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.)
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PREFACE
THE Bold Manner of publishing the
Letter for correcting, improving, and ascertaining
the English Tongue, made me conclude there was something
very extraordinary in it, and more than any one could expect from
Persons that were never thought to trouble themselves much about
Fine Language. But upon dipping into it, I found there was
nothing worthy the Character the Author acquir’d by other Ingenious
Pieces in our Tongue, tho’ I confess, it was not so much for the Beauty
of his Style as for other Qualities, some of which a Divine need not
brag of.
’Tis probable, our late Correspondence with France put such
a Whim into some Folks Heads, and because they have an Academy
for the same Use at Paris, we forsooth must have one at
London. The Foreign News, which sometimes tells us more Truth
of our doings here than our own, has the very Names of the Members of
the Academy which the Doctor speaks of. I do not find that
it is come to any thing more yet than meeting over a Bottle once a Week,
and being Merry. At which Times People
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mind talking much, more than talking well. I shou’d have taken what
is printed in the Amsterdam Gazette to have been only a dull
Dutch Jest upon those Men, if this Letter had not been
written, and some broad Hints given, that we are to be happier than we
thought
of, and to be surpriz’d with a Society that shall make us as Polite as
that of Reformation has made us Godly; and I wish it
may answer the Ends of it with all my Heart. But the more I reflected
upon this Project and the Projectors, the more I was
diffident of it, for the Reasons mention’d in the following Pages.
I know very well the Epistle has but a sorry Reputation, even with
the Writer’s own Party, that it is looked upon as a silly
superficial Performance, and to be design’d only for an Opportunity to
shew what a Nack he has at Panegyrick. Be that as it
will, after I had consider’d the Subject he writes more leisurely than I
was won’t to do, I was loth to lose those Considerations; and
having put ’em into this Form, I flatter’d my self the Publick
would not receive them ill; at least all those whom Faction and
Prejudice have not render’d Insensible of Truth and Reason, and to such,
a Man must be well set to work that writes a Task suitable to the
Integrity and Ability of Abel and his Brethren, among whom I am
very unwilling to reckon our Author.
1
B
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
2
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
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B2
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.
Cunnus Teterrimi Belli
Causa
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
4
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
5
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
6
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
7
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
8
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
9
C
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
10
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
11
C2
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.
12
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
13
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
14
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.
15
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.
16
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
17
D
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
18
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
19
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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.
20
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.
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
21
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
22
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
23
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.
We grant, altho’ he had much Wit,
He was very shy of using it,
As being loth to wear it out.
And therefore bore it not about,
Unless on Holydays or so,
As Men their best Apparel do.
Besides, ’tis known he could speak Greek
As naturally as Pigs squeak.:
That Latin was no more difficile
Than to a Blackbird ’tis to whistle;
Being rich in both he never scanted
His Bounty unto such as wanted;
But much of either wou’d afford,
To many that had not one Word:
For Hebrew Roots altho they’re found
To flourish but in barren Ground,
24
He had such Plenty as suffic’d
To make some think him circumcis’d.
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.
25
[E]
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.
But who can hope his Lines should long
Last, in a daily changing Tongue,
While they are new, Envy prevails,
And as that dies, our Language fails.
26
When Architects have done their Part,
The Matter may betray their Art,
Time, if we use ill Chosen Stone,
Soon brings a well-built Palace down.
Poets that Lasting Marble seek,
Must carve in Latin or in Greek,
We write in Sand, our Language grows,
And like our Tide, Ours overflows.
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
27
[E2]
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,
28
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,
29
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.
30
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
31
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
32
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.
33
F
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.
Un Cœur Noble est content de ce qu’il trouve en lui.
Et ne Supplaudit point de Qualitez d’autrui.
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,
34
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
35
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.
1
A2
THE
British Academy, &c.
SUCH is our Case at present, that
if we have a Mind to be agreeably entertain’d with the State of our own
Affairs, we must look into Foreign Papers, rather than into those that
are publish’d here by Authority; and therefore I often read the
Dutch Prints with the same Eagerness and Pleasure, as the
French at Paris read the Post Boy. If we have no
good News for Our selves here, we may sometimes find some from
Holland; and what is good, is so rare, that I had rather have it
from any Place, than not at all. I was so delighted with the
following Paragraph in the Amsterdam Gazette of the 20th of
May 1712. N.S. that I cou’d not help transcribing, and
turning it into English, that such Comfortable Tidings to Men
of Obscure Merit, might be convey’d all over the Nation. And I shall
endeavour to prove, that the Design there mention’d, is much likelier to
succeed in England, than ever it was in France.
The Words of the Dutch Gazette are as follows,D in the Article
from London.
2
Il s’est formé ici depuis peu une Societé pour recompenser &
encourager le Mérite, par report aux beaux Arts. Elle doit être
composée de 21 Membres, dont il y en a déja 19 d’Arretez savoir les Ducs de Beaufort
& d’Ormond; les Comites d’Arran & d’Orrery: les Lords Duplin,
Gendre du Grand Tresorier; Harley, Fils dudit Tresorier; Lansdowne,
Secretaire des Guerres; Masham & Bathurst: les Chevalier Windham:
Messieurs St. Jean, Secretaire d’Etat: Harcourt Fils du Garde des
Seaux; Raymond Solliciteur-General; les Colonels Hill & Desney;
Swif, Docteur en Theologie; Prior Arbuthnott, Medicin de la Reine; &
Friend, Medicin du Duc d’Ormond. Ces Messieurs, qui ont reservé de Nommer les
Deux autre, Membres lors qu’ils le jugeront à propos, s’assemblant tous les Jeudis,
& ont déja fait des gratifications à quelques Auteurs dont les
ouvrages ont été goûtez, & recommandé d’autres aux Ministres d’Etat
pour avoir quelque Etablissement.
3
A3
There has been lately form’d here a Society to Reward and Encourage
Merit, with respect to the Liberal Arts and Sciences. It is to be
composed of 21 Members, of which Number there are already 19 chosen:
That is to say, The Dukes of Beaufort and Ormond; the
Earls of Arran and Orrory; the Lords Duplin,
Son-in-Law of the Great Treasurer; Harley, Son of the said
Treasurer; Lansdown, Secretary of War; Masham and
Bathurst; Sir W. Windham; Mr. St. John, Secretary
of State; Harcourt, Son of the Lord Keeper; and Raymond,
Sollicitor-General: The Colonels Hill and Desney;
Swift, Doctor of Divinity; Prior, Arbuthnott the
Queen’s Physician; and Friend, Physician to the Duke of
Ormond. These Gentlemen who have deferr’d naming the other Two
Members till such time as they think fit, do now assemble every
Thursday, and have already given Rewards to some Authors, whose
Works have been approved of, and have recommended Others to the
Ministers of State, that they may have some Establishment.
4
This Fact being thus fairly related, the Reader is desired to
observe, That it was in the Year 1629, under the single Ministry of
Cardinal Richlieu, when a Society of such great Wits was first
form’d at Paris; which was soon after establish’d, by an Edict of
the King, with the Style and Title of the French Academy. And it
is left to be determin’d by all Judicious Readers, whether this
British Seminary of Wit and Learning is not a Copy of that
Renown’d Society in France; and whether the Design and Model of
it has not been approved of there, since our happy Correspondence with
that Ingenious Nation.
The French Society consisted only at their first Meeting, of
Seven or Eight Men of Letters, who met together to talk about their
Books and Writings: And it was some time before Monsieur Servien,
Secretary of State, and other Persons, distinguish’d by their Condition,
as well as by their Merit, were added to the Company. But here we see
the British Society, at the very first Formation of it, is
compos’d of no less than Two Dukes, not only capable of
Rewarding, but of Judging, as well as of Writing: And likewise of
5
A4
Two Earls; Five Lords; One Knight; One Secretary of State; Two Colonels
of Foot, and One Squire: Not to mention the Lawyer; the Doctors; the
Religious Priest; and the Poet. What therefore may we not expect from
the future Progress of this Society, which sets out with so much greater
Lustre, than that of its Original at Paris; so famous now all
over Europe.
The Great End and Business of the French Academy, was to
correct and refine their Language, as may be seen at large in the
History of that Academy, written by Monsieur Pelisson: And we
have already a Proposal, publish’d the 17th of May 1712, for
Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue, in
a Letter to the most Honourable Robert Earl of Oxford
and Mortimer, Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain: By
Jonathan Swift, D.D.
Louis, King of France, by Letters Patents, in the Year 1635,
having mention’d the Great Things done for the Glory and Embellishment
of France, by his dearly belov’d Cousin the Cardinal
Richlieu, His Principal Minister of State, gives that Minister
Power and Authority to call himself the Chief, and the Protector of the
French
6
Academy: And doubtless the Scheme of this British Academy is
form’d with a View no less Glorious; That the Great and Memorable
Actions of this Minister; the mighty Things perfom’d for the
Allies and the Common Cause; the vast Successes against the Enemy; and,
above all, the Restoring of Credit, and Paying the Publick Debts, may be
fairly transmitted to Posterity.
That this is the chief Design of our new Erected Society, is
plainly insinuated by the Author of the Letter before mentioned; for
which the Reader may please to see his own Words: If Things go
on, says he, at the present Rate, (that is, if our Language
be not corrected, improved, and ascertain’d,) all I can promise your
Lordship, is, That about Two hundred Years hence some painful Compiler,
who will be at the Trouble of studying old Language, may inform the
World, that in the Reign of Queen
ANNE, ROBERT Earl of OXFORD, a very Wise and Excellent Man, was made
High Treasurer, and saved his Countrey. [Mark those last
Words, pray, as you go along.] Thus much he may be able to pick out,
and willing to transfer into his New History; but the rest of your
Character which I, or any other Writer, may value our
7
selves by drawing: And the Particular Account of the great Things, done under your Ministry, for which you
are already so Celebrated in most Parts of Europe,
will probably be dropt. So far that Author: But I cannot help
differing with him in one Particular: For I am firmly of Opinion, that
altho our Language should happen not to be improved or
ascertain’d, yet the great Things done by that very
Wise and Excellent Man, will not so easily be forgotten; nor the
rest of his Character be dropt, for which he is already
so celebrated in most Parts of Europe.
Besides, as there seems to be an Exact Agreement between the intended
Protector of this Society, and that of the French Academy in its
Infancy, there can be no Doubt but the great Work will be carried on
after much the same Manner, and under the same Statutes and Regulations.
And it appears in Monsieur Pelisson’s History of the
French Academy, That every Member of it, both Present and Future,
Friend or Foe, was oblig’d in Gratitude to their Protector, to revere
his Virtue and his Memory. The British Academicians being
therefore under the same Obligation, how is it possible that their
Protector’s Vertue or Memory should ever be
forgotten?
8
And there is one considerable Advantage, which our New Academy will
have above the French. For it appears by the History just
mention’d, that after the French King had given his Consent, that
his dear Cousin should be Chief of the Academy, the Parliament could not
for a long while be brought to confirm the Patent. And Monsieur
Pelisson gives the Reasons of it. Cardinal
Richlieu, says he, having carried the Royal
Authority a great deal higher than any one had done before him; tho
belov’d by some, was envy’d by others, hated and detested by many,
fear’d and dreaded by all. His Creatures, continues he, talk’d of
this Design with excessive Encomiums. Never, said they, were the
past Ages possest of so much Eloquence as ours is like to be. We shall
out-do all that went before us, and all that shall come after. And the
greatest Share of the Glory will redound to the Academy and the
Cardinal. Others, on the contrary, treated this Design as ridiculous.
They accused the Academy as aiming to give Laws to Things not
susceptible of them, and were perpetually falling upon them with Jests
and Satyrs. Distrustful People could not tell but there might be a Snake
in the Grass; and were afraid the establishing this Society would be a
new Support of his Domination, that they were only
9
his Pensioners, maintain’d by him to justify all his Actions, and make
Observations on those of others. These were the Difficulties in
France: But our New Society need fear no such Opposition as the
Frenchmen found from their Parliament of Paris. Our
Parl——t will most
certainly be as forward to pass an Act in Favour of them and their
Protector, as they have been to do so many great Things already for him
and the Nation, and even to pass a Vote in his Praise. Besides, there is
no Body can pretend that he has ever carried the Royal Authority
higher than any one had done before him; nor can it be imagin’d that
he has a thousandth Part of the Enemies that Cardinal Richlieu
had: And I am fully persuaded, that all Things being consider’d, both at
Home and Abroad, there is not a Man in the World that envies him.
And tho he has been suspected to maintain Pensioners to justify his
own Actions, and make Observations on those of others; yet, whoever
will look carefully over the List of the Members, must needs acquit him
of that Calumny, and confess, that he who pick’d out such a Set of
Wits and Patrons, could have no such base Thoughts in his
Head.
When the French Academy had settled their Statutes, the next
Thing they did
10
was to get a Seal. And what was the Impression? Why, only their
Protectors Picture; not engrav’d like a Seneca’s Head, but drawn
at length with a modest Word on the Reverse. To Immortality.
Something like this may be very easily done here. But I am not for
putting on the Reverse, the Bill for the Protestant Succession;
tho it may be seen in the Protector’s Hand at Sir
G. Kneller’s: For that is too gross, even for a common
Picture. But what think you of his own Head on one Side and Twelve Lords
on the Reverse? Or since all other Societies have taken their
Motto’s from the Old World, suppose he fetch’d one from the New;
and clapp’d his own Face upon the Frontispiece, with this Word on the
Reverse, written in Cyphers, THE
SOUTH-SEA.
I have but one or two Objections to the Statutes in France,
which I cannot get over. One is, they must not meddle with Matters of
Religion. This might have very ill Consequences, and hinder their Top
Wit from shewing his Talents: I mean that Orthodox Divine, who it
is well known was never half so witty upon any other Subject, as upon
that of Religion. Another Law of theirs that gives me Offence, is, The
Law by which they are oblig’d
11
to judge of no-body’s Works but their own. For perhaps our Academy may
not be in a Humour to write any Thing these Hundred Years, except a
Trifle now and then, as an Examiner, a Conduct,
a John Bull, or so. All which Works are allowable, because
the French Statute says, Political Matters may be treated of
conformably to the Authority of the State.
There was one Rule more among the French Academicians, that
will never do in England which is their forbidding the Academy’s
Certificate to be printed before the Writings of the Members, and
allowing ’em only to put, Par un tel de l’Academie Francoise; As
if one should say, By such a Person of the British
Academy. This would make mad Work here: Every little
Grubstreet Scribler would presently be publishing his Trash, with
the stolen Title of My Lord such a one, or Brigadier such a one, of
the British Academy. And how should we be able to
distinguish the Right from the Wrong, unless their License be printed
before in Form, like a Privilege Royal, To our Trusty and
Well-beloved Abel Roper, of London,
Bookseller.
Having just mention’d Abel, it puts me in Mind of a certain
Officer belonging to the French Academy, call’d
12
a Library-Keeper. This was given to one Camusat, the most Eminent
Bookseller then in Paris: And I presume no body will say that
Trusty Abel is not the fittest Man in England for that
Office: He being supposed not only to have printed, but even to have
father’d some considerable Works of the most Elegant of all our
Academicians.
There’s nothing else very remarkable in the Laws of the French
Academy, except their forbidding any Member to write in their
Defence, which it is probable will be thought worth observing here. For
if our Society should pretend to answer every impertinent Thing that
will be written against them, they would be finely set to Work. If
therefore they should happen to be daily pelted at, the shortest way
will be to despise their Opponents, and to consider themselves as
Persons above the Reach of Malice; incorporated under a glorious
Protector for some good End or other; and in daily Expectation of having
a Charter and an Act of Parliament to back them; and of being made Wits
by the Laws of the Land.
I cannot conclude without observing how pat every Thing happens: The
French Society met on Thursdays. So the News
13
tells us, the English do; with this good difference: The
French met after they had din’d. The English, they say,
dine together, and drink a chearful Glass afterwards; which has great
Efficacy in Matters of Wit and Eloquence, as well for those that are to
write, as those that are to reward. Wine is therefore
call’d Generous, and is as nearly ally’d to Wit, as Wit is to
Madness. How much wittier are some Men over the third Bottle than over
the first! A strong Reason that the Meeting should be at a Tavern,
and not any private House, which the French Academy found very
inconvenient; for whenever the Members, at whose Houses they met, took a
Fancy to Marry, their Wives turn’d the Wits out of Doors; as it happen’d
in the Case of Monsieur Conrart and some others. Thus they were
driven from one place to another, till their Protector got them a Room
in the King’s own Palace; which cannot conveniently be done in
England whilst Lodgings are so scarce: And therefore I hope they
will drink on as they do, till Whitehall is rebuilt. And here I
will leave them for the present: When their two other Members are
chosen, it may perhaps be not unseasonable to acquaint the Publick with
the
14
further Progress of this hopeful Society; and to shew all the World how
far we not only imitate or copy, but even excel our Friends the
French. In the mean time, I hope, some of their best Writers
will be order’d to give us a short Touch or Essay of their Eloquence,
upon our late Glorious Enterprize against the French, on
Tuesday the 20th of this present May, under the
Command of his Grace the D. of Orm—d.
