have had a very great Advantage over thoſe who firſt form'd that of the French, for Swift, Prior, Congreve, Dryden, Pope, Addiſon, &c. had fix'd the Engliſh Tongue by their Writings; whereas Chapelain, Colletet, Caſſaigne, Faret, Perrin, Cotin, our firſt Academicians, were a Diſgrace to their Country; and ſo much Ridicule is now attach'd to their very Names, that if an Author of ſome Genius in this Age had the Misfortune to be call'd Chapelain or Cotin, he would be under a Neceſſity of changing it.
One Circumſtance, to which the Engliſh Academy ſhould eſpecially have attended, is, to have preſcrib'd to themſelves Occupations of a quite different kind from thoſe with which our Academicians amuſe themſelves. A Wit of this Country aſk'd me for the Memoirs of the French Academy. I anſwer'd, they have no Memoirs, but have printed threeſcore or fourſcore Volumes in Quarto of Compliments. The Gentleman perus'd one or two of 'em,
but
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