Reflections upon ancient and modern learning / by William Wotton.

  • Wotton, William, 1666-1727.
Date:
1697
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reflections upon ancient and modern learning / by William Wotton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    64/638 (page 8)
    cpt agement ate te OT OCR AG AAT A SIAC LEI GEA a - co SU mY eR gee - Fen It muft be owned, that thefe Enquiries’ do not immediately refolve the Queftion which Sir Wiliam Temple put, for he con* founds two very different Things together ; namely, Who were the Greateft. Men, the Ancients, or the Moderns? and, Who have carried their Enquiries fartheft >, The. firft is a very proper Queftion for a Declama- tion, though not fo proper fora Difcourfe, wherein Men are fuppofed to reafon fevere- ly ; becaufe, for want:of Mediums: where- onto found an Argument, -it cannot eafily- be decided: For, though there be no furer Way of judging of the Comparative Force of the Genius’s of feveral Men, than by examining the refpective Beauty or Sub- tilty of thei Performances; yet the good Fortune of appearing firft, added to-the Misfortune of wanting a Guide, gives the firft Comers fo great-an Advantage, that though,- for inftance, the Fairy Queen, or Paradife Loft, may be thought by fome to be better Poems than the //zas.; yet the fame Perfons will not fay but that Afomer was at leaft as great a, Genius as either Spencer or Milton. And befides, when Men judge of the Greatnefs of an Inventors Ge- nius barely by the Subtilty and Curiofity of his Inventions, they may be very liable to Miftakes intheir Judgments, unlefs they know and are able to judge of the Eafinefs | or