Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/80

 at the enemy by the valiant on each side, with equal skill and violence as if it were an engagement of porcupines. This malignant liquor was compounded by the engineer who invented it, of two ingredients, which are gall and copperas, by its bitterness and venom to suit in some degree, as well as to foment, the genius of the combatants. And as the Grecians, after an engagement, when they could not agree about the victory, were wont to set up trophies on both sides, the beaten party being content to be at the same expense, to keep itself in countenance, (a laudable and ancient custom happily revived of late in the art of war,) so the learned after a sharp and bloody dispute do on both sides hang out their trophies too, whichever comes by the worst. These trophies have largely inscribed on them the merits of the cause; a full impartial account of such a battle; and how the victory fell clearly to the party that set them up. They are known to the world under several names, as—Disputes, Arguments, Rejoinders, Brief Considerations, Answers, Replies, Remarks, Reflections, Objections, Confutations. For a very few days they are fixed up in all public places,