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Am inclined to think that both the writers of books, and the readers of them, are generally not a little unreasonable in their expectations. The firft 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. Methinks, as on the one hand no fingle man is born with a right of controlling 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 pleasure 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 paffed 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 illplaced, poetry and criticifm 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 moft part, is to pleafe 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.

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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 con Tequence from the conclufion he would draw, than the conclusion itself, whic he Las now inferted,

I think a good deal may be faid to extenuate the faults of bad poets. What we call a Genius is hard to be diftinguifhed 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 mistaken. 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 itfelf) he is immediately made an object of ridicule. I wish we had the humanity to reflect, that even the worft authors might, in their endeavour to please us, deferve fomething at our hands. We have no caufe to quarrel with them but for their obftinacy in perfifting to write; and this, too, may admit of alleviating circumstances. 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 first 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 small fervice to them. For (what is the hardeft cafe imaginable) the reputation of a man generally depends upon the first steps he makes in the world; and people will establish their opinion of us from what we do at that season when we have leaft judgment to direct us.

On the other hand, a good poet no fooner communicates his works with the fame defire of information, but it is imagined he is a vain young creature, given. up to the ambition of fame, when perhaps the poor man is all the while trembling with the fear of being ridiculous. If he is made to hope he may please the world, he falls under very unlucky circumftances; for, from the moment he prints, he muft expect to. hear no more truth than if he were a prince or a beauty. If he has not very good fenfe (and indeed there are twenty men of wit for one man of fenfe) his living

thus in a courfe of flattery may put him in no small danger of becoming a coxcomb; if he has, he will, confequently, have fo much diffidence as not to reap any great fatisfaction from his praife; fince, if it be given to his face, it can scarce be distinguished from flattery; and if in his absence, it is hard to be certain of it. Were he sure to be commended by the best and moft knowing, he is as fure of being envied by the worst and most ignorant, which are the majority; for it is with a fine genius as with a fine fashion, all those are difpleafed at it who are not able to follow it; and it is to be feared that efteem will feldom do any man fo much good as ill-will does him harm. Then there is a third clafs of people, who make the largeft part of mankind, thofe of ordinary or indifferent capacities, and these, to a man, will hate or suspect him; a hundred honeft gentlemen will dread him as a wit, and a hundred innocent women as a fatirift. In a word, whatever be his fate in poetry, it is ten to one but he muft give up all the reafonable aims of life for it. There are indeed fome advantages accruing from a genius to poetry, and they are all I can think of; the agreeable power of felf-amufement when a man is idle or alone; the privilege of being admitted into the best company; and the freedom of faying as many careless things as other people, without being fo feverely remarked upon.

I believe if any one, early in his life, fhould contemplate the dangerous fate of authors, he would fearce be of their number on any confideration. The life of a wit is a warfare upon earth; and the prefent fpirit of the learned world is fuch, that to attempt to ferve it, any way, one must have the conftancy of a martyr, and a refolution to fuffer for its fake. I could with people would believe, what I am pretty certain they will not, that I have been much lefs concerned about fame than I durft declare till this occafion, when, methinks, I should find more credit than I could heretofore, fince my writings have had their fate already, and it is too late to think of prepoffeffing the

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reader in their favour. I would plead it as fome merit in me, that the world has never been prepared for thefe trifles by prefaces, biaffed by recommendation, dazzled with the names of great patrons, wheedled with fine reasons and pretences, or troubled with excutes. J confefs it was want of confideration that made me an author: I writ, because it amufed me; I corrected, because it was as pleasant to me to correct as to write; and I publifhed, because I was told I might pleafe fuch as it was a credit to pleafe. To what degree I have done this I am really ignorant : I had too much fondness for my productions to judge of them at first, and too much judgment to be pleafed with them at laft; but I have realon to think they can have no reputation which will continue long, or which deferves to do fo; for they have always fallen fhort, not only of what I read of others, but even of my own ideas of poetry.

If any one fhould imagine I am not in earnest, I defire him to reflect, that the Ancients (to fay the leaft of them) had as much genius as we; and that to take more pains, and employ more time, cannot fail to produce more complete pieces. They conftantly applied themselves not only to that art, but to that fingle branch of an art to which their talent was most powerfully bent; and it was the business of their lives to correct and finish their works for pofterity. If we can pretend to have used the same industry, let us expect the fame immortality: though, if we took the fame care, we fhould ftill lie under a further misfortune; they writ in languages that became univerfal and everlasting, while ours are extremely limited both in extent and in duration. A mighty foundation for our pride! when the utmost we can hope is but to be read in one ifland, and to be thrown afide at the end of one age.

All that is left us is to recommend our productions by the imitation of the Ancients: and it will be found true that, in every age, the highest character for sense and learning has been obtained by those who have been

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moft indebted to them. For, to fay truth, whatever is very good sense, must have been common sense in all times; and what we call Learning, is but the knowledge of the fenfe of our predeceffors. Therefore they who fay our thoughts are not our own, because they resemble the Ancients, may as well fay our faces_are not our own, because they are like our fathers: and indeed it is very unreasonable that people fhould expect us to be scholars, and yet be angry to find us fo.

I fairly confefs that I have ferved myself all I could by reading; that I made ufe of the judgment of authors dead and living; that I omitted no means in my power to be informed of my errors, both by my friends and enemies but the true reafon thefe pieces are not more correct, is owing to the confideration how short a time they and I have to live: one may be ashamed to confume half one's days in bringing fenfe and rhime together; and what critic can be fo unreasonable as not to leave a man time enough for any more serious employment, or more agreeable amusement ?

The only plea I fhall ufe for the favour of the public is, that I have as great a respect for it as moft authors have for themfelves; and that I have facrificed much of my own felf-love for its fake, in preventing not only many mean things from feeing the light, but many which I thought tolerable. I would not be like thofe authors who forgive themselves fome particular lines for the fake of a whole poem, and, vice verfa, a whole poem for the fake of fome particular lines. I believe no one qualification is fo likely to make a good writer as the power of rejecting his own thoughts; and it must be this, if any thing, that can give me a chance to be one. For what I have

published I can only hope to be pardoned; but for what I have burned I deferve to be praised. On this account the world is under fome obligation to me, and owes me the justice, in return, to lock upon no verfes as mine that are not inferted in this Collection. And perhaps nothing could make it worth my while to own what are really fo, but to avoid the im putation

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