Part 2

The merriest part of the Project he has been hatching, for an _English_ Academy to bring our Tongue to his pitch of Perfection, is that he has assign’d, that Task to the _Tories_, whose Wit have so distinguish’d them in all Times. If there had ever been a Man among ’em who had a right Notion of Letters or Language, who had any relish of Politeness, it had been something. But as there never was one, unless it were two or three Apostate Whigs who had been bred up by the Charity of those Friends they deserted, that had any smattering of Learning, except in Pedantry, nor Tast of any Books but _Eikon Basilike_, and the _Thirtieth_ of _January_ Sermons; ’tis amazing that he shou’d be so foolish as to fancy, that Learning which always goes by the Stile of Common-wealth, would submit to the Arbitary Government of an Ignorant and Tyrannical Faction. Nor is it at all strange, that those, who by their Practices and Principles, have for above Fourscore Years been doing their utmost to Enslave us, shou’d always have a Contempt for Wit and Eloquence, which ever have been the Friends of Reason and Liberty.

Whoever reads the Thirty Fifth Chapter of _Longinus_ will find, that ’tis impossible for a Tory to succeed in Eloquence, and that if they cannot impose so far on Men’s Understandings, as to make Fustian pass for Oratory, their Project of an Academy, will be as Chimerical as if they shou’d flatter us with a Trade and Settlements in the Moon. The Reader will not be displeas’d, to see what the Ancients thought of the Capacity of Men of such Principles in Matters of Eloquence, and let a long Experience among us, prove the right Judgment the _Philosopher_ in _Longinus_ made of them 1500 Years ago. He is treating of the _Causes of the Decay of Humane Wit_; _I can never enough admire_, said he, _how it came to pass, that there are so many Orators in our Times, and so few of ’em rise very high in the Sublime; so Steril are our Wits now a Days; is it not_, continues he, _because what is generally said of Free Governments, that they nourish and form great Genius’s is true? especially, since almost all the Famous Orators that ever flourish’d and liv’d died with them? Indeed, can there be anything that raises the Souls of Great Men more than Liberty; any thing which can more powerfully excite and awaken in us that Sentiment of Nature which provokes us to Emulation, and the glorious desire of seeing our selves advanc’d above others? Add to this, that the Rewards propos’d in such Governments, whet and perfectly Polish the Orators Wit and make ’em cultivate the Talents Nature has given them; insomuch, that we see the Liberty of their Country shine in their Orations._ He goes on, _but as for us, who were early taught to endure the Yoke of Domination, and have been, as it were, wrapt up in the Customs and Ways of Arbitrary Rule; who in a Word, never tasted that living and Flowing Spring of Eloquence and Liberty; we commonly, instead of Orators, become pompous Flatterers, for which reason, I believe a Man Born in Servitude, may be capable of other Sciencies, but no Slave can ever be an Orator, since when the Mind is depress’d and broken by Slavery, it will never dare to think, or say any thing bold. All its Vigour evaporates of it self, and it remains always as in Bonds; in short, to make use of +Homer+’s Expression._

_The Day that makes a Free Born Man a Slave,_ _Robs him of half his Vertue._

It is observable, that _Boileau_ has no manner of remark on all this Passage; it wou’d not have agreed with his Pension, from his Master the _French_ King, to have said a Word in praise of it, nor with his Conscience to have condemn’d it; but _Dacier_, who had a _Hugonot_ Education, observes speaking of Liberty, shining in the Orations of Orators living in Free States, that as those _Men are their own Masters, their Mind us’d to this Independence, produces nothing but what has the Marks of that Liberty, which is the Principal Aim of all their Actions._

Now what a Friend the Letter writer, is to Liberty, we may see in the _Examiner_ of the 26th of _April_, 1711, which, tho’, it may be he did not Write himself, whatever some People say to the contrary, he and his Party have sufficiently own’d to make them accountable for every Word in that and the rest of them. The reason why _Publick Injuries are so seldom redress’d is for want of Arbitrary Power_, he calls it _Discretionary_; ’tis true, and if I have wrong’d him, by putting Arbitrary in its Place; I ask his Pardon.--

Having said thus much of his Party in general, I might descend to Particulars, and examine the sufficiency of the Characters of his Academicians, a List of them being handed up and down, in which the Author is not forgot. It is set off with Names that must not be repeated, and amongst the rest are a Doctor or two, two or three Poets and Tell Tales, and that Learned and Facetious Person Mr. _D----ny_, whose very Name gives unspeakeable Hopes of the Progress of such a Society, in refining our Language, which he and most of his Brethren are so great Masters of, that if twenty of the List will oblige us with as many Lines of Common Sense and Common Grammar, I will be bound to read every thing that shall be publish’d by this Famous Academy, that is to be or under their Auspices, tho’ I had much rather change that Pennance for _Ogilby_ and _Blome_. To give us the better _Idea_ of his _Scheme, he has consulted with very Judicious Persons_; we may judge of what truth there is in his _Panegyricks_, by that of the deceas’d _Examiner_ on himself; where he says, _he had written with so much Reputation, and so much to the Confusion of the Whigs, that they themselves have a Value for his Person and Abilities, tho they have an Aversion to his Cause_. Of the same size, I doubt not, are the able and judicious Persons he has consulted about his Design, which must be own’d to be very good in it self, and capable of such Improvement as wou’d make it one of the Glories of Her Majesty’s most Glorious Reign. But alas, he will never have the Honour of it. A Noble Lord, on whom he has written _Libels_ and _Encomiums_, was the first that thought of such a thing, and some Years since nam’d forty Gentlemen to be Members of an Academy, on a Foundation refining on the _French_ of which Number I am very well satisfy’d, not a Man of his most Illustrious Band wou’d ever have been, and that tho’ he is so generous as to promise the Whigs that they shall come in if they will, he must look ’em out better Company, or his Academy will have the Glory of this great Work to themselves. Indeed the way is prepar’d for them to _Immortality_, two _English_ Grammars having been publish’d within this Twelvemonth, and it remains to him and his Fraternity, to add a _Dictionary_ worthy those Immortal Labours; for which, there are not a Set of Men in _England_ better qualify’d, and so equal to so honourable a Task.

One wou’d think, that towards advancing this Scheme, all the _Literati_ of this Kingdom had sent their Powers to Him. That all the Whigs as well as Tories had entrusted him with their Proxies; for he says _I do here in the Name of all the Learned and Polite Persons of the Nation complain, &c._ Whereas whatever has been brag’d by him in other Papers of the Nine in Ten, being on his side for the Land and Church Interest, not nine in a thousand will trust him with that of Wit. And I do here in the Name of all the Whigs, protest against all and every thing done or to be done in it, by him or in his Name; being a Person with whom they will have no manner of Dealings, as he very well knows, or they might now have had him Scribbling for them as well as when that Discourse was written _of the Contests and Dissentions of the Nobles and Commons in +Athens+ and +Rome+_, wherein it is said, _’tis agreed, that in all Governments there is an absolute unlimited Power which naturally and originally seems to be plac’d in the People +in the whole Body+; wherever the Executive part lies_; again, _this unlimited Power plac’d fundamentally in the Body of a People, &c._ and that he wrote better then than he has done since is not to be wonder’d at, if there is any truth in what _Longinus_’s Philosopher says.

It would be a poor Triumph to convict him of an Error in History 1700 Years ago, where he tells us, That _Cæsar_ never attempted this Island; _no Conquest was ever attempted till the Time of +Claudius+_, since I do not find that he or his Brethren have any Notion at all that Truth is necessary in History: For they deny what was done Yesterday, as frankly as if it had been in _Julius Cæsar_’s Time; yet he himself has been sometimes forc’d to confess the Power of Truth, and pay Allegiance to it; as where he says, the great Reason of the Corruption of the _Roman_ Tongue _was the changing their Government into Tyranny, which ruined the Study of Eloquence_; and because the _Whigs_ shall have a Share in it, he adds, and their calling in the _Palatines, their giving several Towns in +Germany+ the Freedom of the City_. A very pleasant Reason that; for when the _Roman_ Language was in the height of its Purity in the _Augustan_ Age, the Cities of _Asia_ and _Africk_ were admitted to that Privilege, as much as the _Europeans_ were afterwards; and yet it cannot be pretended the _Moors_ were naturally more Polite than the _Germans_. It is plain therefore this was a Party Stroke in favour of the _Naturalization_ Act, to shew what Inconveniences it hinders by preventing Foreigners coming among us to debauch our Stile, as may be seen by the prodigious Number of _Dutch_ Words that K. _William_ brought with him into _England_.

Another Instance of the forc’d Homage he pays to Truth, is his blaming _the Slavish Disposition of the Senate and People of +Rome+, by which the Eloquence of the Age was wholly turn’d into Panegyrick_. Now considering how many Pages he has prodigally bestow’d upon it, in the very Letter I am taking cognizance of is it not very odd he should call Panegyrick _a Slavish Disposition_, and worse still that he should term it the _most barren of all Subjects_; what if I could prove, that above half of his Three Sheets of Paper are of that kind of Panegyrick, which is so fatal to great Men. The _Greeks_ said, _Flatterers were like so many Ravens croaking about them, and that they never lifted a Man up but as the +Eagle+ does the +Tortoise+, in order to get something by the fall of him._

It is a sad Case, when Men get a habit of saying what they please, not caring whether True or False: Who can without pity see our Letter Writer accuse the Famous _La Bruyere_, for being accessary to the declining of the _French_ Tongue, by his Affectation; when it is notorious, that _La Bruyere_ is the most masterly Writer of that Nation, and that his Affectation was in the Turn of his Thought, which he did to strike his Readers, who had been too much us’d to dry Lessons to receive any Impression by them. He says, he has many Hundred _New Words, not to be found in the Common Dictionaries before his Time_. I should be glad to know, who are those Lexicographers, whose Knowledge in the _French_ Tongue he prefers to _La Bruyere_’s; since _Richelet_ and the _Academy_ are not of his Æra, I should rejoyce with him, if a way could be found out to _fix our Language for ever_, that like the _Spanish_ Cloak, it might always be in Fashion; but I hope he will come into Temper with the Inconstancy of Peoples Minds, of which he complains, and that we are in no Fear of the Invasion and Conquest he talks of, comforting himself, _that the best Writings may be preserved and esteem’d_, meaning his own and his Friends, which no doubt would fare much better than Mr. _Locks_ or Mr. _Hoadly_’s; for Conquerors are not us’d to take much Care of those that write against them.

I like extreamly his rejecting the Old Cant of _Forty One_, and giving the _great Rebellion_ its true Name _Forty Two_: But, if I had been he, I would not have named it at all. For there are a great many Men in _England_, who, tho’ they were not concern’d in it themselves, yet they do not love to hear of it, for the sake of those that were; and it certainly was an Error in delicacy to touch upon so tender a Part, no Man of Honour caring to have his Father and Grandfather call’d Rogue and Rebel to his Face, especially if such Grandfather or Father had no other Fault in the World but his Rebellion; which after so many Acts of Oblivion, and a Revolution besides, can not be a Crime of that Nature, as to last to the 3d and 4th Generation. He is much to be commended however for his Impartiality, and pleading Guilty to the Charge of the _Whigs_, that the _Licentiousness_ which enter’d with the _Rystauration_, infected our Religion and Morals. How it corrupted our Language I can’t imagine, when the greatest Master of it Arch-Bishop _Tillotson_, flourish’d all that Time; but I find he is more conversant in the Court Poetry and the Plays, than the other elegant Writings of those Times: Be it as it will, he would lay an Infinite Obligation upon us, if he would recommend us to any Author in the Reign of King _Charles_ the Martyr, which he distinguishes as the Golden Age of Politeness; who wrote with the Purity of _Dryden_, _Otway_, and _Etheridge_, and with less Affectation, which in Comick Writings is unavoidable, and in the best never us’d but to be expos’d. Yet the _Poets_ he affirms have _contributed very much to the spoiling the Tongue_: And who would he have to restore it? Himself, and his Brethren. Himself a Poet of Renown, and who, if he would once speak his Mind, I make no question is Prouder of his _Elegy upon Patridge_, and his Sonnet on Miss _Biddy Floyd_, than of all His Prose Compositions together, or even that elegant Poem, call’d _The Humble Petition of +Frances Harris+_, which is the Pink of Simplicity.

_Therefore all the Money I have, which God knows is a very small Stock,_ _I keep in a Pocket ty’d about my middle, next my Smock:_ _So when I went to put my Purse, as God would have it, my Smock was unript,_ _And instead of putting it into my Pocket, down it slipt._ _Then the Bell rung, and I went down to put my Lady to Bed,_ _And God knows, I thought my Money was as safe as my Maidenhead._

There is a great deal more of it, all as Easy and Natural as this, in the true Stile of Mrs. _Abigail_, and just as Amphibuous. It is as much Poetry as Prose, Pretty and Innocent, according to the Rules of Criticism; which the Author has taken more care not to break, than the First Commandment; tho’ one wou’d think it was his Business to have been mindful of it; and if he had left the Smock to be upript by the Butler, it wou’d have done every whit as well. I cannot help taking notice, that the Clamour he raises about the Poets of King _Charles_ the Second’s Reign, the only Age of Poetry in _England_, is for their Contractions and leaving out the _Eds_ and _Eths_, wherein he offends intollerably in this very Dogrel of his. Who wou’d have said _Smock unript and down it slipt_, and not _unripped_ and _slipped_; there is a waggery in it much better than any _Hudibrastick_; for it wou’d have run thus:

_So when I went to put my Purse as God wou’d have it, my Smock was unripped,_ _And instead of putting it into my Pocket down it slipped._

It will be no Authority with him, that Mr. _Dryden_ commonly contracted the Syllables that end _in Ed or Eth_. He was a Poet, and tho’ certainly in most cases the sound is sweetned by it, yet it offends those who are not for losing a Letter, and were they _Frenchmen_, would doubtless be for pronouncing every one of them, as well as Writing, to the great strengthning of that Enervate Tongue, which languishes in reading for want of the _Ez’s_ and _Er’s_, so barbarously mangled in Pronounciation. A great Lord, and one who wou’d be worthy of a Place, which is deny’d him in this Academy, having written against my Lord _Rochester_ in an _Essay upon Poetry_, Mr. _Wolseley_, attacks the _Essayer_ in a Preface written on purpose, and printed before _Valentinian_, wherein he has criticis’d on his Lordship’s Poem, and on these two Lines in particular.

_That Author’s Name has undeserved Praise,_ _Who pall’d the Appetite he meant to raise._

Where he observes the Advantage the Verse had in the _Ed_, for without it it must have hobled on Nine Feet instead of Ten. _What does that Ed_, says he, _in +undeserved+ do there? I know no Business it has, unless it be to crutch a Lame Verse, and each out a scanty Sense; for the Word that is now used is Undeserv’d. I shou’d not take notice of such a Thing as this, but that I have to do with a giver of Rules, and a Magisterial Corrector of other Men; tho’ upon the observing such little Niceties, does all the Musick of Numbers defend. But the Refinement of our Versication is a sort of Criticism, which the +Essayer+, if we may judge of his Knowledge by his Practice, seems yet to learn; for never was there such a Pack of Stiff ill sounding Rhimes put together as his Essay is stuff’d with: To add therefore to his other Collections, let him remember hereafter, that Verses have Feet given ’em either to walk gracefully and smooth, and sometimes with Majesty and State like +Virgils+, or to run light and easy like +Ovid+’s, not to stand stockstill like Dr. +Donne+’s, or to hobble like indigested Prose: That the counting of the Syllables is the least Part of the Poets Work, in the turning either of a soft or a Sonorous Line; that the +Ed’s+ went away with the +For to’s+, and the +Until’s+ in that general Rout that fell on the whole Body of the +thereon’s+, the +therein’s+, and +thereby’s+, when those useful +Expletives+, the +altho’s+ and the +Unto’s+, and those most convenient +Synalæpha’s+ +’midst+, +’mongst+, +’gainst+, and +’twixt+, were every one +cut off+; which dismal Slaughter was follow’d with the utter Extirpation of the ancient House of the +hereof’s+ and the +therefrom’s+, &c. Nor is this Reformation the Arbitrary Fancy of a Few, who would impose their own Private Opinions and Practices upon the rest of their Countrymen, but grounded on the Authority of +Horace+, who tells us in his Epistle +de arte Poetica+, that Present Use is the final Judge of Language, (the Verse is too well known to need quoting) and on the common Reason of Mankind, which forbids us those antiquated Words and obsolete Idioms of Speech, whose worth Time has worn out, how well soever they may seem to stop a Gap in Verse, and suit our shapeless Immature Conceptions; for what is grown Pedantick and unbecoming when ’tis spoke, will not have a jot the better grace for being writ down._ This Gentleman’s Opinion, and that of others, which agrees with his, justify’d by the Example of all the Polite Writers in King _Charles_ the Second’s Reign, which probably may be the _Augustan_ Age of _English_ Poetry, is not to warrant the Affectation of such as are for the _Can’ts_, the _Don’ts_, the _Won’ts_, the _Shan’ts_, &c. but to refer to the Ear the cutting off those useless Syllables the _Ed’s_ and _Eth’s_ both in Verse and Prose; and I question whether any one wou’d not be better pleas’d to hear _disturb’d_ read than _disturbed_, and _rebuk’d_ than _rebuked_, tho’ the Doctor wonders how it can be endur’d.

How intolerable must those two Lines of _Hudibras_ be to him then, on more Accounts than one.

_Hence ’tis that ’cause y’ ’ave gain’d o’ th’ College_ _A quarter Share at most of Knowledge._

Where there are almost as many Abreviations as there are Words, and I question whether the being an _Hudibrastick_ is sufficient to excuse it, if it is, otherwise inexcusable; perhaps the Reader may not be displeas’d to see the Lines that follow, which are no great Digression from our Subject.

_Y’ assume a Pow’r as absolute, To judge and censure and controul, As if you were the sole, Sir Poll; And sawcily pretend to know More than your Dividend comes to. You’ll find the Thing will not be done With Ignorance and Face Alone: No, tho’ y’ have purchas’d to your Name, In History so great a Fame, That now your Talent’s so well known For having all belief out grown That every strange prodigious Tale Is measur’d by your +German+ Scale, By which the +Virtuosi+ try The Magnitude of every Lye, +&c.+_