the author invented the propereft he could, without enquiring what other people had written; and the commoneft reader will find, there is not the leaft resemblance between the two ftories. The third instance is in these words; I have been affured, that the battle in St. James's library is, mutatis mutandis, taken out of a french book, entituled, Combat des livres, if I mifremember not. In which paffage there are two claufes obfervable: I have been affured; and, if I mifremember not. I defire first to know whether, if that conjecture proves an utter falfhood, those two claufes will be a fufficient excufe for this worthy critic. The matter is a trifle; but, would he venture to pronounce at this rate upon one of greater moment? I know nothing more contemptible in a writer, than the character of a plagiary; which he here fixes at a venture; and this not for a paffage, but a whole discourse, taken out from another book, only mutatis mutandis. The author is as much in the dark about this, as the anfwerer; and will imitate him by an affirmation at random; that if there be a word of truth in this reflection, he is a paultry,

H 3

paultry, imitating pedant. and the anfwerer is a perfon of wit, manners, and truth. He takes his boldnefs, from never having feen any fuch treatise in his life, nor heard of it before; and he is fure it is impoffible for two writers of different times and countries to agree in their thoughts after fuch a manner, that two continued difcourfes fhall be the fame, only mutatis mutandis. Neither will he infift upon the mistake in the title; but let the anfwerer and his friend produce any book they please, he defies them to fhew one fingle particular, where the judicious reader will affirm he has been obliged for the fmalleft hint; giving only allowance for the accidental encountering of a fingle thought, which he knows may fometimes happen; though he has never yet found it in that discourfe, nor has heard it objected by any body elfe.

So that if ever any design was unfortunately executed, it must be that of this anfwerer; who, when he would have it obferved, that the author's wit is none of his own, is able to produce but three instances, two of them mere trifles, and all

5

three

three manifeftly false. If this be the way thefe gentlemen deal with the world in those criticisms, where we have not leifure to defeat them, their readers had need be cautious how they rely upon their credit; and whether this proceeding can be reconciled to humanity or truth, let those, who think it worth their while, determine.

It is agreed, this anfwerer would have fucceeded much better, if he had stuck wholly to his business, as a commentator upon the Tale of a tub, wherein it cannot be denied that he hath been of some service to the public, and hath given very fair conjectures towards clearing up fome dif-ficult paffages; but, it is the frequent error of thofe men (otherwife very commendable for their labours) to make excurfions beyond their talent and their office, by pretending to point out the beauties and the faults; which is no part of their trade, which they always fail in, which the world never expected from them, nor give them any thanks for endeavouring at. The part of Minellius, or Farnaby, would have

& Low commentators, who wrote notes upon claffick authors for the ufe of fchoolboys.

fallen in with his genius, and might have been serviceable to many readers, who cannot enter into the abstruser parts of that difcourfe; but Optat ephippia bos piger: the dull, unwieldy, ill-fhaped ox would needs put on the furniture of a horse, not confidering he was born to labour, to plow the ground for the fake of fuperior beings, and that he has neither the shape, mettle, nor speed of that noble animal he would affect to perfonate.

It is another pattern of this answerer's fair dealing, to give us hints that the author is dead, and yet to lay the fufpicion upon fome-body, I know not who, in the country; to which can only be returned, that he is abfolutely mistaken in all his conjectures; and furely conjectures are, at beft, too light a pretence to allow a man to affign a name in public. He condemns a book, and confequently the author, of whom he is utterly ignorant, yet at the fame time fixes, in print, what he thinks a difadvantageous character upon. those who never deferved it. A man, who receives a buffet in the dark, may be allowed to be vexed; but it is an odd kind,

of

of revenge to go to cuffs in broad day with the first he meets, and lay the last nights's injury at his door. And thus much for this difcreet, candid, pious, and ingenious

anfwerer.

How the author came to be without his papers, is a story not proper to be told, and of very little ufe, being a private fact. of which the reader would believe as little, or as much, as he thought good. He had however a blotted copy by him, which he intended to have written over with many alterations, and this the publishers were well aware of, having put it into the bookseller's preface, that they apprehended a furreptitious copy, which was to be altered, &c. This, though not regarded by readers, was a real truth, only the furreptitious copy was rather that, which was printed; and they made all the hafte they could, which indeed was needless, the author not being at all prepared: but he has been told, the bookfeller was in much pain, having given a good fum of money for the copy.

In the author's original copy there were not fo many chasms as appear in the book;