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with fuch rubbish! They ftand upon the watch-tower! They are indeed pragmatical enough to do fo; but who affigned them that poft, to give us falfe intelligence, to alarm us with falfe dangers, and fend us to defend one gate, while their accomplices are breaking in at another ? "They cry to God day and night to avert the judg "ment of Popery, which feems to haften towards us." Then I affirm, they are "hypocrites by day, and filthy "dreamers by night: when they cry unto him, he will "not hear them;" for they cry against the plainest dictates of their own confcience, reason, and belief.

Bur, laftly, they lie in the dust mourning before him. Hang me, if I believe that, unless it be figuratively fpoken. But fuppofe it to be true, why do they lie in the duft? Because they love to raise it. For what do they mourn? Why, for power, wealth, and places. There let the enemies of the Queen, and monarchy, and the church, lie, and mourn, and lick the duft like ferpents, till they are truly fenfible of their ingratitude, falsehood, difobedience, flander, blafphemy, fedition, and every evil work.

I cannot find in my heart to conclude, without offering his Lordship a little humble advice upon fome certain points.

FIRST, I would advise him, if it be not too late in his life, to endeavour a little at mending his style, which is mighty defective in the circumftances of grammar, propriety, politeness, and smoothness. I fancied at first it might be owing to the prevalence of his paffion, as people fputter out nonfenfe for hafte when they are in a rage. And indeed I believe this piece before me hath received fome additional imperfections from that occafi

on.

But whoever hath heard his fermons, or read his other tracts, will find him very unhappy in the choice and difpofition of his words; and, for want of variety, repeating them, efpecially the particles, in a manner very grating to an English ear. But I confine myself to this introduction, as his laft work; where, endeavouring at rhetorical flowers, he gives us only bunches of thistles; of which I could prefent the reader with a plentiful crop ;

but

but I refer him to every page and line of the pamphlet itfelf.

SECONDLY, I would most humbly advife his Lordship to examine a little into the nature of truth, and fometimes to hear what he says. I fhall produce two inftances among an hundred. When he afferts, that we are "now in more danger of Popery than towards the "end of King Charles II.'s reign ;" and gives the broadeft hints, that the Queen, the miniftry, the parliament, and the clergy, are juft going to introduce it; I defire to know, whether he really thinks truth is of his fide, or whether he be not sure he is against him? If the lat ter, then truth and he will be found in two different ftories; and which are we to believe? Again, when he gravely advifes the Tories not to light the fires in Smithfield, and goes on, in twenty places already quoted, as if the bargain was made for Popery and flavery to enter; 1 ask again, whether he hath rightly confidered the nature of trath? I defire to put a parallel cafe. Suppofe his Lordship fhould take it into his fancy to write and publifh a letter to any gentleman of no infamous chara Eter for his religion or morals; and there advise him with great earnestnefs not to rob or fire churches, ravish his daughter, or murder his father; fhew him the fin and the danger of these enormities; that if he flattered himself he could efcape in difguife, or bribe his jury, he was grievously mistaken; that he must in all probability forfeit his goods and chattels, die an ignominious death, and be curfed by pofterity: would not fuch a gentleman justly think himself highly injured, altho' his Lordship did not affirm, that the faid gentleman had picklocks or combuftibles ready; that he had attempted his daughter, and drawn his sword againft his father in order to ftab him whereas, in the other cafe, this writer affirms over and over, that all attempts for introducing Popery and flavery are already made, the whole business concerted, and that little lefs than a miracle can prevent

our ruin.

THIRDLY, I could heartily with his Lordship would not undertake to charge the opinions of one or two, and those probably nonjurors, upon the whole body of the nation that differs from him. Mr Leflie writ a pro

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pofal

pofal for an union with the Gallican church; fomebody elfe hath carried the neceffity of priesthood in the point of baptism farther than Popery; a third hath afferted the independency of the church on the state, and in many things arraigned the fupremacy of the crown: then he speaks in a dubious infinuating way, as if fome other Popish tenets had been already advanced; and at laft concludes in this affected strain of defpondency, What will all thefe things end in? and on what defign are they driven? Alas, it is too vifible! It is as clear as the fun, that these authors are encouraged by the miniftry, with a design to bring in Popery; and in Popery all these things will end.

I never was fo uncharitable to believe, that the whole party, of which his Lordship profeffeth himself a member, had a real formed defign of establishing Atheism among us. The reason why the Whigs have taken the Athefts or Freethinkers into their body, is, because they wholly agree in their political schemes, and differ very little in church power and difcipline. However, I could turn the argument against his Lordship with very great advantage, by quoting paffages from fifty pamphlets wholly made up of Whiggism and Atheism, and then conclude, What will all these things end in? and on what defign are they driven? Alas, it is too vifible!

LASTLY, I would beg his Lordship not to be fo exceedingly outrageous upon the memory of the dead, because it is highly probable, that in a very fhort time he will be one of the number. He hath in plain words given Mr Wharton the character of a most malicious, revengeful, tracherous, lying, mercenary villain. To which I fhall only fay, that the direct reverse of this amiable defcription is what appears from the works of that most learned divine, and from the accounts given me by those who knew him much better than the Bifhop feems to have done, I meddle not with the moral part of this treatment. God almighty forgive his Lordfhip this manner of revenging himself; and then there will be but little confequence from an accufation, which the dead cannot feel, and which none of the living will believe

A

A complete COLLECTION of GENTEEL and INGENIOUS CONVERSATION, according to the moft polite mode and method now used at court, and in the best companies in England *.

IN THRE DIALOG.U E S.

By SIMON WAGSTAFF, Efq;

An. INTRODUCTION.

AS my life hath been chiefly spent in confulting the honour and welfare of my country for more than forty years paft, not without anfwerable fuccefs, if the world and my friends have not flattered me; fo there is no point wherein I have fo much laboured, as that of improving and polishing all parts of converfation between perfons of quality, whether they meet by acci dent or invitation, at meals, tea, or vifits, mornings, noons, or evenings.

I have paffed perhaps more time than any other man of my age and country in vifits and affemblies, where the polite perfons of both fexes diftinguish themselves; and could not without much grief obferve how frequently both gentlemen and ladies are at a lofs for queftions, anfwers, replies, and rejoinders. However, my concern was much abated, when I found that these defects were not occafioned by any want of materials, but be caufe

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This treatife appears to have been written with the fame view, as the tritical effay on the faculties of the mind [ vol. 2.] but upon a more general plan. The ridicule, which is there confined to literary compofition, is here extended to converfation: but its object is the fame in both; the repetition of quaint phrafes picked up by rote either from the living or the dead, and applied upon cvery occafion to conceal ignorance or ftupidity, or to prevent the labour of thoughts to produce native fentiment, and combine fuch words as will precifely exprefs it, Hawkef.

cause those materials were not in every hand. For inftance, one lady can give an answer better than ask a queftion: one gentleman is happy at a reply; another excels in a rejoinder: one can revive a languishing converfation by a fudden surprising fentence; another is more dextrous in feconding; a third can fill the gap with laughing, or commending what has been faid. Thus fresh hints may be ftarted, and the ball of the difcourse kept up.

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BUT alas! this is too feldom the cafe, even in the moft felect companies. How often do we see at court, at publick vifiting days, at great mens levees, and other places of general meeting, that the converfation falls and drops to nothing, like a fire without fupply of fewel? This is what we all ought to lament; and against this dangerous evil I take upon me to affirm, that I have in the following papers provided an infallible remedy.

IT was in the year 1695, and the fixth of his late Majesty King William III. of ever glorious and immortal memory, who refcued three kingdoms from Popery and flavery, when, being about the age of fix and thirty, my judgment mature, of good reputation in the world, and well acquainted with the beft families in town, I determined to fpend five mornings, to dine four times, pafs three afternoons, and fix evenings, every week, in the houses of the most polite families, of which I would confine myself to fifty; only changing as the mafters or ladies died, or left the town, or r grew out of vogue, or funk in their fortunes, or (which to me was of the highest moment) became difaffected to the government which practice I have followed ever fince to this very day; except when I happened to be fick, or in the spleen upon cloudy weather; and except when I entertained four of each fex at my own lodgings once in a month, by way of retaliation.

I always kept a large table-book in my pocket; and as foon as I left the company, I immediately entered the choiceft expreffions that paffed during the vifit; which, returning home, I transcribed in a fair hand, but fomewhat enlarged and had made the greateft part of my collection in twelve years, but not digefted into any method; for this I found was a work of infinite labour,

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