Page:Poems on Several Occasions - Broome (1739, 2nd edition).djvu/23

 the Malice and Passion of an Enemy; Boys may be whip'd into sense, but Men are to be guided with reason.

If we grant the malicious Critic all that he claims, and allow him to have prov'd his Adversary's Dulness, and his own Acuteness, yet as long as there is Virtue in the World, modest Dulness will be preferable to learned Arrogance: Dulness may be a Misfortune, but Arrogance is a Crime; and where is the mighty Advantage, if while he discovers more Learning, he is found to have less Virtue than his Adversary? and tho' he be a better Critic, yet proves himself to be a worse Man? Besides, no one is to be envy'd the Skill in finding such Faults as others are so dull as to mistake for Beauties: What Advantage is such a quicksightedness even to the Possessors of it? It makes them difficult to be pleased, and gives them pain, while others receive a pleasure: they resemble the second-sighted People in Scotland, who are fabled to see more than other Persons; but all the