Manuductio ad ministerium. Directions for a candidate of the ministry

[There has been a deal of a do about a STYLE; So much, that I must offer you my Sentiments upon it. There is a Way of Writing, wherein the Author endeavours, that the Reader may have something to the Purpose in every Paragraph. There is not only a Vigour sensible in every Sentence, but the Paragraph is embellished with Profitable References, even to something beyond what is directly spoken. Formal and Painful Quotations are not studied; yet all that could be learnt from them is insinuated. The Writer pretends not unto Reading, yet he could not have writ as he does if he had not Read very much in his Time; and his Composures are not only a Cloth of Gold, but also stuck with as many Jewels, as the Gown of a Russian Ambassador. This Way of Writing has been decried by many, and is at this Day more than ever so, for the same Reason, that in the old Story, the Grapes were decried, That they were not Ripe. A Lazy, Ignorant, Conceited Set of Authors, would persuade the whole Tribe, to lay aside that Way of Writing, for the same Reason that one would have persuaded his Brethren to part with the Encumbrance of their Busby Tails. But▪ however Fashion and Humour may prevail, they must not think that the Club at their Coffee-House is, All the World; but there will always be those, who will in this Case be governed by Indisputable Reason: And who will think, that the ⟨p. 45⟩real Excellency of a Book will neverly in saying of little; That the less one has for his Money in a Book, 'tis really the more Valuable for it; and that the less one is instructed in a Book, and the more of Superfluous Margin, and Superficial Harangue, and the less of Substantial Matter one has in it, the more tis to be accounted of And if a more Massy Way of Writing be never so much disgusted at This Day, a Better Gust will come on, as will some other Things, quae jam Cecidere. In the mean time, Nothing appears to me more Impertinent and Ridiculous than the Modern Way, [I cannot say, Rule; For they have None!] of Criticising. The Blades that set up for Critics, I know not who constituted or commissioned 'em! — they appear to me, for the most part as Contemptible, as they are a Supercilious Generation. For indeed no Two of them have the same Style; and they are as intolerably Cross-grained and severe in their Censures upon one another, as they are upon the rest of Mankind.

[There has been a deal of a do about a STYLE; So much, that I must offer you my Sentiments upon it. There is a Way of Writing, wherein the Author endeavours, that the Reader may have something to the Purpose in every Paragraph. There is not only a Vigour sensible in every Sentence, but the Paragraph is embellished with Profitable References, even to something beyond what is directly spoken. Formal and Painful Quotations are not studied; yet all that could be learnt from them is insinuated. The Writer pretends not unto Reading, yet he could not have writ as he does if he had not Read very much in his Time; and his Composures are not only a Cloth of Gold, but also stuck with as many Jewels, as the Gown of a Russian Embassador. This Way of Writing has been decried by many, and is at this Day more than ever so, for the same Reason, that in the old Story, the Grapes were decried, That they were not Ripe. A Lazy, Ignorant, Conceited Sett of Authors, would perswade the whole Tribe, to lay aside that Way of Writing, for the same Reason that one would have perswaded his Brethren to part with the Encumbrance of their Busby Tails. But however Fashion and Humour may prevail, they must not think that the Club at their Coffee-House is, All the World; but there will always be those, who will in this Case be governed by Indisputable Reason: And who will think, that the