L E T T E R I.

• 4

and Littleton 1 exerted ail the genius he had,when he made a dictionary , though Stephens didnot, They deserve encouragement, however , whilstt'ney continue to compile , and neither afsect wit,n or présumé to reason.

There ìs a fourth class, of much léss use thanthese, but of much greater name. Men of the firstranK in learning , and to vvhom the whole tribe ofscholars bow with reverence, A man must be asindiffèrent as I am to common censure or appro-bation, to avow a thorough contempt for thewhole business of thèse learned lives ; for ail theresearches into antiquity, for ail the systems ofchronology and hiftory, that \ve owe to the im-mense labors of a Scaliger , a BocharT', a-Petavius , an Usher , and even a Marsham.The famé materials are common to them ail; butthèse materials are few, and there is a moral impos-íìbility that they íhould ever hâve more. Theyhâve combined thèse into every form that can begiven to them : they hâve supposed, they hâveguesíed, they hâve joined disjointed passages ofdiffèrent authors, and broken traditions of uncer-tain originals, of varions people , and of centuriesremote from one another as well as from ours.In short, that they might leave no liberty untaken,even a wild, fantastical similitude of sounds hasserved to prop up a system. As the materials theyhâve are few, lo are the very best, and fuch aspass for authentic, extremely precarious ; as fomeof thèse learned perlons themselves consefs.