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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	let_v	life_n	write_v	2,795	5	5.7299	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58352	Reflexions on marriage, and the poetick discipline a letter / by the author of The remarques on the town.	Author of The remarques on the town.	1673 (1673)	Wing R697; ESTC R3302	40,625	222

AN ADVERTISEMENT REprinted the last Michaelmas Term The Works of Francis Osborn Esq Divine Moral Historical and Political in 4 several Tracts Viz. 1. Advice to a Son In two parts 2. Political Reflexions on the Government of the Turks c. 3. Memoirs on Q. Elizabeth and K. James 4. A Miscellany of Essayes Paradoxes Problematical Discourses Letters Characters c. The seventh Edition in Octavo price bound six shillings REFLEXIONS ON Marriage AND THE Poetick Discipline A Letter By the AUTHOR of the Remarques on the TOWN LONDON Printed for Allen Bancks at the Sign of St. Peter at the West end of St. Pauls 1673. To the READER IT has not only been the Fashion but esteemed a Justice in every Age to assist those Theams that have been run down by a Popular practice and contempt Marriage appear'd so to the Author of the following Paper which suffers too much in the loss of its Veneration and Esteem had any more Dexterous found that Generosity about them as to have performed an act of so much Justice they had prevented this attempt of the Author who writes not out of affectation nor a busy humour But it seemes the wits are revolted and have taken imployment under a Tyrannick and prosperous vice whilst those who are best able to appear for so excellent a Subject have deserted it the assistances of meaner Persons though they may want the applauses of Success yet they lose not the Character of Kindness And when others are strangly imployed in heaping Reproaches upon Marriage and in ascribing disadvantages to it whilst they affront it with their new Witt and their modish Vices nothing can appear more Just then to vindicate it by Recapitulateing those benefits that it has produced in the world it is a witness great enough of its misfortunes that it needs to be Harangued since its practicall Esteem and Veneration had 'till now preserved it from the want of Elogies but when it is reduc'd to that condition it is high time to erect it Monuments whilst the world is so fast forgetting its Reputation and its Grandeur But whilst the Author has attempted this he must say in his own Justification that he has only interessed himself in the Subject without reflecting upon any that have procured it injuries and indeed every Writer should proclaim like the Roman Pacem cum Hominibus Bellum cum vitiis 'T is far from his humour to show a disrespect of that nature to any Person and as far from his beleif that the way to reclaim others were to expose them by severe Reflexions they will do him an injustice who think so of him and equally traduce him who should take his taxing the Crimes of some for a Censure on the whole Community he only designes to show the vanity and the fault of those who becoming enamoured on a fatall humour must yet make their addresses to it in so strange a manner as to impose it on the beleif and practices of others and in ascribing the concurrence of the whole Town to the efforts of a private Humour We are well assured that those vices have found impregnable more Persons then they can pretend to have Conquer'd Though at the same time since all Vice is progressive and especially when it is pusht on by so strange a confidence and affectation it is but necessary to fix some Accusations on that Practice whose noise and daring temper may in time make more considerable devastations in the possessions of that Vertue which yet is left secure and uncorrupted And the Author designes this Declaration not only as an excuse for the following Paper but also as a Justification of what he has formerly written in which he finds himself censured as taxing the whole Town with those blemishes which he only affixed to the affected and imposing humour though he can esteem that reproach as no other then an Evasion and an Artifice in the faulty since those whose innocence is assured never concern themselves in any Reflexions which belong not to them Thus far I had written when I received an Answer to my Remarques but it was neither with Trouble nor Surprize since I very well know that it is impossible for the most modest Adversary to defend himself from the present briskness of the Town wit which spares neither a Friend nor an Enemy the trade of Poetry and Raillery must go on or else all the Town wit must be starv'd I received no disorder in the least from any thing in his Book only his Preface put me into a little heat in which I must tell him that amongst all the bad Company he beleives I have kept I yet never met with any thing so disingenuous and ill-bred as his odious Epistle and I can assure him that I have given the World greater proofs then himself of contrary Impressions but the anger is over and I am his most Humble Servant and though he beleives me to be a Pedant a Tutor a Secretary and Squire Clodpate I will yet imagine him to be a great Wit a Gentleman and if he pleases a Person of Quality for I alwayes find it more easy as well as more civil to give Elogies rather then reviling as for his design it was brave and not at all Dangerous for what could he do less when he was perpetually egg'd on by a fair Lady who was resolved not to admit of his Courtships except he appear'd prodigiously Ingenious as he is otherwise sweetly accomplisht she appearing of a Capricio like that Princess who would have refused for her Gallant the handsomest man in Europe if he had not been also at the same time the greatest wit of the Conclave I congratulate you Madam in the choice you have made of a Servant he has acquitted himself well of your Lady-ships Commands and I hope when you have any others you will not bestow them else where but yet if at any time you should request him to write your Life let me beseech you to forbid him to put an Epistle before it for he has the worst faculty that way of any Gentleman I know All that I shall say to his Book is that it is throughout one great mistake and that first in taking those Reflexions to be intended for all the Town which were only directed to a very few Persons And then to affirm that the words of Age Nation Town Societies c. were General since it is so plainly to be seen by the Censure and the Character that none but a foole would have treated them in that manner an Age a Nation a Town in which are so much Learning Bravery and Vertue and particularly those Societies that are by all the world honoured and revered for those endowments the Gentleman has mentioned in them All that I prosecuted was a vain and enterprizing humour which having upon occasions apparent found amongst some of the Wits I after followed where it had took refuge in graver Communities the former received the 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