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Sprat, Thomas. The History of the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge. 4th ed. London: 1734.
Part II, Section XX: Their Manner of Discourse [111-115]
Thus they have directed, judged, conjectur'd upon, and improved Experiments. But lastly, in these, and all other Businesses, that have come under their Care, there is one thing more about which the Society has been most solicitous, and that is the manner of their Discourse; which, unless they had been very watchful to keep in due Temper, the whole Spirit and Vigour of their Design had been soon eaten out, by the Luxury and Redundance of Speech. The ill Effects of this Superfluity of Talking, have already overwhelm’d most other Arts and Professions; insomuch, that when I consider the Means of happy Living, and the Causes of their Corruption, I can hardly forbear recanting what I said before, and concluding, that Eloquence ought to be banished out of all civil Societies as a thing fatal to Peace and good Manners. To this Opinion I should wholly incline, if I did not find, that it is a Weapon, which may be as easily procur'd by bad Men, as good; and that, if these should only cast it away, and those retain it; the naked Innocence of Virtue would be, upon all Occasions, exposed to the armed Malice of the Wicked. This is the chief Reason, that should now keep up the Ornament of Speaking in any Request, since they are so much degenerated from their original Usefulness. They were at first, no doubt, an admirable Instrument in the Hands of wise Men, when they were only employ'd to describe Goodness, Honesty, Obedience, in larger, fairer, and more moving Images; to represent Truth cloath'd with Bodies, and to bring Knowledge back again to our very Senses, from whence it was at first deriv'd to our Understandings. But now they are generally chang'd to worse Uses; they make the Fancy disgust the best Things, if they come found and unadorn'd ; they are in open Defiance against Reason; professing not to hold much Correspondence with that; but with its Slaves, the Passions; they give the Mind a Motion too changeable and bewitching, to conflict with right Practice. Who can behold, without Indignation, how many Mists and Uncertainties, these specious Tropes and Figures have brought on our Knowledge? How many Rewards, which are due to more profitable and difficult Arts have been still snatch'd away by the easy Vanity of fine Speaking! For now I am warm'd with this just Anger, I cannot with-hold my self, from betraying the Shallowness of all these seeming Mysteries; upon which, we Writers, and Speakers, look so big. And in few Words, I dare say, that of all the Studies of Men, nothing may be sooner obtain'd, than this vicious Abundance of Phrase, this Trick of Metaphors, this Volubility of Tongue, which makes so great a Noise in the World. But 1 spend Words in Vain; for the Evil is now so inveterate, that it is hard to know whom to blame, or where to begin to reform. We all value one another so much, upon this beautiful Deceit; and labour so long after it, in the Years of our Education; that we cannot but ever after think kinder of it, than it deserves. And indeed, in most other Parts of Learning, I look on it to be a Thing almost utterly desperate in its Cure; and I think it may be plac'd amongst those genera Mischief ; such as the Dissention of Christian Princes, the Want of Practice in Religion, and the like; which have been so long spoken against, that Men are become insensible about them ; every one shifting off the Fault from himself to others; and so they are only made bare Common Places of Complaint. It will suffice my present Purpose, to point out, what has been done by the Royal Society, towards the correcting of its Excesses in natural Philosophy; to which it is, of all others, a most professed Enemy.
They have therefore been more rigorous in putting in Execution the only Remedy, that can be found for this Extravagance, and that has been a constant Resolution, to reject all the Amplifications, Digressions, and Swellings of Style; to return back to the primitive Purity and Shortness, when Men deliver'd so many Things, almost in an equal Number of Words. They have exacted from all their Members, a close, naked, natural way of Speaking; positive Expressions, clear Senses; a native Easiness; bringing all Things as near the mathematical Plainness as they can; and preferring the Language of Artizans, Countrymen, and Merchants, before that of Wits, or Scholars.
And here, there is one Thing not to be pass'd by; which will render this establish'd Custom of the Society well nigh everlasting; and that is the general Constitution of the Minds of the English. I have already often insisted on some of the Prerogatives of England; whereby it may justly lay Claim, to be the Head of a philosophical League, above all other Countries in Europe: 1 have urg’d its Situation, its present Genius, and the Disposition of its Merchants; and many more such Arguments to encourage us, still remain to be us'd: But of all others, this which I am now alledging, is of the most weighty and important Consideration. If there can be a true Character given of the universal Temper of any Nation under Heaven; then certainly this must be ascrib'd to our Countrymen; that they have commonly an unaffected Sincerity; that they love to deliver their Minds with a sound Simplicity; that they have the middle Qualities, between the reserv'd subtile Southern, and the rough unhewn Northern People; that they are not extremely prone to speak; that they are more concern'd what others will think of the Strength, than of the Fineness of what they say; and that an universal Modesty possesses them. These Qualities are so conspicuous, and proper to our Soil; that we often hear them objected to us, by some of our Neighbour Satyrists, in more disgraceful Expressions. For they are wont to revile the English, with a want of Familiarity; with a melancholy Dumpishness; with Slowness, Silence, and with the unrefin'd Sullenness of their Behaviour. But these are only the Reproaches of Partiality, or Ignorance; for they ought rather to be commended for an honourable Integrity; for a Neglect of Circumstances and Flourishes; for regarding Things of greater Moment, more than less; for a Scorn to deceive as well as to be deceived; which are all the best Indowments, that can enter into a philosophical Mind. So that even the Position of our Climate, the Air, the Influence of the Heaven, the Composition of the English Blood; as well as the Embraces of the Ocean, seem to join with the Labours of the Royal Society, to render our Country a Land of experimental Knowledge. And it is a good Sign, that Nature will reveal more of its Secrets to the English, than to others; because it has already furnish’d them with a Genius so well proportioned, for the receiving and retaining its Mysteries. |
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