Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	account_n	consideration_n	great_a	70	3	2.1254	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35669	The impartial critick, or, Some observations upon a book, entituled, A short view of tragedy, written by Mr. Rymer by Mr. Dennis.	Dennis, John, 1657-1734.	1693 (1693)	Wing D1030; ESTC R20339	30,865	70

be so very busie he has seldom either Wisdom to fore-see or Power to prevent the least Accidents that befal him in his own little private Capacity yet must be insolently enquiring into Secrets of State and medling with mighty Kingdoms For my part I very often seek leud Company a Nights tho' I hate it on purpose to escape the News-mongers and Dyer is not at more expence and trouble to obtain his Intelligence than I am to avoid the Clamour of it Freem Well! said moral Ned Beaumont Philoscphy and Whimsie I see are not inconsistent however the Schools would impose upon us This puts me in mind of a very odd Answer from one whom I ask'd once What a Clock it was by his Watch he reply'd That he had never been such a Sott as to throw away his Money on Watches that he indeed was as profuse as another but that the very design of his Profusion was to be ignorant how the time past away that the very Sound of a Clock or an Alarum occasioned melancholy Reflections in him and disturbed the Tranquility of his Mind So that this Fellow had as firmly resolved not to perplex his Noddle with the Apprehensions of Hell and Futurity as thou hast determin'd not to trouble thy Head with the Fear of a French Invasion But prithee what News from the Commonwealth of Learning You use to be more inquisitive after what passes there and able to inform a Friend of it What New Books have you now abroad Beaum. I sent you down Two by the Carrier the Juvenal and the Account of Tragedy and we have had none since in the Politer Studies that deserve any consideration Freem I read them over with a great deal of pleasure and some application Dear Ned How have I long'd to talk with thee of the latter Beaum. Aye Jack the latter tell me truly Hadst not thou discovered tho' there had been no Name to it that it was written by the same Gentleman the same Judicious and Learned Gentleman who writ the Observations upon the Tragedie of the Last Age Does not the same Spirit of Learning and exquisite Sence seem to be diffus'd throughout it Freem There is good Sence and Learning in both those Books but if I may have liberty to speak my Mind Ned before you who are the Author's Friend there seems to be more Learning in the latter Book and more good Sence in the former Beaum. Pray Sir what Exceptions have you to the Sence of the latter Freem Why to use plain dealing with one who is so much my Friend I am neither satisfied with the Design of that Book nor with the Method of carrying on that Design nor with the Stile in which it was written Beaum. But sure you cannot find fault with the Stile Jack Canst thou have a Quarrel to Pleasantry Freem Pleasantry you may call it what you please Sir but that pleasant way is by no means fit for a Critick a Critick whose business it is to instruct should keep to the Didactick Stile as Aristotle Longinus and the French Criticks have done for if a Man is eternally Laughing how can I possibly fall into his Opinion who know not if he speaks in good earnest Beaum. Why surely Jack one of your Apprehension may easily discern when another rallies and when he speaks what he means Freem Your Servant good Mr. Beaumont But supposing that may be done when a laughing Critick condemns an Author how can I know whether he has convicted him by the advantage of his Wit or the force of his Argumentation The best thing in the World is as liable to be ridicul'd as the silliest Has not Scarron impudently diverted all Europe at the Expence of Virgil the best of Poets and the justest of Writers upon which an ingenious French-man has made this Observation That as all Human Grandeur is but Folly so Sublimeness and the Ridiculum are very nearly related Beaum. But what is it that you call the Didactick Stile Jack for I have read so little of Criticism or of Rhetorick since I have enjoy'd the leisure of a Country Life that I have great need to be inform'd Freem The Didactick Stile is a Stile that is fit for Instruction and must be necessarily upon that account pure perspicuous succinct unaffected and grave Beaum. Every Stile ought to have three of these qualities for barbarity obscurity and affectation must certainly be faults in all But why particularly does the Didactick Stile demand succinctness and gravity Freem It requires Succinctness that its Precepts may be more readily comprehended and more easily retain'd and it requires Gravity to give it an Air of Authority and cause it to make the deeper impression Beaum. For my part I thought Gravity had been long since laught out of the World Freem The false and affected Gravity has been justly and deservedly laught at but the true both is and will always be venerable being the genuine result of Wisdom and Vertue that Gravity will be always laught at that strives to impose a Fool upon the World for a Man of Sence or a Raskal for a Man of Honour for all Cheats when they are found out are despicable Beaum. But have not I seen thee laughing at a Fellow only for looking gravely tho' you never had heard him speak Freem Yes but by that very Gravity I soon discover'd the Blockhead in him for to a Man who understands the World never so little a Fool never looks so sillily as when he attempts to look wisely which Butler had certainly in his Head when he writ the following Couplet For Fools are known by looking wise As Men find Woodcocks by their Eyes 'T is as it were a Revenge which Nature takes of them for forcing her by Affectation for Gravity must be always affected when it accompanies Vice or Folly but it is natural to Wisdom and Vertue Now Nature will always be held reverend and Affectation contemptible Beaum. Pray what do you take Gravity to be for I have never consider'd it yet with attention Freem I think I may venture to describe it thus Gravity is a compos'd and majestick assurance which appears in a Man's looks or his air or manner of expression and proceeds from the tranquility and greatness of a Mind that is guided by the Dictates of right Reason Beaum. Very well But are not we then as obnoxious to be impos'd on by that Assurance and that Air of Authority which always go along with Gravity as much as we are on the other side by the Sophistication of Pleasantry which stums as it were an Argument if I may use that expression to render it agreeable to the taste of those who are ignorant Freem Not one jot obnoxious on that score for Gravity can no more make a silly Notion pass upon a Man of Sence than it can set off a Blockhead Pleafantry indeed may make Sophistry pass upon us because it puts the Mind into agitation and makes it unfit for enquiry