LETTER LIII.
FROM THE REVEREND MR. HORNE TO JUNIUS.
31. July, 1771.
- SIR,
YOU have disappointed me. When I told you that surmise and general abuse, in however elegant language, ought not to pass for proofs, I evidently hinted at the reply which I expected: but you have dropped your usual elegance, and seem willing to try what will be the effect of surmise and general abuse in very coarse language. Your answer to my last letter (which, I hope, was cool, and temperate, and modest) has convinced me, that my idea of a man is much superior to yours of a gentleman. Of your former letters, I have always said, materiem superabat opus: I do not think so of the present: the principles are more detestable than the expressions are mean and illiberal. I am contented that all those who adopt the one should for ever load me with the other.
