The _Declamatory_ Stile, another great Vice in Eloquence, is the Characteristick of these _Essays_; tho' I question not but it is thought to be the very Cream of the Discourse. If 'tis excuseable any where it is in Country Pulpits, where, if a Parcel of Words are well put together, we should not be too scrupulous about the Sense. _Then Commerce must give way to Religion, Baptism sway the Indenture, and the Gospel govern the_ Exchange. Are not the Gospel, Baptism, and Religion, the Exchange, Indenture, and Commerce, the same Things in the _Contrast_. I am far from affecting a foreign Word when we have as good a one of our own, much less when we have a better; and _Attitude_ and _Contrast_ may be supplied by _Posture_ and _Opposition_, if the Reader pleases; out the former was used for Decorum sake, the idea being too gross when in an _English_ Dress. The Author is again declaiming: _It may be the Failing of Drunkenness is imperceptible in the single Instance, 'twill rise in the Sum_; _To go always a little out of the Way makes a strange Mistake upon the progress_; _A Grain will grew to a Burthen by Addition_; _To be always dipping an Estate, is the Way to turn Beggar_; _A Drop that's perpetually pelting Will make a Stone give way._ How new, how eloquent is all this, and that which comes after! He is preaching to the Booksellers about selling _Arian Books_, _Sceptical Books_, _Books of Divorce_, _Impotence_, &c. _Whatever they think on't,_ Atheism _and_ Lewdness _is the most fatal Mortality_;--_The Plague of the Heart the most frightful Distemper_--_Infection is safer lodged in the Veins, than in the Will_--_A Man had much better be poyson'd in his Blood, than in his Principle._ The Stream is the same still, but as a Boar pisses it comes by Spirts. Again, _Are we never to do any Thing without a Majority_; _If we are govern'd by Numbers, we shall live strangely_; _If you go to Poll, Sense and Conscience will lose it in most Cases._ Of all the Modern Criticks, who have given us Rules, Dr. _Felton_ upon the _Classicks_ is the Author, who seems to have stood most upon his own Legs: Others have learnt much of the _French_, and have been much blam'd for it by those who have and have not read their Books. _Rymer_ confesses the _French_ began the _Art_ of _Criticism_ among the Moderns: _They fell not to it in earnest_, says he, in his Preface to _Rapin_, _till the_ Royal Academy _was founded,_ and _Cardinal_ Richelieu _encourag'd and rally'd all the scatter'd Wits under his Banner: Then_ Malherbe _reform'd their ancient licentious Poetry._ _Malherbe_ died Seven Years before the _Royal Academy_ was thought of; however he did begin the Reformation of the _French_ Poetry, and was happily follow'd by _Voiture_, _Sarazin_, _Maynard_, _Godeau_, &c. The _Academy_ have indeed assum'd to themselves the sole Glory of refining the _French_ Tongue, tho' they can by no means engross the Merit of it. _Malherbe_ began it before they had a Being, and several