or tho the venom of _this_ be too weak to reach where
it aim'd; yet all those who have any regard for Truth or Justice, for
Learning or Virtue, or even for good Manners and common Civility, must
think themselves concern'd in a Quarrel, where they find so notorious a
breach of them all.
'Tis fit therefore so ignominious a Libeller should be exposed in his
proper Colours, of an infamous, slandring, and unprovok't Railer; which
tho his own Letter has plentifully done, yet 'twill be very proper to
point to several places in it, where it is most remarkable.
For my own part, I will confess, I have been a great Reader of all Sir
_W. T_'s Writings, and perhaps may have doated on some of them,
especially, _That Immortal Essay on Heroick Virtue_, as one Writer since
has deservedly called it; and that other upon _Poetry_, and even on this
of the _Memoirs_. And finding Common Fame, wherever I had met it, agrees
so well with the Picture these Pieces had given me of him, I will own to
have had a very great Honour for the Author, as well as for his Books,
and could not but esteem both a great deal the more for this Letter of
_de Cros_, when I found that the triple-corded Malice of the _Writer_,
the _Translator_, and the _Advertiser_, had not given one lash either to
the Honour of the Person, or the truth of his Books. And all this put
together, has in very truth given me so much Spight and Indignation,
that I could not refrain entring on the _Pamphletiers_ Trade, which I
never did before, nor ever thought I should have done at all: And but
for this Provocation, could have been very well satisfied to have lived
on without the itch of seeing how I look in Print; so that I may truly
say for this, as the Poet does for his Verses,
_----Facit Indignatio Versus._
Before I enter upon observing what _de Cros_ says concerning Sir _W. T._
which takes up the greatest part of his Letter, and leaves him either no
Room, or no Memory for the _Memoirs_ he pretends to Answer; I shall
first examine what he speaks of himself, and in his own defence, against
what he takes himself to be charged with.
He begins, p. 10. _There arrived_ (says he, quoting the _Memoirs_) _at
that time from _England_, one whose Name was _de Cros__. Upon this he
falls immediately into a Scurrilous Chafe. Now, one would wonder what
should make the Man so offended to be called by his own Name, or what
would have become of Sir _W. T._ if he had call'd him out of his Nam
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