Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/204

130 you, is a stiffness, and stateliness, and operoseness, of style, &c. which is quite aliene from the character of Phalaris, a man of business and despatch."

Stiffness, and stateliness, and operoseness, of style is indeed quite aliene from the character of a man of business and despatch; for which reason anybody that reads Dr Bentley, would easily guess that he is not a man of business. And not being a man of business, but a Library-keeper, it is not over-modestly done of him to oppose his judgement and taste, in this case, to that of Sir William Temple, who is certainly a man of business, and knows more of these things than Dr Bentley does of Hesychius and Suidas. For as his friend, Mr Wotton, has with great sagacity observed, "It is universally acknowledged, that he who has studied any subject, is a better judge of that subject than another man who did never purposely bend his thoughts that way, provided they be both men of equal parts." Sir William Temple has spent a good part of his life in transacting affairs of state; he has written to kings, and they to him; and this has qualified him to judge how kings should write, much better than all Dr