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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	concern_v	time_n	write_v	2,871	5	5.4131	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35311	Denmark vindicated being an answer to a late treatise called An account of Denmark, as it was in the year 1692, sent from a gentleman in the country, to his friend in London.	Crull, J. (Jodocus), d. 1713?	1694 (1694)	Wing C7426; ESTC R16639	97,251	232

seems to be the only excuse that can be made for these extravagancies and groundless Aspersions so little suitable to the rules of true History wherewith it is filled up from the beginning of the Preface to the very conclusion Certainly if this Author's Intention had been to give a warrantable Account of Denmark it would have been much more glorious and consonant to the practice of all civilized Nations to have imitated the frankness and integrity of the antient Romans whom he seems so much to admire and more particularly that of Tacitus in his Book which he writ concerning the Germans in his Time Those who see this Author quoted not only in the Title page but also in several places afterwards will scarce believe that any other but the above mentioned Reason could induce our Author to recede so far from the Method of an approved Historian and the so much applauded moderation of him whom he himself praises as the greatest of Politicians of his Time Neither will the difference which some pretend to have found out betwixt those Times and our Age be a sufficient excuse for this new-invented way of writing since if our Author had been more taken with an Ambition to imitate Modern than antient Writers in this kind there are not wanting Examples among them of undeniable Sincerity and Modesty The Memoirs of Villeroy and the Letters of Cardinal D● Ossat have deserved such praises from the most unbyassed and eminent Politicians that he need not have been ashamed to tread in their footsteps Even the Northern parts where our Author falsly imagines all Learning to be extinguished can furnish him with a Pattern of this Kind in their imcomparable Monzam bano of the State of the German Empire according to which if he had regulated himself he would not have scattered such abundance of ill grounded Reflections against many Illustrious Persons and had better deserved the Name of a true Historian But if nothing of Foreign Vertue could be charming enough to our Author the living Examples either of Sir William Temple or of the so much celebrated Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Salisbury in his Observations especially made concerning his Travels and published some years ago ought to have excited him to deserve the same Character except our Author has an in born Aversion to any thing that has the least relation to the North. To conclude this Author seems to be a great Admirer and to have adapted the whole Work to the Doctrine of some political Doctors among us who having gathered their phantastical Notions of a Platonick Government without Faults out of such antient Philosophers as used to fight Battels in their Studies and with florid Speeches infuse their Conceits of Governing into their Auditors do very industriously labour to spread their vain Opinion to the great disadvantage of the State And I think the whole Work may serve as a convincing Instance to shew the World how difficult it is to shake off such Prejudices as are implanted in our tender Age and have in process of time taken root with us so that it is manifest that notwithstanding our Author's Opinion in his Preface Travelling too late proves sometimes as ineffectual as going abroad too young This being what in general may justly be said of this Treatise I have communicated to you with the same freedom as I thought was becoming our Friendship and the satisfaction I always take in contributing any thing to your Curiosity But the particular consideration of the whole much exceeding the compass of a Letter I have in the enclosed Papers set down such impartial animadversions as seemed to me necessary towards the explaining of the chief points in the whole Treatise wherein if I have added any thing to your satisfaction it fully answers the ends of him who Sir always will be Your affectionate Friend and Servant January 16. 1693 4. REMARKS UPON THE PREFACE BOOKS without their Author's Names being like Bastards who cannot claim the least Prerogative from their Parentage ought questionless to challenge no other Authority but what is derived from their own Deserts And tho' it is not to be denyed but that sometimes the Circumstances of time and place may be a good Plea to some Authors who have disguised themselves under fictitious Names or else set none at all to their judicious Pieces Yet it must also be owned That whenever they have transgressed the Rules of true Sincerity and Modesty and endeavoured rather to recommend themselves to the Reader by their pompous Words than approved Truth they have deservedly incurred the Censures of all Judicious and Unbyassed Persons If the Author of the Treatise called An Account of Denmark had made the least Reflection as he ought to have done upon this certainly he would not have been so much pre-possessed with the Vanity of his own Inventions as to believe That the same tho' never so gaudily dress'd up with fine Words and adorned with fair Suppositions could be received as a Truth among the more sensible part of Mankind But to come to the Matter it self Health and Liberty are without dispute the greatest natural Blessings Mankind is capable of enjoying says our Author at the very beginning of his Preface That Health and Liberty duly considered are Two precious Jewels scarce sufficiently to be valued has never been questioned in this part of the World But since Physicians themselves do not agree in the true nature of the First as admitting of several Degrees and being scarce ever to be found in its due Perfection and the Degrees of the Second being by all Judicious Politicians adapted to the several Constitutions of those Countries and Inhabitants where the same is to be exercised our Author would have done very prudently to have have given us a more clear and satisfactory Notion of the true Nature of both So do we see Phantastical Ladies tho' according to their natural Constitution in good Health affect sometimes to be leaner sometimes fatter sometimes to nauseate a small Pimple or even their natural Colour sometimes imagining tho' falsely I know not what Indisposition in their Body and by Vomits repelling Medicines and other destructive Methods bring upon themselves dangerous Diseases And how often the mistaken Rules of Liberty have proved not only troublesome but also fatal the Histories of all Ages do abundantly testifie It had therefore in my Judgment been more suitable to the nature of an Historical Treatise and the Circumstances also of our present Enjoyment of sufficient Liberty under the Conduct of a Wise and Just King to have given a true Scheme of moderate Liberty than to represent to us at this time a Romantick Notion of the same by fetching the Italian out of his own Country and transferring of him into Greenland for these are his Words But as an Italian that passes a Winter in Greenland will soon be convinced how much Misery he endures in comparison of those who dwell in his native Country so he that knows