Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	child_n	great_a	parent_n	1,520	5	8.2359	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26588	A discourse of wit by David Abercromby ...	Abercromby, David, d. 1701 or 2.	1686 (1686)	Wing A82; ESTC R32691	73,733	250

Sun the debate between Ajax and Vlisses c. I admire nothing more in Lucan than the unevenness of his Style he flies high and on a suddain low again in the same Page and sometimes in the same Verse you shall read none so elevated upon some occasions and none so flat on other rencounters Claudian and he are near of a Temper Livy by his long and Minute narratives wears out his own Wit and the Readers patience His best pieces in my Judgement are his Harangues or those senseful Speaches he puts in the Mouths of Statesmen and great Captains I have had also a great Veneration for Cicero yet I am very sensible that he is not himself upon all occasions I find few of his Plea's so well penn'd as that he made in defence of Milo He knows not what he would be at in his Book de Natura Deorum and his best Interpreters I fancy as Es●al●pier c. and others do but guess at his meaning As to the Accuracy and Politeness of Expression he 's every where the same and the best Master of the Latine Tongue Aristotle is beyond envy it self tho not every where beyond reach the new Philosophers speak more distinctly and give more sensible Notions of most things His best Pieces I take to be his artificial Logic or Art of arguing conformably to certain infallible Rules his Politicks his Poetry his Rethorick and his Morals He is a very Obscure Metaphysitian because he handled such matters as are beyond the reach of Humane Understanding and thought it not enough to say that every thing was this or that by a various Texture but would needs further enquire into the Properties of the compounding parts whether they were Finite or Infinite obnoxious to an endless division or not c. Thus he proposeth to us palpable and intelligible difficulties but very obstruse mysterious and unsatisfactory solutions What I have said of the Antients I may likewise say of our Modern Wits For there are but few of 'em eminent in every thing and most of them eminent in nothing But I must not end this Section without giving you some rational account of this unevenness observable in most may Authors First then we have recourse to that common answer to all such difficulties the limitation of humane Capacity but because this is too general I shall say something no less to the purpose and more particular I may be allowed then to say in Second Instance that our own indiscretion is commonly the cause of this disorder For as we never write wittily but when our Imagination is exalted to a certain degree of heat destructive to our cold dulness so when our Spirits are spent by a long and serious application it would then prove a piece of prudence in us to lay aside our Pen and meditate no more on the Subject till we recover our lost Spirits and first vigour I believe Vigil kept this Precept since he spent neer Thirty years in the composure of his Poem but our Folly is such that black paper we must though our Soul be not able to act its part because of the supposed want of Necessary Instruments furnishing us with as lively Idea's as before Which fancyful Humour I apprehend to be the true Cause why we write not always so well as really we could have done if we had broken off our work till the return of our better temper and disposition Whereof I find a not unfit Analogy in a Subject somewhat like to that we now treat of I see no other cause of the great difference as to Wit among Children of the same Parents but because the latter observe not the fittest times for the act of generation coming together when their Seeds are either yet raw or not so elaborated and spirituous as is requisite So if marryed People understood the critical and fittest Minute for this duty of Marriage or would contain themselves so long as they were not fit for it they would undoubtedly be more satisfied with their Children than some of them have reason to be because I fancy the former would not be so unlike one another as to the endowments of the Mind We may proportionably discourse at the same rate of our Spiritual Children our Writings They may all resemble one another in not unlike stains of Wit if we manage our selves aright in conceiving of them SECT XIII The art of writing wittily 1. Why some do speak ill and write well and some do write ill and speak well 2. That we ought first to consider before we undertake to write if the Subject be not beyond our natural Abilities 3. What use we are to make of Authors That we wrong our selves by not perusing our own Wit 4. That some are profest Robbers of other Mens Works as several Germans and other subtile Thieves as not a few French undoubtedly are 5. That we must not be too positive in our assertions 6. Aristotle's obscurity instanc'd in some few examples 1. IT may be thought not out of purpose to enquire in this place why some do speak ill and write well and on the contrary why others speak well and write ill The difficulty I confess is considerable and I am not fully resolved in the case Yet it may be said that this proceeds from some of the different Characters of Wit we have spoken of elsewhere For some are slow in conceiving because perhaps they have a too weak Understanding and fear too much to be mistaken so their utterance upon this account is very uneasie and such speak their Thoughts so imperfectly that one would think they had but a very superficial Understanding Nevertheless they are sometimes excellent Pen-Men and the fittest Men in the World to appear in Print because the uneasiness of their utterance comes rather from a certain wariness and Weakness perhaps too of the Imagination than from any real defect of Judgement But as for those that speak well and write ill if by this expression we mean that some do speak great Sense who cannot write sensefully I think I may be allowed to say that there is no such thing possible For whosoever can speak Sence I know not why he may not likewise couch it upon Paper if he please But if perchance we understand by speaking well and wittily a certain facility easiness of expression the Volubility of the Tongue or a certain show of Eloquence without either great Sence or acuteness there are I confess many half-witted Men and more yet of the Weaker Sex that speak well though they write not wittily because of the shallowness of their Judgement which is rather a help than a hindrance to their talkative humour especially if they have as commonly they want it not any quickness of Fancy For such People 't is no less useless to prescribe Rules of writing wittily than to teach Fools how to speak to the purpose 2. The first Precept then of this art I conceive to be no other but the