gentleman has, with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I shall
neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with
wishing,--that I may be one of those whose follies cease with their youth;
and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience.

Whether youth can be imputed to any man as a reproach, I will not, sir,
assume the province of determining; but surely, age may become justly
contemptible,--if the opportunities which it brings have passed away
without improvement, and vice appears to prevail when the passions have
subsided. The wretch who, after having seen the consequences of a thousand
errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy
to stupidity, is surely the object of either abhorrence or contempt; and
deserves not that his gray hairs should secure him from insult. Much more,
sir, is he to be abhorred,--who, as he has advanced in age, has receded
from virtue, and becomes more wicked with less temptation; who prostitutes
himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life
in the ruin of his country.

But youth, sir, is not my only crime. I have been accused of acting a
theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply some peculiarities of
gesture, or dissimulation of my real sentiments, and the adoption of the
opinions and language of another man. In the first sense the charge is too
trifling to be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned that it may be
despised. I am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language:
and though I may perhaps, have some ambition, yet to please this gentleman,
I shall not lay myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his
diction, or his mien, however matured by age, or modelled by experience. If
any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behavior, imply that I utter
any sentiments but my own, I shall treat him as a calumniator and a
villain; nor shall any protection shelter him from the treatment he