a skilful cook has trussed a brace of woodcocks, he, with iron skewer, pierces the tender sides of both, their legs and wings close pinioned to the ribs; so was this pair of friends transfixed, till down they fell, joined in their lives, joined in their deaths; so closely joined, that Charon would mistake them both for one, and waft them over Styx for half his fare. Farewell, beloved, loving pair! few equals have you left behind and happy and immortal shall you be, if all my wit and eloquence can make you. * * And, now * * * *** * * * * for writing was, as he tells us, a piece of public service that he hoped he might do the world; Dr. Bentley's plainly a private pique, and such as 'twas utterly unfit for him to act upon, either as a scholar or a Christian, much more as he was one in holy orders, and that had undertaken the public defence of religion. Mr. W. (continued he) is modest and decent; speaks generally with respect of those he differs from, and with a due distrust of his own opinions: Dr. Bentley is positive and pert; has no regard for what other men have thought or said, and no suspicions that he is fallible. Mr. W.'s book has a vein of learning running through it, where there is no ostentation of it: Dr. Bentley's appendix has all the pomp and show of learning, without the reality. In truth, (said he,) there is scarce anything, as the book now stands, in which that and the appendix agree, but in commending and admiring Dr. Bentley; in which they are so very much of a piece, that one would think Dr. Bentley had writ both the one and the other."-BOYLE'S Examination, ut supra, p. 23. THE BOOKSELLER'S ADVERTISEMENT. THE following Discourse came into my hands perfect and entire; but there being several things in it which the present age would not very well bear, I kept it by me some years, resolving it should never see the light. At length, by the advice and assistance of a judicious friend, I retrenched those parts that might give most offence, and have now ventured to publish the remainder. Concerning the author I am wholly ignorant; neither can I conjecture whether it be the same with that of the two foregoing pieces, the original having been sent me at a different time, and in a different hand. The learned reader will better determine, to whose judgment I entirely submit it. A DISCOURSE, &c. For T. H., Esquire,* at his Chambers in the Academy of the Beaux Esprits in New England. SIR, T is now a good while since I have had in my head something, not only very material, but absolutely necessary to my health, that the world should be informed in; for, to tell you a secret, I am able to contain it no longer. However, I have been perplexed, for some time, to resolve what would be the most proper form to send it abroad in. To which end I have been three days coursing through Westminster-hall, and St. Paul's Churchyard, and Fleet-street, to peruse titles; and I do not find any which holds so general a vogue, as that of a Letter to a Friend: nothing is more com * Supposed to be Col. Hunter, for some time believed to be the author of the Letter of Enthusiasm, mentioned in the Apology for the Tale of a Tub. This Discourse is not altogether equal to the former, the best parts of it being omitted; whether the bookseller's account be true, that he durst not print the rest, I know not; nor indeed is it easy to determine, whether he may be relied on in anything he says of this or the former treatises, only as to the time they were writ in; which, however, appears more from the discourses themselves than his relation.-H. |