Page:The history of Tom Jones (1749 Volume 2).pdf/126

 I grieve if e’er great Homer chance to leep,

Yet Slumbers on long Works have right to creep.

For we are not here to undertand, as, perhaps, ome have, that an Author actually falls aleep while he is writing. It is true that Readers are too apt to be o overtaken; but if the Work was as long as any of Oldmixon, the Author himelf is too well entertained to be ubject to the leat Drowines. He is, as Mr. Pope oberves,

To ay the Truth, thee oporific Parts are o many Scenes of Serious artfully interwoven, in order to contrat and et off the ret; and this is the true Meaning of a late facetious Writer, who told the Public, that whenever he was dull they might be aured there was a Deign in it.

In this Light then, or rather in this Darknes, I would have the Reader to conider thee initial Eays. And after this Warning, if he hall be of Opinion, that he can find enough of Serious in other