Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/303

Rh imagine is tracing of knowledge through its hidden veins, and bringing discoveries to day-light, which time had covered over. Indefatigable and useless mortals! who value themselves for knowledge of no consequence, and think of gaining applause by what the reader is careful to pass over unread. What did the disquisition signify formerly, whether Ulysses's son, or his dog, was the elder? or how can the account of a vesture, or a player's masque, deserve that any should write the bulk of a treatise, or others read it when it is written? A vanity thus poorly supported, which neither affords pleasure nor profit, is the unsubstantial amusement of a dream to ourselves, and a provoking occasion of our derision to others.

P. 54. v. 3, 4. Quills aptly bound—Fac'd with the plunder of a cat they flay'd.]This passage is something difficult in the original, which gave Zoilus the opportunity of inventing an expression, which his followers conceitedly use when any thing appears dark to them. This, say they, let Phœbus explain; as if what exceeds their capacity, must of necessity demand oracular interpretations, and an interposal of the god of wit and learning. The basis of such arrogance is the opinion they have of that knowledge they ascribe to themselves. They take criticism to be beyond every other part of learning, because it gives judgment upon books written in every other part. They think, in consequence, that every critic must be a greater genius than any author