Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/208

134 hundred other such elegances of speech, I leave him to consider at his leisure.

To over-rate the price of knowledge, and to make as great ado about the true rendering of a phrase or accenting of a word, as if an article of faith or the fortune of a kingdom depended upon it, is pedantry. And so is an assuming and positive way of delivering oneself, upon points, especially, not worth our concern, and not capable of being perfectly cleared. And whether Dr Bentley be guilty in this respect or no, the reader will be able to judge when he has cast his eye on the margin, and considered how many times the Doctor in his Dissertation has freely used the word demonstrate of his own performances, and withal how fond he is of negatives, a very dangerous way of speech, and that in cases oftentimes where the contrary