Speech and Ways of Writing imaginable They wrought it up into all the Majesty and Grace all the Sweetness and Smoothness that an Happy Composition of Words an Harmonious mixture of Vowels and Diphthongs or a Just Cadency of Syllables could give it The best Greek Writers had generally Skill in Music which was infus'd into 'em from their Infancy and none were reckon'd well-bred that wanted it This made their Ear just and fine and the fineness of their Ear easily slid into their Tongue model'd their Speech and made it Tuneable They brought all the Learning in the World into their Language and wrote in the best manner upon all the most useful and pleasing Subjects that could benefit or entertain Mankind The Natural Perfection of their Tongue and the distinguishing Excellency of their Authors in all Kinds of Knowledge and Ways of Writing made 'em a Compleat Standard and Model to other Nations and after-Ages upon which every one endeavour'd to form himself So that what was sure always to be lik'd could not chuse but last long Their Empire also did not a little contribute to the Stability and Prevalence of their Language They overcame a Great part of the World and extended their Tongue with their Conquests so as to make it Universal All Nations borrow'd from Them but They had that Contempt of the Barbarity of other Countries that they were shy of suffering either their Manners or their Speech to be introduc'd among ' em This Pride they preserv'd in a great measure even when the Roman Empire was at its utmost heighth and while Rome flourish'd with the Glory of Arms the Seat of Learning still continu'd at Athens This kept the Language so far entire and unmix'd that we have Greek Books writ by Authors at almost Two thousand Years distance who disagree less in their Phrase and Manner of Speech than the Books of any Two English Writers do who liv'd but Two hundred Years asunder This then was a Peculiar Happiness of the Greek Tongue No other Language that has been of known and familiar use in the World not even the Latin it self enjoy'd any thing like it An 150 or 200 Years was the utmost Length of Time that the Latin Purity continu'd And therefore to Compare the Greek the most Holding Tongue in the World with the English the most Fickle and Fleeting of any and to Inferr from the observable difference between the several Ages of English that there was as great a Difference between the several Ages of Greek is a Comparison and an Inference which No-body but Dr. Bentley would have allow'd himself to make that is to be plain with him No-body but One who has no true Relish no nice Tast of the Beauties and Proprieties of Either of these Languages or of any Other that he has yet pretended to judge of or to write in By those Marks and Moles of Novity which he has pointed out in the Paragraph we are upon the Reader is by this time satisfied how able he is to assign to every Greek Writer his proper Age and Period meerly by the Thread and Colour of his Style Indeed tho' he has the Vanity to declare this to be his Extraordinary Faculty yet he has withal the Modesty not to hope that he shall convince any body and in this I dare say he is not mistaken For 't is somewhat hard to imagine how a Man should enter into the Spirit and Delicacy and all the Various Niceties of a Dead Tongue who is so far from having any exquisite sense of these things even in that very Tongue which he was born and bred up in I shall take an occasion by and bye to give the Reader such a Specimen of his English Eloquence as will discourage any body if there be any body left who is not yet discourag'd from chusing Him for a Taster In the mean time to stay the Reader 's Longing I shall instance in One Happy Phrase newly minted by the Dr. in this very Paragraph he speaks here of the Mien of a Face which as I take it is much the same thing with the Behaviour of a Look or the Carriage of a Smile I do not know how particular the Dr's Mien or his Face may be for to my knowledge I never saw him but the Mien of the Face of his Style the Reader must allow me even from this single instance is somewhat extraordinary THE Use of the Attic Dialect was made one shrewd Objection against Phalaris the Use of the Attic Talent Dr. Bentley is resolv'd shall be another This Way of Counting recurrs pretty often in the Epistles however not so often as that an Argument built upon it should deserve to be rank'd among the General Proofs but I am so little sensible of the force of it that I am willing to allow it a place there and if Dr. Bentley can make it out I promise to renounce not those Particular Epistles only from whence 't is taken but the Whole Sett of them The Dr. upon this Article accuses his Mock-Phalaris of mistaking the Sicilian Talent and this Mistake of his he with his usual Gaiety calls a Slippery Way of telling Mony and therefore cautions us against dealing with him He explains himself thus That the Sicilian Talent was the Lowest of any that Phalaris promising in his Epistles to several of his Countrymen Talents in General must be understood to mean Sicilian Talents whereas he means nothing like it Now says the Dr. if a Bargain were made in England to pay so many Pounds or Marks and the Party should pretend at last that he meant Scots Marks or French Livres few I suppose would care to have Dealings with him And this is the very Case in so many of these Letters So far from being the Case that the Case is just contrary For if the â—icilian Talents were so very Low and Phalaris must be thought to intend them in his Promises and yet paid Attic ones Those he dealt with had certainly no reason to complain of him Would a man think himself ill us'd in Scotland who should have a General Promise made him of so many Pounds which he expected to be made good in the Pounds of the Country and receiv'd 'em afterwards in good English Sterling What could possibly give this Perverse Turn even to Dr. Bentley's Imagination What Cloudy Author had he been conversing with that could put him into this State of Perplexity and Confusion We have great hopes indeed that the Intricate Accounts of this Paragraph should be clear'd up by such an Head in such Order But it may be the Dr. did not intend this for a Remark that was to Edifie his Reader but for a pure piece of harmless Diversion Having therefore sported himself a little he resumes the Chair and thus authoritatively dictates to us We are to know that in Sicily as in most other Countries the Name and Value of their Coins and the way of reckoning by Summs
indeed to find there that our MS. was not perus'd Could they not have ask'd for it agen then after my Return Yes I could Sir and have been deny'd it again which I was not very willing to venture I neither thought my self so little nor Dr. Bently so great nor the MS. so considerable that I should make a second Application for it after such a Repulse no not tho' I had been sure of obtaining it much less could I ever think of asking it agen when by what Mr. Bennet had told me I had all the reason in the world to think I should be agen deny'd it But there is a reason for every thing says the Dr. and the Mystery was soon reveal'd A pretty decent Phrase on so light an occasion but this is not the only instance where the Critick has got the better of the Divine Well but how was the Mystery reveal'd why He had the hard Hap it seems in some private Conversation to say that the Epistles were spurious and unworthy of a new Edition Hinc Illae Lachrymae If he said this as he intimates he did at Oxford where the Book was then printing he said a very uncivil thing and what in his Dialect he terms his Hard Hap other People would be apt to call his Ill Breeding However I seriously declare I was utterly a stranger to this Discourse of his till he told me of it in Print I might hear perhaps of his being in Oxford but I had heard too much of his Discourse with Mr. Bennet to be curious in making any Enquiries into his private Conversation The Reader will excuse this Tedious Descant on Dr. Bently's Relation of Matter of Fact The true Story of our MS. was a point of importance my Honesty was concern'd in this part of the Dispute the rest only touches my Learning Having therefore I hope justified my Conduct where it most became me to do it the Matters of pure Criticism will give me no Concern I 'm sure tho' they may put me to some little Trouble I shall enter upon 'em with the Indifference of a Gamester who plays but for a trifle which 't is much the same to him whether he wins or loses I shou'd now fall closely to my work the Authority of Phalaris's Epistles but that there is an Introduction of Dr. Bently's that lies in my way and must first have a Reflexion or two bestow'd upon it He begins it with telling us that Mr. Wotton by the power of a long Friendship between 'em engag'd him to write it I hope Mr. Wotton will let the Publick know that he neither engag'd his Friend to write upon this Subject in this manner nor approv'd of these Discourses when written which the World will presume him to have done till the contrary appears and till he has disclaim'd Dr. Bentley's attempt as publickly as he seems now to countenance and avow it 'T is a little strange that Mr. Wotton in a second Edition of his Book which he had discreetly taken care to purge of most things that look'd like ill Manners in himself shou'd be prevail'd upon to allow a place to the ill Manners of another man But I hear and I am not unwilling to think that Mr. Wotton receivâ—d this Present at a venture from Dr. Bently and let it be printed without giving himself the trouble of reading it And I the rather fall in with this account because I find Mr. Wotton in his Book zealously vindicating the Age from the Imputation of Pedantry and assuring us that tho' the Citation of Scraps of Latin and a nauseous ostentation of Reading were in fashion Fifty or Sixty Years ago yet that all that is now in a great measure disus'd Which I suppose he would never have done in some of the last Pages of his Book if he had then known of the Dissertation that immediately follows it A Gentleman of my acquaintance was observing to me what a Motly Unequal work these two Pieces made as they now lye together Mr. Wotton said he in his Reflections takes in the whole compass of Ancient and Modern Learning and endeavours to show wherein either of 'em has been defective and wherein they have excell'd A Large Design fit for the Pen of my Lord Bacon and in the well executing of which any one Man's Life would be usefully spent Dr. Bentley comes after him with a Dissertation half as big as his Book to prove that three or four small Pieces ascrib'd to some of the Ancients are not so ancient as they pretend to be a very inconsiderable Point and which a wise man would grudge the throwing away a weeks thought upon if he could gain it and what then shall we say of Him that has spent two or three years of his life to lose it Mr. W's motive to write was he tells us a piece of Publick Service that he hop'd he might do the World Dr. Bentley's plainly a private Picque and such as 't was utterly unfit for him to act upon either as a Scholar or a Christian much more as he was one in Holy Orders and that had undertaken the publick defence of Religion Mr W. continued he is modest and decent speaks generally with respect of those he differs from and with a due distrust of his own Opinions Dr. Bentley is Positive and Pert has no regard for what other men have thought or said and no suspicions that he is fallible Mr. W's Book has a Vein of Learning running through it where there is no ostentation of it Dr. Bentley's Appendix has all the Pomp and Show of Learning without the Reality In truth said he there is scarce any thing as the Book now stands in which that and the Appendix agree but in commending and admiring Dr. Bentley in which they are so very much of a Piece that one would think Dr. Bentley had writ both the one and the other But leaving these two Friends to the Pleasure of their mutual Civilities I shall go on to the rest of my remarks on Dr. Bentley's Introduction After telling us then at whose Instance he wrote this famous Piece of Criticism he begins to give us a cast of his skill in the Point Sir W. Temple had observ'd in favour of the Ancients that some of the Oldest Books we have are the best in their kinds To this Dr. Bentley replies That some of the Oldest Books are the best in their kinds the same Person having the Double Glory of Invention and Perfection is a thing observ'd even by some of the Ancients And for this he very learnedly quotes Dion Chrysostome But then says he the Authors they gave this Honour to are Homer and Archilochus one the Father of Heroic Poem and the other of Epode and Trochaic p. 7. What he means by saying that this had been observ'd even by some of the Ancients is not easie to apprehend nor why he quotes Chrysostome for it whose Authority either in this or any other case is not
Dr. BENTLEY'S DISSERTATIONS ON THE Epistles of PHALARIS AND THE Fables of AESOP EXAMIN'D By the Honourable Charles Boyle Esq Remember Milo's End Wedg'd in that Timber which he strove to rend Roscom Ess. of Transl. Vers. LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-moon in St. Paul's Church-yard 1698. THE PREFACE SOON after Dr. Bentley's Dissertation came out I was call'd away into Ireland to attend the Parliament there The Publick Business and my own private affairs detain'd me a great while in that Kingdom else the World should have had a much Earlier account of Him and his Performance For tho' He took above two Years to make his Learned Reflections on Phalaris yet Two Months would have been enough to have shown him that he is but a weak Champion in a very frivolous Cause I speak not this one of any vain design of setting up for a Quick Writer but meerly to avoid being thought to have thrown away any considerable part of my life upon so triflng a subject which as Idle a man as I am is an Imputation I would not willingly lye under I little imagin'd ever to have been engag'd in a Dispute of this nature I am not very fond of Controversies even where the Points debated are of some importance but in trivial matters and such as Mankind is not at all concern'd in methinks they are unpardonable This ever since I came to have any Opinions of my own has been one of 'em and is still tho' I am unluckily at present brought to act contrary to it But the Case is this Dr. Bentley has been pleas'd with some warmth to fall foul on an Edition and Version of Phalaris's Epistles that I some years since offer'd to the World He has taken a great deal of Good-natur'd pains to prove that I had been very foolishly busying my self upon a Contemptible and Spurious Author and had made a bad book much worse by a very ill Edition of it I was very Young when I appear'd on that occasion and I appear'd rather as one that wish'd well to Learning than profess'd it and for both these reasons promis'd my self good usage from the men of more profound Skill in such matters Dr. Bentley was sensible that his Criticisms would lye under some disadvantage on this account and therefore to excuse his making so free with the Edition was pleas'd to make yet freer with Me and according to His Breeding to tell Me and all the World that I had set my name to a Book which did not belong to me The first of these Reflections had it come single I could easily have neglected had he stop'd there I would have left the Book to shift for it self and Him to the good opinion he has of his own performances without endeavouring to lessen it But when he carried his Criticisms so far as to assert not only of Phalaris but his Editor too that they neither of 'em wrote what was ascrib'd to 'em he gave me so plain and so publick an Affront that I could not with any tolerable regard to my reputation quietly put it up Thus was I much against my inclinations brought into the Lists It was necessary for me to say something in defence of my self and when I did so I thought it would be judg'd proper for me to say something too in defence of my Author and to enquire into the justness of those Criticisms which Dr. Bentley has advanc'd on this occasion and which I foresaw wou'd be look'd upon as in some measure aim'd at Me tho' they did not really belong to me I have not any where in my Book asserted that the Epistles which carry Phalaris's name are Genuine and I am not therefore engag'd to defend their Reputation against the Attacks of Dr. Bentley or any other person who by the help of Leisure and Lexicons shall set up for a Critic in this point But as I have not undertaken for their being Genuine so neither have I with a decisive and assuming air pronounc'd 'em Spurious I express'd my self with that Caution and Reserve in this matter which I thought became a Young Writer who was sensible that the best and ablest Iudges were divided in their opinions about it and I thought it would be a very Indecent part in Me to make my self a Iudge between ' em But I was chiefly induc'd to observe these measures by the Regard I had for the most Accomplish'd Writer of the Age whom I never think of without calling to mind those happy Lines of Lucretius Qnem Tu Dea Tempore in omni Omnibus ornatum voluisti excellere rebus a Character which I dare say Memmius did not better deserve than Sir William Temple He had openly declar'd in favour of the Epistles and the Nicety of his Taste was never I think disputed by Such as had any themselves I quoted his Words with that respect which is due to ev'ry thing that comes from him but must now beg his pardon for it for I have by this means I find drawn him into a share of Dr. Bentley's displeasure who has hereupon given himself the trouble of writing almost fourscore pages solemnly to disprove that One of Sir William's which he has prefix'd to his Dissertation and which to give him my opinion of his whole Book at once is the only good Page there I am therefore the rather inclin'd to give Dr. Bentley's Reflections a Due Examination on Sir William Temple's account upon whom I so unhappily occasion'd this Storm of Criticism to fall In truth for a Man who has been so great an Ornament to Learning he has had strange usage from Some who are Retainers to it He had set the world a Pattern of mixing Wit with Reason Sound Knowledge with Good Manners and of making the one serve to recommend and set off the other but his Copy has not been at all follow'd by those that have writ against him in a very rough way and without that Respect which was due both to His Character and their Own I will not pretend to determine on which side in those Disputes the Truth lies only thus much I will venture to say of 'em that let Sir W. T. be as much out in some of his Opinions as he 's represented to be yet They who read both sides will be apt to fall in with Tully's Opinion of Plato and say Cum Illo Ego meherclè errare malim quà m cum istis Scriptoribus vera sentire I had rather be so Handsomly mistaken as He is if he be mistaken than be so Rudely and Dully in the right as Some of his Opposers allowing 'em to be in the right are There was also another Consideration that determin'd me to write Dr. Bentley's Reflections were understood to go further than either Sir William Temple or my Self and to be levell'd at a Learned Society in which I had the happiness to be educated and which Dr. Bentley is suppos'd to attack under those General Terms of Our
New Editors Our Annotators and Those Great Genius's with whom Learning that is leaving the world has taken up her last Residence By these and such expressions as these with which his Familiar Epistle abounds he would insinuate as if Phalaris as slight a piece as it is had been made up by contribution from several hands and were the Ioint Work of that Eminent Body But in this he does me too great an honour and I 'm almost tempted to take it as Terence did the agreeable Reproach of Laelius and Scipio's writing his Plays for him neither to own nor deny it But Terence wrote what might have become those Noble Pens and therefore did no injury to their Reputation when he favour'd that mistake whereas I shou'd be extreamly to blame if I shou'd suffer a Report to spread to the disadvantage of so many Excellent Men. I think my self therefore oblig'd to declare that whatever the Faults of Phalaris are they are Mine and I alone am answerable for them There is a very Deserving Gentleman indeed who had a little before been the Director of my Studies and was then My Particular Friend to whom I have acknowledgments to make on his occasion I consulted him upon any difficulty because I thought it not proper for one of my Age to offer any thing to the Public without consulting Some-body I wish I had advis'd oftener with him for then my Book would have been much more correct But excepting Him no one had a hand in it nay scarce a line was ever seen by any-body else as I know of till it was finish'd And now I have confess'd thus much I don't care if I own a little further to Dr. Bentley that I have been again oblig'd to the Same person for his Assistance in consulting some Books in the Oxford Libraries at my request which in the Places where I have been were not at all or not easily to be met with The Dr. may make what advantages of this he thinks fit I assure him I will never recriminate for I declare to the World that I sincerely believe the Dr's Dissertation is entirely his own both as to Matter and Dress and that no Friend whatever no not Mr. Wotton himself had any hand in it The happy Genius of some Authors will for ever secure 'em from all Scandals of this nature Terence indeed was suspected but Bavius and Moevius never were Dr. Bentley has industriously contriv'd to lead his Reader into this mistake imagining I suppose that the Conquest would have been too cheap for a man of his Rank in Letters unless he engag'd like the Hero of a Romance with great numbers at once But some men have thought themselves Heroes that were not and some that were have mistaken their Strength and in either of these cases have come off but scurvily The Dr I 'm sure would have been made very sensible of this in the present Debate had not I been kinder to him than He was to Himself and stept in as I thought it became me between Him and the just resentments of that Learned Body 'T were pity that any of those worthy Men who know so well how to employ their hours should be diverted from the pursuit of Vseful Knowledge into such Trivial Enquiries as these The Dispute began between Dr. Bentley and Me and 't is fit that We Two should end it I have a Request to Such as shall give themselves the Trouble of perusing These Papers that they would do Me and Dr. Bentley the Iustice to compare 'em Paragraph by Paragraph with His Dissertations The Task is a little unreasonable considering the Length of the Dispute but 't is necessary in order to form a true judgment of the Performance Dr. BENTLEY'S Dissertation UPON THE Epistles of Phalaris c. EXAMIN'D DR Bentley in the Piece I am about to examine among several other Liberties has taken this of writing without any Method Great Genius's indeed are above ordinary Rules but it wou'd ill become so unknown a Writer as I am to exempt my self from 'em and therefore I shall prescribe my self a method in answering him I think most of the scatter'd Remarks he has made in that part of his Dissertation which relates to Phalaris will come under one of these Three Heads They are either some Arguments which he has urg'd for the Spuriousness of the Epistles or some Faults which he has found with my Edition and Version of 'em or some Matters of Fact which he has related as the Grounds of his peevish Quarrel These last he has thrown into an odd corner of his Book as it were out of sight and plac'd 'em in the Rear of all his learned Arguments One wou'd imagine by the Post he has given 'em that he distrusted their strength or that he wrote his Book first and found Reasons for it afterwards However that may be I think my self oblig'd to clear up this Point in the first place by setting those Matters of Fact in their true light which Dr. Bentley has extreamly disguis'd And then 't will be time to consider the Wonderful Proofs he has produc'd on his side and the Mighty Mistakes he has thought fit to charge me with About four or five Years ago the worthy Dean of Christchurch Dr. Aldrich of whose College I was then a Member desir'd me to undertake an Edition of Phalaris I cou'd deny Him nothing to whom I ow'd so much and therefore as unfit as I thought my self for such a Task I undertook it In order to it a Manuscript Phalaris in the King's Library was to be consulted It was of no Age or Worth I heard being written but just before the restauration of Letters however it was a Manuscript and therefore not to be neglected especially since we had no ancient Copies either in England or any where else that I cou'd hear of I sent to Mr. Bennet my Bookseller in London to get the Manuscript and desir'd him to apply himself to Dr. Bentley in my name for the use of it not doubting in the least a ready complyance with such a request from one of his Station and Order and who besides was at that very time in a Lecture of some Honour and Profit that had lately been set up by one of my Family especially since the Book which I desir'd to borrow was of so little importance that it had scarce been a Favour to have lent it me if I had not ask'd it After an Expectation of many months Mr. Bennet sent me at last a Collation of part of the Manuscript with this account that he had with a great difficulty and after long delays got the Manuscript into his hands that he had it but a very few days when Dr. Bentley came to demand it again and wou'd by no means be prevail'd upon to let him have the use of it any longer tho' he told him the Collation was not perfected and that he deny'd this Request in a very rude manner throwing out
not wrong'd him nor given him any Character but what he has since been courteously pleas'd to make good But Dr. Bently appeals from me to more Equitable Judges and tells me that he can produce several Letters from Learned Professors abroad whose Books in time I may be fit to read wherein these very same words pro singulari suâ humanitate are said of him seriously and candidly For I endeavour says he to oblige even Foreigners by all Courtesie and Humanity much more wou'd I encourage and assist any useful design at home But why must we go to Foreign Nations for a true account of Dr. Bently I thought Mens Characters had been best learnt from those among whom they convers'd The Law of England is that every man shall be try'd by his Country and his Neighbourhood and this is not more reasonable in the Case of Life and Death than in that of Reputation But Dr. Bently pleads to have a Jury of Foreign Professors impanell'd to sit upon him a very suspicious Defence I think and which ought without any more ado to condemn him Shou'd a man tax'd with ill breeding here at London where he has liv'd all his time produce Certificates in his behalf from some Correspondents in Cornwall or Cumberland wou'd this Plea pass at Court Granting Dr. Bently's Foreigners to have said those things of him which he says they have 't is because they are Foreigners We that have the happiness of a near conversation with him know him better and may perhaps take an opportunity of setting those mistaken Strangers right in their Opinions concerning him Thus much upon the Supposition that he has these Testimonials by him but I who have had some dealings with him have learnt a little to mistrust his accounts and shall therefore before I make any more Remarks upon this passage tell the Reader a Story There was not many Years ago a Dispute about a Point of History between an Ingenious Gentleman and a Learned Prelate of our Church well known to Dr. Bently When the Gentleman was at a loss for Proofs his last resort always was to a certain Chest at Ilcomkill where there were MSS. it seems never seen by any body besides himself that prov'd every thing he had a mind to This presently put an end to the Controversie for there was no disputing against Invisible Authorities How far this may be Dr. Bently's case and whether the Letters from Learned Professors abroad which he talks of may not lye in some such Chest as those Records lay in I will not pretend to determine However since they are MSS. I know his Fondness for those precious Jewels so well that I believe he 'l be shy of making 'em publick Till he does the Printed Proofs that have been given of his great Humanity will stand good against what he tells us has been written to him Sure I am there are some Learned Men abroad that are far from Complimenting him One of 'em a Man of great note has complain'd to me how ill he has been us'd by him in a Case nearly resembling mine and complain'd in very expressive Terms which not yet having his Leave for it I do not think my self at liberty to publish Another that was desirous to have a sight of the Alexandrian MS. and apply'd himself to Dr. Bently very earnestly for it met with no other Answer to his Request but that the Library was not fit to be seen A pretty Excuse for a Library-keeper to make who had been four Years in that Service And this Instance of his Humanity I assure him is of no Old date it happen'd since he purg'd himself in his new Dissertation and gave Learned Men encouragement to expect better usage If he goes on at this rate as we have no reason to doubt but he will Foreigners will begin to suspect whether we have as we pretend the Alexandrian MS. or indeed whether the King has any Library But because the Dr. strongly argues from his being ready to oblige even Foreigners by all Courtesie and Humanity that he wou'd much more be ready to do so to Learned Men at home I will add one Domestick Instance of that kind that my Instances may be every way as large as his Assertions I have now a Letter by me under the hand of Sir Edward Sherburn a Gentleman of known Worth and Learning wherein he has these words I have sent Rubenius 's Book de vitâ Mallii put out by Graevius in Holland and dedicated to Dr. Bently the honour of whose Publication Mr. Bently hath ungratefully robb'd me of The meaning of this is explain'd in a Latin Memorandum enter'd by Sir Edward in the Book it self where he says that he put the MS. into Dr. Bently 's hands under this Condition that he shou'd send it to Graevius to be publish'd letting him know from whence he had it and desiring him to make an honourable mention of him as the person that had oblig'd the World with it The Edition came out it was dedicated to Dr. Bently the honour of the Publication given to him and not one word of Sir Edward Sherburn said in it The Sophists are every where pelted by Dr. Bently for putting out what they wrote in other mens names but I did not expect to hear so loudly of it from one that has so far outdone 'em For I think 't is much worse to take the honour of another man's Book to one's self than to entitle ones own Book to another man But Graevius it may be was in fault and forgot to do Sir Edward Sherburn justice 'T is hardly to be imagin'd he cou'd had Dr. Bently told him plainly that the MS. was put into his hands under that express Condition But if the Dr. only gave some slight intimation of it Graevius might indeed forget to do what he did not know whether it were in good earnest expected of him or not But supposing the original Omission to have lain wholly at Graevius's door yet how came the Dr. to be so very quiet under it afterwards Why did he not send immediately to Sir Edward Sherburn to excuse it Why did he not take care to have this Neglect repair'd in the next Holland Journal Nothing of this was done and therefore shou'd the Dr. not have been the willing occasion of the Mistake yet at least he was very willing that it shou'd prevail Upon a view of this Story I am apt to retract my Suspicions about Dr. Bently's Letters from Learned Professors He may perhaps have Testimonials of his Courtesie by him if he sticks at no methods of procuring 'em By such Arts as these 't is easie for a Man to get a Reputation of Humanity abroad without deserving to be much commended for his Honesty at home 'T is an hard word and which I should not easily allow my self to use but that I think I may take a greater Liberty in another man's behalf than in my own By Dr. Bently's way of
Demonstrate of his own Performances and withal how fond he is of Negatives a very dangerous way of Speech and that in Cases oftentimes where the Contrary Affirmative is most certainly true as it is and shall be prov'd to be in all those Instances which this Mark referrs to To depart from the Common Ways of Writing or Speaking and such as have been us'd by the best Pens on purpose to shew ones self more Exact and Knowing than the Rest of the World is a Piece of Affectation that favours of Pedantry Tauromenium is the word that is generally us'd by both Ancient and Modern Writers Dr. Bentley has reform'd our Spelling and will have it Taurominium because Pliny and Solinus and perhaps somebody else have happen'd to call it so And here I must beg the Reader 's Excuse if I go a little out of the Way to do right to Sir William Temple in a Case of the Like nature Mr. Wotton tells him with great Plainness of Speech that He of all men ought not to have arraign'd the Modern Ignorance in Grammar who puts Delphos for Delphi every where in his Essays A Capital Mistake and worthy to be chastis'd by the Acute Pen of Mr. Wotton But is he sure that putting Delphos for Delphi is an Offence against Grammar I thought always that what was according to Propriety and the receiv'd Use of a Tongue could not be against Grammar It may indeed be against some General Rule of Grammar but so Wise a Man as Mr. Wotton is should have known that Grammar has not only General Rules but Particular Exceptions too and that the Common Custom and Usage of a Tongue is capable of creating an Exception at any time and is as good a Rule as any in the Grammar Now Delphos for the Latin Word Delphi is us'd by all the finest Writers of our Tongue and best Judges of it particularly by Mr. Waller twice in some of his Last Copies which tho' they are worse Poetry than the rest yet are in Correcter English by Mr. Dryden four or five times in his Life of Plutarch by Mr. Duke and Mr. Creech often in their several Lives of Theseus and Solon and because perhaps One Old Divine may weigh more with Mr. Wotton than all these Modern Witnesses by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Iackson in his Volumes on the Creed Mr. Wotton might have said indeed that Delphos in the Singular Number is not Good Latin or Good Greek but when he says 't is bad English he only shews that he does not converse with so Good Authors as he ought to do This Digression might have been spar'd but that Mr. Wotton when he was purging his Book of some unbecoming Passages in a second Edition of it thought fit still to retain this Grammatical Reflection there perhaps in a third Edition he 'l take care that This too shall bear the rest Company Dr. Bentley will forgive me this short Visit to his Friend now I return to him Pedantry consists also in Low and Mean ways of Speech which are a Vicious Affectation of what is Natural and Easie as Hard Words are of Learning and Scholarship And whether Dr. Bentley has not offended this way by those Familiar Expressions of Mother Clito the Herbwoman and Going to Pott and setting Horses together and Roasting the Old Woman and by his apt Simile drawn from Bungling Tinkers mending old Kettles any-body but Pedants can tell An Itch of contradicting Great Men or Establish'd Opinions upon very slight Grounds is another Instance of Pedantry and not to mention any thing that relates to the Present Dispute something of this kind there was I 'm afraid in Dr. Bentley's brisk Censure of Grotius and Scaliger for not knowing the measure of an Anapaestic Verse when 't is plain as I shall shew before I lay down my Pen that the Dr. would never have censur'd 'em if he had known it himself Castelvetro an Italian Pedant was famous for such a Snarling Faculty as this He was as Balzac says very well of him a Public Enemy that could not endure any-body should have Merit or Reputation but himself The Subject is fruitful but I will confine my self to one Particular more of the Pedant's Character and that is a Love of Quoting Books or Passages not extant or never seen by him in order to amaze and confound his poor Reader and make himself Terrible in the Way of Learning As Aristotle says in his Lost Treatise of the Sicilian Government says the Dr tho' that Treatise be so far lost that Aristotle did really never write it And agen he tells us what Monsieur de Meziriac has done in his Life of Aesop and yet owns in the very next Line that he never met with this Book but only guess'd what was in it He produces the Vnknown Authors Diodorus transcrib'd as so many Witnesses on his side and in another place he gives a very particular account of what A. Gellius said in a Lost Chapter not from any other Writer that had quoted it but meerly by dint of Conjecture These are all the Marks and Moles of Pedantry that I can now stay to point out to the Dr if he be still at a loss to know what the Pedant's Character is and where to apply it I referr him to a Passage in Bruyere where I think this matter is very succinctly and fully handl'd There are says he in Learning as in War a sort of Inferiour and Subaltern Officers Men who seem made only for Registers and Magazines to store up the Productions of better Writers Collectors they are Transcribers Plagiaries They never Think themselves they tell You only what Others have thought before them They heap together Matter in abundance without Choice or Distinction and care not how Worthless it is so there be but Enough on 't They Know nothing but just as they learn it from their Books and Learn nothing but what every-body else desires to be Ignorant of They have a Vain Dry Insipid sort of Knowledge that is Disagreeable and Vseless can neither enliven Conversation nor conduce to Business We are sometimes surpriz'd at their Reading but always tir'd with their Discourse or their Writings These are They who among All the Little Men and Some Great Ones go for Scholars but among the Wise and Sensible part of Mankind for Pedants This Account of Pedantry has drawn me a little out of my Way I shall now return again into it and consider the Particular Instances Dr. Bentley has brought to justifie his General Assertion that the Matter and Business of the Letters betrays 'em not to be Genuine The first is an Improbable and Absurd Story as he thinks about Stesichorus who dying at Catana the Himereans desir'd to have his Ashes brought back into his Native City Himera but the Cataneans would not part with them This occasion'd a fierce Contest between the two
at a loss to find any Footsteps of him for Nine Hundred Years more down to the Age of Aventinus and yet the Criticks have receiv'd him without being so nice as to examine what Secret Cave he was conceal'd in Phoedrus as far as I can find was never mention'd by any Author since Avienus till his Fables were in this Age brought to light by Pithaeus after they had been lost above a Thousand Years Lactantius de Mortibus Persecutorum was a Book which the World had not seen since St. Ierome's time till after a Thousand Years Baluze discover'd it in the famous Library of Colebert and made it publick Now as our Dissertator learnedly argues if these Books lay untouch'd and unstirr'd they must have moulder'd away if they were us'd during these Ten Centuries Somebody would surely have spoken of ' em Either the Dr. must give up these Authors as Spurious or these Objections as Slight and Frivolous and own that the Silence of the Ancients is not a Direct but as any-body else would have thought and call'd it a very Indirect Argument against 'em tho' still not quite so indirect as another that he founds upon a Disagreement between Lucian and the Epistles in their Accounts of Phalaris This does not come properly under the head I am now speaking to however because he has thrown together here Two or Three Paultry Proofs that would make no Figure by themselves I shall take 'em as they lye before me The Different Relations concerning Phalaris given by Lucian and the Epistles I urg'd formerly as a Proof that Lucian could not write them But as He has manag'd it at second hand to shew that Lucian does as good as expresly declare he never saw 'em it either proves nothing or proves too much even that Lucian never saw Timaeus as Learned as he was and as often as he mentions him For Timaeus relates that the Agrigentines threw the Brazen Bull into the Sea but Lucian says Phalaris sent it to Delphos What I should gather from hence would be that Lucian overlook'd that and many other Authorities and did not confine himself to strict History in a Declamation but according to Dr. Bentley's manner of drawing Consequences it must follow that Timaeus no more writ his History than Phalaris did his Letters for Lucian equally contradicts Both and for that reason is a Bad Evidence against either of them Now if Lucian himself be of no Authority in this point much less are those Authors he follow'd which Dr. Bentley summons up as so many Witnesses against the Epistles I would ask him how many Witnesses these are where they liv'd what are their Names and the Names of the Books they wrote ` T is very hard to urge such Testimonies against us as are not now and probably never were in being For Lucian in this Harangue seems to tye himself up to no Authors nor to be guided by any thing but his own Invention and this the Dr. himself confesses in another place where he says Lucian feigns an Embassy from Phalaris to Delphi And if the Ground of this whole Discourse were a Fiction why does the Dr. here argue from it as seriously as if it were copy'd from the most Authentic Histories then extant how can he allow himself to put such an Air of Gravity upon what he knows to be such a Trifle We shall have him at this rate in his next Dissertation solemnly quoting Lucian's Vera Historia too and the unknown Authors which he follow'd But I suppose he resolv'd to make the best advantage he could of these Poor Colours for want of Better Authorities For the Two Historians he brings to strengthen his Proof say nothing that is inconsistent with the Epistles Jamblichus he says brings in Abaris in company with Pythagoras to Phalaris but in the Epistles Abaris refuses to come Who would not have refus'd an Invitation from Phalaris till he had good assurances that he might come with Safety Report had told him very dismal Stories of him and dress'd him up in frightful Colours Abaris perhaps did not know at first but that Phalaris might Live upon Philosophers Flesh or might have a Fancy to try which made his Bull Roar best a Scythian or a Sicilian an Experiment which Abaris by no means car'd to have made upon him for he came from a Cold Country and had a very particular Aversion to Fire These were very Important matters and if he should not have taken care to be fully satisfied in 'em before he ventur'd his Person he had not been quite so Wise a man as he was thought to be for one part of Wisdom is to be Cautious Pythagoras therefore manag'd at the very same rate he often refus'd to come and yet came at last why might not this be the case of Abaris This is a very easie way of reconciling Phalaris with Iamblichus and he does not differ so widely from Heraclides neither but that They too may be brought with Dr. Bentley's Leave and in his Carriers Phrase to set Horses together Phalaris says he was an Orphan before he came to Agrigent and yet Heraclides says his Mother was burnt there Dr. Bentley has given a Clear Solution of this Difficulty himself and frankly owns that his Mother might be burnt tho' his Father dy'd long before But how says he came the Old Woman to be roasted at Agrigent if Phalaris fled alone from Astypalaea neither Wife nor Child nor any Relation following him according to the Epistles I do not remember any such Epistle in my Edition of Phalaris but if there should be such an one in the King's MS I 'll answer this Objection to it when the Library-keeper is in so good an Humor as to favour me with a Sight of it Till then I may be excus'd from prosecuting this Point any further Only I must observe to the Dr that either he uses some Copy of Heraclides that I have not seen or else cites him for what he does not say Both Here and in the 30th Page of his Dissertation he tells us that Heraclides affirms Phalaris to have been burnt by the Agrigentines whereas he only says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is true it 's all one to his purpose whether he was burnt or any other way put to Death but he has such a Facility of Misunderstanding or Misrepresenting Authors to serve a Turn that he does it even when it is of no service to him I Hope I have now so thoroughly examin'd Dr. Bentley â—s General Arguments that none of 'em can be thought to affect the whole Body of the Epistles if his Objections against some Particular Letters have no more Weight in 'em he 's the best Patron Phalaris has yet met with for the next Happiness to being very well Defended is that of being very weakly Oppos'd All his Attacks of this kind are grounded upon Chronology and therefore before he could make any Approaches he was oblig'd to
thing that looks like Order or Method he postpones 'em to intermix some Proofs of a different Nature I have already excus'd my self from following him in his Rambles and shall consider Tauromenium here in its proper place The only Authority he has brought to prove Tauromenium so nam'd since the time of Phalaris is that of Diodorus which I mention'd in my Preface and own'd to be a clear Proof against Phalaris if it might be rely'd on But Diodorus is in two Stories which as Dr. Bentley after his way of citing Authors has put 'em together look plausibly enough but as Diodorus himself tells 'em are utterly inconsistent In his 14th Book he says that some Sicilians planted themselves upon Taurus and from their Settlement there call'd the place they built Tauromenium In the 16th Book he says that about 40 Years after this Andromachus planted some of the Old Naxians upon Taurus and from his long stay there call'd the place where he planted 'em Tauromenium Thus Diodorus plainly gives us Two different accounts of the Time when the Place was nam'd either of which I confess would serve Dr. Bentley's purpose but since they contradict one-another neither of them is to be depended on If Dr. Bentley pleads that they do not contradict one-another because the Place might be twice call'd so for One and the Same Reason why will not the Same Reason equally hold for its being call'd so long before Phalaris liv'd Doubtless the Sicilians had often before his time resorted to the Strong Holds of that Mountain Nay Thucydides expresly tells us that there were of old People that inhabited the Hilly parts about Naxos and 't is not improbable that These might be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before they were form'd into any Politick Body and afterwards when they were collected together and a City was built tho' we don't know when that was that City might be call'd Tauromenium 'T is observable that Phalaris tho' he has very often occasion to mention these People yet never names any such Town as Tauromenium never calls 'em Citizens nor uses any such Expression as implys they belong'd to any City This could scarce have happen'd if a Sophist had writ these Letters but 't is no wonder that Phalaris should write so because there might be Tauromenites as there was a River Tauromenius if Vibius Sequester be to be credited who says the Town had its Name from thence before there was a Tauromenium So that Dr. Bentley would have no reason to triumph over the Defenders of Phalaris if he could prove Tauromenium of a Later Date much less since he cannot prove it ought he so insultingly to call upon 'em Where are those that cry up Phalaris for the florid Author of these Letters who was burnt in his Own Bull above 150 Years before Tauromenium was ever thought of E're I answer this Question I desire to ask Him one Where does he find that Phalaris was burnt in his Bull Does this Great Historian take up with the Trifling Author of the Verses upon Ibis when so many Grave Writers have given us a different account of Phalaris's Death In another place indeed he cites Heraclides for this Story but as I have already observ'd falsly However Phalaris's being burnt in his Bull before Tauromenium was thought on was so refreshing a Quibble that he would rather venture upon False History than lose it The Witticism is something remote as it stands here but when he is at leisure to put this Dissertation into Latin 't will receive a Great Advantage T Was not to be hop'd that these Obscure Points concerning the Building and Peopling Ancient Towns should be so far clear'd and settl'd as to make 'em amount to a Plain and Direct Proof against the Epistles However it was a piece of Learning not unworthy of a Scholar's Pains and by a Skilful Hand might have been made useful to some Other purpose I would not therefore be thought to disparage Dr. Bentley for enquiring into this matter tho' he has happen'd to leave it more obscure than he found it His Attempt was Commendable whatever his Success has been but Now methinks he stoops very low from the Rise and Aera's of Cities to the Chronology of Old Sayings and Proverbs This would make a much more suitable Appendix to a Vocabulary than to an History of Ancient and Modern Learning 'T is so dry and fruitless and so little to the purpose that I am almost tempted to break my promise and leave this part of his Dissertation unexamin'd While Men of Different Times have a Like Frame of Soul and meet with Like Accidents of Life i. e. while they have the same Faculties and the same Occasions of thinking what Wonder is it that they should happen upon the same Reflection or that Authors who write in the same Language and upon the same Subject should put the same Two Words together Yet this is what astonishes Dr. Bentley he cannot believe that there should be so strange a Iumping of Good Wits without some silching and therefore concludes these Letters must be writ not by Phalaris himself but by a Secretary of his who is not so Dutiful as a Secretary should be in attending his Master for he comes a Thousand Years after him The Dr. takes this Secretary tripping in his use of the Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the Dr. can prove Croesus to be the Author because when he sent a Message to the Lampsaceni that if they did not set Miltiades free he would extirpate 'em 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the men of Lampsacus understood not the meaning of that Expression The Phrase he says puzzl'd the whole City What if it did must an Expression needs be New and Vnheard of because the Mayor and Aldermen of Lampsacus and perhaps the Recorder too did not apprehend it But how does he prove it puzzl'd the WHOLE City plainly because One of the Eldest Citizens hit upon 't and told the meaning of it This is very Nice Reasoning but he goes on to refine upon it and suspects that Herodotus himself was the first Broacher of that Expression for says he those first Historians made every-bodys Speeches for ' em Therefore Herodotus made this which is no Speech but only a Message However let Herodotus have worded this Message does the same Herodotus tell us that the Lampsacenes were puzzl'd with an Expression invented by Herodotus Were the Men of Lampsacus in Croesus's time at a Loss to understand a Phrase that was not thought of till Herodotus an Hundred Years afterwards coin'd it 'T is wonderful to Me how such a Piece of Reasoning as this could ever enter into an Head that has Brains in it All the Dr. has to countenance it is the Title of a Lost Chapter in Gellius from whence he takes occasion to guess at what 's Lost there and to give us a wrong translation of what 's Left Caesam which in Herodotus's Greek
Own as he has the Modesty to pretend that 't is taken Word for Word out of an Author that writ above fifty Years ago the Scarcity of whose Book and the Probability of not being trac'd encourag'd him to set up for a Discoverer This is a Short and True Account of Dr. Bentley's Whole Performance if he be of Opinion that I have undervalu'd any of his Arguments I am willing Weary as I am to try 'em upon Another Subject to propose 'em in their Natural Light and Force and see whether he will admit the Conclusion IF Dr. Bentley's Dissertations should outlive some Centuries which I am far from thinking they will and should be read which I am still farther from suspecting and should the Criticks of succeeding Ages start an impertinent Dispute whether they be Genuine or not I am of opinion as Strong and Concluding Arguments may be brought to prove 'em Spurious and falsly ascrib'd to Dr. Bentley as any the Dr. has us'd to shew the Letters now in Debate to be a Thousand Years Later than Phalaris They may carry the Dr's Name in the Front of 'em as the Letters do that of the Tyrant but Those who examine 'em closely and try 'em by the Rules of Criticism which the Dr. has here establish'd will easily Discover the Imposture For we will suppose that after those Papers have lain hid and neglected for some Ages they may unluckily fall into the hands of a Critic who has Leisure and Ill Nature enough to trouble Himself and the World with a Nice Enquiry whether they are Genuine or not I think he would or might in Dr. Bentley's Way and Manner and for the most part in his very Words too argue against their being truly His to whom they are ascrib'd The Sophist whoever he was that wrote these Loose Dissertations in the Name and Character of Dr. Bentley give me leave to say this now which I shall prove by and by had not so bad an Hand at humoring and personating but that Some may believe it is the Librarian himself who talks so big and may not discover the Ass under the Skin of that Lyon in Criticism and Philology But I shall examine Dr. Bentley's Title to these Dissertations and shall not go to dispossess him by an Arbitrary Sentence in his own Dogmatical Way but proceed with him upon a 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 hereafter that reads them persist in his Opinion of making Dr. Bentley the Author of these Criticisms Had all other ways fail'd us of detecting this Impostor yet his very Speech had betray'd him for it is neither that of a Scholar nor an Englishman neither Greek Latin nor English but a Medley of all Three He had forgot that the Scene of these Writings was London where the English Tongue was generally spoken and written as besides other Testimonies the very thing speaks it self in the Remains of London Authors as the Gazetts the Cases written by London Divines and others How comes it to pass then that our Dr. writes not in English but in a Language farther remov'd from the true English Idiom than the Doric Greek was from the Attic Why does Dr. Bentley an Englishman write a New Language which no Englishman before ever wrote or spoke How comes his Speech neither to be that of the Learned nor that of his Country but a mix'd particolour'd Dialect form'd out of both Pray how came that Idiom to be the Court-language at St. Iames's But should we allow that in some Past Age such a Manner of Speech might have prevail'd among Englishmen yet there will still lye another Indictment against the Credit of these Dissertations on the account of the English of the true Age of Dr. Bentley not being there represented but a more Recent Idiom and Style that by the whole Thread and Colour of it betrays it self to be written in an Age very distant from His. Every Living Language like the Perspiring Bodies of Living Creatures is in perpetual Motion and Alteration which in Tract of time makes as observable a Change in the Air and Features of a Language as Age makes in the Lines and Mien of Face All are sensible of this in their own Native Tongues where continual Use makes every man a Critic so that there is no Englishman but thinks himself able from the very Turn and Faâ—â—om of the Style to distinguish a fresh Composition from another an hundred Years old Now when we compare these Dissertations with the Writings of Archbishop Tillotson Bishop Sprat Sir William Temple and Others we find the Style of that Age had quite different Turn and Fashion from that of our Dissertator Should I affirm that I know the Novity of these Dissertations from the whole Body and Form of the Work none perhaps would be convinâ—â—d by it but those that without my Indication could discover it by themselves I shall let that alone then and point out only a few Marks and Moles in 'em which every one that pleases may know them by In the 14th page the most timid for which the Ancients would have said the most doubtful or scrupulous in the 46th Negoce for which they would have said Dealing Commerce or Intercourse in the 47th repudiated their Vernacular Idiom for which they would have said laid aside their Mother-Tongue in the 16th page a small Dose of Sagacity for which they perhaps would have said a small Share in the 59th Manufacture for the forging of a Story never us'd by the Ancients in that Sense but always for the work of the Hand not that of the Brain They that will make the search may find more of this sort as brittle Compliments incurable Botches broaching of expressions lopping off branches of Evidence a Scene of Putid Formality Men springing up like Mushrooms out of Rotten Passages of Authors and many others of the same Strain but I suppose these are sufficient to unmask the Recent Sophist under the Person of the Old Librarian But were it possible to produce an Author of the same Country and Age with Dr. Bentley who wrote in the Language of this Dissertation yet still it is absurd to think that one of his Education Character and Station should be the Author of it For Dr. Bentley is known to have appertain'd to the Family of a Right Reverend Prelate who was the Great Ornament of that Age to have had an University-Education to have convers'd much in the City and at Court and with these advantages he could not but be more refin'd than the Writer of this piece of Criticism who by his manner of expressing himself shews that he was taken up with quite other thoughts and different Images from those that use to fill the Heads of such as have had a Learned and Liberal Education For this Sophist is a
Mill he was very conversant in Suidas Hesychius and other Greek Vocabularies Onomasticons Etymologicons Lexicons Glossaries Nomenclators and Scholia so that he must at least have been acquainted with the Significations of Greek Words but it appears from what this Sophist offers about the Sense of some Greek words which he finds in Phalaris that he was not only a perfect Stranger to the best Classic Authors but that he wanted that Light which any Ordinary Dictionary would have afforded him The Librarian was so well read in One of these Instructive Writers Hesychius as to assure Dr. Mill between Verse and Prose that whenever a New Edition of that book came forth he could if he would correct five thousand faults in it more or less Id Tibi de plano possum promittere Milli Quinque plus minus millia mendorum Mâ— correcturum esse sâ— libucrit quae aliorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laboriosam diligentiam hactenùs illuserunt Now could any thing that actually is in Hesychius escape his knowledge who had such a Deep Insight into what is not but ought to be there could He who had discover'd what had escap'd the Utmost Diligence of Others miss what was obvious to every one that look'd into Hesychius Would Dr. Bentley have given us such a Cast of his Skill in construing Greek Words as to tell us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anciently signified to pursue when that which fled fear'd and shunn'd the pursuer and that it never signified to follow in any other Sense when Hesychius gives us no other words for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are far from a Persecuting Sense Dr. Bentley is known to have liv'd in the same Age and at the same Time that the Edition of Phalaris with which this Sophist is so angry came out it appears from the Editorâ—s Preface that the Dr. being then Library-keeper at St. Iames's deny'd a Common Favour to the Editor which is complain'd of in that Preface This doubtless gave occasion to our Sophist to forge these Dissertations in the Dr's name to show his pretended resentments of that Complaint Now the Dr. himself could not be ignorant that this Edition was put forth by Mr. Boyle whose Name it still bears But Our Sophist who liv'd at a greater distance from those Times supposes it the Joynt-Work of several he talks of our Late Editors of those Great Genius's with whom Learning that is leaving the World has taken up her Last Residence of these Annotators of our Ingenious Translators whereas these Editors Genius's Annotators Translators could not but be known to one that then liv'd and were known to Dr. Bentley as appears by a MS Letter of his to Mr. Boyle now in being to be one and the same Person It is true that in the Preface to the Edition there are these Expressions Quantum scimus and Nostro Labore and in the Dedication Tuâ ope adjutus which might lead our Sophist into a mistake that this Edition was the Work of More than One and that the Person to whom it is dedicated had assisted in it as if it were unusual for the Plural Number to be put for the Singular or as if a Person in that Station could no otherwise assist a Young Gentleman of his College in the Edition of a Book than by collating Manuscripts translating the Text and writing Comments Dr. Bentley is known to have enjoy'd the advantage of a Public Lecture instituted by the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle and by reason of that Post must be suppos'd to have had a due respect for his Name and Family so that it cannot rationally be presum'd he would treat a Gentleman who had the Honour to be nearly related to that Noble Person with so much Contempt and Indignity as is plainly express'd in several parts of that Dissertation Dr. Bentley did also flourish during the Life of Sir William Temple whilst that Eminent Person was in great Reputation for the Signal and Extraordinary Services he had done for the Protestant Interest to the English Nation and to the King who then reign'd as also for his Learned Writings which were then in very great Esteem amongst all those who had a true relish for Sound Sense and Noble Thoughts express'd with all the Beauty and Force of proper and significant Language Now tho' the Dr. might without any offence differ in his Sentiments from that Worthy Gentleman yet it is not credible that a Scholar a Courtier and a Divine would so far break in upon all the Rules of Modesty Decency and Civility as to insult over a Person of Sir William's Character and Merit as an Ignorant and Illiterate Pretender to Learning who could neither discover the true Time nor the true Value of his Authors and whose Choice of Phalaris and Aesop as then extant for two great inimitable Originals was a piece of Criticism of a peculiar Complexion and must proceed from a Singularity of Palate and Iudgment It must needs be a great Wonder to those who think these Dissertations Genuine how or where they have been concealâ—d and in what Secret Shop or unknown Corner of the World they have lain hid so that no one has ever taken notice of 'em for so many Ages Had these Dissertations been seen and read somebody sure would have quoted somewhat out of 'em especially since so many have had occasion to do so for all those who have written concerning Sophisms and Ill Consequences in arguing might have furnish'd themselves from hence with all Kinds of Loose and Incoherent Thinking And those that have publish'd their Censures upon the Incongruities of Language and Innovations in Speech might from every Page of this Author have fetch'd proper Instances of the Grossest Improprieties So that by their Silence and Praetermission they do as good as declare expresly that they never saw our Dissertation But that which ought to weigh most with those who have any Honour for Dr. Bentley toward clearing him from any suspicion of having written these Pieces is this Consideration that That Learned Doctor was chosen out by the then Fathers of the Church as a fit person to vindicate the Truth of Religion against Atheists Deists and all other Opposers of Divine Revelation whereas this Sophist is found to make use of such Arguments to disprove the Epistles of Phalaris as are of Equal weight to prove the Writings of Moses and the New Testament to be of much Later date than they can be consistently with the Pretences of the Jewish and Christian Religion So little regard had this Bold Writer to fit his Discourses to the Character of that Reverend and Learned Person and I have had too much Regard to Him in giving him the Honour and Patience of so Long an Examination SInce I have had the Patience to examine all the tedious Proofs Dr. Bentley has heap'd together against the Epistles which I was not in the least
perhaps here as in Other cases he has his accounts at Second Hand not so neither he is purely upon the Conjecture and can guess from the great Learning of the Author known to him by his Other Works that he has in a manner exhausted the Subject That is by his Mathematical Notes upon Diophantus he can guess what he says upon Aesop's Fables But methinks 't is a little nicely guess'd that Meziriac has in a manner exhausted the Subject why should not a Man that had written so well upon Diophantus have quite exhausted it I begin now to guess something too and may be able to make out my Guess e're I am a Month Older I am going into a Country where Meziriac is I suppose to be had and when I have seen him perhaps I shall find that Dr. Bentley has seen him too tho' he has forgotten it For he pretends to present us here only with such Things as have escap'd the Observation of Others and I now know him so well that I suspect him a Course whenever he sets up for Discoveries The Business of Ocellus has given us One Remarkable Instance of this kind and this small Piece we are upon will presently even without the help of Meziriac afford us Another The first of his few loose Things which he fancies have escap'd the Observation of Others is that 't is very uncertain if he would say whether Aesop himself left any Fables behind him in Writing This Hint has I believe escap'd the Observation of Others for they that have observ'd any thing about it have observ'd the contrary The Phrase of Antiquity is the same when they mention any thing of Aesop's as it would have been had they thought Aesop really to have wrote it the Ancients quote him just as they do Other Authors When Plato Aristotle Plutarch Galen Themistius Gellius cite any thing from him 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inquit c and how would they have express'd themselves otherwise if Aesop's Writings had confessedly lain before them Dr. Bentley sure will not be so Captious as to say that these Forms of Speech are not express enough among all Authors that quote from others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Equivalent and us'd indifferently Bishop Pearson has largely prov'd this in his Vindiciae Ignatianae against Dailleé who laid hold of this Câ—â—â—l to disparage the Epistles of Ignatius And I the rather referr the Dr. to that Incomparable Work because he confesses with some Shame that he had either never read it or utterly forgot it A good account of his Acquaintance with One of the First Books in the World in the Way of his Profession They that read Books at this rate will be sure to write Books that will be so read But not to forget our business The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self is apply'd to Aesop as an Author by Suidas Aphthonius and others What Suidas says deserves a Reflection his Words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he wrote Two Books of what befel him at Delphos but Others are rather of Opinion that he wrote nothing but Fables So that tho' some doubted whether he wrote any account of what happen'd to him at Delphos yet according to Suidas no-body doubted but that he wrote Fables Eustathius calls him expresly not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expounding the one by the other The Words too of the Old Scholiast on Aristophanes are so full I think as not easily to be eluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Few say in Terms he was a Writer is because No-body had any Suspicions to the contrary and when the Doubt was not started nor thought of there was no need to guard against it I have produc'd some Ancients that say he did write Dr. Bentley does not pretend to instance in any that say he did not instead of that his best Arguments for this New Point are These that follow The Old Man in Aristophanes says he learnt his Fables in Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which of his Dictionaries does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie Conversation Or is it necessary that what was learnt at a Feast must be learnt in Conversation might it not be a part of their Festival Entertainments to have some agreeable Book read to them and might not Aesop sometimes be that Book If this might be the Case then the Old man might learn his Fables at a Feast and yet learn 'em out of a Book too But suppose he did not allowing that he learnt 'em in Conversation what follows from thence that because the Fables of Aesop were in every-bodys Mouth and told at their Meals by way of entertainment therefore there was no written Collection of 'em they were preserv'd all by Memory If this be Criticising I am sure Criticising has nothing to do with Reasoning By the same way of Deduction will I prove that we have not a Written Creed now nor ever had one for have not all People from the Rise of Christianity down to this Time learnt it without the help of a Book and is it not plain therefore that the Creed is preserv'd by Memory only and has never been committed to Writing The Dr. produces a Second Passage in Aristophanes where one man reproaches anothers Ignorance thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You have not read so much as Aesop for so he himself translates it from whence he says one might conclude that Aesop wrote his Own Fables If they were his Own Fables one might pretty safely conclude that he wrote 'em for those Writings are the most properly a man 's Own which he writes But Dr. Bentley it seems concludes from this very Passage I cannot imagine How that Aesop did not write ' em Till he tells us by what Wonderful Means he got to this Conclusion I can say nothing to it But as for his Occasional and Weighty Debate whether or no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be a Proverbial Saying spoken of Illiterates I can see no manner of reason why it was brought in here but meerly for the pleasure of contradicting Erasmus and Scaliger Proverb or no Proverb I think it equally proves that there were Fables at that time which went under the Name of Aesop and what advantage can be made of this must be against Dr. Bentley The Closing Argument that winds these Proofs up into a Demonstration is a Passage in Plato's Phoedo where Socrates says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Among the Fables of Aesop I had at hand and remember'd I put those into Verse that first occurr'd to me from whence the Dr. shrewdly observes that Socrates does not say he made use of a Book of Fables and from his not saying so would have us believe that there was no such thing as a Book of Aesop's Fables in Socrates's time Socrates was now in Prison and in obedience to a
Divine Admonition thought himself oblig'd to do something in Poetry he pitch'd upon Aesop putting into Verse such of his Fables as occurr'd to him and if we may guess by what we have left of his doing such Fables occurr'd to him as were nearest his Own Cafe Now what need was there of having recourse to a Written Aesop for that which he and every-body remember'd or what wonder was it that he had not the Book by him in Prison why we are not sure that at the particular point of time when he did these Fables in Prison he had so much as Pen and Ink allow'd him This is the Irresistible Evidence with which Dr. Bentley has taken upon him to confront the Opinion of Two Thousand Years such Evidence as one would not admit against Simmias Rhodius to rob him of the honour of his Egg or his Hatchet Is it fit that men should make use of their little Skill in Letters their Conjectures their Fancies their Dreams to attack the Reputation of our first Masters in good writing is it grateful with such groundless Suspicions as these to fall upon the Father of Moral Fable whose happy way of conveying knowledge has been ever spoken of with so much Respect and been of such standing Use to Mankind Has Dr. Bentley sworn to be at defiance with every man that writes Masterly in his way Sir William Temple may be at Ease he sees he is affronted in Good Company Let me tell our Critic what I have heard from Wise Men that Confidence and Paradoxes are not the true way to a Lasting Reputation that the first point of Modesty and Sense is never to Contradict the whole World Needlesly and the next to that to be sure never to do it without very good Grounds The Dr. often gives me an Occasion to put him in mind of this Truth and more than Once in the very Passage we are upon where he has laid hold of a Careless Expression in Laertius a Writer of his Own Form to oppose Plato's Account of Socrates or rather Socrates's Account of himself Laertius he says seems to hint that Socrates did but One Fable and this seeming Shadow of an Hint even from Laertius is to bear down the Express Authority of Plato who says he did Several The very Spirit of Athenaeus is got into him who undertook to disprove some of the most Remarkable Particulars of Socrates's Life recorded in Xenophon and Plato by the very same Negative Way of Arguing that Dr. Bentley makes use of against Phalaris and Aesop the Silence and Praetermission of Authors nay and expresses himself in the same Mannerly Way too calling Plato the best-bred Man in the World Dog and Lyar covertly indeed whereas Dr. Bentley has bestow'd much the same Titles on those He disputes against bluntly and openly But the Impartial Casaubon takes the part of those Great Men against his Author reproves his Rudenoss and confutes his Reasonings and shews him to be as Confident Clowns generally are all over mistaken The Men of Letters I hope will excuse this Freedom No man is readier than I am to value Athenaeus for what he ought to be valu'd the Fragments and Remains of Antiquity which he has preserv'd but to see him insolently trampling on Great Names is what I cannot bear without Indignation I need no Transition from hence to Dr. Bentley who taking it now for granted that Aesop did not write his Own Fables will tell us Who wrote 'em for him Demetrius Phalereus he thinks to have been the first that committed them to Writing And if Others should think that he was not the First they would have somewhat better Ground for their Thought than He has for they have Aristophanes and his Scholiast either of whose Words may be taken in this case I hope a little sooner than Dr. Bentley's to countenance their Opinion Aristophanes in the Passage mention'd by Dr. Bentley plainly intimates that there was a Book of Aesop's Fables in His time and His Time was before Demetrius's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ne Aesopum quidem legisti thus the Scholiast interprets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in other Authors proves it ought to be translated and which is more than all Dr. Bentley himself has thus render'd it You have not read so much as Aesop. How could Aesop be read at a time when he supposes that there was no Collection of of Aesop's Fables committed to writing It happens indeed now and then that Books are written without being Read Some of Dr. Bentley's Works will be a Proof of this but it can never happen I presume that any Book should be read without being written The same Scholiast quotes another Passage out of Aristophanes's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tho' upon a Cursory View of that Play I do not now find it there The Poet is Speaking of the Eagle which Bird he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Fable he referrs to is that of the Eagle and the Scarabaeus which is in the present Collection and I think he manifestly quotes a Collection of Fables extant in His Time I 'm sure had he intended to quote such a Collection he could not have us'd Words that would more plainly have express'd his Meaning To return to my point therefore if there was a Written Aesop in Aristophanes's time then Demetrius Phalereus could not be the First who committed Aesop 's Fables to Writing All the mention we have of this Performance of Demetrius is in Laertius who says it was call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which it seems to Dr. Bentley that they were in Prose and if it should seem to anybody else that they were in Verse they have just as much Reason for their Fancy as he has unless by his Divining Faculty he can from the Title 's being in Prose smell out that the Work was so Some he says may imagine that they are the Same that are now extant Some who not Meziriac I hope because he has not seen him But whoever these Some be Dr. Bentley is against ' em I wish says he they were the same that are now extant for then they would be well writ with some Genius and Spirit How are we to take him Would Demetrius's Fables have been better than they were if they had been still extant or would the Fables that are extant and by some ascrib'd to Demetrius be better than they are if Demetrius had wrote ' em Had Dr. Bentley wish'd that Demetrius's Fables were still extant it had been a Kind Wish because Demetrius is thought a better Writer thah He that compos'd these Fables but to wish Demetrius's the same that are now extant is to wish his Fables no better written nor with more Genius or Spirit than those we have Whom have we now after Demetrius why Some-body that wrote the
Instances of his Ingenuity I believe his Nearest Acquaintances will be asham'd of Him Our Critic having spent his Small Artillery here and there upon a Fable without much Success grows Peevish and is resolv'd to be reveng'd on the Poor Monk that collected 'em Planudes who as much a Monk as he was never I believe gave any man such Gourse Language from his Cell as he now receives from Court He is call'd here an Ideot of a Monk that has given us a Book the Life of Aesop which perhaps cannot be match'd in any Language for Ignorance and Nonsence As for Planudes himself I must confess I have not the Deepest Veneration for his Character but neither can I think so despicably of him as the Lofty Dr. Bentley does because I find him well spoken of by men of Good Knowledge and Judgment and even by his Adversaries Themselves Nay Dr. Bentley I think gives an account of him not at all to his disadvantage where he says that That Sett of Fables he put out was of his own drawing up amongst which there are several so well turn'd so exactly copled from Nature and built on such a true knowledge of Human Life and Affairs that 't is plain he was neither an Ideot nor a Monk that compos'd ' em This is an Honour therefore misplac'd on Planudes and which he deserves as little as he does that Scurrilous Language which the Dr. ever happy in Inconsistencies has in that very Page bestow'd upon him Nevelet and Vavasor were a little too hasty in their Conclusions on this matter and spake too largely when from some Fables that relish'd of Planudes's Style and Way they inferr'd that All were of His Composing Dr. Bentley has taken up the same Inference from an argument of as little weight the Reason and the only Reason he gives for his believing 'em drawn up by Planudes is that there is no MS. any where above 300 Years old that has the Fables according to that Copy No MS any where Very Extensive Words 't is pretty difficult to answer for All the Libraries of Europe for as a Late Critic observes Saepe non licet Viris doctis MSS. adire seu ob Distantiam Locorum seu ob Praefectorum Bibliothecis invidiam seu ob alia Impedimenta quae memorare nibil attigit Learned Men are often debarr'd the Vse of MSS either by their Distance from 'em or by the Envious Temper of those that have the Custody of 'em or by some Other Sort of Hindrances as for Example when they expect to have those kind of Favours gratuirously done ' em But supposing he had an Exact Account of All the Europaean MSS yet how does he know but that there may be one at Fez the most inaccessible Library in the World next to that at St. Iames's This was an Assertion fit to be laid down by Dr. Bentley because impossible to be prov'd and I believe not difficult to be disprov'd for as much out of the way of those things as I live I have casually heard of a MS Older than Planudes that has the Fables according to His Copy Vossius's MS. I mean which tho' I have not seen my self yet better Judges than I am who have seen it assure me that it is about 500 Years Old and that Vossius himself always esteem'd it so 'T is now at Leyden I think and might have been nearer but for Some-body's management I need look out for no more Instances against a Negative One is as good as a Thousand If all the MSS that have the Fables according to Planudes's Copy were evidently Younger than He yet we could not from thence certainly collect that He was the Author of 'em whereas if One of 'em happens to be Older than He we may be pretty sure he was not As for Planudes's Life of Aesop I can't indeed think it a Book not to be match'd in any Language for Ignorance and Nonsense because in some Languages I think it may however I have no Great Opinion of it There are in it Several Idle Trifling Stories told in such a Fabulous Way that one would think Planudes meant to suit the Life to the Book which follows and writ out of his Own Invention for want of Authorities And yet neither dare I reject every Circumstance of his Account as fictitious that I do not find confirm'd by Elder Authors he might make use of Books that never came down to us a great deal of Good History perish'd in the sacking of Constantinople or he might from the Same Books which we have now in our hands take some Hints which we have not yet observ'd in 'em and which it would be very Rash and Immodest in Us to pronounce not to be there till we have read over all the Greek Authors carefully and sisted 'em throughly And this is particularly fit to be said to Dr. Bentley who for want of such a Prudent Distrust of his own Knowledge has been guilty of a Gross Mistake The Circumstance in Planudes's Account which he pitches upon to expose is that of Aesop's Vgliness He had met with a Large Collection of Testimonies concerning Aesop in Camerarius's Fables in none of which there was any Hint of his Deformity and he concluded therefore that there must and could be none any where else and that This was certainly a Fiction of Planudes And now how does he insult over the poor Ignorant Monk on this occasion how unmercifully does he use him he asks him what Revelation he had about Aesop 's Deformity for he must needs learn it he says by Dream and Vision and not by Ordinary Methods of Knowledge He liv'd about Two thousand Years after Aesop and in ALL that Tract of TIME there 's not ONE SINGLE Author that has given the LEAST HINT that Aesop was Vgly Casaubon or Gerbard Vossius who had either of 'em read Ten times as much as Dr. Bentley would not have talk'd at this rate because Neither of 'em as Learned as They were had read All that was written or remember'd all they had read But Dr. Bentley in the strength of Camerarius's Collections is positive that not ONE SINGLE Author before Planudes's time has given the LEAST HINT of Aesop's Ugliness If he would not be Angry I would venture out of my small Stock of Reading to supply him with One and Him an Author of great Note Eustathius who in the beginning of his Comment on the Odysses p. 17. derives the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I contend not for the Goodness of the Etymology let it shift for it self but it is evidently built on a Supposition that Aesop was Ugly and implys that That Opinion was Common in Eustathius's time that is about Two hundred Years before Planudes was born Doubtless that Learned Parecbolist to speak in Dr. Bentley's Phrase could have produc'd Authorities enow