surely the least ally’d to Politeness that deals in Old Musty Manuscripts, and affects a Knowledge in Tongues which have not one Polite Book to recommend them. How such a Quality can be serviceable to the Advancement of Wit and Eloquence, I cannot conceive; but there are some Characters in the World, that encroach upon all others, and some Men that for their Interest will say any thing that comes uppermost, either for or against another. The Knowledge of Tongues is certainly very useful; but if a Person knows a great many Ancient and Modern, and can hardly speak intelligibly in his own, He shou’d be no Orator for me. I would no more value his Learning than Sir Hudibras’s, of which the Doctor puts me in mind more than once by his Compliments, especially of this Passage in the first Canto.

The rest of Sir Hudibras’s Merit in Letters is of a Piece, and set off with a Puritanical Air, that renders the whole truly Ridiculous, and makes a good Comment on several Pages of the Doctor’s Epistle, which is most valuable for the great Judgment and Sincerity that he has shewn in it.

It has already been observ’d, that Horace asserts Osse to be the only Rule of Language; and the Letter-Writer repeats what he says, of Words going off and perishing like Leaves, and new ones coming in their Places,C which he tells us did not approve of Horace, notwithstanding his own Law of paying Obedience to usage. For if that were necessary, what, according to our Author, would become of his Monumentum Ære perennius? Did not the Roman Tongue even by his own confession, change as much as ours has done. The Latin Three Hundred Years before Tully was as unintelligible in his Time as the English and French of the same Period are now. And the Corruptions afterwards by the Barbarians made it as different from Cicero’s as Ennius’s; yet amidst all those variations, Horace’s Works are still Monumentum ære perennius. When a Tongue is come to any degree of Perfection, whoever writes well in it will Live; there’s a Thirst after Wit in all Ages, and those that have a Taste of it will distinguish the Thought from the Diction.  Chaucer will, no doubt, be admir’d as long as the English Tongue has a Being; and the Changes that have happen’d to our Language have not hinder’d his Works out living their Contemporary Monuments of Brass or Marble.

The Doctor may as well set up a Society to find out the Grand Elixir, the Perpetual Motion, the Longitude, and other such Discoveries, as to fix our Language beyond their own Times. The Test of their Successors will vary with the Age, and their Rules grow obsolete as well as their Words. He would make us believe, that the French Academy have not been able to preserve their Language from Decay, and who are the Men in Britain who pretend to greater Genius for Eloquence than the most Polite of the Politest Nation in Europe. Mr. Waller Elegantly complains of the Change which necessarily happens to Stile, and does it however in Language which shews, that the Doctor need not be afraid of People’s forgetting his Patron a Hundred Years hence, if he can write as good English upon him now, as Mr. Waller did on this Subject Threescore Years ago.

Our Author sees no necessity of this Changing our Language. What has been the Fate of all Tongues Ancient and Modern, and for the same Reasons will Eternally be so, he wou’d defend ours from, because the Chinese have Books in their Tongue above 2000 Years Old; And a History of 30000 Years Period with a Succession of Kings, 20000 Years before Adam. It wou’d be a Discovery worthy those Men who have lately been reconciling Contradictions, and building Arguments upon Nonsence, to find out that certain Standard for our Tongue, to which, if it were refin’d, he assures us, it might be fixt for Ever. This wou’d be doing what was never done before, what neither Roman nor Greek, which lasted the longest of any in its Purity, could pretend to. And this would not be the only strange thing that has lately happen’d to us, which never happen’d to a Nation before. It will be in vain to pretend to ascertain Language, unless they had the Secret of setting Rules for Thinking, and could bring Thought to a Standard too. For every Age, as well as every Nation, has its different manner of Thinking, of which the Expression and Words will always have a Relish, and be Barbarous or Polite, according as the Times take their Turn. If from the abundance of good Sense which appears lately in every thing we do, The Doctor can demonstrate, that we never were in a better way towards the Perfection of Thought and Language, let him set about his Academy as soon as he pleases. But if the contrary is apparent, it may not be improper to wait for some more propitious Opportunity. Besides, there will in all times be irregular Genius’s, who out of Humour will prefer Affectation to Nature, and mistake Novelty for Beauty. Boileau in his Reflections upon Longinus, has several Observations of this kind, which will shew the difference between true and false Judgment, by comparing what he writes with several Passages in the Doctor’s Letter; he is speaking of the Famous Ronsard and his Imitators, Du-Bellai, Du Bartas, Desportes, and other French Poets in the Reigns of Henry III. and IV. who were in great Fame for a long while, and when he wrote, sunk into the