Man of never such high Birth to have done in the Contentions of Wit and Argument where all must be allowed to be equal Secondly I deny that I have insolently abused the Reverend and Worthy Dr. Aldrich 'T is true I have taken Notice of his Smoaking and Pâ—nning but they are two very â—ociable Qualites and he has no Reason to be angry at me for it He is not the only Clergy-man that takes Tobacco nor the only Academick that puns I must confess he is a Punner of the first Rate For the Town has been often obliged to him for good Catches whiâ—h are the highest flights of that kind of Wit But this is not all I have called him a Proud Man and abused his Logick As to his Pride I will say no more than what I hav already done for my Design is not to brand his Reputation in so Tender a part And as to his Compendium of Logick I am sorry I men tioned it for to decide whether there be any thing new in it but the Language and whether that Language is better for being labour'd and full of Elegant Phrases or not is a Question that concerns only the Fresh Men in the Universities and I will now assign it over to them and heartily ask their Pardon for invading their Province before Thirdly and Lastly I deny that I have ignorantly undervalued the ingenious Answer to Dr. Bentley and the christ-Christ-Church accurate Editions of Old Authors But I will not here so much as recite any of those particular Witticisms and Passages which displeased me when I perused this ingenious Celebrated Book because I hear Dr. Bentley's Vindication is in the Press and I am resolved not to interfere with him It is sufficient for my present purpose that it appears at first View to any Reader to be done by several Hands The Style and Matter is almost in every other Page of a different Complexion One while you have something that looks a little Modest and Grave and the Quotations managed to the best advantage Preâ—ently the Humour changes and there is nothing to be met with but Buffoonery and Unmannerly Jests with nothing in them But it is Dr. Bentley's business not mine to detect and apply all their Errors I have already exceeded the Limits of a Letter and must hasten to the next thing I must account for my speaking ill of their Editions of Old Authors which says my Friend are Famous not only here at home but are much approved by Forreigners abroad If â—his was true what is the Meaning of the present Dispute with Dr. Bentley But they are so far from being Books of any standing Value amongst other People that they themselves are not long pleased with them For many Authors that were Published in Dr. Fell's Time have been again Revised Collated Printed Index'd c. in Dr. Aldrich's and for any thing I know may undergoe the same Fate in the next Dean's too As for the late Edition of Aesop's Fâ—bles I am told Dr. Bentley has Examined it very particularly and proved it to be of the number of those that neither deserve a good Reputation at home nor abroad So that the same Reason which made me conceal my Observations on their English Book will oblige me to be silent here too unless I would make my self a Party in the Quarrel which I do not design to do for all I am Dr. Bentley's dear Friend and Acquaintance Here Sir I thought to have released you for I was in hopes all had been pretty well over But his Wit is inexhaustible There is nothing so barren which he cannot be fruitful and copious upon Who else could have applied the Tale of the Dutch Commentators and Horace's Mother to two Epigrams Any other Man would have told me bluntly that if I had not been certain of what I said I should have forborn my idle Conjectures But to return him one ill Jest for another I assure him the Father of the Two Epigrams is not altogether so much unknown to me as it seems Horace's Mother was to the Dutch-Commentators and I did not only guess when I laid them at a Doctor 's Door The Pretence of the Author 's not being accountable for the abuses in them because they were Printed without his Knowledge is ridiculous and of a Piece with the rest of his Arguments They were not I hope Composed Transcribed and Dispersed without his Knowledge which had they not been harmless inoffensive things would have made them as much Libels as the Printing of them Indeed it is an unfair Practice to betray a Man into Print The Collectors of the Examen c. should not have inserted them without leave had they been never so Excellent much lâ—ss when they hardly deserved a place in their Book But one may guess by it with Submission to the conjecturing Dutch Commentators that they were no great Friends to Dr. Bentley neither any more than the Author and I some times 〈◊〉 that we are secretly obliged to Christ-Church it self for that Miscellany notwithstanding this Gentleman for some private Reasons publickly disclaims it But whencesoever it came if it has given you any Divertisement in your Solitude I have had my Desire and there is an End of it There is yet another Paragraph behind and so it is like to remain For besides that it has nothing in it but Your humble Servant Sir I begin to blush almost as much for Examining as the Author ought to do for writing this Pragmatical Rhapsody Give me leave Sir to call it what I think I have fairly proved it to be tho' if I am not wrong informed it was the Production of one that never doubted his own Sufficience and Abilities in all kinds of Poliâ—e Learning SIR I am Yours c. T. R. London Aug. 23. 1698. FINIS BOOKS Printed for Richard Cumberland at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard HOrological Disquisitions concerning the Nature of Time and the Reasons why all Days from Noon to Noon are not alike twenty four Hours long In which appears the impossibility of a Clock's being always kept exactly true to the Sun with Tables of Equation and newer and better Rules than any yet extant how thereby precisely to adjust Royal Pendulums and keep them afterwards as near as possible to the apparent Time With a Table of Pendulums shewing the Beats that any Length makes in an hour A Work very necessary for all that would understand the true way of rightly managing Clocks and Watches By John Smith C. M. The Mystery of the Christian Faith and of The Blesseâ—l Trinity vindicated and The Divinity of Christ proved In Three Sermons Preach'd at Westminster-Abbey upon Trinity-Suaday June the 7th and September 21. 1696. With a Letter in Vindication of them By the late Reverend William Payne D. D. A Scriptural Catechism Or The Whole Duty of Man laid down in Express Words of Scripture chiefly intended for the Benefit of the younger Sort. Divided into two Parts The first containing the chief Principles of our Christian Belief The Second instructing us in our Duty to God and Man according to the Method observed in the Excellent Book Entituled The Whole Duty of Man To which is added Some Private Devotions in express Words of Scripture With devout Collects for several Occasions Recommended by the Right Reverend Father in God Edward Lord Bishop of Gloucester Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church With the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Books The Third Edition With an Appendix concerning the Miracles and Reliques of the Church of Rome By â—ohn Patrick D. D. Late Preacher of the Charter-house London Two Books of Elegies In Imitation of the Two First Books of Ovid de Tristibus with part of the Third To which is added Verses upon several Occasions with some Translations out of the Latin and Greek Poets By Thomas Ball M. A. of St. â—ohn's Colledge in Cambrdge Monitio Logica Or An Abstract and Translation of Burgersdicius his Logick By a Gentleman A Treatise of Prayer and Thanksgiving With Devotions for the Morning and Evening the Sacrament Sickness and oOccasions By â— C. To which is added a Sermon on Psalm 73. 28. By the late Reverend B. Whitchcott D. D. And also his Character of the Best Christians A Practical Essay concerning Friendly Reproof By Daniel Sturmy late Student of Catharine-Hall Cambridge An Essay concerning Critical aâ—d Curious Learning In which â—e contained some short Reflections on the Controversie betwixt Sir William Temple and Mr. Wotton and that betwixt Dr. Bentley and Mr. Boyl By T. R. Esq
A VINDICATION OF An ESSAY concerning Critical and Curious Learning In which are contained Some Short Reflections on the Controversie betwixt Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE AND Mr. WOTTON And that betwixt Dr. BENTLEY AND Mr. BOYL In Answer to an Oxford Pamphlet By the Author of that Essay Pudet haec opprobria Vobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli LONDON Printed for E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1698. A VINDICATION OF An ESSAY concerning Critical and Curious Learning c. IN Answer to an Oxford Pamphlet SIR I Little thought there would have been any Need of Defending the short Essay concerning Critical and Curious Learning c. which I â—ately Writ and Printed you know â—urely in Complyance to your Desires But I did not consider how tenderly some People are affected with any thing that looks like a Reproof It was no sooner published but out comes an acute Answer from Oxon and pronounces it a down-right Ignorant and impudent Libel and the Author of it an Atheistical Town-Wit Whether this dreadful Charge is made out or not shall be my present Inquiry and because I am not much in love with the Laâ—pooner's method of Railing in general and talking at random I will beg your Patience while I take every particular Paragraph into a distinct but short Examination Not that I think there is any thing in this Trivial Paper worth the trouble for on the other Hand Pudet recitare nugis addere pondâ—s But the Author seems to be so full of himself and writes with such a Magisterial Air that some People especially those that are byassed may be apt to fancy he has Justice on his side and that my Silence is a tacit acknowledgment of it Besides I may possibly do him himself no disservice in shewing him how unfit a Champion he is to undertake the Defence of a Publick Cause There is a vast difference betwixt the Qualifications which may make a Man appear advantagiously enough in an University and those which will render him acceptable and Eminent in the World But I do not Sir pretend to undervalue an University Education for I know the moâ—t considerable Personages of our Nation have always been those who had their first Institutions there I would only urge that a Man must have a more diffused and mixed Converâ—ation than is to be met with in a College before his Learning will sit agreeably upon him or he can hope to become a finish'd Scholar such a one I mean as this Gentleman takes himself to be I can Observe no Method in what I am about You must take it as it comes in the Confusion he has delivered it And therefore without any more Preliminary I will begin to Transcribe Viz. Sir I thank you â—or the Pamphlet you sent me the other day and because you was pleased to make it the Condition of your Giâ—t that I should return my Thoughts upon it I have here sent them by the first Post and I believe much sooner than you expected You have them in the very Order they at fiâ—st occurred to me without any manner of Correction for truly I did not think it worth my while to make any This Introduction you see affords nothing Remarkable but that our Friend is very good at Writing Letters and may be depended upon by his Correspondents for a speedy Answer let the Business they employ him about be never so Disobliging to him or Insignificant in it self unless perhaps we are to understand by the particular Character of the Words Condition and Gift that there is some pretty double Entendre couched in them I suppose his Meaning if he has any must be to inform us by way of Lawyer that some Gifts are upon Condition and some not and that where there is a Condition that Condition must be performed before the Title to the Gift can be good But let the Distinction lye where it will I wish for my part he had not thought this small Gift worth his Acceptance upon the Barbarous Condition of persecuting his Unknown Humble Servant as you shall hear he now and then does First then It is obvious to remark that the Author whoever he is has given his Essay a wrong â—itle If he had had a Mind to deal honestly with his Reader it should have run thus An Essay c. â—n which are Contained several False and Scandalous Reflections on Christ Church in Oxon. But to turn over the Title Page In his Preamble where I assure you he pretends abundance of Modesty he cannot forhear making open Proclamation that he and his Friend to whom he addresses this piece have resolved to censure and damn all Books that shall be hereafter Published To which purpose they have established a Critical Correspondence between them Wo be to all poor Writers for the future But he has given the World no reason to hope well of this Grand Design For in the present case which it seems is the first he has medled in he is far from bâ—ing so fair and equitable a Moderator as he ought or indeed as he himself would pretend to be For he has every where shewed that Dogmatical Humour and Arrogance he blames in others and has taken a most intolerable Freedom where he ought not to have done it I have but two Reasons to think that Dr. Bentley himself did not write this Treatise One is that the Matter is infinitely too Polite and the Style too Smooth and Flowing for him The other that I hardly believe his Self-love and Pride would have suffered him to have dealt so freely and justly with his own and his Friend's Characters tho' it was the most likely way to do him a real Service at the bottom For these Reasons I must acquit the Doctor and tell you that I rather believe the Author to be an Esquirâ— as he calls himself and one of those mighty Wits amongst you in Town that set uâ— for the Overthrow of Religion who the better to gain their Enâ—s lay hold on all Occasions of traducing the Universities and undermining the Dignity and Character of the Clergy And tho' I have said this of him yet it is no Wonder that he is Dr. Bentley's Friend and Acquaintance Here I have several things to account for The first is a Misnosmer But I cannot agree with him in it since I am by no means guilty of the False and Scandalous Reflections he talks of For what I have said of Christ Church in Oxon is so far from being the false or scandalous Insinuation of an Enemy that their best Friends have frequently and publickly owned the Truth of it and to quote Horace once more Dicere verum quid vetat I appeal to you or any impartial Person whether I have not left many things unmentioned that might easily have been brought in if I had had a Mind to shew my Malice But I thought my self Obliged to touch upon nothing but what lay immediately within the Argument I did not so
justness of his Reflections that he pursues me with equal Vigour through the Digression upon the use of frequent Compositions and to my great Comfort he does it just with equal success too Here he is again disgusted at my Trumping common Notions upon him for fine Things which says he are by no means proper for an Essay where all should be New and Entertaining which he makes two Synonimous Terms But with his good leave since he will â—orce me to justifie my Common Notions the commonest Notions are always the most proper Mediums the best and surest Basis to reason upon and are in themselves the strongest Arguments for that they arise most naturally and easily out of any Subject And therefore whoever writes Essay or Pamphlet with a design to convince must not neglect the use of them The Sentence here produced as an Instance of my ordinary Common Stuff All the faculties of the Mind whether active or passive are mightily heightened and improved by Exercise I am not at all ashamed of I still think it a good argâ—ment to evince the advantage of frequent application to Composition If a Man would always resolve to write something that was never said or thought of before his Productions might be New indeed but not therefore Entertaining nay they must of Necessity be Whimsical and Ridiculous We find very few Books upon the same Topicks tho' â—enned by Authors of never such different Genius's that do not for the most part use the 〈◊〉 Ge neral Arguments and often interfere with one another But that which commonly distinguishes them is the particular Manner the Style and Method of each Author Not that I would affirm that Men do not sometimes differ very materially in their Sentiments of the same things What else has occasioned so many opposite Hypotheses so many Disputes and Controversies which have always employed the Pens of the Learned and to which indeed are owing the greatest Progresses and Advances that have been made in Knowledge both in past and present Ages But I forget my Text. Another piece of Criticism is that Tully was a better Poet than an Oratour c. I will take no advantage of the words Poet and Oratour being here transposed because I believe it was through the Printer's Negligence but I am not sure he would not have made himself merry with any such slip in my Book He is guilty of as idle things In this very place he quotes half a Sentence puts his own Construction up on it and then makes me talk as like a Squire as he pleases 'T is true in the 39th page of the Essay which I suppose he refers to I name Cicero but it is only as an Instance to prove that Invention iâ— any kind will turn to some advantage or other and that his application to Poetry was of great use to him in his Rhetorical Composures But whether he was a better Poet or an Oratour was a Controversie that did not lye much in my way and I only hinted at it To pronounce fully and clearly upon so doubtful a Question to unriddle a Secret that had â—ain hid so many Centuries was reserved for some extraordinary Genius such an Aedipus could arise only in Thebes or Athens What follows is transcribed from the Essay and tartly applied to mâ— But I think the Cap is put on at a Venture without knowing or considering whether it would fit or not For he cannot make any Body else if he can himself believe that I have betrayed the least Partiality because Dr. Bentley is as freely handled as Christ-Church Whatever either side may think of the Matter I have honestly given them the real sense of the impartial part of the Town about their Quarrel and way of Managing it But if plain dealing can have no Effect upon them let them e'en go on and make sport for others by exposing themselves The next Paragraph is to inform all those whom it may concern that I play booâ—y with Dr. Bâ—ntley and that upon second Thoughts I am more like Almanzor than a Squire Which however important I shall pass over in silence as things that sufficiently answer themselves But I cannoâ— I fear make suâ— quick Work of that Paragraph which follows it I have there a 〈◊〉 Scroll of Offences to answer to and 〈◊〉 you may the better judge how â—ar I am guilty you must have the Patience to hear both sides In his first Attack upon the College he takes Dr. Bentley's Method and says peremptorily Mr. Boyle's Name is falsly set to the late Answer to the Dissertation against Phalaris's Epistles c. and that he is sure he had no hand at all in it This he does out of pure Complaisance to Mr. Boyl as a Gentleman that there may be no Quarrel between them two foâ— he is resolv'd to cut and slash the Book to Pieces and without any more to do says it is full of nothing but little Wittiâ—isms and School-Boys Jests He begs leave of his Reader being a very Civil Person to suggest his own Opinion And truly his Opinion is that it was made as most Compositions in that College are by a Select Club 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 pâ—nned plentifully on this Occasion A pretty Conceipt this What a Dutch Image of Wit and Composition is here I here is just as much Wit and Sence as Probability and Good Manners in it For when a Gentleman has affixed his Name to a Book and owned it shall any one that dares do neither give him the Lye and pretend Civility at the same time It was a Clownish bold Piece of Freedom at first in Dr. Bentley and now the same in this Ambuscado Writer Such rude Treatment would have been abominable to any of Mr. Boyle's Quality had he been a Man of no Note had he never given any Proofs of his extraordinary Genius and great Learning to the World and as the Case is quite otherwise you and the Author must pardon if I say it is downright impudent But this is only a Sample of some more Behaviour of the same kind He has plenty of such Civilities in store for the Dean and Students of Christ Church who he takes to be the true Authors of the Book But he does not trouble himself to answer them in any thing material but without the least Provocation takes their Manners most severely to Task puts a mark upon them and assures his Friend that they distinguish themselves from the rest of the University not by their extraordinary Learning but their abominable Arrogance He wonders how they can have the Confidence to condemn Pride in another when they have so great a share of it themselves He woulâ— very fain know why it is not as excusable in Dr. Bentley who is a Scholar as in some young Men who cannot reasonably be supposed to be so