Friday, October 5, 2012

Though prejudiced against him by party, I felt all the force and charms of his eloquence

From Lord Chesterfield, Letter XCIV in Chesterfield's Letters to His Son.
Describing Lord Bolingbroke:
He engaged young, and distinguished himself in business; and his penetration was almost intuition. I am old enough to have heard him speak in parliament. And I remember that, though prejudiced against him by party, I felt all the force and charms of his eloquence. Like Belial in Milton, "he made the worse appear the better cause." All the internal and external advantages and talents of an orator are undoubtedly his. Figure, voice, elocution, knowledge, and, above all, the purest and most florid diction, with the justest metaphors and happiest images, had raised him to the post of Secretary at War, at four-and-twenty years old, an age at which others are hardly thought fit for the smallest employments.
Would that our public discourse would permit people to more often overcome the prejudice of party and appreciate the charms of their opponents.

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