you with an excufe from thofe and other motives, and leave the whole matter to thofe Readers, who, like fociable friendly guests, can be contented with a frugal entertainment, without any haughty comparisons of me with themfelves. For thus

I explain or apply the words of Juvenal :

·Superbum

Convivam çaveo qui me fibi comparat,

res

Defpicit exiguas,

BUT to conclude this Preface, which is running too great a length, I will only add, that I am very far from imagining I have either fully complied with the precepts, or avoided the faults I have obferved in others. We often, no less in writing than in morals, fee what ought to

Sat. 11. ver. 129.

be

be done, while in these we will not, and in those we cannot perform it ourfelves. And in fine, I have in this kind what Cicero calls fo unfatiable an ear, that it always defires, even where it's pleased the most, fomething still more perfect.

h

h Non affequimur, at quid deceat videmus: nec enim nunc de nobis, fed de re dicimus: In quo tantùm abeft ut noftra miremur, ut ufque eò difficiles & morofi fimus, ut nobis non fatisfaciat ipfe Demofthenes: qui quanquam unus eminet inter omnes in omni genere dicendi, non tamen femper implet aures meas; ita funt avide & capaces, femper aliquid immenfum, infinitumque defiderant. In Oratore, paulo ante medium.

RE

CLEANDER. Perhaps then we shall foon have your name in Print, with an attempt at his excellent Style.

EUDOX. Pardon me, Sir,

Had I any

thoughts of being an Author, I fhou'd be very far from making him my pattern.

CLEAND. May be you admire him fo much, that you think him beyond imitation: And that, I affure you, is the opinion of most who read him.

DIAL.

I.

EUDOX. At least 1 muft beg leave to declare it is not mine. I will own his Style may be much wonder'd at, but I am not fo much for admiring it.

CLEAND. Why, what difference do you make here between wondring and admiring?

EUDOX. I am not for difputing upon words. But, methinks, we wonder at any thing which is ftrange, tho' we properly only admire what has fome extraordinary perfection.

CLEAND. Iperceive Callicrates has had the misfortune to fall into your hands at a bad conjuncture, and to find you in a critical, and, I fear, an exceptious humour.

EUDOX. By no means. I fhall not queftion but difference of humour may very much influence the judgment: But, you may believe me, I began to read him with a very favourable prevention. Tho', to be plain, I am never fo prevail'd upon by the reputation of an Author, as not to retain the liberty of my opinion. As I love to fee with my own eyes, fo I am for judging by my own reafon. And what inclines me to a greater freedom in this point, is, that I fuppofe whoever appears in print, to recompense

compense the pains we take in perusing his DIAL. work, will allow us the freedom of our I. judgment; and putting himself into the hands of all, he must expect to fall under the cenfure of fome.

CLEAND. Are you refolved then to cenfure Callicrates, in spite of his numerous admirers?

EUDOX. He may juftly have many admirers in other refpects, but I believe his Style is disliked by great numbers. However, granting what you are pleased to believe, yet if I were fo disposed, I could perhaps give many reasons to justify my refolution. Tho', I confess, it is hard to hold up against the common consent.

CLEAND. Not hard only, but rafh too, and apt to expofe one to publick laughter.. It is never thought any great commendation to disagree from all the world befides ; and the name of a Diffenter in matters of this nature, lies heavier upon a man's reputation than it does now-a-days among us in point of Religion. You remember too what we lately read together in Pliny's Epiftles", In numero ipfo eft quoddam magnum collatumque confilium: quibufque fingulis judicii parum, omnibus plurimum. This applied

a Lib. 7. Epift. 17.

0.7.

B 2

to