leaf, and spread it over so vast a surface that to those who
judged by a glance, and who did not resort to balances and tests,
the glittering heap of worthless matter which he produced seemed
to be an inestimable treasure of massy bullion. Such arguments
as he had he placed in the clearest light. Where he had no
arguments, he resorted to personalities, sometimes serious,
generally ludicrous, always clever and cutting. But, whether he
was grave or merry, whether he reasoned or sneered, his style was
always pure, polished, and easy.

Party spirit then ran high; yet, though Bentley ranked among
Whigs, and Christchurch was a stronghold of Toryism, Whigs joined
with Tories in applauding Atterbury's volume. Garth insulted
Bentley, and extolled Boyle in lines which are now never quoted
except to be laughed at. Swift, in his "Battle of the Books,"
introduced with much pleasantry Boyle, clad in armour, the gift
of all the gods, and directed by Apollo in the form of a human
friend, for whose name a blank is left which may easily be filled
up. The youth, so accoutred, and so assisted, gains an easy
victory over his uncourteous and boastful antagonist. Bentley,
meanwhile, was supported by the consciousness of an immeasurable
superiority, and encouraged by the voices of the few who were
really competent to judge the combat. "No man," he said, justly
and nobly, "was ever written down but by himself." He spent two
years in preparing a reply, which will never cease to be read and
prized while the literature of ancient Greece is studied in any
part of the world. This reply proved, not only that the letters
ascribed to Phalaris were spurious, but that Atterbury, with all
his wit, his eloquence, his skill in controversial fence, was the
most audacious pretender that ever wrote about what he did not