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abandon the enterprife, in defpair, and confine themfelves to thc 

 humbler, yet more popular walk, of tranflation. 



Omnia venal'ia Roma — may be applied to England ; and the ra- 

 pacious and fordid fpirit appears as much in the republic of letters 

 as in any other department. It is furprifing how much the vena- 

 lity of literature, has been encreafed, extended, and fyftematized ! 

 how it enlarges the margin, at the expence of the matter; and 

 fwells the volume, to the coft of the reader ! how it multiplies edi- 

 tions, by trifling alterations, and Hoops to borrow a mean me- 

 chanical celebrity from the printer and engraver ! — This mercenary 

 fpirit leads writers, to hurry their abortive mifbegotten produdions 

 into light ; and what is worfe, to pay implicit deference, to the 

 whims and caprice of the undifcerning many; to the meteor fan- 

 cies of the hour, in the choice of fubjedls, and in the manner of 

 treating them. Thus, at one time, fentimental Comedy,* which 

 was naturalized, from the Dramas oi Fontenelle, Diderot, and other 

 French writers, was all-prevailing on the ftage, and a moral fenti- 

 ment, a good-natured obfervation, or a ftroke of the pathetic, was 

 the fureft pledge of a clap, from the pit and galleries. — Then, 

 fucceeded the fafliion of writing at certain adlors and aflreffes, 

 which facrificed the whole regularity and ftrudure of the piece to 

 the prominence of fome particular charadter, which was contrived 



to 



* Such as the Englifb Merchant, Weft Indian, Clandeftine Marriage, &c. &c. 



