Page:A Dissertation on Reading the Classics and Forming a Just Style.djvu/246

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
202
Bp. Sarum.

of the next, are far preferable in their Style to any, till you come to King Charles the Second. In the long Interval of half an Age, You will hardly meet with one besides the Royal Martyr, whose Style is comparable to Sir Philip Sidney, Bilson, Hooker, or Raleigh. So that we must descend almost from the Reformation, at least to the Restoration, for a Standard.

The Bishop of Salisbury writeth with perfect Mastery in a Language not Native to him; and whatever his Principles may be, his Style I may venture to say, is entirely English; except, as was objected to Livy, it may

seem