The great Pleasure some People take in criticizing upon the small Faults of a Book so vitiates their Taste, that it renders them unfit to be affected with it’s Beauties.

The same Niceness of Judgment which makes some Men write sence, makes them very often shy and unwilling to appear in Print.

Among the several Expressions We may use for the same Thought, there is but an individual one which is good and proper; any other but that is flat and imperfect, and cannot please an ingenious Man that has a mind to explain what he thinks:  And it is no small wonder to me to consider, what Pains, even the best of Writers are sometimes at, to seek out that Expression, which being the most simple and natural, ought consequently to have presented it self without Study.

’Tis to no great purpose that a Man seeks to make himself admir’d by his Composures:  Blockheads, indeed, may oftentimes admire him but then they are but Blockheads; and as for Wits they have in themselves the seeds or hints of all the good and fine things that can possibly be thought of or said; and therefore they seldom admire any thing, but only approve of what hits their Palate.

The being a Critick is not so much a Science as a sort of laborious, and painful Employment, which requires more strength of Body, than delicacy of Wit, and more assiduity than natural Parts.

As some merit Praise for writing well, so do others for not writing at all.

That Author who chiefly endeavours to please the Taste of the Age he lives in, rather consults his private interest, than that of his Writings.  We ought always to have perfection in Prospect as the chief thing we aim at, and that Point once gain’d, we may rest assured that unbyassed Posterity will do us Justice, which is often deny’d us by our Contemporaries.

’Tis matter of discretion in an Author to be extreamly reserv’d and modest when he speaks of the Work he is upon, for fear he should raise the World’s Expectation too high:  For it is most certain, that our Opinion of an extraordinary Promise, goes always further than the Performance, and a Man’s Reputation cannot but be much lessen’d by such a Disparity.

The Name of the Author ought to be the last thing we inquire into, when we Judge of the merit of an ingenious Composure, but contrary to this maxim we generally judge of the Book by the Author, instead of judging of the Author by the Book.

As we see Women that without the knowledge of Men do sometimes bring forth inanimate and formless lumps of Flesh, but to cause a natural and perfect Generation, they are to be husbanded by another kind of seed, even so it is with Wit which if not applied to some certain study that may fix and restrain it, runs into a thousand Extravagancies, and is eternally roving here and there in the inextricable labyrinth of restless Imagination.