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25 .
THE GUARDIAN .
or inſtruct a ſerious mind .
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This is what we
find in the great models of antiquity, and in a more particular manner in Livy, whom it is im poſſible to read without the warmeſt emotions. But my lord Verulam, on the contrary, is
ever, in the tedious ſtyle of declaimers, uſing two words for one ; ever endeavouring to be witty,
and as fond of out-of-the-way ſimilies as fome of our old play-writers. He abounds in low phraſes, beneath the dignity of hiſtory, and often conde fcends to littleconceits and quibbles. His poli tical reflections are frequently falſe, almoſt every where trivial and puerile. His whole manner of turning his thoughts is full of affectation and pedantry ; and there appears throughouthis whole work more the air of a recluſe ſcholar, than of a man verſed in the world .
After paſſing ſo free a cenſure upon a book which for theſe hundred years and upwards has
met with the moſt univerſal approbation, I am obliged in my own defence to tranſcribe fome
of the many paffages I formerly collected for the uſe of my firſt charge fir Marmaduke Lizard . It would be endleſs ſhould I point out the fre quent tautologies and circumlocutions that occur
in every page, which do (as it were) rarify in ſtead of condenſing his thoughts and matter. It
was, in all probability, his application to the law that gave him a habit of being ſo wordy ; of which I ſhall put down two or three examples. • That all records, wherein there was any me
mory or mention of the king's attainder, ſhould be defaced, cancelled, and taken off the file Divers ſecret and nimble ſcouts and ſpies, &c. to VOL . I.
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