in any sentiment of that Essay, I protest sincerely, I do not desire all the world should be deceived (which would be of very ill consequence) merely that I myself may be thought right (which is of very little consequence). I would be the first to recant, for the benefit of others, and the glory of myself; for (as I take it) when a man owns himself to have been in an error, he does but tell you in other words, that he is wiser than he was. But I have had an advantage by the publishing that book, which otherwise I never should have known; it has been the occasion of making me friends and open abettors, of several gentlemen of known sense and wit; and of proving to me what I have till now doubted, that my writings are taken some notice of by the world, or I should never be attacked thus în particular. I have read that it was a custom among the Romans, while a general rode in triumph to have the common soldiers in the streets that railed at him and reproached him; to put him in mind, that though his services were in the main approved and rewarded, yet he had faults enough to keep him humble. You will see by this, that whoever sets up for wit in these days ought to have the constancy of a primitive Christian, and be prepared to suffer martyrdom in the cause of it. But sure this is one. In controverted opinions the case is different. The advancement of truth, or the defence of an author's honest fame, may sometimes make it necessary, or expedient for him, to answer the objections made to his book. Warburton. the first time that a wit was attacked for his religion, as, you will find, I am most zealously in this treatise; and, you know, Sir, what alarms I have had from the opposite side on this account. Have I not reason to cry out with the poor fellow in Virgil, * Quid jam misero mihi denique restat? Cui neque apud Danaos usquam locus, et super ipsi It is however my happiness that you, Sir, are impartial: Jove was alike to Latian and to Phrygian, For you well know, that wit's of no religion. The manner in which Mr. D. takes to pieces several particular lines, detached from their natural places, may shew how easy it is to a caviller to give a new sense, or a new nonsense to any thing. And indeed his constructions are not more wrested from the genuine meaning, than theirs who objected to the heterodox parts, as they call them. Our friend the Abbé is not of that sort, who with the utmost candour and freedom has modestly told me what others thought, and shewn himself one (as he very well expresses it) rather of a number than a party. The only difference between us in relation to the Monks, is, that he thinks most sorts of learning flourished among them, and I am of opinion, that only some sort of learning was barely kept alive by them: he believes that in the most natural and obvious sense, that line (A second deluge learning over-run) will be understood of learning in general; and I fancy it will be understood only (as it is meant) of polite learning, criticism, poetry, &c., which is the only learning concerned in the subject of the Essay. It is true, that the monks did preserve what learning there was, about Nicholas the Fifth's time;* but those who succeeded fell into the depth of barbarism, or at least stood at a stay while others arose from thence, insomuch that even Erasmus and Reuchlin could hardly laugh them out of it. I am * Notwithstanding the praises lavished on Leo the Tenth, yet was the restoration of polite literature in the West, chiefly owing to Pope Nicholas the Fifth; who has not met with encomiums equal to his merits. It was he who first ransacked all the Byzantine libraries, and the monasteries of Germany and Britain, for Greek. manuscripts. Hence, in the space of eight years, he filled a library with more than five thousand volumes. To him were we indebted for the first translations of Xenophon, Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Homer; and also of the best parts of Plato and Aristotle. See Tiraboschi, tom. vi. p. 109; and in Hody's entertaining account De Græcis Illustribus, read pages 55 and 105. Warton. + It is impossible to admit that with respect to polite learning, criticism, poetry, &c., those who succeeded Nicholas the Fifth "fell into the depth of barbarism," or even "stood at a stay” till they were better informed by Erasmus and Reuchlin. On the contrary, the influx of the Greek scholars who took refuge in Italy, on the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, gave a new impulse to those studies; and the progress that was made in them, from that period to the time of Leo the Tenth, comprising the latter half of the fifteenth century, is unexampled in the history of literature, and may emphatically be styled, the Restoration of learning. In the former part of that period the Italian scholars were laudably employed in discovering, editing, and commenting upon the ancient authors; but in the latter part of it, from being their admirers, highly obliged to the Abbé's zeal in my commendation, and goodness in not concealing what he thinks my error. And his testifying some esteem for the book just at a time when his brethren raised a clamour against it, is an instance of great generosity and candour, which I shall ever acknowledge. Your, &c. LETTER II. TO THE HON. JAMES CRAGGS. June 18, 1711. IN your last you informed me of the mistaken zeal of some people, who seem to make it no less their business to persuade men they are erroneous, than doctors do that they are sick; only that they may magnify their own cure, and triumph over an imaginary distemper. The simile objected to in my essay, (Thus wit, like faith, by each man is applied To one small sect, and all are damn'd beside.)* plainly concludes at this second line, where stands a full stop and what follows, (Meanly they seek, &c.) speaks only of wit, (which is meant by that blessing, and that sun,) for how can the sun of faith be said to sublime the southern wits, and to they became their rivals; and Pontano, Politiano, Sannazaro, Sadoleti, Bembo, and Musurus, have left works which Erasmus and Reuchlin must have been content to admire, rather than to ridicule. See Essay on Criticism, ver. 691, note. * Essay on Criticism, ver. 396. ripen the geniuses of northern climates? I fear, these gentlemen understand grammar as little as they do criticism; and, perhaps, out of good-nature to the monks, are willing to take from them the censure of ignorance, and to have it to themselves. The word they refers (as, I am sure, I meant, and as I thought every one must have known) to those critics there spoken of, who are partial to some particular set of writers, to the prejudice of all others. And the very simile itself, if twice read, may convince them, that the censure here of damning, lies not on our church at all, unless they call our church one small sect: and the cautious words (by each man) manifestly show it a general reflection on all such (whoever they are) who entertain those narrow and limited notions of the mercy of the Almighty, which the reformed ministers and presbyterians are as guilty of as any people living.* Yet after all, I promise you, Sir, if the alteration of a word or two will gratify any man of sound faith, though weak understanding, I will (though it were from no other principle than that of common good-nature) comply with it. And if you please but to particularize the spot where their objection lies, (for it is in a very narrow compass,) that stumbling-block, though it be but a The author has here vindicated himself against his critics with judgment, sense, and spirit; and has at the same time dis played a liberality of opinion which regards alike the uncharitable bigots of every religious sect, |