II. DIAL. a different humour, wou'd tell you, that Minerva her felf, the goddess of Eloquence, is reprefented with a helmet, a fpear, and Medufa's dreadful head. Very improper em blems of smoothness. EUDOX. Not only I put no farther stress upon fuch applications, but even. I will own, that upon the whole business of Mythology, I am much pleased, but little convinced with all the wit of our admirable Lord Bacon upon that subject o. CRITOM. However, it cannot be denied but there is often fomething very becoming in a manly roughness, and that fome Authors in the defign'd fierceness of their looks, have a pleasing aspect, as Taffo" fays of Dorinda, Armò d'orgoglio il bel volto, e ficompiacque And to use a different comparison, there is often a hard and rugged Style which includes the most exquifite thoughts, as fome fine fruits are within a hard and rugged fhell. a Libro de fapientiâ veterum. EUDOX. Juft, I fuppofe, as there is fometimes a fharp wit under a thick and hard skull. As I remember to have read in Fanus Nicius Erythraus, who was pleas'd fo to metamorphofe his name from John Victor Roffi; that Nicholas Richardi, who was counted a very great wit, had a vaft head, and fo thick a skull, that with one blow he would break peach-ftones upon it. Yet this will not make a hard skull pass for a commendation. And though a thin, foft skull, is as little a compliment, yet I have heard of a very tender one that inclosed a sharp and folid wit. And if you are not tired with thefe kind of applications, I will add, in one more; that fierce, rough, and dreadful writers, put me in mind of the humour of Baffianus or Caracalla Emperor, who because he was ugly, endeavoured to make himself terrible. Yet it is related of him, he was fo cowardly that he durft not put on true armour, but had his clothes made fo like armour, that he was almost thought armed. In this excess of fear, when he paffed through Macedonia, he wou'd imitate Alexander, and be call'd Magnus, and at Ilium he wou'd needs be Achilles. Thus, it is often a natural consciousness of a weak reason, that makes many feek to cover it with dreadful words. In his Pinacothecâ. DIAL. II. But DIAL. But then if cowards are never more cerII. tainly discover'd at last, than by too great an affectation of Courage and Heroifm, those authors are never more certainly found weak, than by too great an affectation of ftrength. Methinks I wou'd have fuch Authors farther imitate Baffianus, and stamp their books, as he did his Medals, with a Lyon radiant with thunder in his mouth: And his own medals are observed to be made frowning. t CLEAND. Or if you will give me leave to put in my thought, I wou'd have in the front of their works, one ftand with a most terrible broad-brimm'd hat, and waift-belt, and write under thefe two verfes from the Prologue to the Conqueft of Granada; "It were a fhame an author fhou'd be kill'd "Under the shelter of fo broad a fhield. I am the more inclined to this fancy, because if those dreadful Styles fhou'd gain repute, we should certainly be forced to apply what follows in that Prologue, while thundering large words wou'd increase, as much as the hats, which made him say, "The brims ftill grew with ev'ry play they "writ, "And grew fo large, they cover'd all the wit. t Apud O.W. Part 2. Chap. 13. §. 3. CRITOM. " DIAL. CRITOM. All your pleasantry upon those II. terrible authors, may pass if you carry your severity no farther than Balzac", who ridicules an over-fierce Pedant, that, as he expreffes it, was for breaking guittars and flutes, and wou'd have no mufick but drums and trumpets, and have nothing of a milder found than Inferni raptoris equos, afflataque curru CLEAND. I wonder to hear Balzac cited against that sort of writers; for, as far as I remember, he has a rattling kind of a pen. EUDOX. Yet it cannot be denied but he had many true notions of a smoother and milder ftrain than his own. To mention no other place of his, you may see it here in a place not far from that mention'd by Critomachus; it lately fell into my hands. Speaking of some Iambicks made by one de la Cafa, "I will own (fays he ") they are not "fublime, they have nothing of the tem"peftuous and thundering, as the Pedant calls it. But methinks the Sea in a rage, " and the Heavens in a flame, are not the "moft agreeable objects. Muft we not "efteem the clearhefs of fountains, and u Oeuvres Diverfes. Entr. 4. Chap. 5. w Ibid. Chap. 8. E "the DIAL. "the fereneness of a summer's day, because II. " that Doctor likes nothing but obscurity "and ftorms?" Hereupon, if you will give me leave to paraphrase the video meliora, proboque, Deteriora fequor, of Ovid, I will say, "Thus men in Styles, as in a virtuous course, Approve the better, but embrace the "worse. CRITOM. Pray, Sir, reach me your Cowley there, and I will fhew you a place in the preface which will, perhaps, make you abate fomething of your rigour in these points. Here, fpeaking of Mr. Cowley's verfe, "If in fome places (fays Dr. Sprat) "they seem not fo fmooth as fome would "have them, it was his choice, not his "fault. He knew that in diverting mens. "minds, there fhou'd be the fame variety as "in the profpects of their eyes; where a "rock, a precipice, or a rifing wave, is "often more delightful than a smooth even "ground, or a calm fea." EUDOX. Dr. Sprat is so good a judge, and himself so good a pattern of Style, (as far as I can guefs by that preface, which is the only thing of him I have seen) that I fhall not in the least question what he there |