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.