great deal of Pains,
to little purpose. But we must at least borrow so much Assurance from
them, as to tell them, that your Friends, who consist of the most
learned sort of your own Countrey-men, and of Foreigners, do not think
those Tongues so obsolete and out of use, whose Significancy is so
apparent in Etymology; nor do they think those Men competent Judges to
declare, whether there be any thing contained in them valuable or not,
who have made it clear, that they know not what is _contain'd_ in
them. They would rather assure them, that our greatest Divines[A],
and Lawyers[B], and Historians[C] are of another Opinion, they wou'd
advise them to consult our Libraries, those of the two Universities,
the _Cottonian_, and my Lord Treasurers; to study your whole
_Thesaurus_, particularly your _Dissertatio Epistolaris_, to look into
Mr. _Wanleys_ large and accurate Catalogue of _Saxon_ Manuscripts,
and so with Modesty gain a Title to the Applause of having confest
their former Ignorance, and reforming their Judgment. I believe I
may farther take leave to assure them, that the Doctor is as little
concerned for their _Inference_, which they think _so plain from
what has been said, that they are not obliged to derive the Sense,
Construction, or Nature of our present Language from his Discoveries_.
He desires them not to _derive_ the _Sense_ and _Construction_ of
which they speak, in any other manner, than that in which the Nature
of the things themselves makes them appear; and so far as they are his
_Discoveries_ only, intrudes them on no Man. He is very willing they
should be let alone by those, who have not Skill to use them to their
own Advantage, and with Gratitude.

[Footnote A: Archbishops _Parker_, _Laud_, _Usher_, Bishop
_Stillingfleet_, the present Bishops _of Worcester_, _Bath_
and _Wells_, _Carlisle_, St. _Asaph_, St. _Davids_, _Lincoln_,
_Rochester_, with many other Divines of the first Rank.]

[Footnote B: The Lord Chief Justice _Cook_, Mr. _Lombard_,
_Selden_, _Whitlock_, Lord Chief Justice _Hales_, and _Parker_,
Mr. _Fortescue_ of the Temple, and others.]

[Footnote C: _Leland_, who writes in a Latin Style in Prose and
Verse, as polite and accurate as can be boasted of by any of
our modern Wits. _Jocelin_, _Spelman_, both Father and Son,
_Cambden_, _Whelock_, _Gibson_, and many more of all Ranks and
Qualities, whose Names deserve well to be mention'd with Respect,