But I please my self with the Reflection, that I have not mingled the
least Spice of Malice in the Composition, as it relates to Criticism,
and am so far from being vain and arrogant, that I frequently and
sincerely declare, my chief Design was to excite some more capable
Writer to do what I knew my self uncapable of; and if any such Person
shall, by exposing my Errours, give the World a true Light, I will not
only gratefully follow it, but rejoyce at it, and take hold or the
Opportunity to have my Share of the Instruction, if it comes from clean
Hands, and is not defil'd with ill Manners and ill Language: Such
tutoring I shall despise, and it being very common for Authors to have
as good an Opinion of themselves as of any Body else, I shall not think
any Name of Authority enough to justify either Insolence or Scurrility.
About 40 Years ago there was a Student at _Oxford_, who acquir'd a good
Hand at a Fiddle; but, falling afterwards into Melancholy, he grew
averse to Musick, and could not be prevail'd upon by his Friends to
touch it: They had but one Way to excite him to it, and that was for
some unskilful Hand to take his Violin and scrape upon it; he would then
immediately snatch it away from him, and, in a Kind of Resentment, give
it the utmost Elegance of Sound and Harmony. I freely own I had this
Man's Example in my Head when I began this Essay, and should the Success
be the same, the End of it is answer'd.
I cannot close this Essay without taking Notice of the Perverseness of
Men, who pretend to Wit and Judgement, towards one another: It appears
mostly in Pretenders, and is very well markt by _Boileau_, in these two
Verses translated by Mr. _Dennis_, and equal to the Original:
_Thus one Fool lolls his Tongue out at another,
And shakes his empty Noddle at his Brother._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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