Page:A Dissertation on Reading the Classics and Forming a Just Style.djvu/148

104 the Purity of our Language consisteth in preserving this Character, in writing with the English Strength and Spirit: Let us not envy others, that they are more soft, diffused, and rarified; be it our Commendation to write as we pay in true Sterling; if we want Supplies, we had better revive old Words, than create new Ones. I look upon our Language as good Bullion, if we do not debase it with too much Allay; and let me leave this Censure with Your Lordship, That he who corrupteth the Purity of the English Tongue with the most specious foreign Words and Phrases, is just as wise as those Rh