We have not as yet seen any excellent Piece, but what is owing to the Labour of one single Man: _Homer_, for the purpose, has writ the _Iliad_; _Virgil_, the _Æneid_; _Livy_ his _Decads_; and the _Roman_ Orator his Orations; but our _modern several Hands_ present us often with nothing but a _Variety of Errors_. There is in the Arts and Sciences such a _Point of Perfection_, as there is one of _Goodness_ or _maturity_ in Fruits; and he that can find and relish it must be allowed to have a _True Tast_; but on the contrary, he that neither perceives it, nor likes any thing on this side, or beyond it, has but a defective Palate. Hence I conclude that there is a bad _Taste_ and a _good_ one, and that the disputing about _Tastes_ is not altogether unreasonable. The Lives of _Heroes_ have enricht _History_ and History in requital has embellished and heightened the Lives of _Heroes_, so that it is no easie matter to determine which of the two is more beholden to the other: either _Historians_, to those who have furnished them with so great and noble a matter to work upon; or those great Men, to those Writers that have convey'd their names and Atchievements down to the _Admiration of after-Ages._ There are many of our _Wits_ that feed for a while upon the _Ancients_, and the best of our Modern Authors: and when they have _squeez'd_ out and _extracted_ matter enough to appear in Print and set up for themselves, most ungratefully abuse them, like children grown strong and lusty by the good milk they have sucked, who generally beat their Nurses. A _Modern_ Author proves both by Reasons and Examples that the _Ancients_ are inferior to us; and fetches his Arguments from his own particular Tast, and his Examples from his own _Writings_. He owns, That the _Ancients_ tho' generally uneven and uncorrect, have yet here and there some fine Touches, and indeed these are so fine, that the quoting of them is the only thing that makes his _Criticisms_ worth a Mans reading 'em. Some great Men pronounce for the _Ancients_ against the _Moderns_: But their own Composures are so agreeable to the Taste of Antiquity, and bear so great a resemblance with the Patterns they have left us, that they seem to be judges in their own Case and being suspected of Partiality, are therefore _ceptionable_. It is the Character of a _Pedant_ to be unwilling either to ask a Friend's advice about his Work or to alter what he has been made sensible to be a fault. We ought to read our Writings to those only, who have Judgment enough to correct what is amiss, and esteem what deserves to be commended. An _Author_, ought to receive with an equal Modesty both the Praise and Censure of other People upon his own Works.