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countrymen , tl $ e richness , variety , and ; fra ce , which , might be lent to the English' idiom , by the * hand' of a master . * It is not improbable that Mt . Fox might have included the name of Mobiles in the same enumeration , had fee not been prevented by an aversion to his slavish principles of government , and by hisv general , disrelish
for metaphysical theories . As a writer , Hobbes unquestionably ranks high among the older English classics ; and is so peculiarly distinguished by the simplicity and ease of ; his manner that one would naturally have expected from Mr . Fox ' s character ! stical taste , that he * would have relished his Style still more than that of jBacoirf *
* i To prevent being misunderstood , it is necessary for me to add , that I do not Spea , k of the general style of these old authors ; but only of detached passages , which may be selected from all of them , fts earnests or first fruits of a neiv an 4 hrighi eT era in English literature . It may be safely affirmed , that in their works ,
fcnd in the prose compositions of Milton , are to be found some of the finest sentences of . which our language has yet to boast . To propose them notv as models for imitation , would be quite absurd . Dr . Lowth certainly went much too far he
^ hen said , " T ( iat in correctness , propriety and purity , of English style , Hooker hath hardly been surpassed , or even equalled , by any of his successors /* Preface to L , otvth s IZngtish Grammar *
-f * According to Dr . Bnrnet ( no' contemptible judge of 6 tyle ) , Bacon was " the ifyst that writ our language correctly . " "The same learned prelate pronounces Bacon to be " still our best author ; " and this , at a time , when the worts of Sprat *
atid - niany of . the prose . compositions of cWley and of Dryden , "were already inthe bands o £ t ^ e public . It is . difficult to conceive on what grounds , Burnt : t . proceeded , in hazarding so extraordinary au opinion . See the Preface , to Buroet ' s Translation of More's Utopia ,
ft is , still more difficult , on the other baud , to account for the following very bold decision of Mr * . Hume . I . transcribe itfrom-an Essay . first ^ published , in 1742 3 but the same passage i » to be found in the
last edition of his Works , corrected by hlmselfi " The first polite prose we have , * m& . * tto * ft by a roan ( Dr . Swift ) who is © till alive . As to Spra ^ j ,-Locke , and even 9 emp ]^ -t rtey knew , too little- of the , . rules © f art to be esteemed , elegant writqxs .
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or of RaJeigh ^ -Tt w the pfcW phical merits , hp wev ^ er , of Hobbes that we are alone concerned at presentand , in this point of view , what a space is filled in the subsequent his tory of our domestic literature , by his own works , and by those ofhis innumerable opponents ! Little else ;„"
deed , but the systems which he published i ami the controversies which they provoked , occurs , during the interval between Bacon and Locke , to mark the progress of English PhiW phy , either in the study of the Mind , or in the kindred researches of Ethicaj and Political Science .
" The philosopher of Malmesbury , " says Dr Warburton , " was the terforof the last age , as Tindall and Collins are of this . The press sweat with ebntroversy ; and every yonng churchman militant would try " his arms in thundering on Hobbes ' s steel cap . " * t ]^ or was the opposition to Hobbes confined
to the clerical order , or to the controversialists oE his own times . The m # st eminent moralists and politicians of the eighteenth century may be ranked in the number of his antagonists , and event at the present jnoment , scarcely does there appear a new publication on Ethics or Jurisprudence , where a refutation of Hobbism is nor
to be found . The period when Hobbes began hi ? literary career , as well as the principal incidents of his life f were , in a singular degree , favourable \ o a ihind like his ; impatient of the yoke o ( authority , and ambitious to attract attention , if not by solid and useful -discoveries , at least b y an ingenious defehqe of paradoxical tenets . After a residence of five years at Oxford , and a very extensive tour through France and Italy , he had the good
The prose of Bacon Harrington , and Miltoa , is altogether stiff and pwJaatic , though . their srmse be e 3 ^ elle » t >" How insignificant # rp the petty gw ® iiiatical iuaproyei ^^ ntft , propo ^ 4 by , £ * & » wheja compar ^ w i ^ tU th , e ; iaeitlJ ^ ustiblc ricbes iumarfced ^ t ^« JS « ri . i f h . toD # tf ^ i \ th
tl ^^ ^ writers oLth $ ^ ev $ xitee century * apd how ., inf ^ 4 r > i » ,, ^ U th ^ higb ^ v ^ r ^ ties and gra ^ e ^ of style , ^ are hi * VJf 6 . CoiiippsitiQii ^ , to those of his ^^ fv ^ predecessors , tlry 4 en , Pope ' and & <« " * * &toiiieL <> g 4 Hon , PKf / ttf . tB ; ; p . 9 , ' ' ' •' * ' ¦ " ' ' ' .
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is O 63 lEstinriate of the Philo $ 6 phical Character qf Hobhes .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1816, page 630, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2458/page/2/
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