it means, unless it be to say, That the
Bride is too fair, or the Grapes are too sweet. But 'tis yet harder for
my poor Conception to find out how a Stile can be both _Luscious_ and
_Affected_; Which latter I should have otherwise mistook for a Quality
that had ever given a harshness to any Stile, that would not be very
consistent with _Luscious_: And _Tacitus_ has not escaped the Imputation
of being both harsh and _Affected_, by several _Criticks_. I am afraid
the Gentleman's Mouth might have been a little out of taste by reading
these _Memoirs_; and _that_ might possibly have proceeded from some
cholerick Humour redundant in his Stomach; which I the rather suspect
from these words in the Beginning of his Advertisement; _As nothing more
sensibly touches _US_, than to have our Reputation_, &c. which seem to
insinuate, that he took himself for one of the Persons he thought
offended by them, and _treated with too much Freedom, and too little
Ceremony_; as he afterwards speaks of others. But if Sir _W. T_'s Stile
be faulty, I have nothing to say; only desire, That some of the
_Criticks_ the _Advertiser_ speaks of, will be so kind to mend it when
they write next, whereby I think they will do a very great Honour to our
Language. I am only sorry for those poor Booksellers who have so rashly
undertaken the printing of his several Works, and wish they may not be
undone after the Judgment of these severe _Criticks_ upon them. Yet to
give them a little comfort, I must needs take notice, that all men are
not of the same nice Palat, neither at home nor abroad: For Monsieur
_Wiquefort_ concludes his _Memoirs of Ambassadors_, with regretting that
there had been so few Accounts given by any of them of Foreign
Countries; and that there were like to be fewer hereafter; _Because
Monsieur _Temple_ is inimitable in what he has written of the_ United
Netherlands. And among many Books and Pamphlets that mention his Works,
I have yet seen none that does it without great Value and Approbation. I
am sure in all the _French_ Editions of his several Works (which have
had the luck to be still Translated into several Languages as they came
out) the Epistles and Prefaces prefixed before them, are full of the
greatest Honour and Applause that can be given to Writings, which pass
so ill with the _Criticks_, this Advertiser tells us of at home; so that
'tis possible some of these _Memoirs_ may yet go off, which I suppose
was the chief thing intended by h