REFLECTIONS

ON

Dr. Swift’s

LETTER

TO THE

Earl of OXFORD,

ABOUT THE

Engliſh Tongue.

LONDON:

Sold by A. Baldwin at the Oxford Arms in
Warwick-Lane.   (Price Six Pence.)

THE

PREFACE

REFLECTIONS

ON

Dr. Swift’s Letter,

ABOUT

Refining the English Tongue.

I Should be guilty of the greatest Folly in the World, if I should go about to give a Character of Persons of whom I have no manner of Knowledge. To speak well or ill of ’em wou’d be equally Ridiculous and Dangerous: For it must be all Invention, and I might then abuse a Man both in my Praise and Dispraise. It is thus with me with Respect to the Author of the Letter lately publish’d about our Language, and to his Patron. I know neither of them, and if I say a Word more than themselves, or the World have said of them, I must have recourse to Fiction, which I cannot think of without abhorrence, where Reputation is concern’d.

That good old Church Martyr the Earl of Strafford was of Opinion, Common Fame was enough to hang a Man, as in the Case of the Duke of Buckingham, when he was impeach’d by the Commons for Male Practices in his Ministry; and there were no better Grounds for accusing him, than that every Body said so. I am quite of another Mind, and let the World say what they will of any one, I am for condemning no body but whom the Law Condemns, and therefore in these Reflections I shall not consider so much how to please the Spleen of one Party, as how to expose the Arrogance of another, who would lord it over us in every Thing, and not only force their Principles upon us, but their Language, wherein they endeavour to ape their good Friends the French, who for these three or fourscore Years have been attempting to make their Tongue as Imperious as their Power.

This most Ingenious Writer has so great a Value for his own Judgment in Matters of Stile, that he has put his Name to his Letter, and a Name greater than his own, as if he meant to Bully us into his Methods for pinning down our Language and making it as Criminal to admit Foreign Words as Foreign Trades, tho’ our Tongue may be enrich’d by the one, as much as our Traffick by the other. Page 28. He would have it corrected, enlarg’d and ascertain’d and who must do it? He tells you with great Modesty and Discernment in the 27th Page, The Choice of Hands should be left to him, and he would then assign it over to the Women, because they are softer mouth’d, and are more for Liquids than the Men, as he try’d himself in a very notable Experiment. I wonder a grave, serious Divine, who is so well vers’d in College Learning, should in Compliment to a certain Lady, whose Breeding and Conversation must have given her wonderful Opportunities to refine our Tongue, imagine, that the Two Universities would give up so Essential a Branch of their Privileges to the Ladies, and take from them the Standard of English. This puts me in mind of Fontenelle’s way of Learning a Language, which he recommends to be by having an Intrigue with some Fair Foreigner; and beginning with the Verb I Love, You Love, &c. It is well enough from Him, a Papist, or Layman, but for a Protestant Divine to erect an Academy of Women to improve our Stile, is very extraordinary and gallant, and little agrees with the cruel Quotation of the Author of the Tale of a Tub, p. 163.

That Excellent Moralist has not been pleas’d to discover himself, nor to Print his Name, but has set his Mark to his Works, which he has Embellish’d with new Flowers of Rhetorick, that shew what a Genius he has for refining Language, and how happily one may use the Figures of Cursing, Swearing, and Bawdy, which before were entirely exploded. Tho’ we cannot well suppose the Writer of that Merry Tale is any way related to the Author of the Letter, yet out of my great Zeal to promote his Project of polishing Us, I must refer to some shining Passages in that incomparable Treatise, and let the World judge if any Man can be more fit to Preside in a Society for refining the English Tongue.

Tale of a Tub. p. 109 Z---nds where’s the wonder of that? By G---- I saw a large House of Lime and Stone travel over Sea and Land. By G--- Gentlemen, I tell you nothing but Truth, and the Devil broil them eternally that will not believe me. If there is any Thing like this in our Language from the lewdest of our Stage-Writers, I give them over to Mr Collier and the Reformers to do with them what they please. Yet I am inform’d these Florid Strokes came from the Pen of a Reverend Doctor, who has sollicited lately for a Deanery, and sets up mightily for a Refiner of our Tongue, which he would adorn with some more such graces of Speech; as, Preface, p. 21. Lord, what a Filthy Croud is here; Bless me! what Devil has rak’d this Rabble together; Z---nds, what squeezing is this! A Plague confound you for an overgrown Sloven? Who in the Devil’s Name, I wonder, helps to make up the Crowd half so much as your self? Don’t you consider with a Pox, that you take up more room with that Carcass than any Five here? Bring your own Guts to a reasonable Compass, and be d—d. I tremble while I repeat such Stuff, which I defy any Man to match in any Language, Dead or Living, Pagan or Christian; and yet this is the Eloquence, as is pretended, of a sound Orthodox Divine; one of the Champions of our Church, and the design’d Chairman of a new Academy to reform and improve our Stile. I shall only add here another Flower in p. 101. If you fail hereof G—— damn you and yours to all Eternity, says the same Reverend Author, whose Works on some other Occasion I shall examine, as to their Divinity, Piety, and other Merit, that the World may see on what Foot that Author has establish’d his Fame, and how judiciously a Man of his Cloth made himself first known to the World. Whether the late Examiner, the Miscellanies in Prose and Verse publish’d by Morphew, and some more such Political and Pious Productions, did not come from the same Hand, I shall not determine. They are generally said to be written by the same Person, and how nearly related that Person is to our Letter Writer, is as well known as that he is a Doctor of Divinity, and hopes to make his Fortune by Preferments in that Church of which he is so bright an Ornament, as appears by what has been already quoted; by which one may perceive, how well qualify’d he is to form Schemes, for the refining of our Tongue, and the Advancement of Religion; of both which he has written. The latter does not come under Consideration so naturally in this Discourse as it will in another, and therefore it shall be deferr’d till such an Opportunity offers. Perhaps Our Elegant Writer will pretend to justify these Innovations in our Speech, for which the best Critick upon him would be my Lord Chief Justice, by the Example of our Modern Poets, and the Oaths and Curies of the Stage, where I never heard any thing so very Lewd, in Defyance of our Religion, Laws, and whatever is held Sacred by Christians, and Protestants. If he had a hand in the Conduct of the Allies, the Remarks, and other such Factious Papers, as is reported, and he never once thought fit to disown, being more Proud of the Honour done him in it, than asham’d of the Falshood and Scandal of those Libels, it is no strange Matter that a Man of such a Conscience should do or write any Thing; Cursing and Swearing being not so bad as the Robberies that Libeller has committed on the good Name of the best and greatest Men of this Age and Nation.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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 AFor to’s, and the Until’s in that generalA 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)B 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.

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.

Which may very well be introduc’d as often as one has occasion to speak of the late Examiner, or any one that belongs to him. Let this Learned Doctor and his new Academy do their utmost to furnish our Language with what the French call Chevilles, with his Thoroughs, Althoughs, and the whole Army of antiquated Words before-mention’d; I can’t imagine Mr. Dryden’s Poetry will be in any Danger of becoming unintelligible, tho’ he has us’d Abreviations as much as any Polite Writer; and will preserve that Character when the Doctor’s is forgotten, unless we should return to our Original Barbarity, as he says we incline to do. He complains the Refinement of our Language has hitherto been trusted to illiterate Court Fops, Half-witted Poets, and University Boys. He would have a thin Society, if he should exclude all such from his own Academy: And if the Choice be in himself, as he seems to insinuate, I believe the Reformation of our Language would have just as much success as the Reformation of our Manners, which, ’tis said, none have more corrupted than the very Reformers. He gives us his Word, That the Style of some great Ministers very much exceed that of any other Productions. Where I wonder are the Instances of this Excellence? In Speeches in Parliament, for themselves or others, or what Works of theirs has been communicated to him, that he should know more than all Mankind? One would think he was their Master by what he says, in the next Page, What I have most at Heart, is some Method for ascertaining and fixing our Language for ever. Now you must know, that this Reverend Author, who is so concern’d for the Fixing our Language, has himself a Style of a very deficient Character; in which the Reader will perceive how much we shou’d be improv’d, by having his manner ascertained and fixed; for doubtless he thinks his own the best, and his Friends know no better than to be of his Mind. He would be more comprehensive, says an Author of Note, if he would alter and correct his Style, which is too loose and diffus’d in all Conscience. So that when I read him sometimes for a good while together, tho’ I go on very evenly and smoothly, I find it difficult to recollect what I have been doing, and whether I have been reading or sleeping. My present Advice to him therefore is, that he would study Tacitus, and such other Politicians as say much in few Words: And if he obstinately persists in the same Childish fondness for his Style, I shall be obliged to shew in how small a Compass the whole Substance of what he says, may be contained. All this vile Drudgery will I submit to for his sake, &c. But so little likelihood there is of his mending his Style by reading Tacitus, that he defies him and charges him with the Corruption of the Roman Tongue, by saying that in Two or Three Words, about which such a Genius as he is might have employ’d Twenty or Thirty. This Brevity he calls Affectation, and assures us, it brought Barbarisms into the Latin Tongue, even before the Goths invaded Italy. However he exposes his own Ignorance, he should have been careful not to have discover’d his Friends: Does the Translation of the Bible teach us to understand Fairfax? Are that and the Common-Prayer the Standard of Language? Yet he affirms, that without them one cou’d not understand any thing written a hundred Years ago. Whereas the Jerusalem of Fairfax is older than that, and whoever reads it will find the Language as new as any can be expected from the New Academy these Fifty Years. For our Tongue is not so variable in the best Authors as the Doctor represents it, and the difference between the present English and the English a Hundred Years ago, is not so great as between the Old and Modern French in that Term. Of all the Parts of Learning, that is surely the least ally’d to Politeness that deals in Old Musty Manuscripts, and affects a Knowledge in Tongues which have not one Polite Book to recommend them. How such a Quality can be serviceable to the Advancement of Wit and Eloquence, I cannot conceive; but there are some Characters in the World, that encroach upon all others, and some Men that for their Interest will say any thing that comes uppermost, either for or against another. The Knowledge of Tongues is certainly very useful; but if a Person knows a great many Ancient and Modern, and can hardly speak intelligibly in his own, He shou’d be no Orator for me. I would no more value his Learning than Sir Hudibras’s, of which the Doctor puts me in mind more than once by his Compliments, especially of this Passage in the first Canto.

The rest of Sir Hudibras’s Merit in Letters is of a Piece, and set off with a Puritanical Air, that renders the whole truly Ridiculous, and makes a good Comment on several Pages of the Doctor’s Epistle, which is most valuable for the great Judgment and Sincerity that he has shewn in it.

It has already been observ’d, that Horace asserts Osse to be the only Rule of Language; and the Letter-Writer repeats what he says, of Words going off and perishing like Leaves, and new ones coming in their Places,C which he tells us did not approve of Horace, notwithstanding his own Law of paying Obedience to usage. For if that were necessary, what, according to our Author, would become of his Monumentum Ære perennius? Did not the Roman Tongue even by his own confession, change as much as ours has done. The Latin Three Hundred Years before Tully was as unintelligible in his Time as the English and French of the same Period are now. And the Corruptions afterwards by the Barbarians made it as different from Cicero’s as Ennius’s; yet amidst all those variations, Horace’s Works are still Monumentum ære perennius. When a Tongue is come to any degree of Perfection, whoever writes well in it will Live; there’s a Thirst after Wit in all Ages, and those that have a Taste of it will distinguish the Thought from the Diction.  Chaucer will, no doubt, be admir’d as long as the English Tongue has a Being; and the Changes that have happen’d to our Language have not hinder’d his Works out living their Contemporary Monuments of Brass or Marble.

The Doctor may as well set up a Society to find out the Grand Elixir, the Perpetual Motion, the Longitude, and other such Discoveries, as to fix our Language beyond their own Times. The Test of their Successors will vary with the Age, and their Rules grow obsolete as well as their Words. He would make us believe, that the French Academy have not been able to preserve their Language from Decay, and who are the Men in Britain who pretend to greater Genius for Eloquence than the most Polite of the Politest Nation in Europe. Mr. Waller Elegantly complains of the Change which necessarily happens to Stile, and does it however in Language which shews, that the Doctor need not be afraid of People’s forgetting his Patron a Hundred Years hence, if he can write as good English upon him now, as Mr. Waller did on this Subject Threescore Years ago.

Our Author sees no necessity of this Changing our Language. What has been the Fate of all Tongues Ancient and Modern, and for the same Reasons will Eternally be so, he wou’d defend ours from, because the Chinese have Books in their Tongue above 2000 Years Old; And a History of 30000 Years Period with a Succession of Kings, 20000 Years before Adam. It wou’d be a Discovery worthy those Men who have lately been reconciling Contradictions, and building Arguments upon Nonsence, to find out that certain Standard for our Tongue, to which, if it were refin’d, he assures us, it might be fixt for Ever. This wou’d be doing what was never done before, what neither Roman nor Greek, which lasted the longest of any in its Purity, could pretend to. And this would not be the only strange thing that has lately happen’d to us, which never happen’d to a Nation before. It will be in vain to pretend to ascertain Language, unless they had the Secret of setting Rules for Thinking, and could bring Thought to a Standard too. For every Age, as well as every Nation, has its different manner of Thinking, of which the Expression and Words will always have a Relish, and be Barbarous or Polite, according as the Times take their Turn. If from the abundance of good Sense which appears lately in every thing we do, The Doctor can demonstrate, that we never were in a better way towards the Perfection of Thought and Language, let him set about his Academy as soon as he pleases. But if the contrary is apparent, it may not be improper to wait for some more propitious Opportunity. Besides, there will in all times be irregular Genius’s, who out of Humour will prefer Affectation to Nature, and mistake Novelty for Beauty. Boileau in his Reflections upon Longinus, has several Observations of this kind, which will shew the difference between true and false Judgment, by comparing what he writes with several Passages in the Doctor’s Letter; he is speaking of the Famous Ronsard and his Imitators, Du-Bellai, Du Bartas, Desportes, and other French Poets in the Reigns of Henry III. and IV. who were in great Fame for a long while, and when he wrote, sunk into the last Contempt. The same among the Romans, says he, was the Fate of Nævius, Livius, and Ennius,

who in Horace’s time had a great many Admirers as that Poet informs us, but at last they were entirely decry’d. And it must not be imagin’d that the Fall of these Authors, as well French as Latin, was owing to the Change of their Languages. The true Reason was, they did not know how to hit the Point of Solidity and Perfection in those Languages, which is necessary to make a Work last, and set a Value upon it for ever. In effect, the Latin Tongue, as it was written by Cicero and Virgil, was very much chang’d in Quintilian’s Time, and still more in the Time of Aulus Gellus. However Cicero and Virgil were then more esteem’d than even in their own Time, because they attain’d the height of Perfection, of which I have spoken. It is not therefore on account of the antiquated Words and Expressions in Ronsard, that Ronsard has lost the Reputation he once had, but because the Beauties which were thought to be in him, appear’d all at once to be no Beauties at all.

Thus we see, that in order to bring us to the degree of Perfection with which the Doctor flatters us by means of his new Academy, they must teach us first to think justly, to distinguish false Beauty from true, and glaring from Brightness, to banish those that write by Humour, and receive only such as aim at Solidity in their Writings. How the Celebrated Tale of a Tub will come off then with the best Judges, I can easily guess, that excellent Treatise being much of the same nature as Rabelais, of whom La Bruyere says, Rabelais is incomprehensible: His Book is an inexplicable Enigma, a meer Chimera; It has a Woman’s Face, with the Feet and Tail of a Serpent, or some Beast more deform’d. ’Tis a Monstrous Collection of Political and Ingenious Morality, with a Mixture of Beastliness; where ’tis bad ’tis abominable, and fit for the Diversion of the Rabble, and where ’tis good ’tis exquisite, and may entertain the most delicate.

People very often apply those Faults to the Expression and Words which are originally in the thought. The Merit of such as write by Humour, Changes with the Mode, and their Language savouring of their Sentiments, must of course grow out of Fashion. Ronsard the French Poet was so far from writing ill French, that Pasquier thought the French Tongue in its Perfection in his Writings and yet upon the Appearance of Malherb and Bacan, he was no more read nor talk’d of; Whereas there were Authors before him, whose Writings are now in general Esteem, as Marot and St. Galais, for the kind of Poetry in which they excell’d, and their Stile is imitated for its Simplicity, by which la Fountain acquir’d his Fame.

Instances of this kind may be given in our own Tongue, which has improv’d in Refinement as much as the French. Our Shakespear shone on the Stage, with all the Qualities of a Dramatick Poet, and Diction in particular, when the French Stage was Barbarous. His Style has its Beauties now, and is newer than many who have since Writ, and for a while with Reputation.

Among all the various ways in which we of late have endeavour’d to endear our selves to the French, and make ’em forgive us for beating them so, nothing certainly will oblige ’em more than our affecting to imitate them in our Political Style. Of this Nature is that Novelty the Reverend Author has introduc’d into our Language, where the Term Prime Minister has no more a Place than Will and Pleasure. Pray who among the many Ministers Her Majesty is so happily serv’d by, does she Honour with that Name, and how comes it that Prime does not go with Precedence? What Law of ours Impowers any body to order our Language to be Inspected, and who is there that wou’d think himself oblig’d to obey him in it? Is there no difference between the Ministers of a Despotick Monarchy, and the Servants of a limited one, who have no Rule but the Law, and are as accountable to it as the vilest of their Flatterers. We see how our Tongue would be improv’d and enlarg’d, had the Doctor and his Brethren the ordering of it. He has already impos’d on us the Court Style of France, and their Politicks wou’d soon come after it. He pastes a particular Compliment on our Tongue and his Patron, that they have not Merit enough to subsist a Hundred Years without mending. As bad as our English is, I’ll engage it will subsist in the History of another great Man of this Nation, as long as the Names of Edward the III. or Henry V. shall be remembred in Britain. There being some Characters so illustrious that without the Ornaments of Stile or the Beauties of Wit, they Shine in their Native Dress, and make every thing look Glorious about them. Others there are which require all the Advantages of Language and Invention, and darken every Thing that comes near them. The best of it is, the Contempt with which he treats the English Tongue, is not like to do it any harm, for whatever becomes of any ones History a Hundred Years hence, the Doctor’s will certainly be of much shorter Date, unless his Censurers should preserve the Memory of him, or he thinks fit to own at last some other of his Productions, when ’tis probable Fortune has done her best or her worst for him.

I have several very good Reasons why, if I were to be of this Academy, I would banish the word Dozen out of our Dictionary, and the Doctor has no doubt his to be fond of it, and fixing it there for ever. The French King says he has given about half a dozen Pensions to Learned Men in several Parts of Europe, and perhaps a dozen in his own Kingdom; which, he said, purely out of Affection to the Word Dozen, because he knew full well the French King bestows Pensions on a Hundred Men in several Parts of Europe; and on a Thousand in his own Kingdom, who excel in Arts and Literature, which, including the whole, do not amount to half the Income of many a Private Commoner in England. Whereas I will engage to name Him a Hundred Pensions in France that have been given to Men of Letters, every one of which shall amount to more than half the Income of a dozen Lords, let me have the naming of them too. The History of his Reign, which has been so long Writing, has cost him near threescore Thousand Pounds Sterling. Boileau himself, after he had liv’d a Life of Affluence and Pleasure, keeping a Country-House and City-House, dy’d worth above Five or Six Thousand Pounds, which he had wholly from the King. Not to mention the Rewards Racine, Valincourt, and other Poets and Historians had, who were imployed about his History; Nor those to all Academies of Sciences founded by him, and the great Pensions he allow’d the Professors. The prodigious Expences he has been at in Printing only at the Louvre, would perhaps amount to a Sum equal to the whole Income of several Dozens that might be thought of above the Rank of Commoners.

The last Pages of the Doctor’s Book are incomparable, full of most delicate Eulogy in the World, which I cannot read without calling to mind that Verse of Despreaux to Monsieur Seignelai.

Tout Eloge imposteur blesse une ame sincere.

To paint a Mecænas like a Mars, and confound Men’s Qualities, is a Stale Practice of sorded Flatterers, which Men of Merit reject with Disdain.

A great Soul scorns to usurp another’s worth, and is always content with its own.

The Doctor seems to have an Opinion, that every body loves Flattery as well as himself, and will take any Thing kindly that is said in their Favour. A little more Sincerity would not be amiss in the Composition of a Clergy-man and if this is the way to get the Medal he talks of, it will be dearly purchas’d.

I shall be heartily glad to see some of those Productions from Men above Money, that shall deserve the Laurel he has prepar’d for them. People, I doubt not, will crowd to get their Scriptions in, as they do to get Money into the Lottery; but certainly, the Society will take care of themselves, and if there’s any thing to be got have the Forestalling of the Market. The Design itself is useful, and cannot meet with too much Encouragement, Her Majesty, always willing to promote the Good of our Country, will, it is hop’d, hearken to it in due time; but if it be defer’d till Peace there will be no great Harm in it, tho’ he is pleas’d to rally one of the late M————rs, as much above his Satyr as his Panagyrick, for being so silly as to prefer Necessity to Convenience.

The want of a Grammar and Dictionary has been long complain’d of; and we cannot expect our Tongue will ever spread abroad, unless Foreigners are put into a more regular Method of learning it. To distribute Rewards to Merit, is the Duty of a good Ministry, and nothing contributes more to the Glory of a Country than Works of Eloquence and Wit; but he has assum’d a Post that will not be allow’d him. He has set himself in the Director’s Chair of an English Academy; before he has past Examination whether he is fit for a Place at the Board; Members are nam’d that have no Right to such Honour, unless it is a Privilege that is Inseperable from their Posts and Peerage; and he has given us Assurance of fine Pieces of Wit and Eloquence from a Quarter it never yet came.

Projectors, like Quacks, promise Wonders but ’tis always the Labour of the Mountain————I might enlarge on this Head if I had not run my Reflections too far already. I shall therefore conclude with a Discription of one of those Quacks and Pretenders, as I find it in the Speech of the famous Alexander Bendo, who, as much a Quack as he was, understood our Tongue and our Constitution as well as the Doctor and his Master.

Reflect a little, says he, what a kind of Creature a Quack is. Mind what follows. He is one who is fain to supply some higher Ability he pretends to with Craft. He draws great Companies to him by undertaking strange Things which can never be effected. The rest is so valuable, that tho I digress’d in it Ten times more than I do, I would present the Doctor with it, and leave it to his serious Consideration.

The Politician by his Example, no doubt, finding how the People are taken with specious, miraculous Impossibilities, plays the same Game, protests, declares, promises, I know not what things, which he is sure can ne’er be brought about. The People believe, are deluded, and pleased; the Expectation of a future Good, which shall never befal them, draws their Eyes off of a present Evil. Thus they are kept and establish’d in Subjection, Peace and Obedience, and he in Greatness, Wealth, and Power: So you see the Politician is, and must be a Quack in State Affairs and the Quack (no doubt if he thrives) is an Errant Politician in Physick.

FINIS.