Page:An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe.djvu/148

 ' you have the misfortune not to excel in your profession as a poet, repentance must tincture all your future enjoyments. If you succeed, you make enemies. You tread a narrow path, contempt on one side, and hatred on the other, are ready to seize you upon the slightest deviation.

', why must I be hated, you will, perhaps, reply, why must I be persecuted for having wrote a pleasing poem, for having produced an applauded tragedy, or for otherwise instructing, or amusing mankind, or myself.

' dear friend, these very successes shall render you miserable for life. Let me suppose your performance has merit, let me suppose you have surmounted