Nature; he would have wondred at the corrupt Palates now a-days, who
quarrel with their Meat, when the Fault is in their Taste. To reform
which, if our Moderns would lay aside the malicious Grin and drolling
Sneer, the Passions and Prejudices to Persons and Circumstances, we
should have better Poems, and juster Criticisms. Nothing casts a greater
Cloud on the Judgment than the Inclination (or rather Resolution) to
praise or condemn, before we see the Object. The Rich and the Great lay
a Trap for Fame, and have always a numerous Crowd of servile Dependants,
to clap their Play, or admire their Poem._

For noble Scriblers are with Flattery fed,
And none dare tell their Fault who eat their Bread.

_Dryden's Pers.._

Juvenal _shews his Aversion to this Prepossession, when his old
disgusted Friend gives this among the rest of his Reasons why he left
the Town,_

--Mentiri nescio: librum
Si malus est, nequeo laudare & poscere.

_To conquer Prejudice is the part of a Philosopher; and to discern a
Beauty is an Argument of good Sense and Sagacity; and to find a Fault
with Allowances for human Frailty, is the Property of a Gentleman._

_Who then is this Critick? You will find him in_ Quintilius Varus, _of_
Cremona, _who when any Author shew'd him his Composure, laid aside the_
Fastus _common to our supercilious Readers; and when he happen'd on any
Mistake_, Corrige sodes Hoc aiebat & hoc.