Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/48

 Who have carried their Enquiries furthest? The first is a very proper Question for a Declamation, though not so proper for a Discourse, wherein Men are supposed to reason severely, because, for want of Mediums whereon to found an Argument, it cannot easily be decided: For, though there be no surer Way of judging of the Comparative Force of the Genius's of several Men, than by examining the respective Beauty or Subtilty of their Performances; yet the good Fortune of appearing first, added to the Misfortune of wanting a Guide, gives the first Comers so great an Advantage, that though, for instance, the Fairy Queen, or Paradise Lost, may be thought by some to be better Poems than the Ilias; yet the same Persons will not say but that Homer was a greater Genius than either Spencer or Milton. And besides, when Men judge of the Greatness of an Inventor's Genius barely by the Subtilty and Curiosity of his Inventions, they may be very liable to Mistakes in their Judgments, unless they knew, and were able to judge of the Easiness or Difficulty of those Methods, or Ratiocinations, by which these Men arrived at, and perfected these their Inventions; which, with due Allowances, is equally applicable to any Per-