OCR Text |
Show [ ~ ] but no Reafoning, Judgme~t or EX'perienc~; plain Marks of a young Wnter, who may rn time ripen into fomething col)fiderable, and come up to the Author of .Ar/us and _Ddolphus, which is the Fiction of a more able Wnter, and has the Beauties of a tolerable Romapce; and to !hew the Skill of the Author, is very happily call'd a Secret Hijlory ; which is a Coyer for all the Lies the Father of theCQ .(an mvent, fince that Name immediately iorbi~s all asking of Queftions · for were the Proofs to be produc'd where ~ould be the Secret? I can't fay I w;s fo well pleas'd with Sir T homas, which I found fo dull and tedious, 'was impoffible to get thro' it ; there is, by all I could fee, nei ther Decorum, nor Argument, nor Life in it; the Author Jhews he was fadly put to it, for Matter, when he is forced, to :nake up his InveCtive, to take in the Compafs of 22 Years, the fatal Period fome among us are fo angry with, that is 18 more than the pre-" fent Change is concern'd in ; for 'tis but four Years at moll:, that his Principals pretend to think (for tldnk they don't, as I ihall !hew you by and by) that the ManagcmenE of Af· fairs has been wrong. In ihort, 'ti~ a fiupid unnatural Piece, and what made me more lick of it, I have been told,'tisas ungrateful as 'tis fenfelefs, writ by a Man, who owes his Bread to thofe, whom he has with fo much Venome drawn his Pen again!!:. I don'E know whether you will agree with me, when I tell you, I think the Letter from a foreign Miniftcr the molt artful Performance of them all ; the refl: feem to be the W_o1ks of under Agents, from pireB:ions B!od Hnm mark'd out for thew ; but" this l take 1 tO [ 3 ] to be the Work of the chief Operator himfelf; who, if he was not at leifure _to write _more largely has in this Jhort Ptece fuffimntly' ihewn, 'what a Right he has. to the E{l:eem the World have long bad for !urn; there !JClng m it ferne quick and crafty Turns~ and ~n affeCted Appearance ofFairnefs, w1th wh1ch he gilds over the blackeft Po1fon of Malice a~d Invention. You'll fee 1 nfe that !all: Word m the modern Senfe of it; :md in ~Y, Mind the whole Letter is well enough contnv d, to anfwer its Defign; which phinly is, topleafe friends take off Enemies, amufe and qu1et all, who ard not acquainted with Affairs, nor.ente ·r into Parties, but by the new Scheme m1ght be apt to be alarm' d. Faults on both~dt:s has, to my thinking, a . good dea_l of plam common Senfe in it, whtch Expenence has. all along jufl:ify'd and I dare fay always wtll. And commo~ Senre at this time of Day, 1 take to be a great Comme11dation to a Paper, and that this Writer feldom lofes light of, except where his Caufe obliges him to quit it; which it does in feveral places, but no where more than where he fpeaks of Credir, a\1 whl~h IS as mean, as the late Ef[ay upon that SubJ~et ; and tha£ I take to be the molt affe(ted uncommon myfterious Piece of Nonfenfe, even this wonderful Year has produc'd. . Taking there Papers together, there 1s .o.ne thing in th em, for which I mighnly adm1re the able Architefl: under whom they have all been form'd · and that is the Difference of Spiri[ one fee~ in them, according to the fe_ve,- al forts of Readers they are intended to 1·01· pofe on. ' One makes great Court to the ~o- B 2 rres, |