all to any other part of the Learned World that he might have a proper Opportunity of retaliating upon his Adversaries But if he denied Mr. Boyl the King's Manuscript in so rude a manner as is pretended on the other side I think Mr. Boyl was so far from being the Aggressor that he was obliged in his own Defence to give the World some Reason why it was not collated and he could not say less than he did in his Preface This is my Opinion of the beginning of this Controversie But the Dr. perhaps knew better how to apply the Reflection than I do and had therefore Reason not to brook it But before he could conveniently retort this bitter unpardonable Irony he found it necessary to complement Mr. Boyl out of his Title to the Edition of Phalaris that he might clear his way to some other Gentlemen he had a greater mind to be dealing with and fix the Affront as he pretends where it ought to be All this while Mr. Boyl is made a Child and a Tool of to serve these malicious Ends. He is a Thing of great hopes and as such the Dr. says he is willing to encourage him But is so far from looking upon him as a suitable Antagonist that out of his great Goodness and Condescension he offers by way of Tutor to give him a clearer View into the Depths and Secrets of Learning than those Ignorant Pretenders under whose Care he was bred have been able to do The Style of this Book is as remarkable for it's Roughness and Operoseness as Mr. Wotton's for its Flowingness But instead of venturing to Criticize upon it I have here rather chose to Transcribe a few Lines which may serve to give you a small taste of the Man as well as the Book In the Prelude to this grand Dispute he looks bigg and says Phalaris has the Plea and Right of Possession and I shall not go to dispossess him as those have done before me by an Arbitrary Sentence in his own Tyrannical way but proceed with him upon lawful Evidence and a fair impartial Tryal And I am very much mistaken in the nature and force of my Proofs if ever any Man that reads them persist in his old Opinion of making Phalaris an Author After he has quite confounded the Epistles he proceeds to his Triumph over the Late Edition and gives an Account of his own Extraordinary Character and Learning in the following Words Pro singulari suâ humanitate I could produce several Letters from Learned Professors abroad whose Books our Editors may in time be fit to read wherein these very same words are said of me candidly and seriously For I endeavour to oblige even Forreigners by all Courtesie and Humanity much more would I encourage and assist any useful Designs at home And I heartily wish I could do any service to that young Gentleman of great hopes whose Name is set to the Edition I can do him no greater at present than to remove some blemishes from the Book which is ascribed to him which I desire may be taken aright to be no Disparagement to himself but a Reproof only to his Teachers c. While I write this I cannot but fancy it is dictated to me by some Haughty School-master with his Rod in his Hand It has such a strong Tang of that kind of Pride that no Body else could have said it He professes indeed to dislike an arbitrary Tyrannical Way of Writing but has not Skill enough at the same time to conceal it in himself But why should I quarrel with the Dr. for that which is a fault in his Nature and which he has as little Inclination as Power to correct I have nothing more to add only to assure him I am not singular in my Sentiments The same Censure is passed upon his Book by all I have discoursed with about it And some of them were such as had no great Friendship for his Adversaries You are by this time probably prepared to expect I should determine in favour of Mr. Boyl his Quarrel I mean for I do not interfere with the Argument And truly so I should if he had not lately printed a Book in his own Defence which I will here give you a short touch of But it must be in the same superficial manner I have done of the Two Books already dismissed This Piece cannot be exempted from as many Faults at least as have been charged upon the Dr's They are indeed Faults of a different kind The Dr. all along entertains his Reader with Insolence and Pedantry and this Gentleman with School-boy's Jests and little Witticisms Two Extreams equally distant from fine Satyr which I the rather mention because I believe it was more immediately both their Aims than any true design to Examine the Argument in Debate But Mr. Boyl has in a great measure acknowledged that this is not his Performance For he says he employed some Friends at Christ-Church to consult such Authors as would be of use to him And I believe the Wits of that place could hardly content themselves with dry Citations only and not be provoked now and then to exercise the Talent they are so remarkeable for especially in a Case that concerned them so nearly There are many more Reasons to suspect Mr. Boyl in this than in the Edition of Phalaris But I shall only hint at such as will be no Dishonour for him to acquiesce in Any one Person certainly would have been quite weary of jesting before he had swell'd a Book to half this Volume And as for the Honour of the Quotations he himself does not contend for it If I may be permitted to suggest my own Opinion I fancy this Book was written as most Publick Compositions in that College are by a Select Club. There is such a profusion of Wit all along and such variety of Points and Raillery that every Man seems to have thrown in a Repartee or so in his turn and the most Ingenious Dr. Aldrich no doubt was at the Head of them and smoaked and punned plentifully on this Occasion It brings the old Character of Christ-Church very fresh into my Mind which you may remember distinguished it self from the rest of the University not by its Extraordinary Learning but its abominable Arrogance Methinks a little Consideration would have restrained their Fury against Dr. Bentley for being guilty of their own darling Fault and which the World will justifie him in returning upon them Pride and Insolence are certainly as allowable in him who is a Scholar as in some young Men who cannot reasonably be supposed to be so Not that I would justifie such a Character in any Man of twice Dr. Bentley's Learning for he has made himself ridiculous by it as I have observed before But I would very fain know what Prerogative some People have of sanctifying it in themselves when they have naturally such Scorn and Contempt for it in others The Dean instead of checking
same Effects from Artificial Causes But when Chymists setting up for Adepti forget their useful Experiments and begin to hunt after the Philosophers-Stone when they talk of nothing but their Diana their Quintessence and their secret Physical Matter When I say they are once so besotted as to have these Whimsies in their Head and to expend their Health Labour and Money in digging for an imaginary Mine in Fairy Ground we may reasonably Conclude them in the High Road to Poverty and Confusion I wonder indeed how Men of Sense can be taken with those Improbabilities some Chymical Authors impose upon their Readers I mean those Stories about the Vast Quantities of Gold made their Mighty Elixir or Transmuting Powder to which they ascribe little less than a kind of Divinity and Omnipotence I have read in some of their late Books that it is Authentically recorded that Ripley an English Adeptus sent for many Years successively an Hundred Thousand Pounds of Artificial Gold to the Knights of Rhodes to maintain the War against the Turks And that Raymund Lully another Adeptus furnished Edward the First with six Myriads of the same Mettal to carry on the Holy War in the Holy Land Besides I have read a great many Tales of Covents Monasteries Hospitals and other Works of Charity which have been privately founded at the Expence of the Adepti But a Man must be arrived at Dotage before he believes this Cant It can have no better Credit sure with any thinking Person than a fictitious Narrative in a Romance To be well skill'd in Chronology is looked upon as a great and necessary piece of Learning For this Science only gives us a distinct View of the Successive Order of things from the first Accounts of time It determines and divides the Periods of the most considerable Transactions of past Ages which History does not oblige it self to being chiefly imployed in representing the Causes Vicissitudes and Events of them in letting us into the true resorts and intrinsick Contextures of publick and private Negotiations and conveying down such Notices and Observations from Antiquity as may be of Service in the Conduct of all future Occurrences in Humane Life And therefore without Chronology we should have but an imperfect knowledge of one of the most useful and pleasant Studies in the World But I could never understand the use or pleasure of that everlasting Contention some Writers have raised amongst themselves about small Punctilio's and Niceties wherein perchance they are much concerned to discover whether Homer or Hesiod did really live first to know what Day and Hour such a King or Consul dyed These little Questions have seem'd so very important that the World has been troubled with whole Volumes about them and after all the Quarrel ends as it begun I am as much at a loss too to know the worth of that hidden and remote Knowledge Antiquaries so much value themselves upon It is at best but Uncertain and Conjectural being drawn out of defaced Monuments Coins Inscriptions Calendars Traditions Archives Fragments and scattered passages of lost Books These Men however put an higher Esteem on such Treasures as they call them than on all the solid and beneficial Studies a Man can apply himself to To discern the Year of a rusted Medal or the Date of a Moth-eaten Manuscript is in their account a greater piece of Learning than to be acquainted with the Life and Actions of that Emperour whose Image the Coin bears or to understand the Style and Matter of the Book it self Perhaps the one kind of Knowledge may cost as much Pains and Labour as the other but that only proves their Folly more ridiculous and unpardonable Grammar is a Science that is introductory and subservient to most others and is absolutely Necessary for a Scholar to be well versed in Without it we could have no acquaintance with the Dead Tongues from whence is drawn all or the best part at least of the Learning now in the World But I need not endeavour to point out the particular Uses of it as it is applied to Antient or Modern Languages and examines the Idiotisms and Proprieties of them and lays down Rules by which they may be more speedily learned and more correctly spoken Every body is well enough acquainted with them and I know who I am writing to But Grammar as it handles those Grounds and Rules that belong to the Philosophy of Letters in order to frame a New and Universal Language wherein every word is a Description of the thing it signifies is of a vaster extent and takes in the whole Theory of Nature To consider the Analogy between words and things is no doubt a very entertaining Speculation and it would be a means to reconcile the two distinguishing Characters of Humane Nature Speech and Reason But I believe those few learned Authors that have treated of it rather proposed their own private Satisfaction than any publick Advantage to Mankind Not to mention others Dr. Wilkins's Essay towards a real Character is a Book of great Learning and is justly admired by all that have read and understood it But it is like those Noble Schemes and Models that are too fine and exquisite to be put in practice And I may venture to say but with due Respect to this and other Learned Authors who have placed it among their Desiderata That a Philosophical Grammer is at this time as Useless as a Mechanical one is Necessary There is another Study which is of admirable Use and Ornament and that is Astronomy But when Men mistake the End and Design of this too and instead of understanding the Natural Motions and Situations of the Heavenly Bodies with respect to the Earth will undertake to give an account of Planetary Influences and Impressions to Calculate Nativities to grasp at and anticipate future things as if they had not enough to do to digest the present It then becomes a vain and fruitless Impertinence The common Argument in favour of Astrology is that since we are assured by Experience it self that Solstices AEquinoctials New Moons Full Moons and the like greater Revolutions of the Stars do manifestly Operate upon Natural Bodies it must needs follow that the more exact and subtle Aspect of the Planets should produce Effects more exquisite and occult and open a very ample Field to Humane Observation But this is precariously affirmed and as weakly applyed For the greater and more apparent Influences of the Coelestial Bodies are only known to us by meer Conjecture and if so what Hopes can Humane Inquiry have of discovering their more subtle occult qualities or collecting any certain Consequences from them Horace says admirably well Prudens futuri temporis exitum Caliginosâ nocte premit Deus Ridetque si mortalis ultrà Fas trepidat Which Consideration as well as many others ought to check the Presumption of those who pretend to a secret Intelligence from above and an Immediate Correspondence with Heaven This is
nevertheless a Study which some Men think worth their Care and if at last they attain to the Reputation of an Almanack-maker or Conjurer they are abundantly satisfied with the Worthy Distinction There are yet other Sciences as Geometry and Metaphysicks which in some Degrees are extreamly useful and necessary For without this great Branch of Mathematicks many parts of Nature could never be fully comprehended nor clearly demonstrated nor accommodated to use with any Skill or Certainty And without Metaphysicks what Notion could we have of that vast Circle of Knowledge beyond the Sphere of Matter and Motion which is conversant about Spirits and Incorporeal Substances But I should not desire to be a Profound Critick in them Because the greatest Acquirements that could be hoped for would hardly compensate the infinite Pains a Man must bestow upon them Not but that I believe Mathematicks afford as substantial a pleasure to those who are wholly addicted to them as any other Humane Knowledge whatever And so do Metaphysicks too if we believe the Story of the Famous Avicen who is said to have been so ravished with Aristotle's Metaphysicks that upon his first Understanding of them he bestowed large Summs of Money on the Poor out of the abundance of his Joy and Gratitude and had the patience to read them over forty times and get them all by Heart But I say however I can never be perswaded that it is worth any Man's while to dedicate his Time and Thoughts to those Abstracted Idea's and Theorems in these Knowledges the Learned so much Talk of This kind of Pleasure is too Exquisite and Refined for the Taste of the present Age and we now adays think it no Reflection upon our Understandings to profess our Neglect and Ignorance of it The bent of these Times is for Politer Studies And therefore Critical Learning in the Modern Acception is commonly taken for a thorough Understanding of Classick Authors and an Exact Knowledge of those Rules by which Men judge and determine nicely of all the finer Parts and Branches of Humane Literature Aristotle was the first that drew these Rules up into Compass and made Criticism an Art and the Philosopher took such Care to form his Precepts upon the Practice of the best Writers and to reduce them withal to the severest Test of Nature and Reason that he scarcely left any thing for succeeding Ages to do We find little or nothing in Horace and the admirable Fragments of Longinus but what he had in a great measure lay'd down before The Modern Criticks drain all their Notions from this great Source and Fountain And tho' later Systems have endeavoured to explode his Philosophy yet I find no Reflections on his Criticks but what are likely to perpetuate that Esteem and Value the World has all along had for them But in short he is esteemed a good Critick who can distinguish the Beauties and Excellencies of an Author and discover likewise his Failures and Imperfections When he makes his Judgment of a Book he takes it in pieces and considers the whole Structure and Oeconomy of it What Connexion and Dependance there is between one Part or Argument and another whether all Material Circumstances are fully touched upon whether any thing less remarkable is too far spun out and dilated Then he proceeds to a Consideration of the Style how that is suited and accommodated to the Nature of the things it treats of how the Language is worked together and digested how the Figures and Proprieties of Speech are used And here we see a Critick in this sense has a vast Room and Scope for his Observations wherein he may shew his Judgment and Learning and be very Instrumental in the Propagation of Arts and Sciences But it is sometimes urged against Criticism that too regular an adherence to the Forms and Measures of it is a Restraint upon a Writers Invention and does more harm than good in Composition For that the Imagination cannot so freely diffuse and expand it self when it is obliged to any Bounds or Limits whatever Which Argument is sometimes illustrated and supported by that Famous Example of an Ungovernable Genius in Heroick Vertue I mean that of Alexander the Great whose Vast Ambition never failed to hurry him beyond the due Measures of Conduct Upon which very Account say they his Exploits had always something in them wonderfully Surprizing and Astonishing Whereas Caesar's Actions that were more Cool Deliberate and Proportioned to the Rules of Prudence and Policy never give us such an Exalted Sublime Idea of his Fortitude as we must necessarily entertain of the Greek Hero's The Friends too of our great Dramatick Writer Shakespear will not be perswaded but that even his Monstrous Irregularities were conducive to those Shining Beauties which abound in most of his Plays and that if he had been more a Critick he had been less a Poet. But I say notwithstanding this good Conduct in War is no hindrance to the boldest Undertakings For any one that knows History knows that if Caesar had neglected it his Atchievements had never been so glorious nor Alexander's neither Those astonishing I might call them accidental Victories which the latter gained betrayed many of them at least more of Fool-hardiness than Valour And a due Observation of Critical Rules that is a strict attendance to the Rules of Nature and Reason can never impede or clog an Author's Fancy but rather produce and enlarge it They may as well urge that good and wholesome Laws which enjoyn nothing but what a Rational Nature would otherwise oblige us to take away the Liberty of Mankind whereas they are the very Life and Security of it Now I am nameing Invention and Composition I cannot but reflect on the Use and Advantage of a frequent application to them Which is another Argument in Favour of your Proposals and you will therefore Pardon a short digression upon this Head It was the Opinion you know Sir of one of the greatest Men of Antiquity that all Knowledge was but Reminiscence and that it was innate in the Soul tho' obscured and darkened by our grosser part more or less according to the particular Disposition and Temperament of the Body The allowance of which Principle would doubtless teach us that to exert these Original Seeds of Science we must often use and stretch our Intellectual Powers For thus the Mind would as it were dilate it self and by degrees correct the Tone and Habitude of the Organs But whether there be any Truth in the Philosophers Doctrine or no this is most certain that all the Faculties of the Mind both active and passive are mightily heightened and improved by Exercise But if they are neglected and unimployed they will shrink and contract themselves and be unable to answer their proper Functions Which as the Experiments of our Modern Virtuosi have plainly demonstrated is true also as to some Properties of inanimate Bodies Our Reason which is an Active Principle would if for some
never did Men follow Reason with more steddiness nor prosecute their Studies to greater Purpose and Advantage than at this day as might be proved from several instances not only in the more abstruse Sciences but in those of Humanity too had not the Argument been sufficiently controverted already by some Modern Criticks both of this and our Neighbour Nations But I promised to give you my Opinion of some late Books I will begin first with Mr. Wotton 's Reflections on Antient and Modern Learning which he has reprinted not long since with Amendments and Additions I shall not enter into the Merits of the Cause with him or pretend to answer his Elaborate Work in an hasty Dissertation For his Design of giving the World an History of Learning is doubtless a very Useful and Commendable Undertaking and I think he has in General chosen the better side of the Argument My Intention is only to consider cursorily his manner of handling it and this I doubt will not appear so Generous as the Design it self He has you know opposed Sir William Temple one of the most Gentlemanly Writers of our Age and Nation but not with so much Respect and Decency as became either his own or Sir William's Character I cannot imagine what Reason he had for it unless he thought it might be some Honour to him if he could provoke tho' rudely so worthy an Antagonist to enter the Lists with him But he was unluckily disappointed in that part of his Design and has therefore in this Second Edition retracted many of those undervaluing Criticisms that are too frequently urged and insisted upon in the first But as to the Book it self It seems Mr. Wotton was engaged by some Friends or Patrons to try what could be said in Defence of Modern Learning against that of the Ancients Upon which account he found himself obliged to Consider who had appeared on the other side And therefore least he should be accused of betraying his Cause proclaims open War against Sir William Temple for having written an Essay in Honour of the Ancients In order to subdue this popular Adversary he nicely examines every Word that seems disagreeable to his own Notions and least any thing should be wanting to compleat his Victory quarrels with him about insignificant Trifles wholly forreign to his Point Any other Man would have thought it sufficient to have refuted the Arguments in general without citeing and referring so particularly to almost every Line But then Mr. Wotton had lost his End it was his Business to attack Sir William Temple And therefore he begins his Book like a good Disputant with General Reflections on the state of the Question then proceeds to examine his Hypothesis and talks much of inquiring into the particular points that arise from his General Propositions of controverting his Arguments of using proper Mediums of reasoning severely c. Who upon reading this would not imagine our Reflecter had some knotty Syllogistical Piece to deal with and was at least supporting the Reformation and Church of England against a Second Bellarmine But all this mighty Bustle is how to confute an Essay which is so far from being penned in a Scholastick or Polemical Way that it is writ as all this Author's Works are and as all Essays certainly ought to be in the most easie unaffected Style imaginable Which is more than I can say of Mr. Wotton's Book for tho' I read it with no manner of Prejudice but with a desire only of being pleased and informed it appears to me to be done in a stiff artificial manner There is indeed a Flowingness of fine Language and Rapidity of smooth Numbers and Periods but then the same dance and chime of Words is eternally sounding in one's Ears and the same fine Expressions brought in over and over again and affected even to an Impropriety the most nauseous Entertainment a Reader can have For We love Variety and the best Expressions as well as Things constantly reiterated will certainly disgust But this may look very odd especially to the Logical Reasoning Mr. Wotton to assert all and prove nothing and yet I am resolved neither to trouble you nor my self with quoteing his Book which would be the only way I know of to prove any thing for or against his Style I must therefore appeal to your own Judicious Taste for the Truth of what I say and in the mean time I will venture to assert one thing further viz. That whatever becomes of Sir William Temple's Hypothesis his Essay will always be read with more Pleasure than Mr. Wotton's Reflections with Profit For notwithstanding all his mighty Pomp and Boast of much Reading if we come to examine what Discoveries he has made what new Lights he hath given the World on this Subject I believe we shall find nothing that was not well known before to any Man of the least acquaintance with Letters And if he was as considerable as he thinks himself that is so considerable as to represent the Learning of the present Age these Reflections might very well be alledged against him by those of the Opposite Party and silence him at once Perhaps you may fancy by this General Dislike that I am byassed in my Opinion but I assure you what I have said is my real Judgment which tho' it may be mistaken is however Impartial I have no Design of gaining Sir W. Temple's Favour or incurring Mr. Wotton's Displeasure I only take the Liberty which all Authors must allow their Readers of speaking my Thoughts freely and as such I offer them to You. I have now done with Mr. Wotton and am come to his Friend Dr. Bentley Who has for some Reasons best known to himself not only engaged a single Gentleman but a whole Society upon a much less important Argument than that of Antient and Modern Learning viz. Whether those Epistles and Fables commonly ascribed to Phalaris and AEsop c. be truly genuine or not The Debate is now depending and however insignificant You and I may take it to be is prosecuted with as much Heat and Contention on both sides as if some Article of Eternal Life was immediately concerned in it I shall not presume to interpose one word in so hot a Dispute only as a Stander-by I may be allowed to give my Sentiments of their Behaviour that manage it First then The Ground of the Quarrel is generally looked upon as highly ridiculous on the Dr's part even allowing the matter of Fact to be just as he himself has stated it For there was no such keen Sting in the Words he resents viz. collatas etiam sc. Epistolas cum MSo in Bibliothecâ Regiâ cujus mihi copiam ulteriorem Bibliothecarius pro singulari suâ humanitate negavit that could have provoked any discreet or sensible Man whose time did not lye upon his hands to write a Long and Laboured Dissertation on a Subject widely remote from his Profession and of little or no advantage at