Page:The genuine remains in verse and prose of Mr. Samuel Butler (1759), volume 1.djvu/370

 rable Person; and, therefore, when Oliver Cromwel was to be installed, his Robe had a Tail of six Yards long, which was born up by six young Noblemen, merely in Honour to that Part, in Contemplation whereof the Charge was bestowed; for all the other Parts bore a nearer Proportion to the Body.

Is not the Chair the most honourable Part of the Parliament? Then that which sits in it must of necessity be the most honourable Part of the Speaker. It is an Axiom in Philosophy levia sursum, gravia deorsum, and can any thing imaginable be more grave than so venerable a Senate? And hence, I suppose, the Wisdom of our Ancestors called it the lower-House, in relation to the Place it held in the Government. All Birds in the Air, and Fishes in the Sea guide themselves with their Tails, from the Leviathan to the Sprat; and the most famous of our modern Philosophers hath of late made a Discovery, that Leviathan and Republic are all one.

The greatest Honour, that can be given to Man, is either to go before, or sit above others—In sitting the whole Honour is conferred on