Some Authors have wrote in this Taste, and have advanced more or
less towards Perfection, in proportion as they have copy'd
Nature[16].

There are others who carry Things to Extremity; for, by affecting to
appear natural, they become low and creeping, and have neither the
Talent of pleasing nor of instructing[17].

Some have had recourse to insipid Allegory[18], thinking to please
by a new Taste; but their Works dy'd in their Birth, and were so
little read that they escaped Criticism.

If the bad Authors were but to reflect on the Talents and
Qualifications necessary for a good Romance, Works of this kind
would no longer be their Refuge. A Man who is press'd both by Hunger
and Thirst, sets about writing a Book, and tho' he has not
Knowledge enough to write History, nor Genius for Works of Morality,
he stains a couple of Quires of Paper with a Heap of ill-digested
Adventures, which he relates without Taste, and without Genius, and
carries his Work to a Bookseller, who, were he oblig'd to buy it by
Weight, and to give him but twice the Cost of the Paper, wou'd pay
more for it than the Worth of it. Perhaps there is as much need for
Wit, an Acquaintance with Mankind, and the Knowledge of the
Passions, to compose a Romance as to write a History. The only
Qualification to paint Manners and Customs, is a long Experience;
and a Man must have examin'd the various Characters very closely, to
be able to describe them to a Nicety.

How can an Author, whose common Vocation is staining of Paper, and