I now perceive, my dear brother, the wisdom of your humble choice. You
have entered upon a sacred office, where the harvest is great, and the
labourers are but few; while you have left the field of Ambition, where
the labourers are many, and the harvest not worth carrying away. But of
all kinds of ambition, what from the refinement of the times, from
different systems of criticism, and from the divisions of party, that
which pursues poetical fame is the wildest.
Poetry makes a principal amusement among unpolished nations; but in a
country verging to the extremes of refinement, Painting and Music come
in for a share. As these offer the feeble mind a less laborious
entertainment, they at first rival Poetry, and at length supplant her;
they engross all that favour once shown to her, and though but younger
sisters, seize upon the elder's birthright.
Yet, however this art may be neglected by the powerful, it is still in
greater danger from the mistaken efforts of the learned to improve it.
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