Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/356

 ed nothing but Mathematical Skill, to have left nothing for Mr. Greaves, who came after him, to do. This is an eminent Instance, whereby we may give a certain Judgment of the Historical Exactness of the Ancients, compared to that of the Moderns. It may be improved to considerable Purposes; at least, it is of great use to justifie those Modern Writers, who have, with great Freedom, accused some of the Greatest of the Ancients, of Carelesness in their Accounts of Civil Occurrencies, as well as of Natural Rareties; and who have dared to believe their own Reason, against the positive Evidence of an old Historian, in Matters wherein one would think that he had greater Opportunities of knowing the certain Truth, than any Man that has lived for several Ages.

But here I expect that it should be objected, that this is not to be esteemed as a Part of Real Learning. To pore in old MSS. to compare various Readings; to turn over Glossaries, and old Scholia upon Ancient Historians, Orators and Poets; to be minutely critical in all the little Fashions of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the Memory whereof was, in a manner, lost within Fifty or an Hundred Years after they had been in use; may be good