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present age the same good custom has prevailed whenever a great 

 and splendid virtue has been able to surmount those two perni- 

 cious vices, which not only infest small communities, but are like- 

 wise the bane of large and flourishing cities; I mean the vices of 

 insensibility to merit, on the one hand, and envy on the other. 

 With regard to the usage of antiquity, it is further observable, 

 that, in those early seasons of virtue, men were led, by the im- 

 pulse of a generous spirit, to a course of action worthy of being 

 recorded ; and, in like manner, the writer of genius undertook to 

 perpetuate the memory of honourable deeds, without any motive 

 of flattery, and without views of private ambition, influenced only 

 by the conscious pleasure of doing justice to departed merit. 

 Many have been their own historians; persuaded that in speaking 

 of themselves they should display an honest confidence in their 

 morals, not a spirit of arrogance or vain-glory ; so true it is, that 

 the age which is most fertile in bright examples, is the best quali- 

 fied to make a fair estimate of them," 



