Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/313

Rh faults in writing are so very notorious; who judge against rules, affirm without reasons, and censure without manners: who quote themselves for a support of their opinions, found their pride upon a learning in trifles, and their superiority upon the claims they magisterially make; who write of beauties in a harsh style, judge of excellency with a lowness of spirit, and pursue their desire to decry it with every artifice of envy. There is no disgrace in being censured, where there is no credit to be favoured. But, on the contrary, envy gives a testimony of some perfection in another; and one who is attacked by many, is like a hero whom his enemies acknowledge for such, when they point all the spears of a battle against him. In short, an author who writes for every age, may even erect himself a monument of those stones which envy throws at him: while the critic who writes against him can have no fame because he had no success; or if he fancies he may succeed, he should remember, that by the nature of his undertaking he would but undermine his own foundation; for he is to sink of course, when the book which he writes against, and for which alone he is read, is lost in disrepute or oblivion.

Rh