fourth Volume of TATLERS, what is there faid of the Author.

'N the laft TATLER, I promised fome Explanation

mentioned in this Work, as well as fome Account of the Affistances I have had in the Performance. I fhall do this in very few Words; for, when a Man has no Design, but to speak plain Truth, he may fay a great deal in a very narrow Compafs. I have, in the Dedication of the first Volume, made my Acknowledgments to Dr. SWIFT, whose pleasant Writings, in the Name of BickerStaff, created an Inclination in the Town towards any thing that could appear in the fame Difguife. I must acknowledge alfo, that, at my first entering upon this Work, a certain uncommon Way of Thinking, and a Turn in Converfation peculiar to that agreeable Gentleman, rendered his Company very advantageous to one, whose Imagination was to be continually employed upon. obvious and common Subjects, though at the fame time obliged to treat of them in a new and unbeaten Method. His Verfes on the Shower in Town, and the Defcription of the Morning, are Inftances of the Happinefs of that Genius, which could raife fuch. pleafing Ideas upon Occafions fo barren to an ordinary Invention.

THE

THE

TATLER

NUMBER. CCXXX.

This TATLER relating to the fame Subject contained in the Letter to the Lord High Treasurer, was thought proper to be prefixed to the faid Letter. It is well known, that the Author writ feveral Tatlers, and fome Spectators; and furnifhed Hints for many more. Particularly, The Tables of Fame, The Life and Adventures of a Shilling, The Account of ENGLAND by an Indian King, and fome others. But,. as we are informed, be would never tell his best Friends the particular Papers.

T

Thursday, September 28. 1710.

From my own Apartment, Sept. 27.

HE following Letter hath laid before me many great and manifeft Evils, in the World

of Letters, which I had overlooked; but they open to me a very bufy Scene, and it will require no fmall Care and Application to amend Errors which are become fo univerfal. The Affectation of Politenefs, is expofed in this Epiftle with a great deal of Wit and Difcernment; fo that whatever Difcourfes

I may fall into hereafter upon the Subjects the Writer treateth of, I fhall at prefent lay the Matter before the World, without the leaft Alteration from the Words of my Correfpondent.

To

6

SIR,

TO ISAAC BICKERSTAFF Efq;

HERE are fome Abuses among us of grea Confequence, the Reformation of which is properly your Province; although, as far as I have ⚫ been converfant in your Papers, you have not yet ⚫ confidered them. These are the deplorable Ignorance ⚫ that for fome Years hath reigned among our English 'Writers; the great Depravity of our Tafte; and the 'continual Corruption of our Style. I fay nothing 'here of those who handle particular Sciences, Divinity, Law, Phyfick, and the like; I mean the Traders in History and Politicks, and the Belles Lettres ; together with those by whom Books are not tranflated, but (as the common Expressions are) Done out of French, Latin, or other Languages, and made English. I cannot but obferve to you, that, until of ⚫late Years, a Grub-street Book was always bound in Sheep-fkin, with fuitable Print and Paper; the Price never above a Shilling; and taken off wholly by common Tradesmen, or Country-pedlars. But now they appear in all Sizes and Shapes, and in all Places: They are handed about from Lapfuls in every Cof'fee-house to Perfons of Quality; "are fhewn in Weftminfter-hall, and the Court of Requests. You may fee ⚫ them gilt, and in Royal Paper of five or fix hundred Pages, and rated accordingly. I would engage to furnish you with a Catalogue of English Books, pablished within the Compafs of feven Years paft, which, at the first Hand, would cost you an hundred Pounds; wherein you shall not be able to find ten Lines together of common Grammar or common Sense.

THESE two Evils, Ignorance, and Want of Tafte,' have produced a third; I mean the continual Corruption of our English Tongue; which, without fome timely Remedy, will fuffer more by the falfe Refinements of twenty Years paft, than it hath been improved in the foregoing hundred. And this is what

"I defign chiefly to enlarge upon; leaving the former "Evils to your Animadverfion.

Bur, inftead of giving you a List of the late Refinements crept into our Language; I here send you the Copy of a Letter I received fome time ago from "a moft accomplished Perfon in this Way of Writing;. * upon which I shall make fome Remarks. It is in. 'these Terms:

SIR,

I

Cou'dn't get the Things you fent for all about Town- -I tho't to ha come down myself, and 'then I'd ha' bro't um; but I ha'nt don't, and I believe "I can't do't, that's pozz.-Tom begins to gi'mfelf Airs, "because he's going with the Plenipo's. "Tis faid 'the French King will bambouzle us agen, which caufes many Speculations. The Jacks, and others of that Kidney, are very uppish, and alter upon't, as you may fee by their Phizz's -Will Hazard has got the Hipps, having loft to the Tune of five hundr'd Pound, 'tho' he underftands Play very well, no body better. He has promis't me upon Rep, to leave off Play; 'but you know 'tis a Weakness he's apt to give into, tho' he has as much Wit as any Man, no body more. He has lain incog. ever finee.The Mok's very

quiet with us now

-I believe you tho't Ibanter'd you in my laft like a Country Put.I ban't leave the "Town this Month,' &c.

THIS Letter is in every Point an admirable Pattern of the prefent polite Way of Writing; nor is it of less. Authority for being an Epistle: You may gather every Flower of it, with a thousand more of equal Sweetness, from the Books, Pamphlets, and fingle Papers, offered us every Day in the Coffee-houses: And these are the Beauties introduced to fupply the Want of Wit, Sense, Humour and Learning; which formerly were looked upon as Qualifications for a Writer. If a Man of Wit, who died forty Years ago, were to rife from the Grave

on..

on Purpose; how would he be able to read this Letter? And after he had got through that Difficulty, how would he be able to understand it? The firft Thing that ftriketh your Eye, is the Breaks at the End of almost every Sentence; of which I know not the Ufe, only that it is a Refinement, and very frequently practifed. Then you will obferve the Abbreviations and Elifions, by which Confonants of most obdurate Sound are joined together, without one softening Vowel to intervene : And all this only to make one Syllable of two, directly contrary to the Example of the Greeks and Romans; altogether of the Gothic Strain, and a natural Tendency towards relapfing into Barbarity, which delighteth in Monofyllables, and uniting of mute Confonants; as it is obfervable in all the Northern Languages. And this is ftill more vifible in the next Refinement, which confifteth in pronouncing the first Syllable in a Word that hath many, and difmiffing the reft, fuch as Phizz, Hipps, Mobb, Pozz, Rep, and many more; when we are already overloaded with Monofyllables, which are the Difgrace of our Language. Thus we cram one Syllable, and cut off the reft; as the Owl fattened her Mice after she had bit off their Legs, to prevent them from running away; and if ours be the fame Reason for maiming of Words, it will certainly answer the End, for I am fure no other Nation will defire to borrow them. Some Words are hitherto but fairly split; and therefore only in their Way to Perfection, as Incog. and Plenipo's: But in a fhort time, it is to be hoped, they will be further docked to Inc and Plen. This Reflexion had made me, of late Years, very impatient for a a Peace; which I believe would fave the Lives of many brave Words, as well as Men. The War hath introduced Abundance of Polyfyllables, which will never be able to live many more Campaigns. Speculations, Operations, Preliminaries, Ambaffadors, Pallifadoes, Communication, Circumvallation, Battalions, as numerous as they are, if they attack us too frequently