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Bruyere fays, the Cid is one of the best poems that can be made, and yet that one of the beft Criticisms that was ever made upon

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the Cid.

tho' highly valuable,

any fubject, is Thus a work,

may give just

reafon of cenfure. And tho' I am very conscious my Remarks will be far from deferving the character given to those upon the Cid, yet I fhall not difallow but Callicrates's book may, in its kind, be as commendable as that famous Tragedy.

IN writing these Papers, I foon found the Nature of my Subject fuggefted feveral Reflections, which fome Readers wou'd certainly think ftolen, if I did not own they were borrowed. This was in great part the reafon of my adding the abftract of feveral places of Quintilian, at the end of the Dialogues. I

• Mœurs de ce fiécle.

have,

have, upon the same account, been exact in other citations: perhaps to a degree of fcruple. Some Authors multiply them too much, by an affectation of memory and great reading. Others avoid all, that every thing they fay may feem their own. Epicurus is faid to have writ three hundred books without one citation. And I know fome who are ftrangely pleased with Osborn, where he fays, Quotations are like fugar in wine: If the wine is good, its tafte is fpoiled by the fugar; if the wine is bad, it fpoils the fugar.

I SHALL not deny but long and frequent citations interrupt too much, and fo are apt to spoil the true taste of a Style. Yet if commonly fhort, and properly used, I muft beg leave to difallow the force of this sweet comparison. And I fuppofe they

e

Advice to a Son. Sec. 1. §. 14.

will

will grant it does not hold in Rhenish wines. Befides that in a fubject of this nature, they are not only excufable, but in a manner neceffary, both as to the rules of the best mafters of the Art, and as to examples of both true and falfe eloquence. Without examples, abstract Rules wou'd fearce be perfectly understood; and it would be prefumptuous in a private Author, to be giving rules without the fupport of authority. However, I have cast moft of the Latin Citations into the margin: Such as remain in the context in that and other languages, need not frighten those who only know English. For they are either literally or equivalently tranflated in the series of the difcourfe.

THO' I have had far the greatest part of these papers by me twice the time prefcribed by Horace, yet I

f

* Nonumque prematur in annum. De Arte Poet.

have

have wanted both inclination and leifure to polish them. Otherwise, befides feveral corrections, I wou'd willingly have graced them with fome places of modern writings; for obferving the graces of the beft Authors, is the best of Criticisms, and the best of Rules. In particular, I would have used fuch as the excellent discourses upon wit, and the pleasures of imagination, in the Spectator, and Mr. Pope's difcourfes upon Homer, in which his profe is no less admirable and harmonious than his verse. His Art of Criticism I was hinder'd from ufing by another reason. For fince to make a lefs tedious variety in explaining quotations from Authors, having occafionally made ufe of fome parts of a hafty and youthful tranflation I made of the two firft Canto's of Boileau's Art of Poetry, and of fome other verfes out of Latin and other languages; I eafily faw mine wou'd appear infupportably

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mean in fo near a view with his; and moreover, I knew not where to fix in particular, in an Author where every thing seem'd excellent. Thus was I to omit what I admire beyond expreffion. I must add, I am fenfible feveral of the verfes are so loose and feeble, that nothing can excuse them, but that I give them not for Poetry, but to explain the quotations from foreign languages.

I HAVE often infifted upon the falfe value of the fhort and fmart, the gay and metaphorical Style, and urged the neceffity of being exact and accurate; and confequently inculcated the mistake of those, who under a very ungrounded pretence of writing to the humour of the Age, and of a great and free air in expreffion and thought, write in a new set of words and phrases, which make it doubtful what language they write in; and for fear of Pedantry,

neglect

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