now._ And the Corruptions afterwards by the
_Barbarians_ made it as different from _Cicero_'s as _Ennius_'s; yet
amidst all those variations, _Horace_'s Works are still _Monumentum aere
perennius_. When a Tongue is come to any degree of Perfection, whoever
writes well in it will Live; there's a Thirst after Wit in all Ages, and
those that have a Taste of it will distinguish the Thought from the
Diction. _Chaucer_ will, no doubt, be admir'd as long as the _English_
Tongue has a Being; and the Changes that have happen'd to our Language
have not hinder'd his Works out living their Contemporary Monuments of
Brass or Marble.

The Doctor may as well set up a Society to find out the _Grand Elixir_,
the _Perpetual Motion_, the _Longitude_, and other such Discoveries, as
to fix our Language beyond their own Times. The Test of their Successors
will vary with the Age, and their Rules grow obsolete as well as their
Words. He would make us believe, that the _French_ Academy have not been
able to preserve their Language from Decay, and who are the Men in
_Britain_ who pretend to greater Genius for Eloquence than the most
Polite of the Politest Nation in _Europe_. Mr. _Waller_ Elegantly
complains of the Change which necessarily happens to Stile, and does it
however in Language which shews, that the Doctor need not be afraid of
People's forgetting his Patron a Hundred Years hence, if he can write as
good _English_ upon him now, as Mr. _Waller_ did on this Subject
Threescore Years ago.

_But who can hope his Lines should long
Last, in a daily changing Tongue,
While they are new, Envy prevails,
And as that dies, our Language fails._

_When Architects have done their Part,
The Matter may betray their Art,
Time, if we use ill Chosen Stone,
Soon brings a well-built Palace down._

_Poets that Lasting Marble seek,
Must carve in +Latin+ or in +Greek+,
We write in Sand, our Language grows,
And like our Tide, Ours overflows._

Our Author sees _no necessity of this Changing our Language_. What has
been the Fate of all Tongues Ancient and Modern, and for the same
Reasons will Eternally be so, he wou'd defend ours from, because the
Chinese _have Books in their Tongue above 2000 Years Old_; And a History
of 30000 Years Period with a Succession of Kings, 20000 Years before
_Adam_. It wou'd be a Discovery worthy those Men who have lately been
reconciling Contradictions, and building Arguments upon Nonsence, to
find ou