 On 27 July 1658 the vice-chancellor, John Conant, accordingly summoned the Oxford booksellers before him, and told them sell no more copies of Osborne's book; but this direction caused the "Advice", according to Anthony à Wood, to sell far more copies.At a later date Samuel Pepys studied it, and Sir William Petty told him that the three most popular books of his time were Osborne's "Advice", Thomas Browne's "Religio Medici", and Samuel Butler's "Hudibras".Jonathan Swift wrote of Osborne in "The Tatler" as one who affected the phrases in fashion at court in his day, and soon became either unintelligible or ridiculous.