4

LETTER I.

and Littleton exerted all die genius he had,when he made a dictionary, though Stephens didnot. They deferve encouragement, however, whilffcthey continue to compile, and neither affedt wit,nor prefume to reafon.

There is a fourth clafs, of much lefs ufe thanthefe, but of much greater name. Men of the firftrank in learning, and to whom the whole tribe offcholars bow with ff'verence. A man muft be asindifferent as I am to common cenfure or appro-bation, to avow a thorough contempt for thewhole bufinefs of thefe learned lives; for all therefearches into antiquity, for all the fyftems ofchronology and hiftory, that we owe to the im-menfe labors of a Scaljger, a Bochart, aPkTAVIUS, an Usher , and even a Marsham.The fame materials are common to them all; butthefe materials are few, and there is a moral impof-fibility that they fhould ever have more. Theyhave combined thefe into every form that can begiven to them: they have fuppofed, they havegueffed , they have joined disjointed paffages ofdifferent authors, and broken traditions of uncer-tain originals, of various people, and of centuriesremote from one another as well as from ours.In fhort, that they might leave no liberty untaken,even a wild, fantaftical fimilitude of founds hasferved to prop up a fyftem. As the materials theyhave are few, fo are the very bell, and fuch aspafs for authentic, extremely precarious; as fomeof thefe learned perfons theml'elyes confefs.