A TALE OF A TUB, &c. SECT. I. The INTRODUCTION. WHOEVER WHOEVER hath an Ambition to be heard in a Crowd, must press, and squeeze, and thrust, and climb with indefatigable Pains, till he has exalted himself to a certain Degree of Altitude above them." Now, in all Assemblies, tho' you wedge them ever so close, we may observe this peculiar Property; that, over their Heads there is Room enough; but how to reach it, is the difficult Point; It being as hard to get quit of Number as of Hell; TO this End, the Philosopher's Way in all Ages has been by erecting certain Edifices in the Air;' But, whatever Practice and Reputation these kind of Structures have formerly possessed, or may still continue in, not excepting even that of Socrates, when he was suspended in a Basket to help Contemplation; I think, with due Submission, they seem to labour under two Inconveniences.3 First, That the Foundations being laid too high, they have been often out of Sight, and ever out of Hearing. Secondly, That the Materials, being very transitory, have suffer'd much from Inclemencies of Air, especially in these North-West Regions.* THEREFORE, towards the just Performance of this great Work, there remain but three Methods that I can think on; Whereof the Wisdom of our Ancestors being highly sensible, has, to encourage all aspiring Adventurers, thought fit to erect three wooden Machines, for the Use of those Orators who desire to talk much without Interruption. These are, the Pulpit, the Ladder, and the Stage-Itinerant. For, as to the Bar, tho' it be compounded of the same Matter, and designed for the same Use, it cannot however be well allowed the Honor of a fourth, by reason of its level or inferior Situation, exposing it to perpetual Interruption from Collaterals. Neither can the Bench it self, tho raised to a proper Eminency, put in a better Claim, whatever its Advocates insist on. For if they please to look into the original Design of its Erection, and the Circumstances or Adjuncts subservient to that Design, they will soon acknowledge the present Practice exactly correspondent to the Primitive Institution, and both to answer the 1 Setting up systems of philosophy, which few have ever seen, to which none pay any attention, and which quickly fall to pieces, especially if they are the work of English philosophers. 2 Aristophanes, Clouds, 218 ff. 3 Inconveniencies' edd. 1-4. 4 Compare the reference to England on p. 113, ll. 1, 2. |