Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/99

 Thing that is extant of the Ancients, of that kind: For, as Sir William Temple says upon another Occasion, there is a Strain of Philosophy, and curious Thought, in his previous Essay of the Formation of the Sounds of Letters; and of Subtilty in the Grammar, in the reducing of our Language under Genuine Rules of Art, that one would not expect in a Book of that kind.

In France, since the Institution of the French Academy, the Grammar of their own Language has been studied with great Care. Isocrates himself could not be more nice in the Numbers of his Periods, than these Academicians have been in setling the Phraseology, in fixing the Standard of Words, and in making their Sentences, as well as they could, numerous and flowing. Their Dictionary, of which a good Part is already printed; Vaugelass and Bouhourss Remarks upon the French Tongue, Richelets and Furetieres Dictionaries, with abundance of other Books of that kind, which, though not all written by Members of the Academy, yet are all Imitations of the Patterns which they first set, are Evidences of this their Care. This Sir William Temple somewhere owns: And though he there supposes, that these Filers and Polishers