BOO
the Greek eta, or the praife of an afs or a loufe, or afhadow, or folly, or idlencfs, or the art of drinking, or loving, or drefling ; or the ufe and abufe of fpurs, or fhoes, or gloves, or the like. — Suppofe, for inftance, it be the lad, and let lis fee how a modern writer of note proceeds to make his boot. — For method he takes that of the Lullifts, and begins with the name and etymology of glove ; which he gives not only in the language he writes in, but in all the languages he underftands, or of which he has dictionaries in his iludy, oriental or occidental, living or dead ; accompanying each with its refpective etymon, and fometimes too with its com- pounds and derivatives, and referring for more thorough knowledge to the feveral dictionaries from whence he took them ; always, moft religioufly quoting chapter and page. From the name he proceeds at length to the thing, and paffes with great pains and exactnefs through all the common places of arguments, as the matter, form, ufe, abufe, adjunfls, conjundts, disjuncts, CSV. of gloves. On each of which he does not confine himfelf to give us what is new, lingular, or fome way uncommon, but thinks himfelf obliged to ex- hauft his fubjecl:, and give us all he can find. Thus gloves, . he informs us, preferve the hands from cold ; and proves, that if we go much in the fun without them, our hands will ■_ be tanned. He goes on next to fhow, how chaps on the - hands will enfue in winter, if we leave our gloves at home ; and how painful as well as unfightly a tiling chapped hands ar e". — Yet muft this be allowed an author of merit, and far from being fingular in his method of writing. In reali- ty, we all do the fame thing, fome in a greater degree, and fome in a lefs, with good Mr. Nicolai. — ? Vid. Nicolai Dif- quif. de Chirotbecarum Ufo & Abufu. Cuff. 1702. l2mo. Nouv. Rep. Lett. Aout. 1702. p. i^S.feqq.
The form or method is the fpirit or archeus that directs all : one writer fuppofes his book to be 3 candle-flick, and every chapter a focket * ; another reduces his work to the form of a pair of folding- doors, which open into two parts, to admit the reader into a dichotomy ". M. Waltherus confidershis
- book, offuina biilica, as a /bop, and divides or ranges the ma-
terials of it accordingly, on fo many Jbelves, treating his reader throughout as a cuftomer. Another turns his book into a tree, with its trunk, branches, flowers, and fruits ; the twenty-four letters of the alphabet being the branches ; the feveral words the flowers, and 120 fermons the fruit '. — 'Fid. Wolf. Bibl. Hebr. T. 3. p. 987. b R. Schabtai Labra Dormienhum op. Wolf. lib. cit. Item T. I. in prof. p. 12. Caflian. a S. Eha, Arbor omnium opinhnum moralium, qua; ex trunco pullulant, tot ramis quot font literal alphabeti, cujus fla- res font verba, fruclus font 120 condones, &c. Venet. 1688. fol. V. Giorn. de Parma, an. 1688. p. 60. For the origin of Books, we have nothing that is clear: the books of Mofes are doubtlefs the oldeft of all that are extant '; but there were books before thofe of Mofes, who cites feveral b : Scipio Sgambati, and others ' even talk of boots before the deluge, written by the patriarchs Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Enoch *, Methufalem, Lamech, Noah and his wife, alfo by Ham, and Japhet his wife ; befides others by the demons or angels ; of all which fome moderns have found enough to fill an antediluvian library : but they appear all, either the dreams of idle writers, or the impoftures of fraudulent ones.— '■fide Mem. Acad. R. Infer. T. 6. p. 32. h Id. ibid. T. 8. p. 18. 'Sgambat. Arehiv. Vet. Toft. Fabric. Cod. Pfeudep. V. Tejl. paffm. Heuman. Via ad Hill. Liter, c. 3. S. 3- A 29-
- A book of Enoch is even cited in the epiftle of Jude, <v. 14,
and 1 5 : from which fome endeavour to prove the reality of antediluvian writings ; but the book cited by that apoftle is generally allowed both by ancient and modern writers to be fpurious.— Vid. Saalbach. Sched. de Lib/: Vet. §. 42. Re- imm. Idea Sy/t. Ait. Liter, p. 233. Of profane books, the oldeft extant are Homer's poems, which were even fo in the time of Sextus Empiricus » ; though we find mention in Greek writers of about feventy others prior to Homer, as Hermes, Orpheus, Daphne, Horus, Linus, Mufaeus, Palamcdes, Zoroafter, CSV. but of the greater part of thefe, there is not the leaft fragment remaining, and of the others the pieces which go under their names, are gene- rally held by the learned fuppofltitious.— F. Hardouin »oes farther ; charging all the ancient books, both Greek and La- tin, except Cicero, Pliny, Virgil's georgics, Horace's fatires and epiftles, Herodotus, and Homer, as fpurious, and forged in the thirteenth century, by a club of perfons under the direction of one Severus Archontius b . — 'Vid. Fabric Bibl Graec. I. I. c. 1. §. 1. T. 1. p. 1. ■> Id. ibid. §. 6 p. 4.' Har- doum. de Numm. Herodiad. in Proluf. Aft. 'End. Lipf. an 17 10. p. 70. "'
Among the Greeks, it is to be obferved, the oldeft books were in vcrie, which was prior to profe »: Herodotus's hiftory is the oldeft book extant of the profaic kind >>.— • Vid. Strab Geogr. I. 1. Heuman. lib. cit. §. 20. p. 50. >> Id. ibid. « 21 p. 52. See Poetry, (sfc. The multitude of Books has been long complained of: they are grown too numerous, not only to procure and read, but to lee, learn the names of, or even number. Solomon, three thoufand years ago complained, that « of writing books there
BOO
" was no end." But modern writers cannot keep within terms of fo much moderation : " You may fooner empty the " lea, fays one, than exhauft the immenfe ocean of books, " or number the funds on the fhore than the volumes ex- " tant. They are not to be told, fays another, though like " an inhabitant of Mahomet's 'paradife, a roan had feventy " thoufand heads, and to each head feventy thoufand mouths, " and to each mouth feventy thoufand tongues, which each " fpoke feventy thoufand languages."— Yet how is the num- ber continually increafing ! When we confider the multitude of hands employed in writing, of copifts throughout the ealt in tranferibing, and of preffes in the weft continually pour- ing in frelh quantities, it feems a kind of miracle the world mould be able to contain them " ! England has more to fear on this fcore than other countries ; fince befides our own produce, we have for fome years pad, drained our neigh- bours. The Italians and French make great complaints that their belt books are carried out of the country by foreigners : " It feems, fay they, to be the fate of the provinces which " compofed the ancient Roman empire, to be plundered by " the northern nations : anciently they conquered and took " poneffion of the country ; of late, they leave the inhabi- " tants their lands, and only take their, learning." Commi- grant ad not quotidie (cries Sig. Facciolati) callidi homines pecu- nia injlruftijjimi 13 praclaram Mam mufarum fupelleclilem, op- tima volumina, nobis alripiunt. Artes etiam, ac difoiplinas
paulatim abducluri alio, nifl Jludio & diligentia reflftatisK
■ Vid. Barth. de Libr. legend, diff. 1. p. 7. Heuman. Via ad
W' L ',"Z- '• 6 ' §' 43- £• 338- fin- " Facciolat. Oral. 1. Mem. de Trev. an. 1730. J6.M7Q3.
Elementary books feem the leaft to need to be'multiplied ; fince a good grammar, or diftionary, or inftitutions of any kind, feems hardly to admit of a fecond in one age, or even many ages. Yet it has been obferved, that in France alone, within the compafs of thirty years, there have appeared no lefs than fifty new elements of geometry, as many treatifes of ■ algebra, as many of arithmetic, and as many of furveying and meafuring ; it is added, that within the fpace of fifteen years, there have been above a hundred French and Latin grammars publifhed in the fame country; and of difliona- ries, abridgments, methods, cjV. in proportion: all which are but an eternal round- of the fame things, the fame ideas, fame diicoveries, fame truths, fame falfelioods.— Vid. Mem. de Trev. an. 1734. p. 804.
The belt of it is, we are not obliged to read them all • Thanks to providence, the good bifhop Caramucl's fcheme mifcarned, which was, to write about an hundred volumes in folio, and then prevail on the civil and fpiritual powers to oblige all their iubjefls to read them. Ringelbero- had laid the fchemes of no lefs than a thoufand feveraU»,fj which he alone was to have comporej, had he lived long enough • : and apparently would not have been lefs eager in obtruding them on the public. Had the fame thought en- tred Hermes Trifmegiftus, who according to the account given by Jambhchus, wrote 36525 books, people would have had much more reafon to complain of the multitude of boots than they now hive.— * Vid. Baill. Enfans Celcbr. fee. 12. jrugem. des Scav. T. 5. P. j. p. 373.
In reality there are few of the immenfe number of boots which deferve ferioufly to be ftudied : for the reft,, part of them are only to be occafionally confuted, and the reft read for amufement. A mathematician, for inftance, ought not to be entirely ignorant of what is contained in the mathe- matical books; but then a general knowledge is fufficient which may eafily be had by running over the chief authors; out of whom references may be made, directing to the pla- ces where they may be found, when wanted. For there are many things which are much better preferved in boots than in the memory ; as aftronomical obfervations, tables, rules, theorems, proportions, and in fine whatever does not fpon- taneouily adhere to the memory, when once known. For the lefs we croud that faculty, the readier and freer will the wit remain for inventing.— Vid. Cartes Epijl. ad Hoghel. ap. Hook Phil. Colled. N° 5. p. 144. feq.
Thus, a few boots well-chofen and thoroughly ftudied, may fuffice : many have held the bible alone fufficient for all the purpofes of knowledge ; others, the alcoran : Cardan re- quires but three books for any perfbn, who does not make a profeffion of learning ; one, to contain the lives and afts of the faints and other virtuous men ; another to amufe the mind with pleafing verfes; and a third to teach the rules of civil life.— Some have only propofed two books for our ftudy, viz. that of fcripture, which difcovers the will of God ; and that of the creation, which fhews his power; the latter of which is the key of the former ".—But this, under pre- tence of retrenching fuperfluities, feems to be running into the oppofite extreme. The bufinefs is, rather to make a due choice among the multitude, of a number of good ones. —It may be added, that as knowledge is naturally advanta- geous, and as every man ought to be in the way of infor- mation, even a fuperfluity of books is not without its ufe, fince hereby they are brought to obtrude themfelves on us, and engage us when we had leaft deiign.— This advantage, an ancient father obferves, we owe to the muItiplicity°of
boots
th
