The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head, With his own tongue still edifies his ears, And always listening to himself appears. All books he reads, and all he reads assails, From Dryden's _Fables_ down to D'Urfey's _Tales_. With him, most authors steal their works, or buy; Garth did not write his own _Dispensary_. Name a new play, and he's the poet's friend, Nay, showed his faults--but when would poets mend? No place so sacred from such fops is barred, Nor is Paul's church more safe than Paul's churchyard. Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead: For fools rush in where angels fear to tread. A. POPE. _Essay on Criticism._ LITERARY HYPOCRISY There are some subjects of which almost all the world perceive the futility; yet all combine in imposing upon each other as worthy of praise. But chiefly this imposition obtains in literature, where men publicly contemn what they relish with rapture in private, and approve abroad what has given them disgust at home.--O. GOLDSMITH. _Letters from a Citizen of the World._ IN THE SEAT OF THE SCORNER They who are in the habit of passing sentence upon books,--and what ignoramus in our days does not deem himself fully qualified for sitting in the seat of the scorner?--are apt to think that they have condemned a work irretrievably, when they have pronounced it to be unintelligible. Unintelligible to whom? To themselves, the self-constituted judges. So that their sentence presumes their competency to pronounce it: and this, to every one save themselves, may be exceedingly questionable. It is true, the very purpose for which a writer publishes his thoughts, is, that his readers should share them with him. Hence the primary requisite of a style is its intelligibleness: that is to say, it must be capable of being understood. But intelligibleness is a relative quality, varying with the capacity of the reader. The easiest book in a language is inaccessible to those who have never set foot within the pale of that language. The simplest elementary treatise in any science is obscure and perplexing, until we become familiar with the terminology of that science. Thus every writer is entitled to demand a certain amount of knowledge in those for whom he writes, and a certain degree of dexterity in using the implements of thought.... When a man says he sees nothing in a book, he very often means that he does not see himself in it: which, if it is not a comedy or a satire, is likely enough.--A. W. and J. C. HARE. _Guesses at Truth._ THE FINAL VERDICT UPON BOOKS