Page:Poems on Several Occasions - Broome (1739, 2nd edition).djvu/19

 many Persons have chosen to publish their Works without a Name, and by this Method, like Apelles, who stood unseen behind his own Venus, have receiv'd a praise, which perhaps might have been deny'd if the Author had been visible.

But there are other Critics who act a contrary part, and condemn all as Criminals whom they try: they dwell only on the Faults of an Author, and endeavour to raise a Reputation by dispraising every thing that other Men praise; they have an antipathy to a shining Character, like some Animals, that hate the Sun only because of its brightness: it is a Crime with them to excel; they are a kind of Tartars in Learning, who seeing a Person of distinguish'd Qualifications, immediately endeavour to kill him, in hopes to attain just so much merit as they destroy in their Adversary. I never look into one of these Critics but he puts me in mind of a Giant in Romance: the Glory of the Giant consists in the number of the Limbs of Men