The use of Writing is Illustrated in the following Lines, which conclude my first Head of this Essay.
By ancient Writing Knowledge is convey'd,
Of famous Arts the best Foundation laid;
By these the Cause of Liberty remains,
Are Nations free'd from Arbitrary Chains,
From Errors still our Church is purified,
The State maintained, with justice on its Side.
I now advance to my second Particular, Criticism.
The fatal Criticism or Damnation which the Writings of some Authors meet with thro' their Obscurity, want of Friends and Interest in the World, &c. is very discouraging to the Productions of Literature: It is the greatest difficulty immaginable, for an obscure Person to Establish a Reputation in any sort of Writing; he's a long time in the same Condition with Sisyphus, rolling a heavy Stone against an aspiring Mount which perpetually descends again; it must be to his benign Stars, some lucky Subject suiting the Humour of the Times, more than the Beauty of his Performance, which he will be oblig'd for his Rise: And in this Age Persons in general, are so Estrang'd from bare Merit, that an Author destitute of Patronage will be equally Unsuccessful to a Person without Interest at Court, (and you'll as rarely find the Friendship of an Orestes, as the Chastity of Penelope) When a Man of Fortune has no other Task, than to give out a stupid Performance to be of his own Composing, and he's immediately respected as a Celebrated Writer: And if a Man has the good Fortune to hit the capricious Humour of the Age; after he has attained a Reputation with the utmost Difficulty, he's sure to meet with the severest Treatment, from a herd of Malicious and Implacable Scriblers.
This was the Case of the late Mr. Dryden, a Man for Learning and universal Writing in Poetry, perhaps the Greatest that England has produc'd; he was Persecuted by Envy, with the utmost Inveteracy for many Years in Succession: And is the Misfortune at this Juncture of Mr. Pope, a Person tho' Inferior to Mr. Dryden, yet speaking Impartially has few Superiors in this Age: From these Considerations it is Evident, (tho' it seems a Paradox) that it is a Reputation to be Scandaliz'd, as a Person in all Cases of this Nature is allow'd some Merit, when Envy attacks him, and the World might not be sensible of it in General, without a publick Encounter in Criticism; and many Authors would be Buried in Oblivion were they not kept alive by Clamours against their Performances.
The Criticks in this Age are arriv'd to that consummate Pitch of ill-nature, that they'll by no means permit any Person the favour to Blunder but their mighty selves, and are in all respects, except the Office of a Critick, in some measure ill Writers; I have known an unnatural Brother of the Quill causless condemn Language in the Writings of other Persons, when his own has really been the meanest; to Accuse others of Inconsistency with the utmost Vehemence, when his own Works have not been without their Æra's, and to find fault with every Line in a Poem, when he has been wholly at a loss to Correct, or at least not capable of Writing one single Page of it.
There are another sort of Criticks, which are equally ill-natur'd to these I have mention'd, tho' in all other respects vastly inferior to them: They are such as no sooner hear of a Performance compos'd by a Juvenile Author, or one not hitherto known in the way of Writing he has undertaken; but immediately without reading a Line give it a Stamp of Damnation; (not considering that the first Performance of an Author in any way of Writing done carefully, is oftentimes the best) and if they had thoroughly perus'd it, they were no ways capable of Judging of either the Sense, Language, or Beauty of any one Paragraph; and what is still worse, these ignorant Slanderers of Writings frequently take what other Persons report for Authority, who know as little, or perhaps are more Ignorant than themselves, so little Regard have they to the Reputation of an Author.
And sometimes you'll find a pert Bookseller give himself the Airs of Judging a Performance so far, as to Condemn the Correctness of what he knows nothing of these there's a pretender to Authorship in the City, who Rules the young Fry of Biblioples about the Royal-Exchange.
But the Booksellers in general, (tho' they commonly Judge of the
Goodness of Writings, by the greatness of the Sale,) are Very sensible
that their greatest Security in respect to the Performance of any
Work, is the Qualification of the Person that Composes it, the
Confidence they can Repose in him; his Capacity, Industry and
Veracity; And the Author's Reputation is so far concern'd in a
Performance, which he owns that the Bookseller will sooner rely upon
that, than his own Judgment.
To descend still to a lower Order of Criticks, you'll find very few Coffee-Houses in this opulent City without an illiterate Mechanick, Commenting upon the most material Occurrences, and Judging the Actions of the greatest Councils in Europe, and rarely a Victualing House, but you meet with a Tinker, a Cobler, or a Porter, Criticizing upon the Speeches of Majesty, or the Writings of the most celebrated Men of the Age.