admiration, esteem and confidence, their own offspring, and bedaubing them
with the most fulsome adulation merely because they are their own progeny;
although every other person except themselves can clearly perceive that
they neither possess talent, intellect, public spirit, nor any other
qualification calculated either to amuse or to instruct. When I see a
sensible man in other respects fall into an inconsistency of this sort, I
am always reminded of the fable of the _Eagle, the Owl, and her young
ones_. The fact is, that I am more proud of my father than of any of my
ancestors, because I know him to have been an excellent and an honest man,
and one who by his industry and talent became a second founder of his
family. But as the object of my labours will be to give you a faithful
history of my _own life_, it is of very little consequence either to you
or me whether I ever had a grand father or not, except as far as relates
to the coincidence of the events of the present time with those which
occurred in the reigns of Charles the First and Second, and during the
protectorship of Cromwell. It may not be amiss to remind you that the
brave and enlightened patriot, _Prynne_, was imprisoned at Dunster Castle
in _this county_ by the tyrant Charles the First. Prynne had his nose
slit, and his ears cut off, for speaking and writing his mind; but it must
not be forgotten, that he lived to see the _tyrant's head struck off_, and
the _infamous judge_ who passed the _cruel sentence_ upon him, brought to
a _just and exemplary punishment_.

In the confident hope that we shall live to see better days, our Country
restored to prosperity, and its inhabitants to freedom and happiness,

I remain,

My friends and fellow-countrymen,