 and that, when ambition doth not support it, it becomes
generally so intollerable, that there is scarce any other condition for which it
is not gladly exchanged: for what portion, in the world to which we are going,
is so miserable as that of care? Should I therefore consider myself as become by
this lot essentially your superior, and of a higher order of being than the rest
of my fellow-creatures; should I foolishly imagine myself without wisdom
superior to the wise, without knowledge to the learned, without courage to the
brave, and without goodness and virtue to the good and virtuous; surely so
preposterous, so absurd a pride, would justly render me the object of ridicule.
But far be it from me to entertain it. And yet, gentlemen, I prize the lot I
have drawn, nor would I exchange it with any of yours, seeing it is in my eye so
much greater than the rest. Ambition, which I own myself possest of, teaches me
this; ambition, which makes me covet praise, assures me that I shall enjoy a
much larger proportion of it than can fall within your power either to deserve
or obtain. I am then superior to you all, when I am able to do more good, and
when I execute that power. What the father is to the son, the guardian to the
orphan, or the patron to his client, that am I to you. You are my children, to
whom I will be a father, a guardian, and a patron. Not one evening in my long
reign (for so it is to be) will I repose myself to rest without the glorious,
the heartwarming consideration, that thousands that night owe their sweetest
rest to me. What a delicious fortune is it to him whose strongest appetite is
doing good, to have every day the opportunity and the power of satisfying it! If
such a man hath ambition, how happy is it for him to be seated so on high, that
every act blazes abroad, and attracts to him praises tainted with neither
sarcasm nor adulation, but such as the nicest and most delicate mind may relish!
Thus, therefore, while you derive your good from me, I am your superior. If to
my strict distribution of justice you owe the safety of your property from
domestic enemies; if by my vigilance and valour you are protected from foreign
foes; if by my encouragement of genuine industry, every science, every art which
can embellish or sweeten life, is produced and flourishes among you; will any of
you be so insensible or ungrateful as
