A Dialogue, Containing Some Reflections on the Late "Declaration and Remonstrance" - 3
Zeal. My dear Sir, I mean this, I am not, on second Thoughts, so much prejudiced in favour of our little Book as you are, nor perhaps as many of our careless giddy Readers; for tho not One in Fifty understands what he reads, or seeks for Proofs for Propositions laid down, neither has Capacity to enter into the Spirit of Ae Author: Yet there are Men quick-sighted, both in City and Country, who, I’m afraid, will easily discern the Fallacy of our Arguments, and the lightness of our Matter; and give me leave. Brother Scrivner, as I am a Party, as well as you, in writing this excellent Piece, and expect to be paid as well for it; I say give me leave to tell you, that I am not so sanguine as you are, respecting it’s Success, notwithstanding our seeming reasonable Remonstrances, cover’d over with a few tender Expressions, and thin, very thin Glosses; together with Propositions and Assertions without Proof, express’d in bad English, and-here and there in contradictory Terms: and many other Faults which before they came out of the Press, I was not aware of.
Posit. Oh Lud! Oh Lud! Pray good reform’d Sir, have you no more than these few Faults to find- with your own sweet Works and my witty Inventions? Oh my Heart! I believe the Man is going Mad! Why Zealot, dost thou deny thy own Works?
Zeal. No, Mr. Positive, I don’t deny my own Works; but I am afraid, as the Traytor Syphax once said to Sempronies his chief Captain, in a Case paralel with this, Cato has piercing Eyes, and will discern our Friends, unless they're cover'd thick with Art.
Posit. Puh! puh! puh! mad indeed! quite mad! stark mad! what in the Name of the D—l have we to do with Cato’s, Sempronies’s, or Syphax’s.
Zeal. I beg your Pardon Sir, but perhaps this may not be so great a Digression as shallow Politicians may imagine, and as it seems to offend you, I will drop it, and come to the Point at once.
Posit. Aye, aye, come to the Point at once; but I swear you shall never bring me into your Opinion, to
