ry jeft or humour acted to the life, but on the contrary we commend the skill both of the Poet and the Actor; fo the great Violence we ufe upon our felves to contain our tears, together with the forc'd a-wry fmiles with which we ftrive to conceal our Concern, do forcibly evince that the natural effect of a good Tragedy is to make us all weep by confent, without any more ado than to pull out our Handkerchiefs to wipe off our Tears. And if it were once agreed amongst us not to refift those tender impreffions of Pity, I darc engage that we would foon be convinc'd that by frequenting the Play-house we run lefs danger of being put to the expence of Tears, than of being almoft frozen to death by many a cold, dull infipid jeft.

We must make it our main Bufinefs and Study to think and write well, and not labour to fubmit other People's Palates and Opinions to our own; which is the greater difficulty of the two.

One fhould ferve his time to learn how to make a Book, juft as fome men do to learn how to make a watch, for there goes fomething more than either Wit or Learning to the fetting up for an Aus thor. A Lawyer of this Town was an able, fubtle and experienc'd Man in the way of his Bufinefs, and might for ought I know, have come to be Lord Chief Justice, but he has lately miscarried in the Good Opinion of the World, only by Printing fome Effays which are a Mafter-piece--in Nonfenfe.

It is a more difficult matter to get a Name by a Perfect Compofure, than to make an indifferent one valued by that Reputation a Man has already got in the World.

There are fome things which admit of no mediocrity; fuch as Poetry, Painting, Mufick and Oratory What Torture can be greater than to hear Doctor F- declaim a flat Oration with formality and Pomp, or D read his Pyndaricks with all the Emphafis of a Dull Poet.

We have not as yet feen any excellent Piece, but what is owing to the Labour of one fingle Man: Homer, for the purpose, has writ the Iliad Virgil, the Eneid; Livy his Decads; and the Roman Orator his Orations; but our modern feveral Hands prefent us often with nothing but a Variety of Errors.

There is in the Arts and Sciences fuch a Point of Perfection, as there is one of Goodness or matu rity in Fruits; and he that can find and relish it must be allowed to have a True Taft; but on the contrary, he that neither perceives it, nor likes any thing on this fide, or beyond it, has but a defective Palate. Hence I conclude that there is a bad Tafte and a good one, and that the difputing about Taftes is not altogether unreasonable.

The Lives of Heroes have enricht Hiftory and History in requital has embellished and heightened the Lives of Heroes, fo that it is no eafie, matter to determine which of the two is more beholden to the other: either Hiftorians, to those who have furnished them with fo great and noble a to work upon; or thofe great Men, to thofe Writers that have convey'd their names and Atchievements down to the Admiration of after-Ages.

matter

There are many of our Wits that feed for a while upon the Ancients, and the beft of our Modern Authors:

Authors: and when they have fqueez'd out and extracted matter enough to appear in Print and fet up for them felves, molt ungratefully abuse them, like children grown ftrong and lufty by the good milk they have fucked, who generally beat their Nurses.

A Modern Author proves both by Reasons and Examples that the Ancients are inferior to us; and fetches his Arguments from his own particular Taft, and his Examples from his own Writings. He owns, That the Ancients tho' generally uneven and uncorrect, have yet here and there fome fine Touches, and indeed thefe are fo fine, that the quoting of them is the only thing that makes his Criticifms worth a Mans reading 'em.

Some great Men pronounce for the Ancients againft the Moderns: But their own Compofures are fo agreeable to the Tafte of Antiquity, and bear fo great a refemblance with the Patterns they have left us, that they feem to be judges in their own Cafe and being fufpected of Partiality, are therefore ceptionable.

It is the Character of a Pedant to be unwilling either to ask a Friend's advice about his Work or to alter what he has been made fenfible to be à fault.

We ought to read our Writings to thofe only, who have Judgment enough to correct what is amifs, and esteem what deferves to be commended.

An Author, ought to receive with an equal Modefty both the Praife and Cenfure of other People upon his own Works.

A great facility in fubmitting to other People's Cenfure is fometimes as faulty as a great rough

C 4

nefs

nefs in rejecting it: for there is no Compofure fo every way accomplisht, but what would be pared and clipped to nothing if a man would follow the advice of every finical fcrupulous Critick, who often would have the beft Things left out because forfooth, they are not agreeable to his dull Palate.

The great Pleasure fome People take in criticizing upon the fmall Faults of a Book fo vitiates their Tafte, that it renders them unfit to be affected with it's Beauties.

The fame Nicenefs of Judgment which makes fome Men write fence, makes them very often fhy and unwilling to appear in Print.

Among the feveral Expreffions We may use for the fame Thought, there is but an individual one which is good and proper; any other but that is flat and imperfect, and cannot please an ingenious Man that has a mind to explain what he thinks: And it is no fmall wonder to me to confider, what Pains, even the best of Writers are fometimes at, to seek out that Expreffion, which being the moft fimple and natural, ought confequently to have prefented it felf without Study.

'Tis to no great purpofe that a Man feeks to make himfelf admir'd by his Compofures: Blockheads, indeed, may oftentimes admire him but then they are but Blockheads; and as for Wits they have in themselves the feeds or hints of all the good and fine things that can poffibly be thought of or faid, and therefore they feldom admire any thing, but only approve of what hits their Palate.

The being a Critick is not fo much a Science as a fort of laborious, and painful Employment, which

requires

requires more strength of Body, than delicacy of Wit, and more affiduity than natural Parts.

As fome merit Praise for writing well, fo do o thers for not writing at all.

That Author who chiefly endeavours to please the Tafte of the Age he lives in, rather confults his private intereft, than that of his Writings. We ought always to have perfection in Profpect as the chief thing we aim at, and that Point once gain'd, we may reft affured that unbyaffed Pofterity will 5 do us Juftice, which is often deny'd us by our Contemporaries.

'Tis matter of difcretion in an Author to be extreamly referv'd and modeft when he fpeaks of the Work he is upon, for fear he should raife the World's Expectation too high: For it is most certain, that our Opinion of an extraordinary Promife, goes always further than the Performance, and a Man's Reputation cannot but be much lef fen'd by fuch a Disparity.

The Name of the Author ought to be the last thing we inquire into,when we Judge of the merit of an ingenious Compofure,but contrary to this maxim we generally judge of the Book by the Author, inItead of judging of the Author by the Book.

As we fee Women that without the knowledge of Men do fometimes bring forth inanimate and formless lumps of Flesh, but to caufe a natural and perfect Generation, they are to be husbanded by another kind of feed,even fo it is with Wit which if not applied to fome certaing ftudy that may fix and reftrain it, runs into a thoufand Extravagancies, and is eternally roving here and there in the inextri cable labyrinth of reftlefs Imagination..

If every one who hears or reads a good Sentence

or