Page:An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe.djvu/15

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AN

ENQUIRY

INTO THE

PRESENT STATE

OF

POLITE LEARNING.


CHAP. I.

INTRODUCTION.

It has been so long the practice to represent literature as declining, that every renewal of this complaint now comes with diminish'd influence. The publick has been often excited by a false alarm, so that at present the nearer we approach the threatned period of decay, the more our fatal security increases.

To