C ) 
-wluch mull be the efFeSs of extraordinary Skill in this 
part of Knowledge, as any of thofe Nations which are 
lb much commended for Civil Prudence. ( Chap, x.} 
Next he goes to Oratory and Poefie. He liippofts that 
Virgil^ and Horner^ and Horace^ and Terence may have 
been better Poets than any of the Moderns in their fe- 
veral ways; and that Demojlhenes and Cicero have not 
been equalled by Modern Orators. He thinks that the 
Excellency of the Greek Poetry might at firft proceed 
from the manageablenefs of the Greek Language, and 
afterwards from the great Veneration which was paid to 
their Poets, which made very many pat in for the Prize, 
of whom fome few, one or two at lead of a fort, arri- 
ved to fo great an Excellency, that others have dclpaired 
to equal them, fince Imitation in thofe things, not only 
ceauleates but clogs Mens Parts. The Conftiturion of 
their Governments, which were chiefly Republican, ob- 
liged them likewife to ftudy Oratory, as a likely way 
to rife in their feveral States, for which Rcafon, as a- 
mongft many Rivals, fome grew very Excellent, 16 
when their Liberty was taken away by the Macedoniam^ 
their Eloquence decayed along with it. The fame Rea- 
fons may in his Opinion be afligncd for the Rife and De- 
cay of the Eloquence and Poetry. Though in 
fome fort of Compofures, Hiftories for Example, where 
Oratory has but a Secondary (hare, he believes that the 
Moderns may have equalled the Ancients; and he thinks 
that the Memoirs of Tbilip Comines^ and F. Pauh Hiftory 
of the Council of Trent^ may be fet againft any of the 
Hiftories of the Ancients with which it can be proper 
to compare them. (^Chap, 3.) 
h This leads him to Examine Monfieur Perraulis Hy po- 
thefis, who afferts that Modern Eloquence, and Modern 
Poetry are preferrable to the Ancient : There he goes 
through the (everal Reafons which Monfieur Perr^ult 
brings to eftablifli his Hypothefis, and concludes that 
they 
