; a Figure not to be found among the ancient Rhetoricians.
The most violent Egotism which I have met with in the Course of my Reading, is that of Cardinal
Wolsey, Ego et Rex meus, I and my King
; as perhaps the most eminent Egotist that ever appeared in the World, was
Montagne
the Author of the celebrated Essays. This lively old
Gascon
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 stands 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 so diverting an Author. The Title of an Essay promises perhaps a Discourse upon
Virgil
or