with an tfir of superiority on thofe who still remained in the service of Wit and Learning.

Disgusted with these desertions, the two rivals, at the same time, petitioned Jupiter for re-admission to their native habitations. Jupiter thundered on the right hand, and they prepared to obey the happy summons. Wit readily spread his wings and soared aloft, but not being able to see sar, was bewildered in the pathless immensity of the ethereal spaces. Learning, who knew the way, shook her pinions; but for want of natural vigour could only take short flights: so, aster many efforts, they both sunk again to the ground, and learned, from their mutual distrefs, the necessity of union. They therefore joined their hands, and renewed their flight: Learning was borne up by the vigour of Wit, and Wit guided by the perspicacity of Learning. They soon reached the dwellings of Jupiter, and were so endeared to each other, that they lived asterwards in perpetual concord. Wit persuaded Learning to converse with the Graces, and Learning engaged Wit in the service of the Virtues. They were now the savourites of all the powers of heaven, and gladdened every banquet by their presence. They soon after married, at the command of Jupiter, and had a numerous progeny of Arts and Sciences.

Numb. 23. Tuesday, June 5, 1750.

Tvcj mihi comimte props difftntire njidentur;

Pofcentur •vario multum dtver;a pulato. Hor.

Three guests I have, dissenting at my seast,
Requiring each to gratisy his taste

With different food. Francis.

THAT every man should regulate his actions by his own conscience, without any regard to the opinions of the rest of the world, is one of the first precepts of moral prudence; justified not only by the suffrage of reason, which declares that none of the gifts of heaven are to lie useless, but by the voice likewise of experience, which will soon inform us that, if we make the praise or blame of others the rule of our conduct, we shall be distracted by a boundless variety of irreconcileable judgments, be held in perpetual suspense between contrary impulses, and conlult for ever without determination.

I know not whether, for the same reason, it is not necessary for an author to place some confidence in his own skill, and to satissy himself in the knowledge that he has not deviated srom the established laws of compofition, without submittin:; his works to frequent examinations before he gives them to the publick, or endeavouring to secure success by a solicitous consormity to advice and criticism.

Ir is, indeed, quickly discoverable, that consultation and compliance can conduce little to the persection of any literary performance; for whoever is so doubtsul of his own abilities as to encourage the remarks of others, will find himself every day embarralsed with new difficulties, and will harass his mind, in vain, with the hopeless labour of uniting heterogeneous ideas, digesting independent hints, and collecting into one point the several rays of borrowed light, emitted often with contrary directions.

Of all authors, thofe who retail their labours in periodical sheets would be most unhappy, if they were much to regard the censures or the admonitions of their readers: for, as their works are not sent into the world at once, but by small parts in gradual succession, it is always imagined, by those who think themselves qualified to give instructions, that they may yet redeem their former sailings by hearkening to better judges, and supply the deficiencies of their plan, by the help of the criticisms which are so liberally afforded.

I have had occasion to observe, sometimes with vexation, and sometimes with merriment, the difserent temper with which the same man reads a printed and manuscript performance. When a book is once in the hands of the publick, it is considered as permanent and unalterable; and the reader, if he be free from personal prejudices, takes it up with no other intention than of pleasing or instructing himself; he accommodates his mind to the author's design,- and, having no interest in resusing the amusement that is offered him, never interrupts

L 4 his his own tranquillity by studied cavils, or destroys his satissaction in that which is already well, by an anxious enquiry how it might be better; but is often contented without pleasure, and pleased without persection.

But if the same man be called to consider the merit of a production yet unpublished, he brings an imagination heated with objections to passages which he has yet never heard.; he invokes all the powers of criticism, and stores his memory with Taste and Grace, Purity and Delicacy, Manners and Unities, sounds which, having been once uttered by those that understood them, have been since re-echoed without meaning, and kept up to the disturbance of the world, by a constant repercussion from one coxcomb to another, sic considers himself as obliged to ihew, by some proof of his abilities, that he is not consulted to no purpofe, and therefore watches every opening for objection, and looks round for every opportunity to propofe some specious alteration. Such opportunities a very small degree of sagacity will enable him to find; for, in every work of imagination, the dispofition of parts, the insertion of incidents, and use of decorr.tions, may be varied a thousand ways with equal propriety; and as in things nearly equal, that will always seem best to every man which he himself produces, the critick, whofe business is only to propofe, without the care of execution, can never want the satissaction of believing that he has suggested very important improvements, nor the power of insorcing his advice by arguments, which as they appear convincing to himself, either his kindness or his

vanity vanity will press obstinatejy and importunately, without suspicion that he may possibly judge too hastily in favour of his own advice, or enquiry whether the advantage of the new scheme be proportionate to the labour.

It is observed by the younger Pliny, that an orator ought not so much to select the strongest arguments which his cause admits, as to employ all which his imagination can afford: for, in pleading, thofe reasons, are of most value, which will most affect the judges; and the judges, fays he, will be always most touched with that which they had besore conceived. Every man who is called to give his opinion of a persormance, decides upon the fame principle; he first suffers himself to form expectations, and then is angry at his difappointment. He lets his imagination rove at large, and wonders that another, equally unconfined in the boundless ocean of possibility, takes a different course.

But, though the rule of Pliny be judiciously laid down, it is not applicable to the writer's cause, because there always lies an appeal from domestick criticism to a higher judicature, and the publick, which is never corrupted, nor often deceived, is to pass the last sentence upon literary claims.

Of the great force of preconceived opinions I had many prooss, when I first entered upon this weekly labour. My readers having, from the persormances of my predecessors, established an idea of unconnected essays, to which thev believed all suture authors under a necessity of consorming, were impatient of the least deviation from their system, and numerous remonstrances were accordingly made

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