William Wotton

“ Or can we think that they would again have relapsed to their old Barbarity of themselves, when once they had been weary of those Arts, and of that Learning (such as it was) which then they had? Mankind is not so stupid a Thing, but if they do at any Time find out what may do them great and eminent Service, they will learn it, and make use of it, without enquiring who it is they learn it of, or taking a Prejudice at the Thing, because, perhaps, they may be indebted to an Enemy for it. ”

“ Sir William Temple employs them in Gardening. As if it were probable that a great Empire could lie still for above a Thousand Years; or that no Popular Generals should wrest the Reins out of the Hands of such drowzy Masters in all that Time. No History but this can give an Instance of a Family that lasted for above a Thousand Years, without any Interruption: And of all its Kings, not one is said to reign less than Nineteen, but some Fifty five Years. The healthiest Race that ever was heard of; of whom, in Thirteen Hundred Years, not one died an untimely Death. ”

“ Wherefore I thought it might be Labour exceeding well spent, if, whilst I enquired into what was anciently known, and what is a new Discovery, I should at the same Time furnish my Mind with new Occasions of admiring the boundless Wisdom and Bounty of that Almighty and Beneficent Essence, in and by whom alone this whole Universe, with all its Parts, live, and move, and have their Being. ”

“ Have these Arts a fixed Foundation in Nature; or were they not attained to by Study? If by Nature, why have we heard of no Orators among the Inhabitants of the Bay of Soldania, or eminent Poets in Peru? If by Study, why not now, as well as formerly, since Printing has made Learning cheap and easie? Does it seem harder to speak and write like Cicero or Virgil, than to find out the motions of the Heavens, and to calculate the Distances of the Stars? ”

“ For the Question is not whether any Modern Critick has understood Plato or Aristotle, Homer or Pindar, as well as they did themselves, for that were ridiculous; but whether Modern Industry may not have been able to discover a great many Mistakes in the Assertions of the Ancients about Matters not done in their own Times, but several Ages before they were born. For the Ancients did not live all in one Age, and though they appear all under one Denomination, and so as it were upon a Level, like things seen at a vast Distance, to us who are very remote from the youngest of them ”

“ For, in making a Judgment of Musick, it is much the same Thing as it is of Pictures. A great Judge in Painting does not gaze upon an exquisite Piece so much to raise his Passions, as to inform his Judgment, as to approve, or to find fault. His Eye runs over every Part, to find out every Excellency; and his Pleasure lies in the Reflex Act of his Mind, when he knows that he can judiciously tell where every Beauty lies, or where the Defects are discernable: Which an ordinary Spectator would never find out. The chiefest Things which this Man minds, is the Story ”

“ One may justly wonder that there should have been so noble an Art as that of turning baser Metals into Gold and Silver so long in the World, and yet that there should be so very little, if any thing, said of it in the Writings of the Ancients. To remove this Prejudice therefore, all the fabulous Stories of the Greeks have, by Men of fertile Inventions, been given out to be disguised Chymical Arcana. ”

“ This is not only visible in particular Persons, but in the several Ages of Mankind, which are only Communities of particular Persons, living at the same time, as often as their Humours, or their Interests, lead them to pursue the same Methods. This Emulation equally shews it self, whatsoever the Subject be, about which it is employed; whether it be about Matters of Trade, or War, or Learning, it is all one: One Nation will strive to out-do another, and so will one Age too, when several Nations agree in the pursuit of the same Design ”

“ One, of those wherein the greatest part of those Learned Men who have compared Ancient and Modern Performances, either give up the Cause to the Ancients quite, or think, at least, that the Moderns have not gone beyond them. The other of those, where the Advocates for the Moderns think the Case so clear on their Side, that they wonder how any Man can dispute it with them. ”

“ In the first Place therefore, we may observe, That the Civil History of Egypt is as lamely and as fabulously recorded as of any Nation in the Universe: And yet, the Egyptians took more than ordinary Care to pay all possible Honours to the Dead, especially their Kings; by preserving their Bodies with Bitumen and resinous Drugs, and by building sumptuous Monuments to lay them in: This certainly was done to perpetuate their Memories, as well as to pay them Respect: It was at least as Ancient as Joseph's Time; how much older we know not. ”

“ That which is Drought in the Heaven (or Air) is Metal in the Earth, Hair and Skin in the Body, and Lungs in the Members: Its Colour is Whitish, has the Sound of Weeping; its Windows are the Nostrils, its Tast is sharp, its Passion is Sorrow: Sorrow hurts the Lungs, but Joy conquers Sorrow: Heat hurts the Skin and Hair, but the Cold of the Reins conquers Heat: Sharpness hurts the Skin and Hair, but Bitterness conquers Sharpness. ”

“ Their Works give us a very solid Pleasure when we read them. The best in their kind among the Moderns have been those who have read the Ancients with greatest Care, and endeavoured to imitate them with the greatest Accuracy. The Masters of Writing in all these several Ways, to this Day, appeal to the Ancients, as their Guides; and still fetch Rules from them, for the Art of Writing. Homer, and Aristotle, and Virgil, and Horace, and Ovid, and Terence, are now studied as Teachers, not barely out of Curiosity, by Modern Poets. ”

“ The World can make a better Judgment of the Value of what is lost, at least, as it relates to the present Enquiry, than one at first View might perhaps imagine. The lost Books of the Antiquity of several Nations, of their Civil History, of the Limits of their several Empires and Commonwealths, of their Laws and Manners, or of any Thing immediately relating to any of these, are not here to be considered, because it cannot be pretended that the Moderns could know any of these Things, but as they were taught. ”

“ That though we should allow the Methods of Practice used by the Ancients, to have been as perfect, nay, perfecter than those now in use, which some great Men have eagerly contended for; yet it does not follow, that they understood the whole Compass of their Profession so well as it is now understood; because it is absolutely impossible to form just Theories of all Diseases, so as to lay down the perfectest Methods of Cure possible, which shall be adapted to all Persons, in all Circumstances, till Anatomy and Physiology are perfectly known ”

“ So that when Sir William Temple says, That no Man ever disputed Grammar with the Ancients; if he means, that we cannot make a new Grammar of a dead Language, whose Analogy has been determined almost Two Thousand Years, it is what can admit of no Dispute. But if he means, that Modern Languages have not been Grammatically examined; at least, not with that Care that some Ancient Tongues have been; that is a Proposition which may, perhaps, be very justly questioned. For, in the first place, it ought to be considered, that every Tongue has its own peculiar Form, as well as its proper Words ”

“ But if they could have conceived what a Force of Genius is required to invent such Propositions as are to be found in the Writings of their own Mathematicians, and of the Modern Geometers and Philosophers, they would soon have acknowledged that there was need of as great at least, if not greater Strength of Parts and Application to do very considerable things in these Sciences as in their own admired Eloquence, which was never more artfully employed than in commending it self: The Panegyricks which they made upon Geometry, were rather Marks of their Pedantry than of their Skill ”

“ Can we think that the Egyptians could hinder these inquisitive Grecians, who staid so long in their Country, from knowing that there was such a Metal as Mercury? Or could these Egyptians make Gold without it? If they could, they might reasonably suppose that the Israelites could make Brick without Straw, since they could make Gold and Silver without that, which Modern Adepti affirm to be the Seed of all Metals. ”

“ It is Liberty alone which inspires Men with Lofty Thoughts, and elevates their Souls to a higher Pitch than Rules of Art can direct. Books of Rhetorick make Men Copious and Methodical; but they alone can never infuse that true Enthusiastick Rage which Liberty breaths into their Souls who enjoy it: And which, guided by a Sedate Judgment, will carry Men further than the greatest Industry, and the quickest Parts can go without it. ”

“ Had experimental Philosophy been anciently brought upon the Stage, had Geometry been solemnly and generally applied to the Mechanism of Nature, and not solely made use of to instruct Men in the Art of Reasoning, and even that too, not very generally neither, the Moderns would not have had so great Reason to boast as now they have: For these are things which come under ocular Demonstration, which do not depend upon the Fancies of Men for their Approbation, as Oratory and Poetry very often do. ”

“ Barbarous and Polite are Words which rather referr to Matters of Breeding and Elegance, than of Sound Judgment, or Common Sense; which first shew themselves in making Provision for Things of Convenience, and evident Interest, wherein Men scarce ever commit palpable Mistakes. So that it seems unaccountable that the History of Learning and Arts should be of so confessedly late a Date, if the Things themselves had been very many Ages older; much more if the World had been Eternal. ”

“ According to the Method already proposed, I am to begin with Natural History in its usual Acceptation, as it takes in the Knowledge of the several Kinds of Elementary Bodies, Minerals, Insects, Plants, Beasts, Birds and Fishes. The Usefulness, and the Pleasure of this Part of Learning is too well known to need any Proof. And besides, it is a Study, about which the greatest Men of all Ages have employed themselves. Of the very few lost Books that are mentioned in the Old Testament, one was an History of Plants, written by the wisest of Men, and he a King. ”

“ Sir William Temple seems to take it for granted, that all these Books were Originals; that is to say, Books worth preserving; which is more than any Man can now prove. I suppose he himself believes that there were Ancients of all Sorts and Sizes, as well as there are Moderns now. And he that raises a Library, takes in Books of all Values; since bad Books have their Uses to Learned Men, as well as good ones. ”

“ On the contrary, where the Subject is such, that every Man finds he can frame no Idea of it in his own Mind, without a great number of Premises, which cannot be attained by common Conversation, all wise Men hold their Hands, suspect their own Abilities, and are afraid that they cannot fathom the Depth of his Knowledge with whom they converse; especially if he has a Name for Skill in those Matters. ”

“ But this Objection lies chiefly against the Men, not the Knowledge, the Extent whereof it is only my Business to enquire into; and yet, even there too, it is without Ground; for, whoever will be at the pains to reflect upon the vast Extent of the various Knowledge which such Men as those I named before had treasured together, which they were able to produce to such excellent Purposes in their Writings, must confess that their Genius's were little, if at all, inferiour to their Memories; those among them especially, who have busied themselves in restoring corrupted Places of Ancient Authors. ”

“ Rules so well suited to the Reason of Man, so well adapted to civilize the World, and to introduce that true Happiness which the old Philosophers so vainly strove to find, that the more they are considered, the more they will be valued: and accordingly, they have extorted even from those who did not believe the Christian Religion, just Applauses, which were certainly unbiassed, because, not being led by the Rewards which it proposes, nor deterred by the Punishments which it threatens, they could have no Motive to commend them but their own native Excellency. ”

“ Rome was the Center of their Learning of the West, as well as of their Hopes, and thither the Provinces of this Part of the World had always Resort: Whereas now every Kingdom standing upon its own Bottom, they are all mutually jealous of each others Glory, and in nothing more than in Matters of Learning in those Countries, where they have Opportunities to pursue it. ”

“ But in the Controversies that were managed amongst themselves, there seem to be, many Times, as visible Signs of too great a Subtilty, as of a judicious Understanding of the Point in hand: They used little Method in ranging their Arguments, and rarely stated the Question in plain and short Terms; which made them often multiply Words to a tedious Length, that both tired the Readers, and darkned the Dispute. That all these Faults are too often found in the Polemical Discourses of the Moderns, is most certain: But Comparisons are always laid between the ablest Men of both Sides. ”

“ That if the Greatness of any one particular Genius were all that was to be looked after, Hippocrates alone seems to have been the Man, whose Assertions in the Practical Part of Physick might be blindly received: For he, without the Help of any great Assistances that we know of, did that which, if it were still to do, would seem sufficient to employ the united Force of more than one Age. ”