Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/191

 ted that Art, the most useful and agreeable of any, l'Art de Vivre, the Art of Society and Conversation.

we consider the State of the Sciences and polite Arts in our own Country, Horace's Observation, with regard to the Romans, may, in a great Measure, be applied to the British.

Elegance and Propriety of Stile have been very much neglected among us. We have no Dictionary of our Language, and scarce a tolerable Grammar. The first polite Prose we have, was wrote by a Man who is still alive. As to Sprat, Temple and Locke, they knew too little of the Rules of Art to be esteem'd elegant Writers. The Prose of Bacon, Harrington and Milton, is altogether stiff and pedantic; tho' their Sense be excellent. Men, in this Country, have been so much occupied in the Grand Disputes of Religion, Politics and Philosophy, that they had