The Paffage of my Lord Bacon's before cited, gave Occafion to Monfieur Perrault, to bring in that noble Author for an Evidence on his Side against the Antients: But Boileau vindicates him in this Point; and Father Bouhours, as another Inftance of his excellent Judgement, declares he prefers the Lord Chancellor Bacon before the most celebrated Names of Antiquity. Rapin calls him the greatest Genius of England, and he has not more Glory from his own Countrymen than, from the learned Men in France. I expect no Quarter from the Dealers in monaftick Learning, in Heraldry, and Genealogy, who generally doat upon them even to Frenzy. Du Val in his Geography informs us, that there is a Nation in America, bordering on the River of the Amazons, where old Women go off better than young; under a Notion, that the Knowledge of the One is preferable to the Vigour and Beauty of the Other. Thus thefe Men please themselves more with the Drynefs and Gravity of Antiquity, than with a beautiful Imagination, and the Charms of Eloquence. I believe their Opinion will not have many Followers, nor their Example be much imitated. However, when fuch an Antiquary as the great Selden appears in the World, the Inftruction it will receive from him, more than makes amends for the Labour and Time which o thers lofe in hunting after worthlefs Manufcripts, forg'd Charters, and monkifh Fables. The learned and polite Dr. Bathurst of Oxford, wrote an admirable Poem on the Death of Selden: So fell the facred Sibyl, when of Old Infpir'd with more than mortal Breaft could hold Whether to call it Death or Extafy: She filent lies, and now the Nations find Selden etant fans Contredit le plus defte des Anglois moderns. "Tis faid by a Frenchman and a Papift; but as much as Selden was an Oracle, and a Glory to our Country, Archbishop Laud and his Brethren would have thrust his learned Head into a Pillory, if they could have come at him. I don't know whether it was for his Hiftory of Tythes or not; but that would have been hard after he Ꮐ had had been fo fully answer'd by Doctors of both Univerfities; who, however, were not, Les plus Dcctes des Anglois moderns. Judicious Antiquaries ever were, and ever will be in Efteem. Those that meddle with Things folid and ufeful. None of the Pretenders to this Sort of Knowledge, are more despicable than fuch as deal in old Terms and Phrafes, who generally affect a Contempt for thofe that are in prefent Ufe as weak and effeminate. The Emperor Auguftus could not bear thefe Men, any more than Punfter's whom he heartily defpis'd. The Spectator, N° 470. has with much Pleafantry animadverted on thofe Criticks in Readings, and has brought in the Cotton Library, Aldus, Scaliger, Scioppius, Salmafius, the elder Stephens, and a Heap of old Manufcripts, to clear up the Difficulties in certain Lyrick Verfes, about a Shape, an Eye, Wit, Charms, Corinna and Belvedera. As fcrupulous and as curious as thefe Antiquaries would be thought to be, one might fill Volumes with Examples of the most notorious Miftakes and Blunders in the Writings of the most learned among them; which are not taken notice of to leffen the Credit they have worthily acquir'd, but to fhew the Infirmity of humane Nature, which will always be attended with Errours, and never arrive at Perfection as we have elsewhere obferv'd after Horace: Non ego Paucis, &c. But in fuch Authors, what is good more than atones for what is not fo, and 'tis only where a Writer fhews a Defect in Will as well as Judgement, that he renders himself blame-worthy, efpecially in Hiftory. Several of thefe Blunders are collected by Marville in his Melange, &c. 'Tis remark'd of Pliny, that in tranflating Democritus, he fays, the Camelion is like a Crocodile, and altogether as big-- The Crocodalos of Democritus is in the Fenick Dialect, a Lizard, which may be about fome ten thousand Times lefs than a Crocodile, and yet a great many Times bigger than a Camelion. Eutychius fpeaking of Eufebius of Cefarea, firnamed Pamphilus, calls him Eufebius, Bishop of the City of Phili. Quintus Curtius miftakes Arabia Felix for Arabia Deferta. He confounds the Euxine with the Caspian Sea, and makes the the Rivers Tygris and Euphrates run through Media, which they never enter'd. Mr. Simon, in his critical History, takes Suna and Fratela, two Officers of the Gothick Army, for two German Ladies. The Life of Charlemagne, written by Acciaioli, having been often joyn'd with Piutarch's Lives, was published by Vicellius as written by Plutarch, who liv'd 6 or 700 Years before Charlemagne. Gerard Voffius affirms, that the Society of the Sorbonne was inftituted by Robert, Brother of S. Lewis King of France, inftead of Robert firnamed Sorbonne from the Place of his Nativity. Pallavicini in his Hiftory of the Council of Trent, fays Lanfac, the French Ambaffador, was Knight of the Order of the Holy Ghoft, which was not instituted till twenty Years after; but what has particular Relation to us Englishmen is the Charge against Dodwel: Ledowel dans fes Differtations fur Saint Cyprien prend la Ville d' Olympe pour une Olympiade, takes the City Olympus for an Olympiade, the Name of the Place where, for the Date of the Year when it was done, which is Matter of much Humiliation to all fuch as believe it impoffible for fo learned and orthodox a Man to commit fo great an Overfight; and plainly proves to us, that thofe who write of what paft 1000 or 2000 Years ago, are as likely to err, as thofe who write of what paft three or fourfcore Years ago. Whoever has a Curiofity to fee more of the Blunderings, which the moft learned are charg'd with, futh as the Port Royal, Baronius, Vafquez, Du Cange, Varillas, L'Abbé, &c. may have full Satisfaction in Marville's Melange, p. 208. & feq. taken from a Book written by Baileau's Uncle, entituled, Colloquium Criticum de Sphalmatis virorum in re literaria illuftrium. Of what Size would the Book be, if we fhould examine with the fame Exactness, Nalfon, Heylin, Wharton, Collier, Dugdale, Brady, the Grand Rebellion, the Hiftories, &c. And collect and publifh the Errours, both of the Will and the Judgement. Nor are thefe Names by any Means more illuftrious, than thofe we meet with in the Clloquium. The Tranflator of Homer has an Excufe for Mr. Dryden, which is much more generous than juft: He fays, His Hafte in Writing ought not to be imputed to him as a Fault, but to those who fuffer'd fo noble a Genius to lie under the Neceffity of it. Mr. Dryden's Genius did not G 2 appear し appear in any Thing more than his Verfification; and whether the Criticks will have it ennobled for that Verfification only, is a Question. The Tranflator feems to make a good Genius and a good Ear to be the fame Thing. Dryden himself was more fenfible of the Difference between them, and when it was in Debate at Will's Coffee-houfe, what Character he would have with Pofterity; he faid, with a fullen Modefty, I believe they will allow me to be a good Verfifier. If we will believe Mr. Dryden, he did not lie under the Neceffity of Hafte: In feveral of his Dedications and Prefaces, he has declared, He never wanted. When he renounced his Allegiance to King William, and difqualified himself for keeping the Laureat's Place with that of Hiftoriographer, he had a Penfion from the then Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Dorfet, which was an Inftance of Generofity that is rarely to be met with in the Hiftory of Lewis XIV, who paid more to Poets and Hiftorians than all the Princes of Europe. His Bounty has been extoll'd, even by those whom his Bigotry had banifh'd, yet he feldom let it extend to any of the Reformed Religion, let their Merit be ever fo great. Mademoiselle le Fevre, afterwards Madam Dacier, dedicated a Book to that Prince, and the Duke de Montaufier introduc'd her at Court; but the King would not accept of the Book, nor admit that his Name fhould be put before the Epiftle. The Duke, whofe Character had fome Bluntness in it, faid, Sir, Is this the Way to encourage Learning: The Lady deferves well of your Majesty and the Publick, and if you will not reward her your felf, fuffer me to give her 100 Piftoles, I matter not whether I am paid again: or Words to that Effect. This Learned Lady was far from being an Enemy to the Government as Dryden was, and he did not ftick to fhew it upon all Occafions, even when he was penfion'd by my Lord Chamberlain. The Truth is, he was like fond Fathers who can fee no Faults in their Children; and as to his hafty Writing, tis pretty well known that as eafy as his Verfes appear to be, he came hard by them: He thought it a good Day's Work if he could finifh 40 Verfes a Day; and fome learned Antiquaries, I fuppofe from a MSS. of Virgil's Amanuenfis, affure us, that Maro wrote as many, and drawing them off the Lee afterwards, in his Poetical Limbeck, reduced reduced them to Ten. Godeau, Bishop of Vence, us'd to write 2 or 300 Verfes a-day. I my felf paid a Vifit once to a Verfe-maker in an Afternoon, and faw 200 political Verfes on his Table, which he told me he had written fince Dinner: By this Dispatch he foon furnifh'd out a Folio. Dryden was fo far from fpying Blemishes in his Works, that he often took them for Beauties, and particularly what the Italians call Concetti. This noted Rant in the Cong. Gran. I, alone am King of Me. is happily imitated by him in his State of Innocence : I my felf am proud of Me. But to criticise on Dryden's Prefaces and Plays is a much greater Labour than to copy them all over, and equally ungenerous and impertinent: If any one will compare his Fall of Man with Milton's Paradife loft, he will quickly perceive to which of them it is that the noble Genius is to be apply'd; and if it belongs to Milton, some other Epithet fhould be thought of for Dryden. I have already obferv'd, that I did not intend to form a regular Difcourfe, and I think I have kept pretty well to my Intention: If the Reader miffes any Thing of Inftruction by it, he will find it made up in Entertainment. The Variety will excufe the Want of Method in Subject not fo capable of it as where the Matter is certain and well known. I wish I were able to give Examples of all Father Bouhour's feveral Kinds of Thoughts out of English Authors, but Examples are much nicer Work than Precepts. Every one may agree that a Thing ought to be fo done, but few that it is fo done. Men's Idea's of the fame Things, vary in the Reflection as much as their Views do in Profpect, according to the Light they appear in. Dr. Felton makes a Trifle of it in one Part of his Preface, and an infuperable Difficulty in another. I might, at once, with the Trouble only of Tranfcribing, have adorn'd the Work, and diverted the Reader. Contrary to this, he fays, If any Body is pleas'd to try, he will hardly find it practicable to illuftrate these Rules by Examples. The Quotations, which he had be G 3 fore |