582 Echard’s Contempt of Clergy. [Dxc. 
and the noise thereof come grumbling down like a Cart over a Wooden 
Bridge, I will not say but that a small lad or so, of a tender constitution, 
may chance tocreep underneath the Table. But to make an end, Sir, of this; 
questionless there is a very peculiar and secret worth in several authors ; and _ 
if you want a bit of ancient authority, to plant classically upon the Title-page 
of your Book, there is none that is more fit, or has been more serviceable, 
than the worthy Poet before mentioned. Nay, so serviceable has he been in 
this kind, that I durst almost venture to say, that if he should by any misfor- 
tune be afterwards utterly lost, he might be so far picked up by Pieces out of 
Title Pages, that there should scarce be wanting one “roy & amopxerGorev0¢.”” 
Ina similar vein he disparages the reading usual at colleges, and recom- 
mends that good English books should be substituted for the poets of 
Greece and Rome. We are sorry that he has not given a list of those 
whom he would have recommended: Milton, certainly, would not have 
been one. The want of reading English books, he contends, prevents 
youth from acquiring a good English style :— 
« It is very curious to observe, what delicate Letters your Young Students 
write after they have got a little Smack of University Learning! In what 
Elaborate Heights and Tossing Nonsense will they greet a down right English 
Father, or a Country Friend! Ifthere be a plain Word in it, and such is 
used at home, this tastes not, say they, of Education amongst Philosophers, 
and it is counted damnable Duncery and want of Phansie: because, Your 
Loving Friend, or Humble Servant, is a common Phrase in Country Letters ; 
therefore the Young Lpistler is Yours to the Antipodes, or at least to the 
Centre of the Earth ; and because ordinary folks Love and Respect you, there- 
fore you are to him the Pole Star, a Jacob’s Staff, a Load-Stone, and a Damask 
Rose. 
« And the Misery of it is, this pernicious accustomed way of Expression, 
does not only oft times go along with them to their Benefice, but accom- 
panies them to their very grave; and for the most part an Ordinary Cheese- 
monger, or Plumb-seller, that scarce ever heard of an university, shall write 
much better sense, and more to the purpose than these young Philosophers, 
who injudiciously hunting only for great Words, make. themselves learnedly 
ridiculous.” 
Beyond question, if they followed the dialect in which this censure 
upon them is written, they could not be accused of aiming at a very 
elevated standard of composition ! 
But the mischief was not confined to letter-writing. The mode of 
education at colleges was the cause of “ the high-tossing and swaggering 
preaching—either mountingly eloquent, or profoundly learned :” and 
here begins the most amusing part of his book. He proceeds to give 
examples of false taste in preaching, as his model, Lucian, in the 
LuyyeaPay, gives examples of the false taste of his contemporary histo- 
rians. First we have the metaphorical preacher :— 
«* For example, perhaps one Gentleman’s Metaphorical Knack of Preach- 
ing comes of the Sea, and then we shall hear of nothing but Star-board, 
and Lar-board, of Stems, Sterns, and Forecastles, and such like salt-water 
language: So that one had need take a voyage to Smyrna or Aleppo, 
and very warily attend to all the Sailor’s terms, before I shall in the least 
understand any Teacher. Now, although such a Sermon may possibly do 
some good in a coast Town, yet upward into the Country in an inland Parish, 
it will do no more than Syriack or Avabick. Another he falls a fighting with 
his Text, and make a pitched Battle of it, dividing it into the Right Wing and 
the Left Wing, then he Rears it, flanks it, intrenches it, storms it; then he 
musters all again, to see what word was lost, or lam’d in the Skirmish, and 
