but without being able to underſtand the Style in which they were written, tho' he underſtood all our good Authors perfectly. All, ſays he, I ſee in theſe elegant Diſcourſes is, that the Member elect having aſſur'd the Audience that his Predeceſſor was a great Man, that Cardinal Richelieu was a very great Man, that the Chancellor Seguier was a pretty great Man, that Lewis the Fourteenth was a more than great Man; the Director anſwers in the very ſame Strain, and adds, that the Member elect may alſo be a ſort of great Man, and that himſelf, in Quality of Director, muſt alſo have ſome Share in this Greatneſs.
The Cauſe why all theſe academical Diſcourſes have unhappily done ſo little Honour to this Body is evident enough. Vitium eſt temporis potiùs quam hominis. (The Fault is owing to the Age rather than to particular Perſons.) It grew up inſenſibly into a Cuſtom for every Academician to repeat theſe Elogiums at his Reception; 'twas laid down as a kind of Law, that the Publick ſhould be in-
