On the Soul of Brutes

...having experienced this, I may hereafter also desire you to be my defenders and Patrons. Your remarkable kindness ignited my industry when I once entered this physiological arena; it added strength and courage to my mind. It has reached the point where, if I have performed anything worthy of some praise, it ought to be attributed and credited to you.

I know indeed how much difference there is between the fleeting voices of speakers and the words of authors printed on enduring papers. However, to have not displeased your most refined judgments in passing will seem like a most weighty pledge. I might deservedly hope that those things can undergo any examination which have previously sustained your Attic ears. The term "Attic ears" is a classical idiom referring to the refined and sophisticated taste of ancient Athens. Willis implies the Oxford faculty possesses the highest possible critical standards.

It will therefore belong to you to defend your own judgments, if not these efforts of mine. This is especially true if, by chance, the literary braggarts original: "Thrasones literarii," a reference to Thraso, a boastful and ignorant soldier character from the plays of the Roman comedian Terence. of this age, who range everywhere against Philosophy which they are entirely ignorant of, should attack me with their outcries, in which...