r 51 I 



not be underftood that excellence in compofition was at that time 

 no where to be met with. Dryden ftands a great and illuftrious 



inftance 



In his Trad on tlie Gunpowder Treafon, he talks of " the head contrivers of it, 

 and of " heading the party that was thereabouts." 



" They that knew their own work and were affigned to fome particular ofEce, ■ 

 " might know no more what they did, than every little officer in a regiment is 

 " acquainted with the debates and refolves of a council of war." Two inftances 

 of impropriety, every for any, and little for petty. Of debates and refolves one is fu-. ■ 

 pcrfluou's. 



" Infomuch that full and clear evidence as we might have had, &c." " It was ne- ■ 

 " ceflary for them to Jlaitd upon their own vindication, and to vindicate themfelves after 

 « the moll folemn way imaginable." Inaccurate connection and tautology. 



« Till this order was univerfally dijfohed and extirpated." Synonimous. " If fo he 

 " it might be done." Vulgarifni. " I ftiall (hew they might Jiand upon their own 

 " innocency and juftification to the death." In his Letter on the Difcovery of the 

 Plot, he fays, " the Church has not been aHed with the fame fpirit, )ior followed the 

 " fame dodrines, &c." ^Bed ufcd improperly for aBuated, and twr ufed for or. , 

 '< Thefe doftrines will foon be taken off the fie." A trite and degrading metaphor. 



Atterbury on the Miraculous Propagation of the Gofpel, fays, (and certainly it is 

 not one of his moft faulty fentences) " Its original fuccefs was a perpetual fanding mi- 

 «* racle of fufficient force to evince its divine extradlion, from the beginning of 

 " Chrijlianity to the end of it." It was unneceflary to fay, that what was a perpetual 

 miracle was alfo a Jlanding one ; and that is unqueftionably carelefs and Inaccurate 

 compofition, in which one finds fuch a claufe as this, where he talks of " the 

 " extraBion of Chrifianity, from the beginning to the end of it. Chrifianity, too, is here 

 " ufed for the Chri/iian ura. 



" The Mofaic law was intended for a fingle people, who were to be fliut in, as it 

 «' were, by z fence of legal rites and typical ceremonies, and to be kept by tpat means 

 *« feparate and unmixed till the MefTiah fliould appear, and break down the fence, and 

 « lay open the enclofure." This paflage exemplifies more faults than one -, it will fuffice 

 however to remark, that it contains a metaphor expanded till it becomes vapid and 

 puerile. 



(G2) Oil 



