this 

 most excellently administered Republic and in praise of its dis- 

 tiguished magistracy? And, on the other hand, what orator so 

 eminent or so accomplished in the faculty of speech either lives 

 now or has ever lived who could in a discourse worthy of the occa- 

 sion, or even in one falling very far short of it, attain to the 

 height of such exalted praises as the subject and the cause 

 demand? Not even if I were to tell of Pericles or Hortensius, 

 or again of Demosthenes or Theophrastus and others who in such 

 matters so superlatively excelled, was one of them ever found 

 who achieved the flower of discourses with so much felicity of 

 genius that he would be able to express in words the delight 

 which on such a day as this arises on account of the prosperity of 

 the Republic and the boundless glory of the senators who have 

 been called to its government, and the brilliant deeds of those 

 who have vacated in their favour this most magnificent position. 

 Which two subjects, by God's help, and with a continuance of the 



