However, let such Statesmen as de Cros; or such Criticks as our Advertiser, or Malice and Detraction it self, say what they will of the Memoirs; I dare answer for all Scholars and Lovers of Learning, that they shall pay the Honour and Esteem which is, and will be ever justly due to the Miscellanea; and shall not only find what is pleasing and instructing, but also something that is new and surprizing whenever they read [them,] let this Author’s Stile be as Luscious and Affected as it will; which is all I need say for the poor Bookseller’s sake.
The second Criticism the Advertiser mentions, is upon the Digressions, tho he is so good to confess himself not of their Opinion who find fault with them. But I wish he had made a fairer Quotation in a Line or two out of one of them, by which he would seem to make Sir W. T. say, That Prince Maurice’s Parrot spoke, and askt, and answered common Questions like a reasonable Creature: Tho indeed he only says, That his curiosity made him enquire from the first hand about such a common Story, Of a Parrot that spoke, &c.
For my self, I must needs say, that that Digression gave me not only some Entertainment when I read it, but a good deal of thought since; and the more, because I remember one of the Athenian Mercuries, in Answer to a Question sent them upon this very Story, seem’d to allow the thing possible. But after all my rambling thoughts upon that Subject, I must leave it to better Reasoners than my self to determine, whether Speech and Reason are so individual, that whatever Creature has any share in the one, must be allow’d to partake of the other. However it be, the Letter I have been lately observing, has throughly convinc’d me, that whether a Man may Speak or no, at least he may Write without Reason. But this I am sure is a Digression in me, whatever it was in the Author of the Memoirs.
The last Criticism the Advertiser mentions, is, That in these Memoirs there are several Persons, Eminent both for their Station and Quality, and some of them still alive, treated with so much Freedom, and so little Ceremony. This in my slender Judgment, appears a more extraordinary Objection, than the other two. For I had ever imagined, that the very Ratio formalis of a good History, or Memoirs, had been the Truth of them, which it is impossible should ever appear without great Freedom, and little Ceremony, either to the Persons they represent, or concerning the Actions they relate. And this in my Opinion, gives the great and general Esteem that is deservedly put upon the Memoirs of Philip de Comines, whose Stile seems very mean and vulgar, but his Freedom great, and Ceremony very little, either with those two Great Princes that were his Masters, or in any Account he gives of Actions, or of Persons, tho many of these were probably alive at the time of Writing or Publishing these Memoirs. But in truth since his time, his Method has been very little pursued, and more is the pity, since it has made so much room, and so unworthily, for the fulsome Flatteries, and nauseous Panegyricks of so many Books or Prefaces as have over-run the Press in our Age; which not only endeavour to put Shams and Cheats upon Mankind; but are, I doubt, of great Mischief to the Interests and Concernments of those Countries where they grow. For let the Criticks say what they please against writing Story with too much Freedom, and too little Ceremony, I am a little disposed to believe, That if there were more such Authors, there would not be so many such Actors, as have been so often seen upon the Publick Stages of the World; who, like Rooks when they are gotten to the Top-branches of great Trees, think only of building their own Nests as high as they can, and feathering them as well as they can, without any care how the Tree thrives under them, or whether by their Muting and Fluttering about, they spoil the Branches and Leaves of that Tree it self where they were bred, or found shelter. Peradventure such Actors would not have plaid such Parts upon the Stage, if they had not trusted to the Disguises and Masks they were in, or had suspected they would be pull’d off by some plain, rough hand, either while the Play lasts, or as soon as ’tis ended. For men are seldom so harden’d, as to grow totally careless of their Names, and their Memories, after they are dead, tho they may hope to escape while they are alive.
For these and some other such trivial Reasons, I must profess, I cannot joyn heartily with the Criticks in this last Objection; but shall be very glad to joyn with the Advertiser in believing, or at least in wishing, that Sir W. T. would be prevailed with by the Letter, or this Advertisement, to take some notice himself either of the one, or the other, which might possibly make the Press some amends for this Scribble of mine; at least it would me, who should think my self very well rewarded by it. For whatever Passion de Cros, or the Advertiser, or any of those US’s he speaks of in the beginning of his short Paper, may have against the Author, I shall ever have as much Passion for his Writings. And as for this of my own, I pretend to no more, than to be forgiven by him and other Men, because it is my first Essay, and for ought I yet know, it may be my last.
