tary of State, who had the happy Talent of Speaking without Premeditation in the Parliament-houſe with as much Purity as Dean Swift writ in his Cloſet, and who would have been the Ornament and Protector of that Academy. Thoſe only wou'd have been choſen Members of it, whoſe Works will laſt as long as the Engliſh Tongue, ſuch as Dean Swift, Mr. Prior, whom we ſaw here inveſted with a publick Character, and whoſe Fame in England is equal to that of La Fontaine in France; Mr. Pope the Engliſh Boileau, Mr. Congreve who may be call'd their Moliere, and ſeveral other eminent Perſons whoſe Names I have forgot; all theſe would have rais'd the Glory of that Body to a great Height even in it's Infancy. But Queen Anne being ſnatch'd ſuddenly from the World, the Whigs were reſolv'd to ruin the Protectors of the intended Academy, a Circumſtance that was of the moſt fatal Conſquence to polite Literature. The Members of this Academy would
