HORAT. Epist. I. lib. ii.
To the Right Honourable Charles, Lord Clifford of Lanesborough,
etc.
My Lord,--It is with a great deal of pleasure that I lay hold on
this first occasion which the accidents of my life have given me of
writing to your lordship: for since at the same time I write to
all the world, it will be a means of publishing (what I would have
everybody know) the respect and duty which I owe and pay to you. I
have so much inclination to be yours that I need no other
engagement. But the particular ties by which I am bound to your
lordship and family have put it out of my power to make you any
compliment, since all offers of myself will amount to no more than
an honest acknowledgment, and only shew a willingness in me to be
grateful.
I am very near wishing that it were not so much my interest to be
your lordship's servant, that it might be more my merit; not that I
would avoid being obliged to you, but I would have my own choice to
run me into the debt: that I might have it to boast, I had
distinguished a man to whom I would be glad to be obliged, even
without the hopes of having it in my power ever to make him a
return.
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