will beft

much rain.

be neglected, as the moon by day, or like mackarel a week after the season. No man hath more nicely ob.. ferved our climate, than the bookfeller who bought the copy of this work. He knows to a tittle, what fubjects go off in a dry year, and which it is proper to expofe foremoft, when the weather-glafs is fallen to When he had seen this treatise, and confulted his almanack upon it, he gave me to understand, that he had manifeftly confidered the two principal things, which were the bulk and the fubject; and found, it would never take, but after a long vacation; and then only, in cafe it should happen to be a hard year for turnips. Upon which I defired to know, confidering my urgent neceflities, what he thought might be acceptable He looked westward, and faid, I doubt we fball have a fit of bad weather; however, if you could pre-pare fome pretty little banter, (but not in verfe) or a Small treatife upon the, it would run like wild-fire. But if it hold up, I have already hired an author to write Something against Dr. Bentley, which, I am fure, will turn to account *.

this month.

At length we agreed upon this expedient, That when a customer comes for one of thefe, and defires in confidence to know the author; he will tell him very privately, as a friend, naming which ever of the wits fhall happen to be that week in vogue; and if Durfey's laft play fhould be in courfe, I had as lieve, he may be the perfon as Congreve. This I mention, because I am wonderfully well acquainted with the present relish of courteous readers; and have often obferved with fingular pleasure, that a fly driven from a honey-pot, will immediately with very good appetite alight, and finish his meal on an excrement.

I have one word to fay upon the subject of profound writers, who are grown very numerous of late; and, I know very well, the judicious world is refolved to list me in that number. I conceive therefore, as to the bufinefs of being profound, that it is with writers, as

When Dr. Prideaux brought the copy of his connection of the Old and New Testament to the bookfeller, he told him, it was a dry fubject, and the printing could not fafely be ventured, unless he could enliven it with a little humour. Hawkef,

with wells; a perfon with good eyes may fee to the bottom of the deepest, provided any water be there; and often, when there is nothing in the world at the bottom, befides drynefs and dirt, though it be but a yard. and half under ground, it fhall pafs however for wondrous deep, upon no wifer a reafon, than because it is wondrous dark.

I am now trying an experiment, very frequent among modern authors; which is, to write upon nothing: when the fubject is utterly exhaufted, to let the pen till move on; by fome called, the ghost of wit, delighting to walk after the death of its body. And to fay the truth, there feems to be no part of knowledge in fewer hands, than that of difcerning when to have done.

By the time that an author hath written out a book, he and his readers are become old acquaintants, and grow very loth to part; fo that I have fometimes known it to be in writing, as in vifiting, where the ceremony of taking leave has employed more time than the whole converfation before. The conclufion of a treatise refembles the conclusion of human life, which hath sometimes been compared to the end of a feaft; where few are fatisfied to depart, ut plenus vitæ conviva: for men will fit down after the fulleft meal, though it be only to doze, or to fleep out the rest of the day. But, in this latter, I differ extremely from other writers; and shall be too proud, if, by all my labours, I can have any ways contributed to the repose of mankind in times fo turbulent and unquiet as thefe *. Neither do I think fuch an employment fo very alien from the office of a quit, as fome would fuppofe. For among a very polite nation in Greece, there were the fame temples built and confecrated to Sleep and the Mufes, between which two deities they believed the ftricteft friendship was established t.

I have one concluding favour to request of my reader, That he will not expect to be equally diverted and informed by every line, or every page of this difcourfe; but give fome allowance to the author's fpleen, and * This was written before the peace of Ryfwick, which was figned in September 1697.

t Trezeni, Paufan, į 2.

short

fhort fits or intervals of dulnefs, as well as his own; and lay it ferioufly to his confcience, whether, if he, were walking the streets in dirty weather, or a rainy day, he would allow it fair dealing in folks at their eafe from a window to criticise his gait, and ridicule his drefs at fuch a juncture.

In my difpofure of employments of the brain, I have thought fit to make invention the mafter, and to give method and reason the office of its lacqueys. The caufe of this diftribution was, from obferving it my peculiar cafe. to be often under a temptation of being witty upon occafions, where I could be neither wife nor found, nor any thing to the matter in hand. And I am too much a fervant of the modern way, to neglect any fuch opportunities, whatever pains or improprieties I may be at to introduce them. For I have obferved, that from a laborious collection of feven hundred thirty-eight flowers, and fhining hints of the best modern authors, digefted with great reading into my book of common-places; I have not been able, after five years, to draw, hook, or force into common converfation, any more than a dozen. Of which dozen, the one moiety failed of fuccefs, by being dropped among unfuitable company; and the other coft me fo many trains, and traps, and ambages, to · introduce, that I at length refolved to give it over. Now, this disappointment, (to discover a fecret), I must own, gave me the firft hint of fetting up for an author'; and I have fince found among fome particular friends, that it is become a very general complaint, and has produced the fame effects upon many others. have remarked mamy a towardly word to be wholly neglected or defpifed in difcourfe, which hath paffed very fmoothly, with fome confideration and efteem, after its preferment and fan&tion in print. But now, fince, by the liberty and encouragement of the prefs, I am grown abfolute mafter of the occafions and opportunities to expofe the talents I have acquired;" I already difcover, that the iffies of my obfervanda begin to grow too large for the receipts. Therefore I fhall here paufe a while, till I find, by feeling the world's pulfe, and my own, that it will be of abfolute acceffity for us both to refume my pen.

For I

140

A full and true Account of the BATTLE fought last Friday, between the ANCIENT and the MODERN BOOKS in St. James's Library.

TH

The BOOKSELLER to the READER.

HE following difcourfe, as it is unquestionably of the fame author, fo it feems to have been written about the fame time with the former; I mean, the year 1697, when the famous difpute was on foot, about ancient and modern learning. The controverfy took its rife from an effay of Sir William Temple's upon that fubject; which was answered by W. Wotton, B. D. with an appendix by Dr. Bentley, endeavouring to deftroy the credit of Afop and Phalaris for authors, whom Sir William Temple had, in the effay before mentioned, highly commended. In that appendix, the Doctor falls hard upon a new edition of Phalaris, put out by the Honourable Charles Boyle (now Earl of Orrery); to which Mr. Boyle replied at large with great learning and wit; and the Doctor voluminously rejoined. In this difpute, the Town highly refented to fee a perfon of Sir William Temple's character and merits roughly used by the two Reverend gentlemen aforefaid, and without any manner of provocation. At length, there appearing no end of the quarrel, our author tells us, that the BOOKS in St. James's library, looking upon themfelves as parties principally concerned, took up the controverfy, and came to a decifive battle; but the manufcript, by the injury of fortune or weather, being in feveral places imperfect, we cannot learn to which fide the victory fell.

I must warn the reader, to beware of applying to perfons, what is here meant only of books in the most literal fenfe. So, when Virgil is mentioned, we are not to understand the perfon of a famous poet called by that name; but only certain fheets of bound up in leather, containing in print the works of the faid. poet and fo of the reft.

paper,

The

SA

The PREFACE of the AUTHOR.

Atire is a fort of glass, wherein beholders do gene--rally discover every body's face but their own; which is the chief reafon for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that fo very few are offended with it. But if it fhould happen otherwife, the danger is not great; and I have learned from long experience, never to apprehend mischief from those understandings I have been able to provoke. For anger and fury, though they add strength to the finews of the body, yet are found to relax those of the mind, and to render all its efforts feeble and impotent,

There is a brain that will endure but one fcumming : let the owner gather it with difcretion, and manage his little ftock with hufbandry. But of all things, let him beware of bringing it under the lab of his betters because that will make it all bubble up into impertinence, and he will find no new fupply: Wit without knowledge being a fort of cream, which gathers in a night to the top, and by a fkilful hand may be foon whipped into froth; but once fcummed away, what appears underneath, will be fit for nothing, but to be thrown to the hogs.