1798. ] 
am no hypocrite. I do not go in order 
to perfuade them to believe what I do not 
believe myfelf. A good moral fermon may : 
inftrué& and benefit them. I only fet 
them an example of liftening, not of be- 
lieving. 
XCVIII. METHODISM. 
My neighbour, Mrs. ***, is a rank 
methodift. She torments all the parifh. 
She wanted me to turn away an old fer- 
vant, becaufe he had two baftards. I 
pity her hufband. A man, occupied 
with India and China, to be plagued 
with a methodift wife! She wants to 
eonvert him. This China, indeed, isa 
bad dofe. Hundreds of millions who 
have never heard of Chrift and Judea, nor 
of Mahomet and Arabia! 
vator Mundi, die to no purpofe! To 
fave the hundredth part of the hundredth, 
part of a fraétion of mankind! What 
an infult to the faith! We ought to 
have a crufade againft thofe Chinete, and 
baptizethem in their blood, by all means. 
The thocking infidels! 
XCIX. ARMSTRONG’S WORKS, 
Dr. Armftrong’s Poem on Health is 
very well. Iwas induced t°other day to 
glance at his own colleétion of his works 
in two {mall volumes. His pride is moft 
difgufting. If you believe him there was 
no judge of poetry in England—except 
himfelt. An author fhould either know, 
or fuppofe, that there are in this en- 
lightened country thoulands of readers, 
who might perhaps write as well as him- 
felf, on any topic; but who, at any rate, 
may be fuperior judges, tho’ they be too 
Jazy to cali their tafte into active exertion. 
His profe is quaint and uninterefting ; 
often puerile.—I only remember his ob- 
jection to the phrafe /ubjec?-matter, which 
is juft. His tragedy has no incidents, 
and the language is all ina flutter. His 
Winter, in imitation of Shakfpeare, de- 
ferves to be better known. 
C. ORIGINAL LETTER, 6N IMPROVE- 
MENTS OF THE ENGLISH LAN- 
GUAGE*, &c. 
Since I received your book, Sir, I 
fearce ceafed from reading till I had 
finifhed it; fo admirabie I iound it, and 
fo full of good fenfe, brightly delivered. 
Nay, I am pleafed with myfelf too, for 
having formed the fame opinion with you 
on feveral points, 11 which we do not 
agree with the generality of men. On 
{ome topics I confefs as frankly I do not 
concur with you ; confidering how many 


* ‘The book alluded to was written in early 
youth, and has many juvenile crude ideas, 
long fince abandoned by its author. 
Even the Sal-_ 
Walpoliana, No. VI. 17 
you have touched, it would be wonderful 
if we agreed on all, or I fhoud not be 
fincere it I faidI did. ‘There are others 
on which I have formed no opinion, for 
I fhould give myfelf an impertinent, air 
with no truth, if I pretended to have any ° 
knowledge of many fubjects, of which, 
young as you are, you feem to have made 
yourfelf mafter. Indeed I have gone 
deeply into nothing, and therefore fhall 
not difcufs thofe heads on which we differ 
moft, as probably { fhoud not defend my 
own opinions well. There is but one 
part of your work to which £ will venture 
any objection, tho” you have confidered it 
much, and I little—very little indeed 
with regard to your propofal, which to 
me is but two days old. I mean your 
plan for the improvement of our Jan- 
guage, which I allow has fome defects, 
and which wants cerreétion in feveral par- 
ticulars. The {pecific amendment which 
you propofe, and to which I object, is 
the addition of a’s and 2’s to our ter- 
minations. To change s for @ in the 
plural number of our fubftantives and 
adjectives, woud be fo viclent an alter- 
ation, that I believe neither the power of 
Power, nor the power of Genius, woud 
be able to effe&t it. In moft cafes I am 
convinced that very ftrong innovations 
are more likely to make impreffion than 
{mall and almoft imperceptible differences, 
as in Religion, Medicine, Politics, &c. 
but I do not think that Language can be 
treated in the fame manner, eipecially in 
a refined age. When a nation firlt 
emerges from barbarifm, two or three 
matterly writers may operate wonders 5 
and the fewer the number of writers, as 
the number is fmall at fuch a period, the 
more abfolute is their authority. But 
when a country has been -polifhing itfelf 
for two or three centuries, and when 
confequently authors are innumerable, 
the mof fupereminent genius, (or who- 
ever is elteemed fo, tho’ without founda- 
tion) poflefles very limited empire, and 
is -tar from meeting implicit obedience. 
Every petty writer will conteft very novel 
inftitutions; every inch of change in any 
language will be difputed; and the lan- 
guage will remain as it was, longer than 
the tribunal, which fhoud ditiate very 
be adopted, what havoc woud it make? 
7) A } Gi R . - 
Ail our poetry woud be ceieciive in me~ 
tre, or woud become at once as obfolete as 
Chaucer; and coud we promife ourfelves, 
that we theud acquire betty harmony, 
an J 
