A Dissertation on Reading the Classics, and Forming a Just Style

Front matter

A

DISSERTATION

On Reading the

Preface

THE PREFACE.

THE following Sheets were the Product of some leisure Hours in the Country, about three or four Years ago. They were written in the Year 1709, and not transcribed till the latter End of the next Summer, as the Reader will find by several Passages up and down, which will clear the Time, and save the Critics the Trouble of making any Mistakes in their Conjectures. For Want of such Informations, of from the Loss of them, Learned Men have been at a World of Pains in settling the Date of many excellent Pieces, and have differed vastly from one another not only in a Day, or a Month, but even in a Year, nay sometimes in two or three. But I have always observed, that the disagree most, where they differ least; the nearer they come to one another, the closer is the Engagement; and the critical War is always hottest, when there is nothing between them.

I hope the Readers will be so candid, as not to expect what they do not find, for I am very sensible from the better Judgment of Mankind, that they will be under a strange Temptation to blame such a Work as this, for laying down Rules without giving Examples; and I must own, it does not seem easy for me to excuse so great an Omission, when I might at once with the Trouble only of Transcribing, have enlarged the Book, adorned the Work, and diverted the courteous Reader.

But, perhaps, I had a Mind to be the first Modern that ever composed a Piece of this Nature without the Pomp of Quotations; and since I did not see the Necessity of it, I was willing to avoid all Ostentation of Learning. Tully is very sparing in Quotations. Most that he useth are to show the Force and Varyings of Action and Elocution, rather than the Rules of Writing, except when he quotes himself, which is next to not quoting at all, and the worst Way of producing Examples in the World. Aristotles Way is dry and formal; and Longinus who hath recorded some of the most beautiful Passages of the Greek Authors in his Treatise of Sublime, could not have been understood without them. I have dwell'd only in general Rules, without descending into the Provinces of the Grammarian and Rhetorician, and perhaps any Body is pleased to try, he will hardly find it practicable to illustrate these Rules by Examples.

The Rules I have given, are the Result of a thousand others, the Abstract and Essence of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic; and the Examples of a perfect Style are to be taken from the best Authors in general, not from any separate Quotations. Tully and Quintilian do frequently commend the illustrious Writers they mention for their several Excellencies, and propose them as Standards in general for the several Ways of Writing they were distinguished in; but they never descend to Particulars, nor support their Opinions by formal Citations. For that they referr themselves to every Man's Taste and Judgment.

If we consider others, who have delivered any Rules of Writing, we shall find, the Examples they produce, are in minuter Matters to explain the Terms and Signification of the lower Rules, which relate to Grammar and Rhetoric, to the Art and Mechanism of Writing. But where they treat in generals, as I have done, they never illustrate their Rules by Examples. Quintilians Institution is full of Quotations, for the first nine Books in which he treats his Subject as a Rhetorician, but in the three last, especially the twelfth, where he rises from Particulars to more general Considerations, we hardly have one Citation; and the same may be ob of Tully in his general Rules of Oratory. No body produces Examples of consistent Writers by particular Quotations, and the several Rules I have given for the Idiom, Purity, Plainness, and Decorations of Speech, &c. cannot be farther illustrated by any Passages from Authors; for we have natural Notions of these Things, and can only set them off by showing the several Ways of offending against them.

Rules speak themselves; they draw the Picture of Nature, and give us sure Criterions of an Original in every Performance. I am very certain, the World had seen the fairest Draughts before any settled Rules were given; and perhaps, the Works of the Learned have been more formal, but not more correct, since Men wrote according to Art. For those who first prescribed the Rules of Writing, did not take Nature stripped and naked for their Copy; but they looked upon her, as she was dressed and adorned by her Adorers: They took off indeed all false Colours, but allowed her a little Paint, and were content she should be set out like any Lady, provided her Dressers did not spoil her native Beauty. They formed their Rules upon the Model of the best Writers; they were so artful as to conceal their Art, and while they seemed to prescribe to others, they were only Copiers themselves. But after they had fixed the Standard, they were sure every Writer would be brought to their Bar; and as the first admirable Copies of Nature gave them a Foundation for their Rules, they knew every good Genius would write and judge by Nature, whether any Rules had been set or no. And perhaps, (for I love to doubt in Matters so hazardous Conjecture) if the Rules had not been given, we had been troubled with many fewer Writers; for then those who had not Nature for their Rule, could have had no Rule at all. But now how many Scriblers are there who observe the Rule, and neglect the Meaning, and what Number of Pedants do we meet with, that keep to the Letter, and lose the Spirit?

I won't pretend to answer my Want of Method, perhaps I have observed it, tho' I seem to neglect it. Nor shall I need any Apology for the Style and Manner I have used, which the graver Critics will censure as too light and juvenile for one of my Profession. But I was not writing to myself, nor to the grave and learned, but to a young Nobleman of sprightly Parts, and a lively Imagination. My Business was to engage his Attention, and give the Piece such Colours, as would strike his Fancy. And I am very glad, that while I wrote to a Youth, I could write some like a Youth, only tempering the Briskness of Thought with the Sedateness of Judgement.

What I wished might be performed by the finest Wits upon the ancient Authors, I have with inexpressible Pleasure seen accomplished by the admirable Critic upon Milton. And if Mr. Steele, and his Friends, would do the same Justice to Horace, Homer, and Virgil, or any celebrated Names in Antiquity, we might hope to read them in a brighter Light, and peruse Ten thousand Glories, which lie covered under the Modern Way of Illustration.

Tully who hath given us those excellent Books of Orators, and Oratory, was himself the greater Orator. If Horace had not been an excellent Poet, he had never been an admirable Critic. The best Performers are the best Judges in every Art, and the ingenious Author of the Essay upon Criticism, demonstrates the Justness of his Remarks, by the Goodness of his Writing. The true Spirit of Criticism seems to revive. Lord Roscommon, and the present, with the late Duke of Bucks, opened the Scene in King Charles the Second's Time, but it soon closed again. And nothing was done but in a dry, formal Way, except by Dryden, who at once gave the best Rules, and broke them in spight of his own Knowledge, and the Rehearsal. His Prefaces are many of them admirable upon Dramatic Writing; he had some peculiar Notions, which he maintains with great Address; but his Judgment in disputed Points is of less Weight and Value, because the Inconstancy of his Temper did run into his Thoughts, and mixed with the Conduct of his Writings, as well as his Life.

The present Age seemeth to be born for carrying Criticism to its highest Pitch and Perfection. We have seen many admirable Pieces in the single Papers, which have been published of late Years, preferable to Volumes of Your stanch, formal Critics. Many ingenious Hands have concurred to rescue it from Pedantry, Dul , and Ill-Nature. It is no longer a dry, sour, verbal Study, but claimeth a Place among the politest Parts of Learning; A Critic should lift up his Head with an easy, chearful Air, and not be distinguished, as the Tribe hath generally been, by the Wrinkles of his Brows, but as Men of Candor and Ingenuity ought to be, by the Good Nature, Freedom, and Openness of his Countenance. Critics are apt to talk in a supercilious, magisterial Way, to obtrude their Sentiments on the World, and maintain every singular Opinion with Stiffness and Ill Manners. But if they would soften the Rigor of their Pen, and offer their Notions in a modest affa Address, their Civility and Complaisance would take off those Prejudices, with which Pride and Positiveness are generally entertained. The late Edition of Horace is the finest and greatest Piece of Criticism, that was ever written on any Classic; and if the most Learned Doctor had been a more popular Writer, the World I believe would have admired several Passages they endeavour to explode: And more Texts had been acknowledged admirably restored, if some had not been magisterially obtruded. What a polite Critic may do if he pleases, and in how different an Aspect Criticism appears, when formed by Men of Parts and Fire, we may see in Mr. Trapps Prælectiones Poeticæ. A Work that cannot be enough commended, whether we consider the Curiousness of his Observations, the Justness of his Remarks, the Truth and Importance of his Rules, the Aptness and Beauty of his Examples, the Force and Elegance of his Style, and the Penetration of his Wit and Judgment: A Piece in such Perfection of Beauty, that he gives the Rules with the same Spirit we find in the Examples, and maketh those Dissertations, which in heavy, formal Hands, would have looked crabbed, dull, and dry, shine in all the Graces, that Life, and Ease, and Vigor can adorn them with; we see how entertaining the severest Criticism are in a Poet's Hand, and what Life and Spirit he can give to the dryest Part of his Subject, while he prescribes the Rules, and fixes the Laws of Poetic Diction, weigheth the Importance of Words, and considers the several Ways of Expression peculiar to the Poets. And if Men of such Learning, and such Parts, would undertake this Province, I cannot help repeating it, we should see more and more into the Propriety, Strength, and Compass, and all the hidden Beauties of the Greek and Latin Tongue.

What Advantage our Language may receive, when those will take upon them to reform it, who are the best Writer in it, we may partly conceive from the new Proposal for ascertaining the British Tongue, and fixing the Standard of it. And whenever a Work of that Public Spirit shall be undertaken, and supported by the greatest and ablest Hands in the Kingdom, I will promise myself to see our Language rival the Strength and Eloquence of the Roman Diction.

If I had seen my Lord Lansdownes Poems in one View, I might have formed a juster Idea of the Greatness of his Genius, and the Delicacy of his Wit. For when I wrote these Sheets, they lay dispersed up and down in the Miscellanies, but some kind Hand hath assembled the scattered Stars, and added another Lyre to the Constellations.

Perhaps, the Characters I have drawn of our most celebrated Poets, Historians, and Divines, will not be agreed in by all; and therefore, so various is the Judgment of Mankind, I suffer'd that Piece to go with some Reluctance. All I can say for myself, is, that I have considered very carefully the Distinction of their Characters, and if I am not mistaken in that, I am sure I have said no more of them, than they deserve.

If I have advanced my singular Opinions, I shall be ready either to give them up, or give my Reasons for them; for, however I may differ in my Notions from the Herd of Critics and Commentators, I shall always be ambitious to think with the Politer, and more Candid Part of Mankind.

Contents

THE

Dissertation

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DISSERTATION, &c.

d,

I hardly prevail with myself to give Your Lordship this Trouble, without making an Apology for it in the Entrance, and begging Your Lordship's Pardon for intruding without Leave, and offering You a Present before I am sure of Your Acceptance. I might be very large upon the Importance and Advantages of Education, and say a great many Things which have been said before, but that Point is so well considered by Your Lordship's most Noble Parents, that I need not say any Thing upon it; and Your Lordship's Application to the excellent Methods taken for making a great, and a good Man, will answer, I am persuaded, all the fair Expectations every body conceiveth of You, that knoweth You.

And therefore, as You want no Instructions suitable to Your Birth and Quality, I have rather chosen to present Your Lordship with some peculiar Thoughts, than to run a needless Treatise upon the Subject at length; and tho' what I say, is no doubt inculcated to Your Lordship by better Hands, yet Variety may engage Your Attention, and the same Precepts differently applyed will make the deeper Impression, where Your Mind hath received the Characters before, and is readier to admit a second Stamp, when it is so well prepared by the first.

Your Lordship will at least have the Advantage of seeing Things together; and Leisure to weigh and consider the Reasonableness of what is recommended to You: And if I offer any Thing which is not commonly observed, I hope it will not be interpreted any Singularity, but such, as may render Your Lordship more Eminent, and Distinguished in the World.

The great Obligations I have to those of Your Illustrious Family incline me to make some Acknowledgment, and since I am not capable of doing it to them, I have chosen this Way to give Your Lordship a Token of the great Honour I have for the House of ; and if am of any Service to Your Lordship, I shall gratify a particular Inclination of my own to serve You.

Your Lordship's Years begin to make You capable of Refle , and Your good Parts advancing far before Your Years; discover a solid judgment joined with a quick Apprehension, which, if duly improved, will teach You to think right, and bring You to so just a Conclusion in all Emergencies, that to apprehend and determine will be but one Trouble; so vast an Advantage is a natural Penetration in an Understanding like Yours, when it comes to be exercised in Knowledge, and acquainted with the World.

I have observed, besides the Readiness of Parts, a Goodness of Nature, an excellent Disposition of Mind derived, to Your Lordship from the Parents of two Generations to whom I have the Honour to be known; and those excellent Seeds implanted in Your Birth, will, if cultivated, be most flourishing in Production; and as the Soil is good, and no Cost nor Care wanting to improve it, we must entertain Hopes of the richest Harvest: The Ear Admirable and Full, when the Blade is so Fair and Promising

Your Birth is attended with peculiar Advantages of Title and Estate, of Worth and Goodness in Your Ancestors and Parents: The Honour and Dignity of Your Family; the great Examples of Virtue in Your Progenitors for a long Descent; and the living, and more prevailing Example of Your most Illustrious Grand-Father and Father will fire a Soul like Yours to a generous Emulation, and, l hope, Your Lordship will follow them with equal Steps, if You do not go beyond them.

So select a Conjunction of the happiest Circumstances must have a blessed Influence on the whole Course of Your Life; and if Families are the more Noble for being more Ancient, Your Lordship will shine in true Nobility, and reflect a Lustre on all the long Gallery of Your Predecessors.

But, my Lord, the fairest Diamonds are rough till they are polished, and the purest Gold must be run and washed, and sifted in the Oar. We are untaught by Nature, and the finest Qualities will grow wild and degenerate, if the Mind is not formed by Discipline, and cultivated with an early Care. In some Persons, who have run up to Men without a liberal Education, we may observe many great Qualities darken'd and eclips'd; their Minds are crusted over like Diamonds in the Rock, they flash out sometimes into an irregular Greatness of Thought, and betray in their Actions an un Force, and unmanaged Virtue; something very Great and very Noble may be discerned, but it looketh cumbersome and awkard, and is alone of all Things the worse for being natural. Nature is undoubtedly the best Mistress and the aptest scholar, but Nature herself must be civilized, or she will look savage, as she appears, in the Indian Princes, who are vested with a native Majesty, a surprizing Greatness and Generosity of Soul, and discover what we always regret, Fine Parts, and excellent natural Endowments without Improvement. In those Countries, which we call Barbarous, where Art and Politeness are not understood, Nature hath the greater Advantage in this, that Simplicity of Manners often secureth the Innocence of the Mind; and as Virtue is not, so neither is Vice civilized and refined; But in these Politer Parts of the World, where Virtue excelleth by Rules and Discipline, Vice also is more instructed, and with us good Qualities will not spring up alone: Many hurtful Weeds will rise with them, and choak them in their Growth, unless removed by some skilful Hand; nor will the Mind be brought to a just Perfection, without cherishing every hopeful Seed, and representing every superfluous Humour: The Mind is like the Body in this Regard, which cannot fall into a decent and easy Carriage, unless it be fashioned in Time: An untaught Behaviour is like the People that use it, truly rustic, forced, and uncouth, and Art must be applied to make it Natural.

My Lord, the Necessity of Education is plain, but the Methods of it are in many Points ungrateful to Persons is of Your Lordship's Years. Sprightly Youth, and close Application will hardly stand together: Long Attention to the same Thing is tedious to tender Minds; and 'tis difficult to fix the Mercury, and settle a brisk, lively Temper in a laborious, plodding Track of Learning. This Your Lordship's Parts are too delicate to admit of, and too ready to need: Your Lordship will always use Application enough to apprehend Things fully, and a shorter Attention, if it be close, will master any Difficulty, that falls in Your way: I believe, Your Lordship is of that generous Temper so natural to Persons of Your great Parts, to suffer no Difficulty to be too hard for You, and to master every Opposition, that would obstruct Your Passage.

For, my Lord, 'tis in Knowledge as in War; Open Places are easily taken in, and Towns not strongly fortified make but a weak Resistance; but where Art and Nature conspire to render any Fortress impregnable; it must be won by the most powerful Assaults, and noblest Resolution. Brussels and Louvain are easy Conquests, they do not so much resist, as admit the Victor; but if the Duke of Marlborough, or Prince Eugene had expected other Towns would have made them the same Complements, Lisle had still remained to the French, and Mons, and Tournay might still have been thought im . 'Tis familiar to our Troops to beat an Army in plain Fight, and open Field; but when the Enemy lieth entrenched behind Lines, as strong as Walls, the late bloody, and glorious Battle at the Woods of Sart and Sansart will show, that the last Degrees of Bravery and Resolution, the most absolute Points of Courage and Conduct are required to surmount such insuperable Difficulties, and return with Victory.

To leave this Digression, my Lord, if I may call it so, Knowledge will not be won without Pains and Application: Some Parts of it are ea , some more difficult of Access: We must proceed at once by Sap and Battery, and when the Breach is practicable, Your Lordship hath Nothing to do, but to press boldly on, and enter: It is troublesome and deep Digging for pure Waters, but when once You come to the Spring, they rise and meet You: The Entrance into Knowledge is oftentimes very Narrow, Dark, and Tiresome, but the Rooms are Spacious, and gloriously furnished: The Country is admirable, and every Prospect entertaining. Your Lordship need not wonder, that fine Countries have strait Avenues, when the Regions of Happiness, like those of Knowledge, are impervious, and shut to lazy Travellers, and the Way to Heaven it self is Narrow.

Common Things are easily attained, and no body valueth what lieth in every body's Way: What is Excellent is placed out of ordinary Reach, and Your Lordship will easily be persuaded to put forth Your Hand to the utmost Stretch, and reach whatever You aspire at.

Many are the Subjects, my Lord, which will invite and deserve the steadiest Application from those who would excell, and be distinguished in them. Humane Learning in general: Natural Philosophy: Mathematicks, and the whole Circle of Science: But, my Lord, there is no Necessity of leading Your Lordship thro' these several Fields of Knowledge: It will be most Commendable for Your Lordship to gather some of the fairest Fruit from them all, and to lay up a Store of good Sense, and sound Reason, of great Probity, and solid Virtue: This is the true Use of Knowledge, to make it subservient to the great Duties of our most Holy Religion, that as You are daily grounded in the true and saving Knowledge of a Christian, You may use the Helps of humane Learning, and direct them to their proper End. Your Lordship will meet with great and wonderful Examples of an irregular and mistaken Virtue in the Greeks and Romans; with many Instances of Greatness of Mind, of unshaken Fidelity, Contempt of humane Grandeur, a most passionate Love of their Country, Prodigality of Life, Disdain of Servitude, inviolable Truth, and the most publick disinterested Souls, that ever threw off all Regards in Comparison with their Country's Good; Your Lordship will discern the Flaws and Blemishes of their fairest Actions, see the wrong Apprehensions they had of Virtue, and be able to point them right, and keep them within their proper Bounds. Under this Correction Your Lordship may extract a generous and noble Spirit from the Writings and Histories of the Ancients. And I would in a particular Manner recommend the Classic Authors to Your Favour, and they will recommend themselves to Your Approbation.

If Your Lordship would resolve to master the Greek as well as the Latin Tongue, You will find that the one is the Source and Original of all that is most Excellent in the other; I do not mean so much for Expression, as Thought, though some of the most beautiful Strokes of the Latin Tongue are drawn from the Lines of the Grecian Orators and Poets; but for Thought, and Fancy, for the very Foundation, and Embellishment of their Works, You will see, the Latins have ransacked the Grecian Store, and as Horace advises all, who would succeed in Writing well, had their Authors Night and Morning in their Hands.

And they have been such happy Imitators, that the Copies have proved more exacting than the Originals; and Rome hath triumphed over Athens, as well in Wit, as Arms; for tho' Greece may have the Honour of Invention, yet 'tis easier to strike out a new Course of Thought, than to equal old Originals, and therefore it is more Honour to surpass, than to invent anew. Verrio is a great Man from his own Designs, but if he had attempted upon the Cartons, and out-done Raphael Urbin in Life and Colours, he had been acknowledged greater than that celebrated Master, but now we must think less.

If I may detain Your Lordship with a short Comparison of the Greek and Roman Authors, I must needs own, the last have the Preference in my Thoughts, and I am not Singular in my Opinion. lt must be confessed, the Romans have left no Tragedies behind them, that may compare with the Majesty of the Grecian Stage; the best Comedies of Rome were written on the Grecian Plan, but Menander is too far lost to be compared with Terence; only if we may judge by the Method Terence used in forming two Greek Plays into one we shall naturally conclude, since his are perfect upon that Model, that they are more perfect than Menanders were. I shall make no great Difficulty in preferring Plautus to Aristophanes for Wit and Humour, Variety of Characters, Plot and Contrivance in his Plays.

Virgil has been so often compared with Homer, and the Merits of those Poets so often canvassed, that I shall only say, that if the Roman shines not in the Grecians Flame and Fire, 'tis the Coolness of his Judgment rather than the Want of Heat. Your Lordship will generally find the Force of a Poet's Genius, and the Strength of his Fancy display themselves in the Descriptions they give of Battles, Storms, Prodigies, &c. and Homers Fire breaks out on these Occasions in more Dread and Terror: But Virgil mixes Compassion with his Terror, and by throwing Water on the Flame maketh it burn the brighter; so in the Storms, so in his Battles on the Fall of Pallas and Camilla: and that Scene of Horror, which his Hero opens in the second Book: the Burning of Troy: the Ghost of Hector: the Murder of the King: the Massacre of the People: the sudden Surprize and the Dead of Night are so reliev'd by the Piety and Pity that is every where intermix'd, that we forget our Fears, and join in the Lamentation. All the World acknowledgeth the Æneid to be most Perfect in its Kind; and considering the Disadvantage of the Language, and the Severity of the Roman Muse, the Poem is still more Wonderful, since without the Liberty of the Grecian Poets, the Diction is so Great and Noble, so Clear, so Forcible and Expressive, so Chaste and Pure, that even all the Strength and Compass of the Greek Tongue joined to Homers Fire cannot give us stronger and clearer Ideas, than the great Virgil hath set before our Eyes; some few Instances excepted, in which Homer thro' the Force of Genius hath excelled.

I have argued hitherto, my Lord, for Virgil, and it will be no Wonder, that his Poem should be more correct in the Rules of Writing, if that strange Opinion prevaileth, that Homer writ without any View or Design at all, that his Poems are loose, independent Pieces tacked together, and were originally only many Ballads or Songs upon the Gods and Heroes, and the Siege of Troy. If this be true, they are the completest String of Ballads I ever met with, and whoever collected them, and put them in the Method we now read them in; whether it were Pisistratus, or any other, hath placed them in such Order, that the Iliad and the Odysseïs seem to have been composed with one View and Design, one Scheme and Intention, which are carried on from the Beginning to the End all along Uniform and Consistent with themselves. Some, my Lord, have argued the World was made by a wise Being, and not jumbled together by Chance from the very Absurdity of such a Supposition; and they have illustrated their Argument from the Impossibility, that such a Poem, as Homers, and Virgils should rise in such beautiful Order out of Millions of Letters eternally shaken together; but this Argument is half spoiled, if we allow, that the Poems of Homer, in each of which appeareth one continued formed Design from one End to the other, were written in loose Scraps on no settled premeditated Scheme. Horace, we are sure, was of another Opinion, and so was Virgil too, who built his Æneid upon the Model of the Iliad, and the Odysseïs; after all, Tully, whose Relation of this Passage hath given some Colour to this Suggestion, sayeth no more, than that Pisistratus, whom he commendeth for his Learning, and condemneth for his Tyranny, observing the Books of Homer to lie confused and out of Order, placed them in the Method the great Author, no doubt, had first formed them in: But all this Tully giveth us only as Report. And it would be very strange that Aristotle should form his Rules on Homers Poems, that Horace should follow his Example, and propose Homer for the Standard of Epic Writing with this bright Testimony, that he never undertook any Thing inconsiderately, nor never made any foolish Attempts, if indeed this celebrated Poet did not intend to form his Poems in the Order and Design we see them in: If we look upon the Fabrick and Construction of those great Works, we shall find an admirable Proportion in all the Parts, a perpetual Coincidence, and Dependence of one upon another; I will venture an Appeal to any learned Critic in this Cause; and if it be a sufficient Reason to alter the common Readings in a Letter, a Word, or a Phrase from the Consideration of the Context, or Propriety of the Language, and call it the Restoring of the Text, is it not a Demonstration that these Poems were made in the same Course of Lines, and upon the same Plan we read them in at present, from all the Arguments, that Connection, Dependence and Regularity can give us? If those Critics, who maintain this odd Fancy of Homers Writings, had found them loose, and undigested, and restored them to the Order they stand in now, I believe they would have gloried in their Art, and maintained it with more uncontested Reasons, than they are able to bring for the Discovery of a Word, or a Syllable hitherto falsly printed in the Text of any Author. But, my Lord, if any learned Men of singular Fancies and Opinions will not allow these Buildings to have been originally designed after the present Model, let them at least allow us one poetical Supposition on our Side, that Homers Harp was as Powerful to command his scattered incoherent Pieces into the beautiful Structure of a Poem, as Amphions was to summon the Stones into a Wall, or Orpheuss to lead the Trees a Dance. For certainly, however it happeneth, the Parts are so justly disposed, that You cannot change any Book into the Place of another without spoiling the Proportion, and confounding the Order of the Whole.