Page:A Dissertation on Reading the Classics and Forming a Just Style.djvu/86

42 is such a stupid Undertaking, that, if I may be indulged in saying it, they want Common Sense that practice it. What Heaps of this Rubbish have I seen! O the Pains and Labour to record what other People have said, that is taken by those, who have Nothing to say themselves! Your Lordship may depend upon it, the Writings of these Men are never worth the Reading; the Fancy is cramp'd, the Invention spoiled, their Thoughts on every Thing are prevented, if they think at all; but 'tis the peculiar Happiness of these Collectors of Sense, that they can write without Thinking.

Rh