N° 562. Friday, July 2.

I

Præfens, abfens, ut fies.

Ter.

T is a hard and nice Subject for a Man to fpeak of himself, fays Cowley; it grates his own Heart to fay any thing of DiSparagement, and the Reader's Ears to bear any thing of Praise from him. Let the Tenour of his Difcourfe be what it will upon this Subject, it generally proceeds from Vanity. An oftentatious Man will rather relate a Blunder or an Abfurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear Person.

SOME very great Writers have been guilty of this Fault. It is observed of Tully in particular, that his Works run very much in the firft Person, and that he takes all Occafions of doing himself Juftice. Does he think, fays Brutus, that his Confulfhip deferves more Applaufe than my putting Cafar to Death, because I am not perpe

6 tually

'tually talking of the Ides of March, as he is of the Nones of December?' I need not acquaint my learned Reader, that in the Ides of March Brutus deftroyed Cæfar, and that Cicero quashed the Confpiracy of Cariline in the Calends of December. How fhocking foever this great Man's talking of himfelf might have been to his Contemporaries, I must confess I am never better pleased than when he is on this Subject. Such Openings of the Heart give a Man a thorough Infight into his Perfonal Character, and illuftrate feveral Paffages in the Hiftory of his Life: Befides, that there is fome little Pleasure in difcovering the Infirmity of a great Man, and feeing how the Opinion he has of himself agrees with what the World entertains of him.

THE Gentlemen of Port-Royal, who were more eminent for their Learning and their Humility than any other in France, banished the way of speaking in the First Person out of all their Works, as arifing from Vain-Glory and SelfConceit. To fhew their particular Averfion to it, they branded this Form of Writing with the Name of Egotifm; a Figure not to be found among the ancient Rhetoricians.

THE

THE most violent Egotifm which I have met with in the course of my Reading, is that of Cardinal Woolfey, Ego & Rex meus, I and my King; as perhaps the most eminent Egotift that ever appeared in the World, was Montagne the Author of the celebrated Effays. This lively old Gafcon has woven all his bodily Infirmities into his Works, and after having spoken of the Faults or Virtues of any other Man, immediately publishes to the World how it ftands with himself in that Particular. Had he kept his own Counsel he might have passed for a much better Man, though perhaps he would not have been fo diverting an Author. The Title of an Effay promifes perhaps a Difcourfe upon Virgil or Julius Cæfar; but when you look into it, you are fure to meet with more upon Monfieur Montagne, than of either of them. The younger Scaliger, who feems to have been no great Friend to this Author, after having acquainted the World that his Father fold Herrings, adds these Words; La grande fadaife de Montagne, qui a efcrit qu'il aimoit mieux le vin blanc

que diable a-t-on à faire de fçavoir ce qu'il aime? For my Part, fays Montagne,

Ι tagne, am a great Lover of your White Wines What the Devil fignifies it to the Publick, fays Scaliger, whether he is a Lover of White Wines or of Red Wines?

I cannot here forbear mentioning a Tribe of Egotifts for whom I have always had a mortal Averfion, I mean the Authors of Memoirs, who are never mentioned in any Works but their own, and who raise all their Productions out of this of this fingle Figure of

Speech.

MOST of our modern Prefaces favour very strongly of the Egotifm. Every infignificant Author fancies it of Importance to the World, to know that he writ his Book in the Country, that he did it to pass away fome of his idle Hours, that it was published at the Importunity of Friends, or that his natural Temper, Studies or Converfations, directed him to the Choice of his Subject.

Id populus curat fcilicet.

Such Informations cannot but be highly improving to the Reader.

IN Works of Humour, efpecially when a Man writes under a fictitious Perfonage, the talking of one's felf may E 2 give

give fome Diverfion to the Publick; but I would advife every other Writer never to speak of himself, unless there be fomething very confiderable in his Character: Tho' I am fenfible this Rule will be of little Use in the World, because there is no Man who fancies his Thoughts worth publishing, that does not look upon himfelf as a confiderable Perfon.

I fhall close this Paper with a Remark upon fuch as are Egotifts in Converfation: These are generally the vain or fhallow Part of Mankind, People being naturally full of themfelves when they have nothing elfe in them. There is one kind of Egotifts which is very common in the World, though I do not remember that any Writer has taken Notice of them; I mean thofe empty conceited Fellows, who repeat as Sayings of their own, or fome of their particular Friends, feveral Jefts which were made before they were born, and which every one who has converfed in the World has heard a hundred times over. A forward young Fellow of my Acquaintance was very guilty of this Abfurdity: He would always be laying a new Scene for fome old piece of Wit,

and