However, tho' we cannot exactly tell, what the
Nature of that Performance was, because the Book is now lost, yet we are
certain, on the other Hand, that the Design of _Solomon_ was not to
write Characters, but to deliver some Maxims of Morality by way of
Advice and Instruction. So that for a profess'd Writer of Characters,
to take a Book of _Proverbs_ for a Model, is as inconsistent, as if any
one, who intended to compose an Oration, shou'd form his Diction upon a
Poem. _Proverbs_ consist of short Sentences, which contain in themselves
a full and compleat Sense; and therefore they do not essentially require
a strict Relation and Correspondence; but _Characteristic-Writings_
do require such a strict Relation and Correspondence. And Mr. _de la
Bruyere_ is so faulty in this Point, that almost every where he has no
visible Connexion. --_Characteristic-Writings_ ought, I own, to have a
lively Turn, and a Laconic Air: but there is a wide Difference between
using a concise Manner, and writing as many Aphorisms as
Sentences.
[S: Discours sur _Theophraste_.]
[T: Lib. 5. Segm. 45.]
How far Mr.
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