MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 
tray be passed over by those who 
have no taste for literary anecdotes.* 
_. But it isalso necessary to acknow- 
ledge, that men of genius dre often 
unjustly reproached with foibles. 
The sports of a vacant mind, are 
imisunderstood as follies. The sim- 
plicity of truth may appear vanity, 
and the consciousness of superiority, 
envy. Nothing is more usual than 
vur surprisé at some great writer or 
artist contemning the labours of ano- 
ther, whom the public cherish with 
equal approbation: We place it to 
the account of his envy, but per- 
haps this opinion is erroneous, and 
elaims a concise investigation. 
Every superior writer has a man- 
ner of his own, with which he has 
been long conversant, and too often 
inclines to judge of the merit of a 
performance by the degree it at- 
tains of his favourite manner. He 
errs, because impartial men of taste 
are additted to no manner, but love 
whatever is exquisite. We often 
see readers draw their degree of 
comparative merit from the manner 
of their favourite author ; an author 
does the same; that is, he draws it 
from himself, Such a partial stand- 
ard of ta¥te is erroneous; but it is 
more excusable in the author than 
in the reader. 
[*133 
This observation will serve to ex- 
plain several curious phenomena in 
literature. "The witty Cowley des- 
pised the natural Chaucer ; the clas- 
sical Boileau, the rough sublimity of 
Crebillon; the forcible Corneille, 
the tender Racine; the affected 
Marivaux; the familiar Moliere; the 
artificial Gray, thesimple Shenstone: 
Each alike judged by that peculiar 
manner he had long formed. In a 
free conversation they might have 
contemned each other; and a dunce, 
who» had listened without taste or 
understanding, if he had been a ha- 
berdasher in anecdotes, would have 
hastened to reposit in his warehouse 
of literary falsities, a long declama- ~ 
tion on the vanity and envy of these 
great men. 
It has long been acknowledged 
that every work of merit, the more 
it is examined, the greater the merit 
will appear. The most masterly 
touches, and the reserved graces 
which form the pride of the artist, 
are not observable, till after a fami- 
liar and constant meditation. What 
is most refined is least obvious § and 
to some must remain unpérceived 
for ever. : 
But ascending from these elabo- 
rate strokes in composition, to the 
views and designs of an author, the 
: 
* Voiture was the son of a vintner, and, like our Prior, was so mortified whenever 
reminded of his original occupation, that it was said of him, that wine which cheered 
the hearts of all men, sickened that of Voiture. Rousseau, the poet, was the son of 
acobler; and when his honest parent waited at the door of the theatre, to embrace 
his son on the success of his first piece, the inhuman poet repulsed the venerable fa- 
ther with insult and contempt. Akenside ever considered his Jameness as an un- 
supportable misfortune, since it continually reminded him of his origin, being oc- 
casioned by the fall of a cleaver from one of his fathex’s blocks, a respectable butch- 
er. Milton delighted in contemplating his own person, and the engraver not having 
reached our sublime bard’s “ ideal grace,” he has pointed his indignation in four, 
jambics. Among the complaints of Pope, is that of “ the pictured shape.” Even 
the strong-minded Johnson would not be painted “ blinking Sam.” Mr, Bos- 
well tells us that Goldsinith attempted to shew his agility t@ be superior to the 
dancing of an ape, whose praise had occasioned him a fit of jealousy, but he failed 
in imitating his rival. The inscription under Boileau’s portrait, describing his cha- 
racter with lavish panezyric, and a preference to Juvenal and Horace, is unfortu- 
pately known to have been written » ret : more 
* 
