An apology for the study of northern antiquities by Elizabeth Elstob
page 42 of 54 (77%)
page 42 of 54 (77%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
Thus translated by my Lord _Roscommon, Sound Judgment is the ground of writing well: And when Philosophy directs your Choice To proper Subjects rightly understood, Words from your Pen will naturally flow. _Horace_'s _Sapere_, and my Lord _Roscommon_'s _Proper Subjects rightly understood_, I take to be the same as _Propriety of Thought_, and the _non invita sequentur, naturally flowing_, I take to import the Fitness and Propriety of Expression. I also gather from hence, that there is a very easy and natural Connexion between these two, and these same Antiquaries of OURS, must be either very dull and stupid Animals, or a strange kind of cross-gran'd and perverse Fellows, to be always putting a Force upon Nature, and running out of a plain Road. He must either insinuate that they are indeed such, or that _Horace_'s Observation is not just, or that for the Word _invita_ we ought to have a better reading, for which he will be forced to consult the _Antiquaries_. I know not how some of the great Orators, he has mention'd, will relish his Compliments upon the Score of Eloquence, when he has said such hard things against Antiquaries; many of them, and those of chief Note, were his Censure just and universal, must of necessity be involv'd in it. For example, the late _Bishop_ of _Rochester_, of whom, he says, "He was the correctest Writer of the Age, and comes nearest the great Originals of _Greece_ and _Rome_, by a studious Imitation of the Ancients." So that, as I take it, he was an Antiquary: If he excludes _English Antiquities_, I desire him to remember the present _Bishop_ of _Rochester_, of whom he has given this true Character, "Dr. _Atterbury_ writeth with the fewest Faults, |
|