English

Nation. Such a Device in so noble a Pile of Building looks like a Punn in an Heroick Poem; and I am very sorry the truly ingenious Architect would suffer the Statuary to blemish his excellent Plan with so poor a Conceit: But I hope what I have said will gain Quarter for the Cock, and deliver him out of the Lion's Paw.

I find likewise in ancient Times the Conceit of making an Eccho talk sensibly, and give rational Answers. If this could be excusable in any Writer, it would be in

Ovid

, where he introduces the Eccho as a Nymph, before she was worn away into nothing but a Voice.

[The]

learned

Erasmus

, tho' a Man of Wit and Genius, has composed a Dialogue

[4]