this I caused two men to fire their pistols in the wood, at two different places, as far asunder as I could. This I did to give them an alarm, and amuse them; for being in the lane, they would otherwise have got through before we had been ready, and I resolved to engage them there, as soon as it was possible. After this alarm, we rushed out of the wood, with about a hundred horse, and charged them on the flank in a broad lane, the wood being on their right. Our passage into the lane being narrow, gave us some difficulty in our getting out; but the surprise of the charge did our work; for the enemy thinking we had been a mile or two before, had not the least thoughts of this onset, till they heard us in the wood, and then they who were before could not come back. We broke into the lane just in the middle of them, and by that means divided them; and facing to the left, charged the rear. First our dismounted men, which were near fifty, lined the edge of the wood, and fired with their carabines upon those which were before, so warmly, that they put them into a great disorder. Meanwhile, fifty more of our horse from the further part of the wood showed themselves in the lane upon their front; this put them of the foremost party into a great perplexity, and they began to face about, to fall upon us who were engaged in the rear: but their facing about in a lane where there was no room to wheel, and one who understands the manner of wheeling a troop of horse must imagine, put them into a great disorder. Our party in the head of the lane taking the advantage of this mistake of the enemy, charged in upon them, and routed them entirely. Some found means to break into the enclosures on the other side of the lane, and get away. About thirty were killed, and about twenty-five made prisoners, and forty very good horses were taken; all this while not a man of ours was lost, and not above seven or eight wounded. Those in the rear behaved themselves better; for they stood our charge with a great deal of resolution, and all we could do could not break them; but at last our men, who had fired on foot through the hedges at the other party, coming to do the like here, there was no standing it any longer. The rear of them faced about, and retreated out of the lane, and drew up in the open field to receive and rally their fellows. We killed

about seventeen of them, and followed them to the end of the lane, but had no mind to have any more fighting than needs must; our condition at that time not making it proper, the towns round us being all in the enemy's hands, and the country but indifferently pleased with us; however, we stood facing them till they thought fit to march away. Thus we were supplied with horses enough to remount our men, and pursued our first design of getting into Lancashire. As for our prisoners, we let them off on foot.

Memoirs of a Cavalier.

P. 125, 1. 8. Breach. In the changed use of English, “breaking” would now be more usual in this sense. The phrase “making a clean breach," however, survives. P. 129, 1. 17. This (third) passage is perhaps the most marvellous example of Defoe's power of realist description. I have heard or read somewhere of a military man of distinction who declared that no one-certainly no civilian-could have written such an account unless he had seen the action.

P. 131, 1. 23. And seems to be a mistake for “as."

THE

RICHARD BENTLEY.

Richard Bentley, greatest of English scholars, was born at Oulton in 1662, and died Master of Trinity at Cambridge in 1742. Throughout his life he displayed immense learning, the utmost vigour and acuteness of mind, combined with an intolerant and intolerable temper. No example of polemic in English excels the Phalaris dissertation in the union of knowledge, argument, and wit.

PHALARISM.

HERE is a certain temper of mind, that Cicero calls Phalarism, a spirit like Phalaris's ;" and one would be apt to imagine that a portion of it had descended upon some of his translators. The gentleman has given a broad hint more than once in his book, that, if I proceed further against Phalaris, I may draw perhaps a duel or a stab upon myself; which is a generous threat, especially to a divine, who neither carries arms nor principles fit for that sort of controversy. It is the same kind of generosity, though in a lower degree, when he forbids me "to meddle with banter and ridicule, which, even when luckily hit on, are not very suitable to my character." And yet the sharpest, nay almost the only arguments that he himself uses, are banter and ridicule; so that " we two," as he says, "must end this dispute;" but he takes care to allow me none of the offensive arms that himself fights with. These are the extraordinary instances both of his candour and his courage. However, I have endeavoured to take his advice, and avoid all ridicule where it was possible to avoid it; and if ever "that odd work of his" has irresistibly moved me to a little jest and

laughter, I am content that what is the greatest virtue of his book should be counted the greatest fault of mine.

The facetious Examiner seems resolved to vie with Phalaris himself in the science of Phalarism; for his revenge is not satisfied with one single death of his adversary, but he will kill me over and over again. He has slain me twice by two several deaths; one in the first page of his book, and another in the last. In the title-page I die the death of Milo the Crotonian :

"Remember Milo's end!

"Wedg'd in that timber which he strove to rend."

The application of which must be this: That as Milo, after his victories at six several Olympiads, was at last conquered and destroyed in wrestling with a tree, so I, after I had attained to some small reputation in letters, am to be quite baffled and run down by wooden antagonists :-but, in the end of his book, he has got me into Phalaris's bull; and he has the pleasure of fancying that he hears me "begin to bellow." Well, since it is certain then that I am in the bull, I have performed the part of a sufferer; for as the cries of the tormented in old Phalaris's bull, being conveyed through pipes lodged in the machine, were turned into music for the entertainment of the tyrant, so the complaints which my torments express for me, being conveyed to Mr. B by this Answer, are all dedicated to his pleasure and diversion; but yet, methinks, when he was setting up to be Phalaris junior, the very omen of it might have deterred him ; for, as the old tyrant himself at last bellowed in his own bull, so his imitators ought to consider, that at long run their own actions may chance to overtake them.

But it is not enough for him that I die a bodily death, unless my reputation too die with me. He accuses me of one of the meanest and basest of actions: "That when Sir Edward Sherburn put a MS. into my hands to get it published by Mr. Grævius, desiring me to let him know from whom he had it, that he might make an honourable mention of him, I concealed the kindness of Sir Edward, and took the honour of it to myself; so that the book was dedicated to me, and not one word said of him." This is both a very black and a very false

accusation; and yet I own I am neither sorry nor surprised to see it in print. Not sorry, because I can so fully confute it, that with all ingenuous readers it will turn to my applause ;—not surprised, because I expected such usage from the spirit of Phalarism. I am morally sure that the very persons that printed this story knew how to give a good answer to it; for I heard of it by some common friends some time before it was printed, who, I question not, gave them an account how I justified myself; but, however, it seems they would not lay aside this calumny; for, as in war sometimes it is an useful stratagem to spread a false report, though it certainly must be dispersed in two or three days; so bere it was thought a serviceable falsehood, if it could be credited for a few months. Besides that, it is the old rule to accuse strenuously, and something will stick; and it is almost the same thing with men's reputations as with their lives: he that is prodigal of his own, is master of another man's.

Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris.

THE CHANGE OF LANGUAGE.

BUT, since tyrants will not be confined by laws, let us suppose, if you will, that our Phalaris might make use of the Attic, for no reason at all but his own arbitrary humour and pleasure; yet we have still another indictment against the credit of the Epistles; for even the Attic of the true Phalaris's age is not there represented; but a more recent idiom and style, that by the whole thread and colour of it betrays itself to be many centuries younger than he. Every living language, like the perspiring bodies of living creatures, is in perpetual motion and alteration; some words go off, and become obsolete; others are taken in, and by degrees grow into common use; or the same word is inverted to a new sense and notion, which in tract of time makes as observable a change in the air and features of a language, as age makes in the lines and mien of a face. All are sensible of this in their own native tongue, where continual use makes every man a critic; for what Englishman does not think