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ceffary effect) his hatred and contempt of VICE, his extenfive charity to the indigent, his warm benevolence to mankind, his fupreme veneration of the Deity, and above all his fincere belief of REVELATION. Nor fhall his faults be concealed. It is not for the interefts of his Virtues that they fhould. Nor indeed could they be concealed, if we were fo difpofed, for they fine thro' his Virtues; no man being more a Dupe to the fpecious appearances of virtue in others. In a word, I mean not to be his Panegyrift but his Hiftorian. And may I, when Envy and Calumny have taken the fame advantage of my abfence (for, while I live, I will freely truft it to my Life to confute them) may I find a Friend as careful of my honeft fame as I have been of His! Together with his Works, he hath bequeathed me his DUNCES. So that as the property is transferred, I could wish they would now let his memory alone. The veil which Death draws over the Good is fo facred, that to tear it, and with facrilegious hands, to throw dirt upon the Shrine, fcandalizes even Barbarians. And tho' Rome permitted her slaves to calumniate her beft Citizens on the day of Triumph, yet the fame petulancy at their Funeral would have been rewarded with execration and a Gibbet. The Public may be malicious but is rarely vindictive or ungenerous. It would

abhor all infults, on a writer dead, tho' it had borne with the ribaldry, or even fet the Ribalds on work, when he was alive. And in this there was no great harm: for he must have a strange impotency of mind indeed whom fuch miferable fcriblers can be fuppofed to ruffle. Of all that grofs Beotian phalanx who have written fcurrilously against me, I know not fo much as One whom a writer of reputation would not wish to have his enemy, or whom a man of honour would not be afhamed to own for his friend. I am indeed but flightly conversant in their works, and know little of the particulars of their defamation. To my Authorship they are heartily welcome. But if any of them have been fo far abandoned by Truth as to attack my moral character in any inftance whatfoever, to all and every one of These and their Abettors, I give the LYE in form, and in the words of honeft Father Valerian, MENTI

RIS IMPUDENTISSIME.

I

PREFACE.

Me

Am inclined to think that both the writers of books, and the readers of them, are generally not a little unreafonable in their expectations. The first feem to fancy the world muft approve whatever they produce, and the latter to imagine that authors are obliged to please them at any rate. thinks, as on the one hand no fingle man is born with a right of controuling the opinions of all the reft; fo on the other, the world has no title to demand, that the whole care and time of any particular person should be facrificed to its entertainment. Therefore I cannot but believe that writers and readers are under equal obligations, for as much fame, or pleafure, as each affords the other.

Every one acknowledges, it would be a wild notion to expect perfection in any work of man and yet one would think the contrary was taken for granted, by the judgment commonly paft upon Poems. A Critic fuppofes he has done his part, if he proves a writer to have failed in an expreffion, or erred in any particular point: and can it then be wondered at, if the Poets in general feem refolved not to own themselves in any error? For as long as one fide will make no allowances, the other will be brought to no acknowledgments *.

I am afraid this extreme zeal on both fides is ill

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*In the former editions it was thus-For as long as one fide defpifes a well-meant endeavour, the other will not be fatisfied with a moderate approbation. But the Author altered it, as thefe words were rather a confequence from the conclusion he would draw, than the conclufion itself, which he has now inferted.

placed; Poetry and Criticism being by no means the univerfal concern of the, world, but only the affair of idle men who write in their clofets, and of idle men who read there.

Yet fure, upon the whole, a bad Author deferves better ufage than a bad Critic for a Writer's endeavour, for the most part, is to please his Readers, and he fails merely through the misfortune of an ill judgment; but fuch a Critic's is to put them out of humour; a defign he could never go upon without both that and an ill temper.

I think a good deal may be faid to extenuate the fault of bad Poets. What we call a Genius, is hard to be diftinguished by a man himself, from a ftrong inclination: and if his genius be ever fo great, he cannot at firft difcover it any other way, than by giving way to that prevalent propenfity which renders him the more liable to be miftaken. The only method he has, is to make the experiment by writing, and appealing to the judgment of others: now if he happens to write ill (which is certainly no fin in itself) he is immediately made an object of ridicule. I wish we had the humanity to reflect that even the worst authors might, in their endeavour to pleafe us, deferve fomething at our hands.

have no caufe to quarrel with them but for their obftinacy in perfifting to write; and this too may admit of alleviating circumftances. Their particular friends may be either ignorant, or infincere; and the reft of the world in general is too well-bred to fhock them with a truth, which generally their Bookfellers are the firft that inform them of. This happens not till they have spent too much of their time, to apply to any profeffion which might better fit their talents; and till fuch talents as they have are fo far difcredited as to be but of fmall fervice to them. For (what is the hardeft cafe imaginable)

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