Dryden added coarseness to strength in his remarks when he wrote of one
of Settle's plays:--"To conclude this act with the most rumbling piece of
nonsense spoken yet--

'To flattering lightning our feigned smiles conform,
Which, backed with thunder, do but gild a storm.'

Conform a smile to lightning, make a smile imitate lightning; lightning
sure is a threatening thing. And this lightning must gild a storm; and
gild a storm by being backed by thunder. So that here is gilding by
conforming, smiling lightning, backing and thundering. I am mistaken if
nonsense is not here pretty thick sown. Sure the poet writ these two
lines aboard some smack in a storm, and, being sea-sick, spewed up a good
lump of clotted nonsense at once." Dryden wrote in a fit of rage and
spite, and it is not necessary to be vulgar in order to be strong; but it
is really a good thing to expose in plain language the meandering
nonsense which, unless detected, is apt to impose upon careless readers,
and so to encourage writers in their bad habits.

A young friend of mine imagined that he could make his fame as a painter.
Holding one of his pictures before his father, and his father saying it
was roughly and carelessly done, he said, "No, but, father, look; it
looks better if I hold it further off." "Yes, Charlie, the further you
hold it off the better it looks." That was severe, but strong and just.
The young man had no real genius for painting, and his father knew it.

It must be remembered that criticism cannot be strong unless it be the
real opinion of the writer. If the critic is hampered by endeavouring to
make his own views square with those of the writer, or the publisher, or