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<DATE>2012-08-10</DATE>
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<NAME>John Pas</NAME>
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<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1">
<PB REF="1">
<P>AN ANSWER TO A Late PAMPHLET, CALLED <HI>An E&s;&s;ay concerning Criti|cal and Curious Learning;</HI> In which are contained Some &s;hort Reflections on the Controver&s;ie</P>
<P>Betwixt Sir <HI>William Temple,</HI> and Mr. <HI>Wotton.</HI></P>
<P>AND THAT</P>
<P>Betwixt Dr. <HI>Bentley,</HI> and Mr. <HI>Boyle.</HI></P>
<P><HI>London:</HI> Printed and Sold by <HI>E. Whit|lock,</HI> near <HI>Stationers-Hall,</HI> 1698.</P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="2">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<HEAD>AN ANSWER TO A Late PAMPHLET, CALLED, <HI>An E&s;&s;ay concerning Critical and Curious Learning,</HI> &amp;c.</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>I Thank you for the Pam|phlet you &s;ent me the o|ther Day; and, becau&s;e you was pleas'd to make it the <HI>Condition</HI> of your <HI>Gift,</HI> that I
<PB N="2" REF="3">&s;hould return my Thoughts upon it, I have here &s;ent them by the fir&s;t Po&s;t, and I be|lieve much &s;ooner than you expected. You have them in the very Order they at fir&s;t oc|curred to me, without any manner of Correction; for truly I did not think it worth my while to make any.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t then, It is obvious to remark, that the Author, who|ever he is, has given his <HI>E&s;&s;ay</HI> a wrong Title. If he had had a mind to deal hone&s;tly with his Reader, it &s;hould have run thus: <HI>An E&s;&s;ay,</HI> &amp;c. <HI>in which are contained &s;everal Fal&s;e and Scandalous Reflections on</HI> Chri&s;t-Church <HI>in</HI> Oxon. But to turn over the Title Page. In his Preamble (where, I a&s;|&s;ure you, he pretends abun|dance
<PB N="3" REF="3">of Mode&s;ty) he cannot forbear making open Procla|mation, that he, and his Friend, to whom he addre&s;&s;es this Piece, have re&s;olv'd to cen&s;ure and damn all Books that &s;hall be hereafter pub|li&s;hed; to which purpo&s;e they have e&s;tabli&s;hed a Critical <HI>Cor|re&s;pondence between them.</HI> Wo be to all poor Writers for the Fu|ture! But he has given the World no rea&s;on to hope well of this grand De&s;ign. For in the pre&s;ent Ca&s;e (which it &s;eems is the fir&s;t he has med|dled in) he is far from being &s;o fair and equitable a Modera|tor as he ought, or indeed as he him&s;elf would pretend to be. For he has every where &s;hewed that <HI>Dogmatical Humour and Arro|gance</HI> he blames in others, and
<PB N="4" REF="4">has taken a mo&s;t intolerable Freedom where he ought not to have done it. I have but two Rea&s;ons to think that Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI> him&s;elf did not write this Treati&s;e. One is, that the Matter is infinitely too polite, and the Stile too &s;mooth and flowing for him: The other, that I hardly believe his Self-Love and Pride would have &s;uffer'd him to have dealt &s;o freely and ju&s;tly with his own and his <HI>Friend</HI>'s Character, tho' it was the mo&s;t likely way to do him a real Service at the bottom. For the&s;e Rea&s;ons I mu&s;t acquit the <HI>Doctor,</HI> and tell you, that I rather believe the Author to be an <HI>E&s;quire,</HI> as he calls him&s;elf, and one of tho&s;e mighty <HI>Wits</HI> among&s;t you in Town, that &s;et up for the
<PB N="5" REF="4">Overthrow of Religion; who, the better to gain their Ends, lay hold on all Occa&s;ions of traducing the Univer&s;ities, and undermining the Dignity and Character of the Clergy. And tho' I have &s;aid this of him, yet it is no wonder that he is Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI>'s Friend and Acquain|tance.</P>
<P>But I would gladly know what there is in this Piece, that &s;hould make it gain &s;o mighty a Reputation, as you &s;ay it has; and, particularly, how it comes to de&s;erve your E&s;teem, notwith&s;tanding the Aver&s;ion you are pleas'd to &s;ay you have to the <HI>Satyrical Stuff</HI> in it. It is indeed called (I &s;hould &s;ay mi&s;called) <HI>An E&s;&s;ay concerning Critical and Curious Learning;</HI> which, I mu&s;t own, is a very
<PB N="6" REF="5">promi&s;ing Title, and one might rea&s;onably expect &s;omething new and delicate upon &s;o nice an Argument. It came to my Hands with an extraordinary Advantage, in that it had your Recommendation. I dur&s;t not, upon the fir&s;t Reading, pa&s;s any Cen&s;ure upon it. I &s;u&s;|pended my Judgment, and read it over again and again; but I lik'd it wor&s;e every time I did &s;o. I cannot indeed but acknow|ledge I had &s;ome Rea&s;on to be bia&s;s'd, when I found the Worthy and Reverend <HI>Dean of Christ-Church</HI> &s;o undecently treated, and the Reputation of his whole Society arraign'd in a mo&s;t imperious and in&s;o|lent manner.</P>
<PB N="7" REF="5">
<P>The &s;erious part of this Piece is nothing but a <HI>Farrago</HI> of common Notions, put indeed into tolerable good Language. But the Author talks &s;o very abruptly, and has &s;o cramp'd him&s;elf upon every Head, that what he &s;ays of his Performance in Je&s;t, may very well be ap|ply'd to it in good earne&s;t; <HI>viz. that by endeavouring to &s;ay a great deal in &s;o narrow a compa&s;s, and &s;hort a time, he has &s;carce &s;aid any thing.</HI> But why did not our <HI>E&s;&s;ayer</HI> take a wider compa&s;s and a longer time for this mighty Undertaking of his? What Provocation had he to &s;peak to any Subject, unle&s;s he would have done it to pur|po&s;e? Was it a Task impo&s;ed upon him, which he was wil|ling
<PB N="8" REF="6">to get off his Hands as &s;oon as he could; and was he at the &s;ame time obliged to print it? When he delivers his own Opinion, and gives the fini&s;h|ing Turn to any Argument, he does it in as po&s;itive, deci&s;ive a manner, as if Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI> him|&s;elf had done it. He bears down all before him; and, when he is going to prove &s;ome ordinary known thing, puts him&s;elf into as great a Sweat and Tumult, as if he was a|bout &s;ome of the knottie&s;t Pro|blems in all <HI>Mathematicks,</HI> and was doing no le&s;s than <HI>&s;qua|ring the Circle.</HI> To make a Shew of much Learning (a Qualification not very common among&s;t the <HI>Wits</HI>) he runs through all the <HI>Sciences,</HI> but
<PB N="9" REF="6">after a very odd manner. For when the Reader expects &s;ome hand&s;ome Account of them, he baulks him with lame and im|perfect Definitions. He pre|tends to have pre&s;&s;ed his Mat|ter very clo&s;e; but it is &s;till &s;o &s;pungy, that it may be &s;queezed much clo&s;er, and fairly reduc'd into nothing. I have often heard hone&s;t <HI>Will P</HI>&mdash; talk as roundly over a Gla&s;s of Wine of all kinds of Learning and Languages, as our Author, without ever &s;u&s;pecting him to have any clear or full Notions of what he was about. There is a &s;ort of Common-place, which any Man, that keeps good Company, may be ea&s;i|ly furni&s;hed with, and yet at the &s;ame time be no more a
<PB N="10" REF="7">Scholar, than the Pope's Par|rot, that could repeat the Creed, by keeping much Company with his Holine&s;s, was a Chri|&s;tian.</P>
<P>In &s;hort, he is &s;ometimes a proud &s;upercilious Critick, &s;ome|times a dry and &s;tarched Com|mon-placer, and always im|pertinent to his Reader, and incon&s;i&s;tent with him&s;elf. If it was worth while, I would undertake to refute every thing material out of the E&s;&s;ay it &s;elf. One Sentence contradicts another. He is not of the &s;ame Opinion two Leaves toge|ther. Here you have him cry|ing up <HI>experimental Philo&s;ophy,</HI> but with abundance of Limi|tation, as the mo&s;t plea&s;ant Study in the World, and which
<PB N="11" REF="7">a Man ought to &s;pend all his Time in. &mdash; Pre&s;ently he for|gets this, and talks as loudly for all the other Sciences one after another; only <HI>Mathema|ticks</HI> and <HI>Metaphy&s;icks</HI> have the hard hap not to be of the num|ber of his Favourites, when he comes to talk of his beloved Argument, of <HI>Critical Learning in the Modern Acception, as it is taken for a thorough under&s;tanding of Cla&s;&s;ick Authors, and an exact knowledge of all tho&s;e Rules, by which Men judge and determine nicely of all the finer Parts and Branches of Humane Literature;</HI> he di&s;plays all his Force, and is mo&s;t wonderfully in&s;tructive. He informs his Reader, that <HI>Aristotle</HI> was the fir&s;t that drew up the&s;e Rules into compa&s;s,
<PB N="12" REF="8">made Critici&s;m an Art; That <HI>Horace, Longinus,</HI> and all the Criticks, both Ancient and Modern, drained mo&s;t of their Knowledge from him. This is ju&s;t as much, and no more, than has been &s;aid an hundred times in Dedications and Pre|faces to Plays. Not only Mr. <HI>Congreve, Dennis, &amp;c.</HI> but even <HI>Settle</HI> and <HI>D'urfey</HI> have often &s;aid it before him; and mo&s;t of them in their pre&s;ent Controver&s;ie with Mr. <HI>Collier,</HI> make nothing of talking of <HI>A|ri&s;totle,</HI> as familiarly as this Gentleman, without ever ha|ving read one Word of him. But he goes on victoriou&s;ly, and &s;ays <HI>Critici&s;m</HI> is without all doubt a very good thing, notwith&s;tanding what &s;ome
<PB N="13" REF="8">People &s;ay of it: And hath a pretty Similitude about <HI>Alexan|der</HI> and <HI>Cae&s;ar</HI> nothing to the purpo&s;e, from whence howe|ver he inferrs, as fa&s;t as Hops, the great Advantage of Criti|cal Knowledge. Such Dedu|ctions are of the &s;ame Stamp with his Friend's Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI>'s. But I am &s;ure I argue more logically, when I &s;ay that be|cau&s;e Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI> writes fal&s;e Latin and fal&s;e Engli&s;h, that therefore, by way of contra|ry he is in the right of it; for a good Cau&s;e may be, and of|ten is, ill defended. After ha|ving mu&s;ter'd up all this, he leaves his Argument for a while, and makes a digre&s;&s;ion <HI>upon the U&s;e of Frequent Compo&s;i|tions.</HI> Here he crowds his fine
<PB N="14" REF="9">Notions very thick upon us; and, to &s;ingle out one from a|mong&s;t many, he tells us, that <HI>all the Faculties of the Mind, whether Active or Pa&s;sive, are mightily heightened and improved by Exer|ci&s;e.</HI> This Propo&s;ition is cer|tainly true; and &s;o it will hold, if I &s;hould affirm it of the Fa|culties of the Body, and illu|&s;trate my Po&s;ition with the Fa|mous Story of <HI>Milo,</HI> who fir&s;t try'd his Strength in carrying a <HI>Calf,</HI> and by con&s;tant Applica|tion was at la&s;t able to do as much for an <HI>Ox.</HI> But who could I hope to inform by it? Is any body, that had Com|mon Sen&s;e or Learning before, made ever a-whit the wi&s;er for this? If I &s;ay, critically &s;peak|ing, that <HI>Virgil</HI> is a better Poet
<PB N="15" REF="9">than <HI>Martial,</HI> and <HI>Heroick Poe|try</HI> nobler than <HI>Anagram,</HI> I talk upon &s;afe Grounds, and no Body can contradict me with|out palpably contradicting the Truth; but what then? When a Man will needs be an Author, e&s;pecially of <HI>E&s;&s;ays,</HI> it is expe|cted he &s;hould produce <HI>ardens aliquid,</HI> &s;omething new and en|tertaining: <HI>Montaign</HI> and St. <HI>Ev|remont</HI> are remarkable for it. There is yet another notable Piece of Critici&s;m; and it is, That <HI>Tully</HI> was a better Poet than an Orator: This is true too, and I have nothing to &s;ay in an&s;wer to it. But to return with him from this digre&s;&s;ion: The next thing he pre&s;ents us with, is a terrible De&s;cription of the Modern Criticks; <HI>viz.
<PB N="16" REF="10">That they are bia&s;s'd by Partiality, and, in &s;pite of all their &s;pecious Pretences, a strong Tincture of ill Nature and Virulence unhappily ap|pears in every Line. They tell us indeed in their Prefaces, that they have dealt very hand&s;omly and can|didly with the Authors they com|ment upon. But when we come to the Remarks them&s;elves, we are entertained with nothing but conti|nual Snarling and In&s;olence.</HI> This will prove as true as the re&s;t of his Axioms and wi&s;e Sayings, if rightly applied, that is, to him&s;elf.</P>
<P>I have now run through the <HI>E&s;say,</HI> and &s;hould next in or|der examine his <HI>Reflections</HI> on Mr. <HI>Wotton</HI> and Dr. <HI>Bentley;</HI> but I doubt he plays Booty with
<PB N="17" REF="10">them, e&s;pecially with the lat|ter; or, perhaps, I may be mi&s;taken, and this invi&s;ible Hero, <HI>Almanzor</HI>-like, kills all before him; &s;pares neither Friend nor Foe. Let the Ca&s;e be how it will, I have no|thing to &s;ay to him upon their &s;core. What I have el&s;e to add, &s;hall only be a Word or two in An&s;wer to his Com|plements and Civilities to <HI>Chri&s;t-Church.</HI> And truly one would be apt to fancy he was never of any Univer&s;ity him&s;elf, by his being &s;o great a Stranger to the Re&s;pect that is due to the Learned Societies in them. His ill Breeding would make one &s;u&s;pect too he had never been any where el&s;e neither, nor had had the Education
<PB N="18" REF="11">which young <HI>Squires</HI> u&s;ually have.</P>
<P>In his fir&s;t Attack upon the Colledge, he takes Dr. <HI>Bent|ley</HI>'s Method, and &s;ays perem|ptorily Mr. <HI>Boyle</HI>'s Name is fal|&s;ly &s;et to the late An&s;wer to the <HI>Di&s;&s;ertation again&s;t</HI> Phalaris<HI>'s Epi&s;tle,</HI> &amp;c. and that he is &s;ure he had no hand at all in it. This he does out of pure Complai&s;ance to Mr. <HI>Boyle</HI> as a Gentleman, that there may be no Quarrel between them two; for he is re&s;olv'd to cut and &s;la&s;h the Book to Pieces, and without any more to do, &s;ays it is full of nothing but <HI>little Wittici&s;ms and School-Boys Je&s;ts.</HI> He begs leave of his Reader (being a very Civil
<PB N="19" REF="11">Per&s;on) to &s;ugge&s;t his own Opinion. And truly his Opi|nion is, that it was made <HI>(as mo&s;t Compo&s;itions in thta Colledge are) by a Select Club: Every Man &s;eems to have thrown in a Repartee, or &s;o, in his Turn; and the mo&s;t ingenenious Dr.</HI> Al|drich, <HI>no doubt, was at the Head of them, and &s;moked, and pun|ned plentifully on this Occa&s;ion.</HI> A pretty Conceipt this! What a <HI>Dutch</HI> Image of Wit and Compo&s;ition is here! There is ju&s;t as much Wit and Sence, as Probability and good Man|ners in it. For when a Gen|tleman has affixed his Name to a Book, and owned it, &s;hall any one that dares do neither, give him the Lie, and pretend Civility at the &s;ame time? It
<PB N="20" REF="12">was a Clowni&s;h bold Piece of Freedom at fir&s;t in Dr. <HI>Bent|ley,</HI> and is now the &s;ame in this Ambu&s;cado-Writer. Such rude Treatment would have been abominable to any one of Mr. <HI>Boyle</HI>'s Quality, had he been a Man of no Note, had he never given any Proofs of his extraordinary Genius and great Learning to the World; and as the Ca&s;e is quite other|wi&s;e, you and the Author mu&s;t pardon me, if I &s;ay it is down|right impudent. But this is on|ly a Sample of &s;ome more Be|haviour of the &s;ame kind. He has plenty of &s;uch Civilities in &s;tore for the <HI>Dean</HI> and <HI>Students of Chri&s;t-Church,</HI> who he takes to be the true Authors of the Book. But he does not troulbe him&s;elf
<PB N="21" REF="12">to an&s;wer them in any thing ma|terial; but, without the lea&s;t Provocation, takes their man|ners mo&s;t &s;everely to Task, puts a mark upon them, and a&s;&s;ures his Friend, that <HI>they distingui&s;h them&s;elves from the re&s;t of the Uni|ver&s;ity, not by their extraordinary Learning, but their abominable Ar|rogance.</HI> He wonders how they can have the Confidence to con|demn <HI>Pride</HI> in another, when they have &s;o great a Share of it them&s;elves. He would very fain know, <HI>why it is not as excu&s;a|ble in Dr.</HI> Bentley, <HI>who is a scho|lar, as in &s;ome young Men, who cannot rea&s;onably be &s;uppos'd to be &s;o.</HI> He is very angry with the <HI>Dean,</HI> and admoni&s;hes him for encouraging this haughty proud Temper of theirs by his own Example; and
<PB N="22" REF="13">as a &s;trong Conviction that he does &s;o, he calls a &s;mall <HI>Compen|dium of Logick</HI> to witne&s;s, in which the Dean weas &s;o unfortunate as to cen&s;ure the Author of the <HI>Art of Thinking.</HI> I know not what Civilities <HI>T. R.</HI> E&s;q; thinks are due to Foreigners; he is not ve|ry courtly, I am &s;ure, to his own Country-men. But farther; he ventures to affirm, that the <HI>Com|pendium of Logick</HI> is one of the wor&s;t that he ever read. The rea&s;on is, becau&s;e it is written in <HI>good Latin.</HI> A mo&s;t unpardo|nable Fault indeed! Well, but this is not all: He has &s;omething more to quarrel with them a|bout, and that is for calling Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI> Pedant, when he can prove them to be as rank Pedants them&s;elves. For (&s;ays he) <HI>I take
<PB N="23" REF="13">it to be as errant a Sign of Pedantry to publi&s;h bad Editions of old Au|thors, and to be highly &s;olicitous about the various Readings of them, which former Editions have only neglected, becau&s;e they were in&s;ignificant as to lard</HI> Engli&s;h <HI>Writings with</HI> Greek <HI>and</HI> Latin. He is very much in the Right of it; but what is this to <HI>Chri&s;t-Church?</HI> Yes; it is di|rectly levelled at it. <HI>For</HI> (he continues) <HI>Dr.</HI> Aldrich <HI>is pretty no|torious at pre&s;ent for imploying his young unexperienced Students this way.</HI> I know not what he means <HI>by employing his young unexperienced Stu|dents:</HI> But I know, and, under his Favour, it may be &s;aid with|out any Partiality at all, that tho&s;e Books which have been put forth by this Colledge, both in the late learned Dr. <HI>Fell</HI>'s time, and
<PB N="24" REF="14">the pre&s;ent <HI>Dean</HI>'s too, have a very good Reputation, not only here at home, but are likewi&s;e much approved by Foreigners a|broad; which, I hope, will re|commend them to Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI>'s E&s;teem, whatever it may do to this Gentleman's. As for the late Edition of <HI>Ae&s;op</HI>'s <HI>Fables;</HI> it will be time enough to defend it, when it is accu&s;ed. Here the <HI>Preface</HI> is only concerned, for calling Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI> plain <HI>quidam.</HI> He would, I &s;uppo&s;e, have had his Name u&s;hered in with half a dozen Epithets of re&s;pect; not con&s;idering how &s;curvily he is u&s;ing Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI>'s Betters all this while. But the next Charge bears hard upon them: For it is about no le&s;s than <HI>two Epigrams</HI> and one <HI>Ver&s;e,</HI> in a Poem, intitu|led,
<PB N="25" REF="14"><HI>Articuli Pacis,</HI> whch he has found in a Book lately publi&s;hed, called, <HI>Examen Poeticum duplex,</HI> &amp;c. He is very &s;olicitous (it being a Matter of va&s;t Con&s;e|quence) to di&s;cover the Author of them; and at la&s;t ventures to affirm, that either the <HI>Dean</HI> him|&s;elf, or &s;ome body el&s;e made them. The Conjecture is not much unlike that of the <HI>Dutch Commentators</HI> about <HI>Horace</HI>'s Mo|ther, who, after all their En|quiry, could not be po&s;itive who &s;he was, but they unanimou&s;ly agreed that he certainly had one. This being &s;agely premi&s;ed; he proceeds to give Dr. <HI>Bentley</HI> &s;ome Comfort, and to infu&s;e a Balm into the Wound, the Sting and Venom in the Tale of the&s;e wicked <HI>Epigrams</HI> might po&s;&s;ibly
<PB N="26" REF="15">have made in his Mind, a&s;&s;uring him <HI>en Critique,</HI> that the&s;e are by no means the be&s;t Copies in that Collection. As to this; if there was any need of an Apology (which I do not apprehend there is) it might be alledged as a good one, that <HI>that Collection</HI> was made privately by &s;ome Gentle|men, that did not think fit to own them&s;elves, and the <HI>Poems</HI> &s;poken of were in&s;erted without the Author's Leave or Know|ledge; and therefore they are not &s;trictly obliged to account for them. But this is not very much to the Point in hand, and I &s;hall wave it.</P>
<P>Here our Critick had ju&s;t en|ded his Reflections, but that &s;omething came into his Head,
<PB N="27" REF="15">that was once &s;aid by one <HI>Jo|annes in Nudibus,</HI> which he could not let go unan&s;wered. The Words are; <HI>If the Doctor had had either good Sence or good Manners, he would not have fallen &s;o ha&s;tily upon a learned Body, that was &s;o ve|ry able to ju&s;tifie it &s;elf, and to con|found him. It was the mo&s;t likely way to make a Shipwreck of the little Reputation he had got.</HI> But even as he has mangled and qua|lified this Objection, he has not taken it off &s;o clearly as he ima|gines he has done. He would not have had the <HI>Doctor</HI> begun this Di&s;pute, becau&s;e the Col|ledge was below &s;o great a Man's Re&s;entments. And he now ad|vi&s;es him not to an&s;wer any Part of Mr. <HI>Boyle</HI>'s Book, <HI>becau&s;e, that which is abu&s;ive is &s;o blunt and ungen|teel,
<PB N="28" REF="16">that it cannot affect his Reputa|tion at all; and the Authorities in the other are &s;o fal&s;ly cited and mi&s;appli|ed, that they an&s;wer them&s;elves.</HI> For many Rea&s;ons of the &s;ame Na|ture, I would not have given you &s;o much trouble about this Pamphlet, had not you obliged me to it; and if you find my Stile rugged and unplea&s;ant (as I doubt you will) you mu&s;t blame you &s;elf, and excu&s;e,</P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE><HI>Oxon,</HI> <DATE><HI>Aug. 6th</HI> 1698.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE> <SIGNED><HI>Yours,</HI> &amp;c.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
<PB REF="16">
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