Non ut laudemur, sed ut prosimus. Equidem sic prope ab adolescentia animatus fui, ut inania famæ contemnam, veraque consecter bona. In qua cogitatione sæpius defixus, facilius ab animo meo potui impetrare, ut (quamvis scirem sordescere magis et magis studia Literarum, maximeque ea quæ proprie artem Grammaticen spectant) nihilominus paulisper, non quidem seponerem, sed remissius tamen tractarem studia graviora ; iterumque in manus sumerem veteres adolescentiæ labores, laboreque novo inter tot Curas divulgarem.-G. J. Vossius. Le grand objet de l'art etymologique n'est pas de rendre raison de l'origine de tous les mots sans exception, et j'ose dire que ce seroit un but assez frivole. Cet art est principalement recommandable en ce qu'il fournit à la philosophie des materiaux et des observations pour elever le grand edifice de la theorie generale des Langues.-M. Le President de BROSSES. ΕΠΕΑ ΠΤΕΡΟΕΝΤΑ, OR THE DIVERSIONS OF PURLEY. INTRODUCTION. B. -THE mystery is at last unravelled. I shall no more wonder now that you engross his company at. Purley, whilst his other friends can scarce get a sight of him. This, you say, was President Bradshaw's seat. That is the secret of his attachment to the place. You hold him by the best security, his political prejudices and enthusiasm. But do not let his veneration for the memory of the antient possessor pass upon you for affection to the present. The seat of William Tooke, esq. near Croydon, Surrey. H. Should you be altogether so severe upon my politics; when you reflect that, merely for attempting to prevent the effusion of brother's blood and the final dismemberment of the empire, I stand the single legal victim during the contest, and the single instance of proscription after it? But I am well contented that my principles, which have made so many of your way of thinking angry, should only make you laugh. Such however as they are, they need not now to be defended by me: for they have stood the test of ages; and they will keep their ground in the general commendation of the world, till men forget to love themselves; though, till then perhaps, they are not likely to be seen (nor credited if seen) in the practice of many individuals. But are you really forced to go above a hundred years back to account for my attachment to Purley? Without considering the many strong public and private ties by which I am bound to its present possessor, can you find nothing in the beautiful prospect from these windows? nothing in the entertainment every one receives in this house? nothing in the delightful rides and walks we have taken round it? nothing in the cheerful disposition and easy kindness of its owner, to make a rational man partial to this habitation? T. Sir, you are making him transgress our only standing rules. Politics and compliments are strangers here. We always put them off when we put on our boots; and leave them behind us in their proper atmosphere, the smoke of London. B. Is it possible! Can either of you-Englishmen and patriots!-abstain for four-and-twenty hours together from politics? You cannot be always on horseback, or at piquet. What, in the name of wonder, your favourite topic excluded, can be the subject of your so frequent conversations? T. But I assure you You have a strange notion of us. we find more difficulty to finish than to begin our conversations. As for our subjects, their variety cannot be remembered; but I will tell you on what we were discoursing yesterday when you came in; and I believe you are the fittest person in the world to decide between us. He insists, contrary to my opinion, that all sorts of wisdom and useful knowledge may be obtained by a plain man of sense without what is commonly called Learning. And when I took the easiest instance, as I thought, and the foundation of all other knowledge, |