Argument XVIII.—
Peroration, and Apology for the Oration.
Wherefore let me now have done with this address,
which I have had the boldness to deliver in a presence wherein boldness
least became me. Yet this address is one which, I think, has
aimed heartily at signifying our thanks to the best of our
ability,—for though we have had nothing to say worthy of the
subject, we could not be altogether silent,—and one, too, which
has given expression to our regrets, as those are wont to do who go
abroad in separation from friends. And whether this speech of
mine may not have contained things puerile
or
bordering on
flattery, or things offending by excess of simplicity on the one hand,
or of elaboration on the other, I know not. Of this, however, I
am clearly conscious, that at least there is in it nothing unreal, but
all that is true and genuine, in sincerity of opinion, and in purity
and integrity of judgment.