An Essay on Criticism Part 9

_Search every Comment that your Care can find, Some here, some there, may hit the Poet's Mind._

If the Translator of _Homer_ search'd every Comment, his Labour was more than _Herculean_. I own my self extreamly edify'd by what he says of Antiquaries; applying a Saying of my Lord _Bacon_'s to them: _In General they write for Ostentation not for Instruction, and their Works are perpetual Repet.i.tions._ The Reason is plain, they have no Fund of their own, they must therefore borrow from those that have. It is necessary there should be such Men, but the Dryness and Barrenness of their Studies are inconsistent with a lively Fancy and a good Taste; and I know not which of the Antiquaries deserve most to be rever'd by us, those that would restore lost Words, Letters, and Points, or those that would recover lost Fable or History. To know exactly where _Brute_ built his _Palace Royal_, where _Bladud_ set up his _Laboratory_ would be something; as also to prove, that _Ca.s.sibelan_ liv'd where my Lord _Ess.e.x_ now does at _Cas.h.i.+obury_; or that _Constantine the Great_ was a _Yorks.h.i.+re_ Man; which Things have been attempted, would be as much to the Glory of the Students in Antiquity, as to find out a lost _Comma_, or restore a Letter to a Word that was robb'd of it 1500 Years ago. But as for our Monkish Antiquaries, and the Monastick Learning, it seems to be reserv'd for the Improvement of those, whose Minds, like barren Soils, will never bear without dunging. They are always turning up the Ruins of old Convents, and hope like the c.o.c.k to find a Jewel in the Dunghill. They dig for holy Water-Pots and Crucifixes, as greedily as the modern _Romans_ dig for Medals, Images, and Urns. To know whether such an Abbey was founded in the Papacy of Pope _Joan_ or Pope _Boniface_, in what Dormitory such a Monk slept, and in what Penitentiary such a Nun was disciplined, must needs be very edifying.

But most of all the Deciding of historical Debates by old Charters, which, with a little curious Examination, will be found to be forged ones. Many of this Kind are printed by _Dugdale_, as I shall have Occasion to remark elsewhere. If these Antiquaries could fix the same Authority on _Monkish_ Writings, as we are told of _Homer_'s, that the Claims of two Cities to certain Limits, were determined by what he said of them in his _Ilias_, it would be worth every one's while to read the Monks instead of the Cla.s.sicks; And I doubt not Dr. _Felton_ would have succeeded better if he had given us Instruction in the Monkish Learning, than he has done in the _Cla.s.sical_. But since their Writings prove nothing but their Ignorance and Superst.i.tion, I believe Men of Taste and Genius will be so generous as to leave such hidden Treasures to enrich those, whose Invention and Judgement lie under the Calamity of the most extream Poverty. There is nothing but Labour and Patience requisite to acquire a Mastery in these Studies, whether the Matter collected be good or bad, 'tis the same Thing if it be Old, if it be _Teutonick_ or _Runick_, _Danish_ or _Saxon_, that's sufficient. A Man who has any Warmth in his Imagination, and any Delicacy in his Taste, cannot be always raking in the Rubbish of barbarous Ages, and groping in _Gothick_ Darkness. A good Proof of the small Talent necessary for this Work is, that there hardly ever was an Author among these Monkish Antiquaries, but his Language was as barbarous as his Subject. Such Sort of Scholars.h.i.+p is, I own, very serviceable to those that know how to make a good Use of others Labours; but the Merit of the Scholar consists rather in the Goodness of his Eyes, and the Strength of his Head, than in the Fineness of his Genius, or the Regularity of his Judgement. I am apt to think the Translator of _Homer_ had not the Admirers of these Antiquities in his Thoughts, but refer'd to the Criticks and Commentators on the _Greek_ and _Roman_ Authors: For he says, in another Place, _To talk of the Genius of an Ancient, as_ Macrobius _did, is at once the cheapest Way of shewing our own Taste, and the shortest Way of criticising the Wit of others_. This must be only meant of those whom Mr. _Dryden_ calls _Dutch_ Commentators, of those that do by the Cla.s.sicks, as Correctors of the Press do by their Copies, and instead of applying themselves to the Sense stick close to the Letters, and look out for _Dele's_ and _Addenda's_. This they call correcting and restoring the Text; and it is much to be fear'd, that by this restoring and correcting of the Commentators, and the Mistakes, Blunders and Negligences of the Copiers, we have few or no Books of the Antients in their original Purity and Perfection. However, there is Perfection enough left in the Cla.s.sical Writings to prove, That what the Translator of _Homer_ says, does not relate to the Cla.s.sicks themselves, but to those that make an ill Use of them, and under their Name and Authority insult the Moderns. The Lord _Bacon_ says somewhere, that what we call the Antiquity was the Youth of the World, and that we are properly the Antients as the Inhabitants of an older World, and having made infinite Improvements in all the most useful Parts of Learning.

I dare not say, there is a Quibble in the Expression of so ill.u.s.trious a Writer, but I must always take the Authors that wrote 1500 or 2000 Years ago to be the Antients; and one may very well Question, whether there was not as much useful Learning lost in twelve or thirteen Centuries of Barbarism and Ignorance, as has been discover'd, or rather recovered in two or three of the last Ages.

The Antiquaries the Translator speaks of would do Wonders, if they would make it out that the Letter sent to the King of _Edessa_, and the Pa.s.sage in _Josephus_'s Book XVIII, relating to our Saviour, are genuine, with several other Particularities, which are much insisted upon by Ecclesiastical Writers. The _Spectator_ has told us something too of Antiquity, which wants the Confirmation of the Antiquaries, and that is a Quotation out of a Ma.n.u.script in the _Vatican_ Library, where _Longinus_ is made to say, Paul _of_ Tarsus, _the Patron of an Opinion not fully proved, must be reckon'd among the best_ Graecian _Orators_.

This must be a downright Forgery: _Longinus_ surely knew the _Greek_ Tongue too well, to cry up the Eloquence of a Writer in it, who, as St.

_Jerome_ says, did not understand _Grammar_, and mentions the Places where he err'd, _Propter Imperitiam Artis Grammaticae_. See _Gregory_ on the _Septuagint_. It were to be wished, that the Ecclesiastical Writers, even of the earliest Centuries, had suffer'd nothing to escape them that was improbable, if not incredible. 'Tis also much wanted to have further Proof of the Ceasing of Oracles at the Nativity of our Saviour, and that _Virgil_ prophesy'd of it in his fourth Eclogue. We should be still more oblig'd to them, if they would prove, that the _Sibyl_'s Verses are a Prophecy of the same Thing, which Things are generally a.s.serted in the Writings of the Ecclesiasticks. As to Oracles _Lucian_ tells us, Answers were given in his Time, that of the Emperor _Commodus_ 160 Years after, _Juvenal_ makes their Ceasing to be only 100 Years after:

--------Delphis Oracula cessant.

_Theodoret_ writes, that _Julian_ the Apostate received an Answer from _Apollo_ at _Delphos_, 300 Years after the Birth of our Saviour. All which may be seen in Bishop _Potter_'s _Greek_ Antiquities, a most excellent Book; and if we had more such Antiquaries as that learned Prelate's and Mr. _Basil Kennet_'s who wrote the Antiquities of _Rome_, we might at the same Time improve ourselves both in antient and polite Learning. These being, I think the two most valuable Pieces of the Kind in any Language. As the middle Way is safest in all Things, so as to the Antients to run them down as _Perrault_ has done, or cry them up as _Boileau_ is perhaps equally dangerous, and out of the Medium. Whatever Advantages we have had of the Antients, probably they had the same of those that preceeded them. This we know, that the _Latins_ borrow'd as much from the _Greeks_ as we have borrow'd from them; and it would be no difficult Matter to prove, that in all the Branches of polite Literature, the Moderns, particularly the _English_, have excell'd the Antients in as many as the Antients excelled them.

The Pa.s.sage of my Lord _Bacon_'s before cited, gave Occasion to Monsieur _Perrault_, to bring in that n.o.ble Author for an Evidence on his Side against the Antients: But _Boileau_ vindicates him in this Point; and Father _Bouhours_, as another Instance of his excellent Judgement, declares he prefers the Lord Chancellor _Bacon_ before the most celebrated Names of Antiquity. _Rapin_ calls him the greatest _Genius of England_, and he has not more Glory from his own Countrymen than from the learned Men in _France_.

I expect no Quarter from the Dealers in monastick Learning, in Heraldry, and Genealogy, who generally doat upon them even to Frenzy. _Du Val_ in his Geography informs us, that there is a Nation in _America_, bordering on the River of the _Amazons_, where old Women go off better than young; under a Notion, that the Knowledge of the One is preferable to the Vigour and Beauty of the Other. Thus these Men please themselves more with the Dryness and Gravity of Antiquity, than with a beautiful Imagination, and the Charms of Eloquence. I believe their Opinion will not have many Followers, nor their Example be much imitated. However, when such an Antiquary as the great _Selden_ appears in the World, the Instruction it will receive from him, more than makes amends for the Labour and Time which others lose in hunting after worthless Ma.n.u.scripts, forg'd Charters, and monkish Fables. The learned and polite Dr. _Bathurst_ of _Oxford_, wrote an admirable Poem on the Death of _Selden_:

_So fell the sacred_ Sibyl, _when of Old Inspir'd with mere than mortal Breast could hold: The gazing Mult.i.tude stood doubtful by, Whether to call it Death or Extasy: She silent lies, and now the Nations find No Oracles, but i' th' Leaves she left behind._

_Selden etant sans Contredit le plus docte des Anglois moderns._ 'Tis said by a _Frenchman_ and a _Papist_; but as much as _Selden_ was an Oracle, and a Glory to our Country, Archbishop _Laud_ his Brethren would have thrust his learned Head into a Pillory, if they could have come at him. I don't know whether it was for his History of _Tythes_ or not; but that would have been hard after he had been so fully answer'd by Doctors of both Universities; who, however, were not, _Les plus Doctes des Anglois moderns_. Judicious Antiquaries ever were, and ever will be in Esteem. Those that meddle with Things solid and useful. None of the Pretenders to this Sort of Knowledge, are more despicable than such as deal in old Terms and Phrases, who generally affect a Contempt for those that are in present Use as weak and effeminate. The Emperor _Augustus_ could not bear these Men, any more than _Punster_'s whom he heartily despis'd. The Spectator, N 470. has with much Pleasantry animadverted on those Criticks in Readings, and has brought in the _Cotton Library_, _Aldus_, _Scaliger_, _Scioppius_, _Salmasius_, the elder _Stephens_, and a Heap of old Ma.n.u.scripts, to clear up the Difficulties in certain Lyrick Verses, about _a Shape_, _an Eye_, _Wit_, _Charms_, Corinna _and_ Belvedera.

As scrupulous and as curious as these _Antiquaries_ would be thought to be, one might fill Volumes with Examples of the most notorious Mistakes and Blunders in the Writings of the most learned among them; which are not taken notice of to lessen the Credit they have worthily acquir'd, but to shew the Infirmity of humane Nature, which will always be attended with Errours, and never arrive at Perfection as we have elsewhere observ'd after _Horace_:

--------_Non ego Paucis_, &c.

But in such Authors, what is good more than atones for what is not so, and 'tis only where a Writer shews a Defect in Will as well as Judgement, that he renders himself blame-worthy, especially in History.

Several of these Blunders are collected by _Marville_ in his _Melange_, &c. 'Tis remark'd of _Pliny_, that in translating _Democritus_, he says, the Camelion is like a Crocodile, and altogether as big--The _Crocodalos_ of _Democritus_ is in the _Jonick_ Dialect, a _Lizard_, which may be about some ten thousand Times less than a Crocodile, and yet a great many Times bigger than a _Camelion_. _Eutychius_ speaking of _Eusebius_ of _Cesarea_, sirnamed _Pamphilus_, calls him _Eusebius_, Bishop of the City of _Phili_. _Quintus Curtius_ mistakes _Arabia Faelix_ for _Arabia Deserta_. He confounds the _Euxine_ with the _Caspian_ Sea, and makes the Rivers _Tygris_ and _Euphrates_ run through _Media_, which they never enter'd. Mr. _Simon_, in his critical History, takes _Suna_ and _Fratela_, two Officers of the _Gothick_ Army, for two _German_ Ladies. The Life of _Charlemagne_, written by _Acciaioli_, having been often joyn'd with _Plutarch_'s Lives, was published by _Vicellius_ as written by _Plutarch_, who liv'd 6 or 700 Years before _Charlemagne_. _Gerard Vossius_ affirms, that the Society of the _Sorbonne_ was inst.i.tuted by _Robert_, Brother of _S. Lewis_ King of _France_, instead of _Robert_ sirnamed _Sorbonne_ from the Place of his Nativity. _Pallavicini_ in his History of the Council of _Trent_, says _Lansac_, the _French_ Amba.s.sador, was Knight of the Order of the Holy Ghost, which was not inst.i.tuted till twenty Years after; but what has particular Relation to us _Englishmen_ is the Charge against _Dodwel_: _Dodowel dans ses Dissertations sur Saint Cyprien prend la Ville d'Olympe pour une Olympiade,_ takes the City _Olympus_ for an _Olympiade_, the Name of the Place where, for the Date of the Year when it was done, which is Matter of much Humiliation to all such as believe it impossible for so learned and orthodox a Man to commit so great an Oversight; and plainly proves to us, that those who write of what past 1000 or 2000 Years ago, are as likely to err, as those who write of what past three or fourscore Years ago. Whoever has a Curiosity to see more of the _Blunderings_, which the most learned are charg'd with, such as the _Port Royal_, _Baronius_, _Vasquez_, _Du Cange_, _Varillas_, _L'Abbe_, &c. may have full Satisfaction in _Marville_'s _Melange_, _p.

208. & seq._ taken from a Book written by _Boileau_'s Uncle, ent.i.tuled, _Colloquium Critic.u.m de Sphalmaetis viromum in re literaria ill.u.s.trium_.

Of what Size would the Book be, if we should examine with the same Exactness, _Nalson_, _Heylin_, _Wharton_, _Collier_, _Dugdale_, _Brady_, the _Grand Rebellion_, the _Histories_, _&c._ And collect and publish the Errours, both of the Will and the Judgement. Nor are these Names by any Means more ill.u.s.trious, than those we meet with in the _Colloquium_.

The Translator of _Homer_ has an Excuse for Mr. _Dryden_, which is much more generous than just: He says, _His Haste in Writing ought not to be imputed to him as a Fault, but to those who suffer'd so n.o.ble a Genius to lie under the Necessity of it._ Mr. _Dryden_'s Genius did not appear in any Thing more than his _Versification_; and whether the Criticks will have it enn.o.bled for that _Versification_ only, is a Question. The Translator seems to make a good _Genius_ and a good Ear to be the same Thing. _Dryden_ himself was more sensible of the Difference between them, and when it was in Debate at _Will_'s Coffee-house, what Character he would have with Posterity; he said, with a sullen Modesty, _I believe they will allow me to be a good Versifier_. If we will believe Mr.

_Dryden_, he did not lie under the Necessity of Haste: In several of his Dedications and Prefaces, he has declared, He never wanted. When he renounced his Allegiance to King _William_, and disqualified himself for keeping the Laureat's Place with that of Historiographer, he had a Pension from the then Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of _Dorset_, which was an Instance of Generosity that is rarely to be met with in the History of _Lewis_ XIV, who paid more to Poets and Historians than all the Princes of _Europe_. His Bounty has been extoll'd, even by those whom his Bigotry had banish'd, yet he seldom let it extend to any of the Reformed Religion, let their Merit be ever so great. Mademoiselle _le Fevre_, afterwards Madam _Dacier_, dedicated a Book to that Prince, and the Duke _de Montausier_ introduc'd her at Court; but the King would not accept of the Book, nor admit that his Name should be put before the Epistle.

The Duke, whose Character had some Bluntness in it, said, _Sir, Is this the Way to encourage Learning: The Lady deserves well of your Majesty and the Publick, and if you will not reward her your self, suffer me to give her 100 Pistoles, I matter not whether I am paid again_: or Words to that Effect. This Learned Lady was far from being an Enemy to the Government as _Dryden_ was, and he did not stick to shew it upon all Occasions, even when he was pension'd by my Lord Chamberlain. The Truth is, he was like fond Fathers who can see no Faults in their Children; and as to his hasty Writing, 'tis pretty well known that as easy as his Verses appear to be, he came hard by them: He thought it a good Day's Work if he could finish 40 Verses a Day; and some learned _Antiquaries_, I suppose from a _MSS._ of _Virgil_'s Amanuensis, a.s.sure us, that _Maro_ wrote as many, and drawing them off the _Lee_ afterwards, in his Poetical Limbeck, reduced them to Ten. _G.o.deau_, Bishop of _Vence_, us'd to write 2 or 300 Verses a-day. I my self paid a Visit once to a Verse-maker in an Afternoon, and saw 200 political Verses on his Table, which he told me he had written since Dinner: By this Dispatch he soon furnish'd out a _Folio_. _Dryden_ was so far from spying Blemishes in his Works, that he often took them for Beauties, and particularly what the _Italians_ call _Concetti_. This noted Rant in the _Conq. Gran._

_I, alone am King of Me._

is happily imitated by him in his _State of Innocence_:

_I my self am proud of Me_.

But to criticise on _Dryden_'s Prefaces and Plays is a much greater Labour than to copy them all over, and equally ungenerous and impertinent: If any one will compare his _Fall of Man_ with _Milton_'s Paradise lost, he will quickly perceive to which of them it is that the _n.o.ble Genius_ is to be apply'd; and if it belongs to _Milton_, some other Epithet should be thought of for _Dryden_.

I have already observ'd, that I did not intend to form a regular Discourse, and I think I have kept pretty well to my Intention: If the Reader misses any Thing of Instruction by it, he will find it made up in Entertainment. The Variety will excuse the Want of Method in a Subject not so capable of it as where the Matter is certain and well known. I wish I were able to give Examples of all Father _Bouhour_'s several Kinds of Thoughts out of _English_ Authors, but Examples are much nicer Work than Precepts. Every one may agree that a Thing ought to be so done, but saw that it is so done. Men's Idea's of the same Things, vary in the Reflection as much as their Views do in Prospect, according to the Light they appear in. Dr. _Felton_ makes a Trifle of it in one Part of his Preface, and an insuperable Difficulty in another. _I might, at once, with the Trouble only of Transcribing, have adorn'd the Work, and diverted the Reader._ Contrary to this, he says, _If any Body is pleas'd to try, he will hardly find it practicable to ill.u.s.trate these Rules by Examples._ The Quotations, which he had before term'd transcribing only, are not so easy as he imagin'd to be done with Beauty and Judgement, was he sure of writing out nothing but what was as much to the Purpose as if it had been made for it, otherwise he might have transcrib'd puffy Thoughts for sublime, trifling Thoughts for pretty, affected Thoughts for agreeable; in short, false Thoughts for fine ones, and I am afraid that would have been his Misfortune, had he attempted it. In his Preface he blames _Tully_ for quoting himself, and _Aristotle_ for being dry; but as he has not gone much beyond the Latter in his Criticisms, nor the Former in his Eloquence, so I believe their Reputation will not be much the worse for him, and it had been better if the Doctor had follow'd the Direction of _Quintillian_, Modesto tamen & Circ.u.mspecto judicio, _&c. People should speak with a great deal of Modesty and Circ.u.mspection of such great Men, for it may happen, as it very often does, that they condemn what they do not understand._

I am apprehensive enough that this Undertaking will be censur'd as an Effect of Vanity and Arrogance, and I am well enough acquainted with the Spirit of the People I have to deal with,

_Genus irritabile Vatum._

But I please my self with the Reflection, that I have not mingled the least Spice of Malice in the Composition, as it relates to Criticism, and am so far from being vain and arrogant, that I frequently and sincerely declare, my chief Design was to excite some more capable Writer to do what I knew my self uncapable of; and if any such Person shall, by exposing my Errours, give the World a true Light, I will not only gratefully follow it, but rejoyce at it, and take hold or the Opportunity to have my Share of the Instruction, if it comes from clean Hands, and is not defil'd with ill Manners and ill Language: Such tutoring I shall despise, and it being very common for Authors to have as good an Opinion of themselves as of any Body else, I shall not think any Name of Authority enough to justify either Insolence or Scurrility.

About 40 Years ago there was a Student at _Oxford_, who acquir'd a good Hand at a Fiddle; but, falling afterwards into Melancholy, he grew averse to Musick, and could not be prevail'd upon by his Friends to touch it: They had but one Way to excite him to it, and that was for some unskilful Hand to take his Violin and sc.r.a.pe upon it; he would then immediately s.n.a.t.c.h it away from him, and, in a Kind of Resentment, give it the utmost Elegance of Sound and Harmony. I freely own I had this Man's Example in my Head when I began this Essay, and should the Success be the same, the End of it is answer'd.

I cannot close this Essay without taking Notice of the Perverseness of Men, who pretend to Wit and Judgement, towards one another: It appears mostly in Pretenders, and is very well markt by _Boileau_, in these two Verses translated by Mr. _Dennis_, and equal to the Original:

_Thus one Fool lolls his Tongue out at another, And shakes his empty Noddle at his Brother._

It was not so when Judgement and Wit were something more than Pretence only, when they were in the Heighth of Excellence, under the Patronage of _Augustus_. My Lord _Roscommon_, in his Preface to _Horace_'s Art of Poetry writes thus: _I am below the Envy of the Criticks, but if I durst, I would beg them to remember, that_ Horace _ow'd his Favour and his Fortune to the Character given of him by_ Virgil _and_ Varius; _that_ Fundanius _and_ Pollio _are still valued by what_ Horace _say of them, and that in that Golden Age there was a good Understanding among the Ingenious; and those who were the most esteem'd were the best natur'd._ _Dryden_ has made the same Observation: _Certainly, the Poets of_ Ovid_'s Age enjoy'd much Happiness in the Conversation and Friends.h.i.+p of one another._ _The antient Criticks_, says the _Spectator_, _are full of the Praises of their Contemporaries. They discover Beauties which escap'd the Observation of the Vulgar, and very often find out Reasons for palliating and excusing such Slips and Oversights, as were committed in the Writings of eminent Authors._ Mr.

_Addison_ has imitated them in his Remarks upon _Milton_'s _Paradice Lost_; but it must be allowed that the Task was made very easy, and the Beauties s.h.i.+ne so brightly, that there's no taking one's Eye off of them. It has also been wish'd, that the two or three Slips in Expression which he quotes out of _Milton_ had been excused, as they might have been by observing, that if there's a Pun in the _Paradice Lost_, 'tis the Devil that makes it.

One of the surest Signs, that the Wits of the past and present Age, _English_ and _French_, are not of the Size of those of the Age of _Augustus_, is their Jealousies and Broils. The _Spectator_ has this Remark, N 409; _I cannot think, that_ Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Boileau, La Fontaine, Bruyere, Bossu, _or the_ Dacier_'s, would have written so well as they did, had they not been Friends and Contemporaries._ 'Tis said very much in Favour of good Nature, and therefore is very agreeable: But I Question, whether Emulation, and sometimes even Resentment, may not produce very good Effects in the Works of the Ingenious. _Facit Indignatio versus._ _G.o.deau_, _Vaugelas_, _Malherbe_, were Men of great Merit; and so were also, _Maynard_, _La Mothe Le Vayer_, and _Costar_; yet they wrote against one another with some Acrimony.

'Tis Envy and Spleen, that produce a Set of Writers in _England_, call'd _Answerers_, whose Modesty may be conceived by some of their t.i.tles, _The best Answer that ever was._ Part 1st. _The best Answer that ever was._ Part the 2d. _A better Answer_ than the _best Answer_. The _Unanswerable Answer_, by _Lesley_ and others. You can't publish a _Pamphlet_ or _Essay_, but it is immediately snapt at to be answer'd: Nay, Dr. _Halley_'s Calculation of the Eclipse in a Half-sheet had two or three _political_ Answers.

The Itch of Answering is so great, that some Authors have taken it in Dudgeon, not to have been thought worthy of an Answer; and to prevent such Disgrace a second Time, have written on Purpose that they might answer themselves. I have heard, that the learned and ingenious _Robinson Crusoe_ is in the Number of these.

How can it be expected, that Men of Pa.s.sions, worldly Minds, and Lay-men should escape this Infection, when the Fathers themselves in the first Ages of the _Church_, could not help writing against one another, with as much Sharpness as any modern Writers. St. _Jerom_, in Particular, is charg'd with this Weakness, in his Writings against _Lactantius_, St.

_Ambrose_, St. _Hilary_, _Didymus_. 'Tis said, that _he spar'd neither Antients nor Moderns_; no not the inspir'd Elders that translated the Septuagint: Himself having translated the Bible into _Latin_, and he seem'd to be as fond of his Works as are other Translators.

Our Neighbours, the _French_, have not been altogether free from this Humour of _Answering_, or rather writing against one another; as will appear by the following List of a dozen Authors of a Side; most of them of the _French_ Academy; and I might name as many more of equal Rank:

_Balzac_, } {_Pere Goulu_, _Theophile_.

_G.o.deau_, } {_Maynard_, _Vava.s.seur_.

_Vaugelas_, } {_La Mothe Le Vayer_.

_Chapelain_, } {_Boileau_, _Ligniere_.

_Ablancourt_,} {_Marole_.

_Menage_, } Written against {_Pere Bouhours_.

_Costar_, } by {_Girac_.

_Malherbe_, } {_Costar_.

_Voiture_, } {_Richelet_.

_Bossu_, } {_Perrault_.

_Corneille_, } {_Dacier_.

_Richelet_, } {_Furetiere_.

As the most delicate Praise is that which has the _Face_ of Satyr, so the most delicate Satyr is that which has the Face of Praise. Of the latter Kind are the Verses to the honourable _Edward Howard_ on his _incomparable_ and _incomprehensible_ Play. Those Verses were written by the Duke of _Buckingham_, the Lord _Dorset_, Mr. _Waller_, and others.

Of the former Kind are several of _Voiture_'s Letters to the Prince of _Conde_, and _Boileau_'s to the Duke _de Vivonne_ in Imitation of them.

Indeed we must allow, that the _French_ do understand the _Belle Raillerie_ better than we do, at least for the Generality, there being some Authors in _English_, that have succeeded in fine Raillery as well as the _French_. Thus did Archbishop _Tillotson_ treat _Sergeant_ the _Popish_ Priest: Thus Bishop _Sprat_ handled _Sorbiere_; and Dr.

_Burnet_ of the Charter-house treated one _Warren_ who had attack'd his _Theory_. If our Answerers could write as they did, they would both divert and instruct us. But we have already explained what they mean by Raillery. They know not how to parry like good Fencers, and therefore knock down like Cudgel Players.

The last Word puts me in Mind of a lower Order of Criticks, which are rarely heard of within the Sound of _Bow-Bell_; and these are your _Etymologists_ and your _Orthographists_, who turn to _Rider_ or _Holy Oak_ for the Derivation of Words, and have the learned _Garretson_ and other Helps for Spelling: But I know not whether this Essay may travel far enough into the Country to be of any Use; and besides, I have not converst enough with those Criticks that deal in Words and Letters only, to be Master of the Subject, which is generally learn'd by such as make a Penny of it in Conversation by laying Wagers, the Power and Test of all rural Argument.

I must own the _Etymologists_ are by much the greater Men of the Two than the _Orthographists_. I do affirm this, not only because it is necessary to know the Roots of Languages, but because it is a greater Mark of Scholars.h.i.+p, and has the Sanction of the most learned Universities. The profoundest of our own Antiquaries have, in Favour of the University of _Oxford_, found out an Etymology, that may match with the famous One of _Diaper Napkin_: From whence comes King _Pepin_.

Bishop _Stillingfleet_ informs us, that the Champions for the Antiquity of _Oxford_ say, that the old Name is _British_, and it is read somewhere _Iren_ which should be read _Icen_, and that again _Ychen_, and that _Rydychen_, and _Rydychen_ in the _British_ Tongue is _Vadum Boum_ in _Latin_, and that in _English_, _Oxenford_, _Oxford_, and _Oxon._ Such wonderful Discoveries are made by the venerable Antiquaries. _Iren_ runs the Gauntlet through three Languages _Irish_, _Welsh_, and _Latin_, before it drops into _English_, but considering there is more _Greek_ in the _Welsh_ Tongue than there is _Latin_, it may make Work for great Scholars, to shew their Scholars.h.i.+p in settling the Matter as it should be with a Salvo for the Rights of the University of _Cambridge_.

The Learned in _France_ have an Etymology almost as good as that of _Oxford_ from _Iren_, which is the Word _Cemetiere_ a Church-yard; They derive it from the _Latin_ Word _c.u.m_ with, and _mittere_ to put, as much as to say the dead Bodies are put together in one burying Place.

Thus the Boxes at the _Opera_ are a _Cemetiere_ or Church-yard, because the Ladies and Gentlemen are put with one another there, and thus by Virtue of the same Etymology, the Place where People are born and where they are bury'd are all one, from _c.u.m_ with, and _Mittere_ to put, as I have heard, that the same Word serves for Life and Death in one of the oriental Languages.

As to _Orthography_, the only Pa.s.sage I have read in a polite Author concerning it is that of _Boileau_, who taxes _Perrault_ with false Spelling, by putting an _s_ in one Word, and leaving out an _s_ in another. By putting an _s_ into the Word _Contemples_, it lost the Imperative Mood which is _Contemple_; and by leaving out an _s_ in the Word _Casuiste_, written _Casuite_, it became no Word at all. When Moods and Tenses, Numbers and Cases, Substantives and Adjectives, suffer by _Orthography_, the curious Country-man has reason to cry out, otherwise the Printer may be answerable for the Spelling.