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قراءة كتاب Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley (1712) and The British Academy (1712)
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Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley (1712) and The British Academy (1712)
id="reflections">REFLECTIONS
ON
Dr. Swift’s
LETTER
TO THE
Earl of OXFORD,
ABOUT THE
Engliſh Tongue.
LONDON:
Sold by A. Baldwin at the Oxford Arms in
Warwick-Lane. (Price Six Pence.)
THE
PREFACE
THE Bold Manner of publishing the Letter for correcting, improving, and ascertaining the English Tongue, made me conclude there was something very extraordinary in it, and more than any one could expect from Persons that were never thought to trouble themselves much about Fine Language. But upon dipping into it, I found there was nothing worthy the Character the Author acquir’d by other Ingenious Pieces in our Tongue, tho’ I confess, it was not so much for the Beauty of his Style as for other Qualities, some of which a Divine need not brag of.
’Tis probable, our late Correspondence with France put such a Whim into some Folks Heads, and because they have an Academy for the same Use at Paris, we forsooth must have one at London. The Foreign News, which sometimes tells us more Truth of our doings here than our own, has the very Names of the Members of the Academy which the Doctor speaks of. I do not find that it is come to any thing more yet than meeting over a Bottle once a Week, and being Merry. At which Times People mind talking much, more than talking well. I shou’d have taken what is printed in the Amsterdam Gazette to have been only a dull Dutch Jest upon those Men, if this Letter had not been written, and some broad Hints given, that we are to be happier than we thought of, and to be surpriz’d with a Society that shall make us as Polite as that of Reformation has made us Godly; and I wish it may answer the Ends of it with all my Heart. But the more I reflected upon this Project and the Projectors, the more I was diffident of it, for the Reasons mention’d in the following Pages.
I know very well the Epistle has but a sorry Reputation, even with the Writer’s own Party, that it is looked upon as a silly superficial Performance, and to be design’d only for an Opportunity to shew what a Nack he has at Panegyrick. Be that as it will, after I had consider’d the Subject he writes more leisurely than I was won’t to do, I was loth to lose those Considerations; and having put ’em into this Form, I flatter’d my self the Publick would not receive them ill; at least all those whom Faction and Prejudice have not render’d Insensible of Truth and Reason, and to such, a Man must be well set to work that writes a Task suitable to the Integrity and Ability of Abel and his Brethren, among whom I am very unwilling to reckon our Author.
REFLECTIONS
ON
Dr. Swift’s Letter,
ABOUT
Refining the English Tongue.
I Should be guilty of the greatest Folly in the World, if I should go about to give a Character of Persons of whom I have no manner of Knowledge. To speak well or ill of ’em wou’d be equally Ridiculous and Dangerous: For it must be all Invention, and I might then abuse a Man both in my Praise and Dispraise. It is thus with me with Respect to the Author of the Letter lately publish’d about our Language, and to his Patron. I know neither of them, and if I say a Word more than themselves, or the World have said of them, I must have recourse to Fiction, which I cannot think of without abhorrence, where Reputation is concern’d.
That good old Church Martyr the Earl of Strafford was of Opinion, Common Fame was enough to hang a Man, as in the Case of the Duke of Buckingham, when he was impeach’d by the Commons for Male Practices in his Ministry; and there were no better Grounds for accusing him, than that every Body said so. I am quite of another Mind, and let the World say what they will of any one, I am for condemning no body but whom the Law Condemns, and therefore in these Reflections I shall not consider so much how to please the Spleen of one Party, as how to expose the Arrogance of another, who would lord it over us in every Thing, and not only force their Principles upon us, but their Language, wherein they endeavour to ape their good Friends the French, who for these three or fourscore Years have been attempting to make their Tongue as Imperious as their Power.
This most Ingenious Writer has so great a Value for his own Judgment in Matters of Stile, that he has put his Name to his Letter, and a Name greater than his own, as if he meant to Bully us into his Methods for pinning down our Language and making it as Criminal to admit Foreign Words as Foreign Trades, tho’ our Tongue may be enrich’d by the one, as much as our Traffick by the other. Page 28. He would have it corrected, enlarg’d and ascertain’d and who must do it? He tells you with great Modesty and Discernment in the 27th Page, The Choice of Hands should be left to him, and he would then assign it over to the Women, because they are softer mouth’d, and are more for Liquids than the Men, as he try’d himself in a very notable Experiment. I wonder a grave, serious Divine, who is so well vers’d in College Learning, should in Compliment to a certain Lady, whose Breeding and Conversation must have given her wonderful Opportunities to refine our Tongue, imagine, that the Two Universities would give up so Essential a Branch of their Privileges to the Ladies, and take from them the Standard of English. This puts me in mind of Fontenelle’s way of Learning a Language, which he recommends to be by having an Intrigue with some Fair Foreigner; and beginning with the Verb I Love, You Love, &c. It is well enough from Him, a Papist, or Layman, but for a Protestant Divine to erect an Academy of Women to improve our Stile, is very extraordinary and gallant, and little agrees with the cruel Quotation of the Author of the Tale of a Tub, p. 163.
Cunnus Teterrimi Belli
Causa
That Excellent Moralist has not been pleas’d to discover himself, nor to Print his Name, but has set his Mark to his Works, which he has Embellish’d with new Flowers of Rhetorick, that shew what a Genius he has for refining Language, and how happily one may use the Figures of Cursing, Swearing, and Bawdy, which before were entirely exploded. Tho’ we cannot well suppose the Writer of that Merry Tale is any way related to the Author of the Letter, yet out of my great Zeal to promote his Project of polishing Us, I must refer to some shining Passages in