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TOLAND's LIFE OF

"efteem or difefteem myfelf or any other the "more for that, is too fimple and too credulous "in the confuter, if he thinks to obtain with me

or any right difcerner. Of finall practice was "that phyfician who could not judg by what both "fhe or her fifter have of a long time vomited, "that the worfer ftuff fhe ftrongly keeps in her

ftomach, but the better fhe is ever kecking at, "and is queafy. She vomits now out of fick"nefs, but e're it be well with her she muft vomit "by ftrong phyfic.-The fuburb wherin I dwell "fhall be in my account a more honorable place "than his univerfity; which, as in the time of "her better health, and my own younger judg

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ment, I never greatly admir'd, fo now much lefs." This is not the only paffage of the Apology, wherin he teftifys his contemt of the univerfities; for in another place he fays, "that what "with truanting and debauchery, what with falfe 66 grounds, and the weaknefs of natural faculties "in many of them (it being a maxim with fom

men to fend the fimpleft of their fons thither) "perhaps there would be found among them as 66 many unfolid and corrupted judgments, both in "doctrin and life, as in any other two corpora"tions of like bignefs. This is undoubted, that "if any carpenter, fmith, or weaver, were fuch a "bungler in his trade, as the greater number of "them are in their profeffion, he would ftarve for

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any custom and fhould he exercife his manu"facture as little as they do their talents, he would forget his art or fhould he mistake his tools as they do theirs, he would mar all the work he " took

"took in hand. How few among them that know "how to write or speak in a pure stile, much less

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to diftinguish the ideas and various kind of "ftile! In Latin barbarous, and oft not without "folccifms, declaming in rugged and mifcellaneous gear blown together by the four winds; "and in their choice preferring the gay rankness "of APULEIUS, ARNOBIUS, or any modern Fuftianift, before the native Latinisms of CICERO. "In the Greec tongue most of them unletter'd or "unenter'd to any found proficiency in those Attic "mafters of wisdom and eloquence. In the Hebrew text, except it be fom few of them, their lips are utterly uncircumcis'd. No lefs are they out of the way in philofophy, pestring their heads with "the faplefs dotages of old Paris and Salamanca. "His antagonist infinuating a malicious reprefenta"tion even of his early rifing, he tells him, that his "morning haunts are, where they fhould be, at "home; not fleeping, or concocting the furfeits "of an irregular feast, but up and stirring; in "winter often before the found of any bell awake <6 men to labor or devotion; in fummer as oft with. "the bird that firft roufes, or not much tardier, to "read good authors, or cause them to be read, till "the attention be weary, or memory have its full fraught. Then with useful and generous labors

preferving the bodys health and hardinefs, to "render a lightfom, clear, and not a lumpish obe"dience to the mind, for the cause of religion,

and our country's liberty, when it fhall require "firm hearts in found bodies to ftand and cover "their stations, rather than fee the ruin of our

"proteftation, and the inforcement of a flavifli "life." Paffing over his ferious and juft apology for frequenting playhouses, I fhall fubjoin the reafon he gives why fom terms of the ftage might appear in his writings without having learnt them in the theater ; "which was not needful, fays he, "when in the colleges fo many of the young

divines, and thofe in next aptitude to divinity, "have bin feen fo often on the ftage, writhing "and unboning their clergy lims to all the antic "and difhoneft geftures of trinculos, buffoons, "and bauds: proftituting the fhame of that miniftry, which either they had or were nigh having,

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to the eys of courtiers and court ladys, with "their grooms and mademoifelles. There while

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they acted and overacted, among other young "fcholars I was a fpectator; they thought them"felves gallant men, and I thought them fools; "they made sport, and I laugh'd; they mif

pronounc'd, and I miflik'd; and, to make «Ε up the atticism, they were out, and I hift." He was to anfwer next to the heavy charge of leudnefs with common proftitutes; and because the account he gives of himfelf upon this occafion, and of that part of his poetry which regards the affairs of love, is not only effential to the hiftory of his life, but of good inftruction alfo to fuch as read fuch pleasant and alluring books, I fuppofe none will be offended with me for laying it here before them. "I had my time, fays he, like others "that have good learning beftow'd upon them, to "be sent to thofe places where the opinion was it might be foonest attain'd; and, as the manner

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❝is, was not unstudy'd in those authors which are "moft commended. Of these fom were grave "orators and hiftorians, whofe matter methought "I lov'd indeed; but as my age then was, fo I "understood them. Others were the fmooth ele

giac poets, wherof the fchools are not scarce, "whom both for the pleafing found of their nu"merous writings (which in imitation I found "moft eafy, and moft agreable to nature's part "in me) and for their matter, which what it is "there be few who know not, I was fo allur'd to "read, that no recreation came to me more wel

com for that it was then those years with me, " which are excus'd tho they be leaft fevere, I may "be fav'd the labor to remember you. Whence

having obferv'd them to account it the chief glory "of their wit that they were ableft to judg to praise, "and by that could efteem themselves worthieft to "love those high perfections, which under one or "other name they took to celebrat; I thought "with my felf by every inftinct and prefage of nature (which is not wont to be falfe) that what "embolden'd them to this tafk, might with fuch diligence as they us'd embolden me and that "what judgment, wit, or elegance, was my share, "would herein best appear, and best value it self, “by how much more wifely and with more love "of virtue I should chufe (let rude ears be abfent) "the object of not unlike praises. For tho thefe "thoughts to fom will feem virtuous and com

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mendable, to others only pardonable, to a third "fort perhaps idle; yet the mentioning of them << now will end in ferious. Nor blame it, readers,

"in thofe years to propose to themselves fuch a rẻ "ward as the nobleft difpofitions above other things "in this life have fometimes prefer'd: wherof not "to be fenfible, when good and fair in one person

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meet, argues both a grofs and fhallow judgment, "and withal an ungentle and fwainish breast. For by the firm fettling of these perfuafions I became (to my best memory) fo much a pro"ficient, that if I found thofe authors any where speaking unworthy things of themselves, or un"chaft of those names which before they had extol'd, this effect it wrought with me, that from "that time forward their art I ftill applauded, but "the men I deplor'd; and above them all pre"fer'd the two famous renowners of BEATRICE "and LAURA, who never write but honor of them to whom they devoté their verfe, displaying "fublime and pure thoughts without tranfgreffion. "And long it was not after, when I was confirm'd "in the opinion that he, who would not be fru"ftrated of his hope to write well hereafter in "laudable things, ought himself to be a true

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poem; that is, a compofition and pattern "of the best and honorableft things: not prefuming to fing the high praises of heroic men or "famous cities, unless he has in himself the experi

ence and the practice of all that is praiseworthy. "These reasonings, together with a certain nice"ness of nature, an honest haughtiness and self"esteem either of what I was, or what I might be

(which let envy call pride) and lastly, a becoming "modefty, all uniting the fupply of their natural "aid together, kept me ftill above thofe low de

"fcents