Part 3

And now I have done with him, I can hardly answer it to my self why I ever began, or why I went about to foul my fingers with such a Subject: I am sure nothing could have forced me but an irresistible Impulse, and some natural love I bear to Vertue, to Learning, and to Truth; of all which I find so great a share in this Honourable person's Writings, which I have read so often, and with so much pleasure; and from which I cannot but confess to have learnt more than from all other Books I have read in my life; which I say after much greater and better Readers than my self, and yet I have been a great Porer too. All this would not suffer me to let _De Cros_'s Libel pass without these Reflections; for as to any regular Reply, it could no more be made to this, than to a Paper that comes with a very fair Superscription, and subscribed by some _Worshipful Name_, but had nothing clear through, besides long unsightly Scrawls and foul Blots with a Pen; and so intended for some such flam as your Twelve-Penny Writers use to gull those idle people with, that buy up all Pamphlets they meet: And since I have confess'd my self such a Customer, 'tis but justice I should be laughed at in my turn.

After all I have writ upon this Subject, I cannot but think my Ink has been too white all this time; however, I have Gall enough about me to make it blacker at another, if ever the fit of Scribling should take me again; which may very well be, when I meet with another Author of so little _Wit_, so little _Memory_, and so little _Truth_ as _De Cros_.

_----Melius non tangere, Clamo, Flebit, & insignis tota cantabitur Urbe._

As to the candid Translator, I cannot forbear doing him the Justice to give him that part which he deserves, and belongs to him in all I said of _De Cros_, for his share in the Letter, by so false, and so malicious a Translation; nor can refuse him my approbation for a worthy Translator to so worthy an Author; wherein he has taken the same pains a man would do in smutting over a Chimny-Sweeper, or blacking over a Crier of Smalcoal. Which is all I shall say of him.

But, for the _Advertiser_, as his Stile is much fairer, and consists mostly of Criticisms, so he will deserve no other than very fair and critical Reflections. Yet I cannot but wonder, that in the first part of his Advertisement, he should go about to defend the _severe or indecent Language_ (as he calls it) in _De Cros_'s Letter: Which sure, nothing could do towards a person who has so often represented a great King, whatever his own Merits or Demerits might have been. I am also something at a loss what he should mean by slandering _De Cros_ with such a Title as that of, _The Ingenious Author of the foregoing Letter_. For doubtless if the Man has any Wit, I may say of it as one did of a Gentleman's Courage, which another had much commended; That _he might have courage for ought he knew, but he had as live be damn'd as shew it_.

The rest of his gentle _Advertisement_ consists, (as he pleases to call it) of _the Sentiments of the Criticks upon these Memoirs when they first came out_.

The first whereof is, That _the Stile was too luscious and affected_. I confess I am not acquainted with that Term of _a Luscious Stile_, and cannot easily stumble upon what it means, unless it be to say, That the Bride is too fair, or the Grapes are too sweet. But 'tis yet harder for my poor Conception to find out how a Stile can be both _Luscious_ and _Affected_; Which latter I should have otherwise mistook for a Quality that had ever given a harshness to any Stile, that would not be very consistent with _Luscious_: And _Tacitus_ has not escaped the Imputation of being both harsh and _Affected_, by several _Criticks_. I am afraid the Gentleman's Mouth might have been a little out of taste by reading these _Memoirs_; and _that_ might possibly have proceeded from some cholerick Humour redundant in his Stomach; which I the rather suspect from these words in the Beginning of his Advertisement; _As nothing more sensibly touches _US_, than to have our Reputation_, &c. which seem to insinuate, that he took himself for one of the Persons he thought offended by them, and _treated with too much Freedom, and too little Ceremony_; as he afterwards speaks of others. But if Sir _W. T_'s Stile be faulty, I have nothing to say; only desire, That some of the _Criticks_ the _Advertiser_ speaks of, will be so kind to mend it when they write next, whereby I think they will do a very great Honour to our Language. I am only sorry for those poor Booksellers who have so rashly undertaken the printing of his several Works, and wish they may not be undone after the Judgment of these severe _Criticks_ upon them. Yet to give them a little comfort, I must needs take notice, that all men are not of the same nice Palat, neither at home nor abroad: For Monsieur _Wiquefort_ concludes his _Memoirs of Ambassadors_, with regretting that there had been so few Accounts given by any of them of Foreign Countries; and that there were like to be fewer hereafter; _Because Monsieur _Temple_ is inimitable in what he has written of the_ United Netherlands. And among many Books and Pamphlets that mention his Works, I have yet seen none that does it without great Value and Approbation. I am sure in all the _French_ Editions of his several Works (which have had the luck to be still Translated into several Languages as they came out) the Epistles and Prefaces prefixed before them, are full of the greatest Honour and Applause that can be given to Writings, which pass so ill with the _Criticks_, this Advertiser tells us of at home; so that 'tis possible some of these _Memoirs_ may yet go off, which I suppose was the chief thing intended by him that publisht them.

However, let such Statesmen as _de Cros_; or such _Criticks_ as our _Advertiser_, or Malice and Detraction it self, say what they will of the _Memoirs_; I dare answer for all Scholars and Lovers of Learning, that they shall pay the Honour and Esteem which is, and will be ever justly due to the _Miscellanea_; and shall not only find what is pleasing and instructing, but also something that is new and surprizing whenever they read them, let this Author's Stile be as _Luscious_ and _Affected_ as it will; which is all I need say for the poor Bookseller's sake.

The second Criticism the Advertiser mentions, is upon the Digressions, tho he is so good to confess himself not of their Opinion who find fault with them. But I wish he had made a fairer Quotation in a Line or two out of one of them, by which he would seem to make Sir _W. T._ say, That _Prince _Maurice_'s Parrot_ spoke, and askt, and answered common Questions like a reasonable Creature: Tho indeed he only says, That his _curiosity made _him_ enquire from the first hand about such a common Story, Of a Parrot that spoke_, &c.

For my self, I must needs say, that that Digression gave me not only some Entertainment when I read it, but a good deal of thought since; and the more, because I remember one of the _Athenian Mercuries_, in Answer to a Question sent them upon this very Story, seem'd to allow the thing possible. But after all my rambling thoughts upon that Subject, I must leave it to better Reasoners than my self to determine, whether Speech and Reason are so individual, that whatever Creature has any share in the one, must be allow'd to partake of the other. However it be, the Letter I have been lately observing, has throughly convinc'd me, that whether a Man may _Speak_ or no, at least he may _Write_ without _Reason_. But this I am sure is a Digression in me, whatever it was in the Author of the _Memoirs_.

* * * * *

The last _Criticism_ the _Advertiser_ mentions, is, That _in these _Memoirs_ there are several Persons, Eminent both for their Station and Quality, and some of them still alive, treated with so much Freedom, and so little Ceremony_. This in my slender Judgment, appears a more extraordinary Objection, than the other two. For I had ever imagined, that the very _Ratio formalis_ of a good History, or Memoirs, had been the _Truth_ of them, which it is impossible should ever appear without _great Freedom_, and _little Ceremony_, either to the Persons they represent, or concerning the Actions they relate. And this in my Opinion, gives the great and general Esteem that is deservedly put upon the Memoirs of _Philip de Comines_, whose Stile seems very mean and vulgar, but his _Freedom_ great, and _Ceremony_ very little, either with those two Great Princes that were his Masters, or in any Account he gives of Actions, or of Persons, tho many of these were probably alive at the time of Writing or Publishing these _Memoirs_. But in truth since his time, his Method has been very little pursued, and more is the pity, since it has made so much room, and so unworthily, for the fulsome Flatteries, and nauseous Panegyricks of so many Books or Prefaces as have over-run the Press in our Age; which not only endeavour to put Shams and Cheats upon Mankind; but are, I doubt, of great Mischief to the Interests and Concernments of those Countries where they grow. For let the _Criticks_ say what they please against writing Story with _too much Freedom_, and _too little Ceremony_, I am a little disposed to believe, That if there were more such _Authors_, there would not be so many such _Actors_, as have been so often seen upon the Publick Stages of the World; who, like Rooks when they are gotten to the Top-branches of great Trees, think only of building their own Nests as high as they can, and feathering them as well as they can, without any care how the Tree thrives under them, or whether by their Muting and Fluttering about, they spoil the Branches and Leaves of that Tree it self where they were bred, or found shelter. Peradventure such Actors would not have plaid such Parts upon the Stage, if they had not trusted to the Disguises and Masks they were in, or had suspected they would be pull'd off by some _plain, rough hand_, either while the Play lasts, or as soon as 'tis ended. For men are seldom so harden'd, as to grow totally careless of their Names, and their Memories, after they are dead, tho they may hope to escape while they are alive.

* * * * *

For these and some other such trivial Reasons, I must profess, I cannot joyn heartily with the _Criticks_ in this last Objection; but shall be very glad to joyn with the Advertiser in believing, or at least in wishing, that Sir _W. T._ would be prevailed with by the Letter, or this Advertisement, to take some notice himself either of the one, or the other, which might possibly make the Press some amends for this Scribble of mine; at least it would me, who should think my self very well rewarded by it. For whatever Passion _de Cros_, or the _Advertiser_, or any of those US's he speaks of in the beginning of his short Paper, may have against the Author, I shall ever have as much Passion for his Writings. And as for this of my own, I pretend to no more, than to be forgiven by him and other Men, because it is my first Essay, and for ought I yet know, it may be my last.

REFLECTIONS

UPON AN

ANSWER

TO THE

Letter from Mons. _De Cros_.

Pretended to be written by the Author of the _Memoirs_.

* * * * *

By a Lover of Truth.

* * * * *

_LONDON:_

Printed for _Richard Baldwin_, near the _Oxford-Arms_ in _Warwick-Lane_. 1693.

REFLECTIONS _upon an Answer to the Letter from Monsieur _De Cros_. Pretended to be written by the Author of the _Memoirs_, &c._

WHEN the foregoing Papers were finished, and just ready for the Press, I was surprized to hear that Sir _W. T._ himself had thought fit (contrary to what I had conjectured in the first pages of those) to take publick notice of Mons _De Cros_'s Letter; That it was now just come out, and crying about the Streets: Tho I had then several surmises that it might be some Imposture, yet one could not well be more amazed than I was, at a piece of News I had so little expected, and the contrary of which I thought I had so well convinced both the world, and my self. Whatever I expected from it, I was eager enough to get it, and to read it over: My suspicion increased sufficiently, when I had not gone above ten Lines; and when I had perused it, I found my self as much disappointed, as I was by _De Cros_'s Letter; being throughly convinced it was a Counterfeit, (tho a witty one, and perhaps an innocent one too.) For this I found several undeniable Reasons, which I suppose any thinking Reader could not but observe as well as I.

And first, I took notice of the _Exordium_ as a little too common and thredbare for that Author; and imagined a worse Writer might have been hard put to it, not to have found a better than, The _importunity of his Friends_ for writing in his own defence. Besides, I thought the disguise of it was something mean, and could not conceive why, if that Author had a mind to own it, he should chuse to do it in the _Third Person_, rather than the _First_.

Another Reason is; That this Answerer makes him publickly own the _Memoirs_, which I could never hear he has yet done. Nay farther; He makes Him defend them in all parts; which I doubt, if he had owned them, he would not do it any further than the Truth; since for the rest, as the Publisher of them observes, they are in many places imperfect, and uncorrect, by having never been reviewed; and so may be justly liable to some Exceptions of that kind: And the _Gallicisms_ upon which _De Cros_'s _Advertiser_ says, the _Criticks_ have been so severe, may easily discover they were not designed for the Publick in that Dress they have appeared. Now, tho this Pretended Answerer endeavours to imitate Sir _W. T._ in this Point, as well as in the use of several other Words which are found in the _Memoirs_, and he imagines a little particular; yet he has made so great a discovery in several others, that by consisting of two such different pieces, the whole lies too open to deceive. For altho such words as _Blunder_, _Hans-en Kelder_, _A man of such a Kidney_ with some others, may well enough become such a Scribler as I am, yet they are very unlike that Author's Expressions, and below his Stile.

Another ground I have to conclude this Answer for a Counterfeit, is for some Quotations which I shall never suspect such a Writer as Sir _W. T._ would have made use of. As first, that poor Line, _Canes qui latrant_, &c. which looks like an _English_ Proverb translated into very bald _Latin_. Then (to mention no more of them) another Quotation as unlike as the first, from Mr. _Samuel Johnson_, which agrees very little with that Author's way, who is observed in all he writes, to be very tender in medling with controverted Points of State and Government.

Besides, This whole Pamphlet, tho it must be confess'd to be ingenious, and written with a great deal of Wit, yet that very strain of _Witting_ it so much, and running things into Ridicule, makes it look very different from any thing we have yet seen of Sir _W. T_'s Writings: And I observe in several places of the _Miscellanea_, this very vein is taken notice of for a thing of _pernicious Consequence to Learning and good Manners_; so that if Sir _W. T._ be really possessed of such a Talent, he keeps it very much to himself, and must be allowed for the best Disguiser of it in the World, through all he has published; which would make his Readers think that he intended to pass rather for a Wise and Good Man, than for a Witty.

Another sufficient Reason for me to reject this Answer, is, That it makes Sir _W. T._ grant in some kind, the severest of _de Cros_'s unreasonable Slanders, of _failing in his Fidelity to his Master_; and to defend himself in it, by excusing it from Examples of that kind; which in my Opinion, would be to lay himself needlesly open to Censures, that I suppose, he has not deserved; and would shew such a want of Judgment in him, as I shall not be apt to believe from any other Writings but his own, and better attested than I find it here.

I shall add to all these, what I observed in an Advertisement before the First Part of the _Miscellanea_, where the Bookseller tells the Reader from the Author, that thenceforth he would never Publish any thing without putting his Name to it, which not finding before this Pamphlet, was another Reason to conclude it a supposititious Piece. All which put together, makes me believe Sir _W. T._ was no more the Author of this Answer, than of _Tully_'s _Offices_.

When I had satisfied my self in this Point, it was not easy for me to find out what the Writer of this Answer should mean by taking so much pains to make it pass for Sir _W. T_'s; which seems to me a very new way of Writing; and whereof I cannot give any other instance besides this, from what has occured in my Reading or Conversation. I know very well, that several Ancient Pieces which go under great Author's Names, are found by the Learned Criticks of these latter Ages, to have been spurious; yet they were never born till long after the Death of the supposed Fathers. I know likewise, that there have been several Laws made in _France_; one, I am sure, in this present Century, against the Printing any Books, under severe Penalties, without setting the Author's Name to them, and their known Name, because some having two Names, one by which they were commonly called, tho the other perhaps were the particular Name of their Family; some Persons disguised their Writings under the Name that was little known, tho it might be their own: To so nice and cautious Cares the Laws there thought fit to descend upon this matter. I remember there was an Ingenious Discourse Printed within these few years in _France_, upon the Custom of using borrowed or disguised Names in the Publishing of Books: But in the Censures and Complaints that Author makes of this ill Custom, I did not take notice of any one Example he mentions, further than of such Books as had been published under Names of Persons dead, or else under such as were wholly fictitious, and made at their own pleasures; Which last has peradventure appear'd in most Ages and Countries where Printing has been used, but toucht no Man farther than a Satyr of _Don Quixot_, or _Francion_, or any such like. But I have never observed, nor heard of any Example of this kind besides this Answer, where the Author, whose Name was borrowed, was alive, and in the same Kingdom, and so avowedly with the Name of a known Bookseller in the Title-page.

Whatever the intention may have been in the Writer, whether wholly innocent, or a little interessed to give Vogue to his Pamphlet, or in considering the Bookseller's profit by making it pass for an Author's, whose Name he knew would _help it off the_ better; yet I cannot but apprehend the Example of it ill, and the Consequences of it may be worse, if it should fall into Common practice; for by this way of Writing and Publishing either Books or Pamphlets, any Man may be made a publick Defamer of himself at another Man's pleasure, and not only _so_, but to accuse himself of any Crime which the Rigour of our Laws requires no man to do. As far as my Thoughts will reach, I do not conceive why it should not be as bad to counterfeit a Book as a Bond; and to wrong a Man in his Reputation, as great an Injury, as to cheat him of his Money: This must be the reason why Slander and Scandal are as sufficient a ground to maintain an Action in Law, as Damage and Battery: Nothing is an injury any farther than it is taken, and hurts a Man more or less, as he is sensible of it. Now, tho it may be true, that in every Age there may be more than _Nine Worthies_ who put a greater value on their Money than their Honour, yet there may be every where, and at all times, some _silly Foplings_, who do quite the contrary; and I know no reason, why they should not pretend to be safe in the Possessions they most value, as well as the others; nor why the Law should not take some care of such poor Innocents. Nor further, can I find out why a _Stationer_ should not be punisht for _Forgery_, as well as a _Notary_ or _Scrivener_ may be. Whether I am too serious or no, upon a Subject that may appear trivial at first sight, or whether such a Trifle be worth any legal Provisions against it, I am sure, _Ha Nugæ seria ducunt in Mala_; and that 'tis at least an _Edg-tool_ which ought not to be plaid with.

I could never well comprehend the true reason, why it should be such a disgrace to be a _Cuckold_, or why one Person should suffer for another's fault, how nearly soever related to him: But I can very easily apprehend the Injury of it, which is, that one Man should be out upon fathering another Man's Children, or at the best should be in danger of it; and this seems to be meant by the word, which at first was intended, that a Man was _Cuckoo'd_, that is, dealt with as _Cuckoos_ are said to do with other Birds, by laying their Eggs in their Nests, and thereby making them hatch and bring up young Ones that are none of their own, (for this is the best Etymology I can find out for a word so commonly used). Now, the same Injury may be as sensible in what concerns the Children of the Brain (as Books have been call'd) which may be as lawful and as natural Issues, and some Parents may be as fond of them, and as much concerned about them. And tho it pass for no Crime for People to expose their Children when they have no mind to own them, or think they are not able to maintain them, and they may be content any body else should father them that will; yet this is an Office no body would be forc'd upon undertaking, how little soever it may cost them, and how innocently soever it may have been intended.

I could not forbear to make this Reflection upon this Subject, if it were for nothing else but to make good my Profession in the Title-page, of being _A Lover of Truth_.

* * * * *

_FINIS._

Transcriber's notes

Page 11 "forgets himself again, and says." Possible error for "forgets himself again, and says,". No change made.

Page 20 "(in _Memoirs p._)" page number is missing in the original.

Page 25 "Never to enter again into Publick Employments" changed from "Pulick".

Page 29 "whenever they read them," comma added.

Page 36 "Hans-en Kelder" is unclear in the original image. The phrase means "Jack in the Box" or "Child in the womb" (Nathan Bailey's Canting Dictionary, 1736).

Page 38 "help it off" is unclear in the original image.