With Relation
to my present Purpose I observe, that, strictly speaking, this
Performance is, but in Part, of the Characteristic-Kind. The
Characters, which are interspers'd in it, being reducible to a very
narrow Compass, and the main Body of it consisting of miscellaneous
Reflexions. And these are not confin'd, as is pretended, only to the
present Age, but extend themselves both to past and present Times. So
that if Mr. _de la Bruyere_ had, with his View, chosen another Title
for his Book, tho' it wou'd not have been so uncommon, yet wou'd it
have been more proper than the present Title; and the Performance it
self wou'd then, in some Measure, have less deserv'd
Censure.
Tho' Mr. _de la Bruyere's_ Work is not perfect in that Kind, in which
it is pretended to excel, it must nevertheless be confess'd, that it
has many Beauties and Excellencies. To deny this, wou'd be an Affront
to the Judgment of the Gentlemen of the _French_ Academy: But yet our
Complaisance ought not, cannot go so far, as to prejudice our own
Judgment. We cannot think, as [X]some of 'em did, that Mr. _de la
Bruyere_ has excell'd _Theophrastus_, the great Original which he
propos'd to himself.
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