Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/59

 licèt non passibus æquis, laboured to come near the Copies which were already set them. From whence these Men think it probable that all Modern Learning is but Imitation, and that faint and flat, like the Paintings of those who draw after Copies at a Third or Fourth Hand from the Life. Now, as this can only be known by an Induction of Particulars, so of these Particulars there are two sorts: One, of those wherein the greatest part of those Learned Men who have compared Ancient and Modern Performances, either give up the Cause to the Ancients quite, or think, at least, that the Moderns have not gone beyond them. The other of those, where the Advocates for the Moderns think the Case so clear on their Side, that they wonder how any Man can dispute it with them. Poesie, Oratory, Architecture, Painting, and Statuary, are of the First Sort: Natural History, Physiology, and Mathematicks, with all their Dependencies, are of the Second.