He took upon him to decide dogmatically upon every
subject, without deigning to shew the least cause for his
differing from the general opinions of mankind, as if it had been
our duty to acquiesce in the ipse dixit of this new Pythagoras.
He rejudged the characters of all the principal authors, who had
died within a century of the present time; and, in this revision,
paid no sort of regard to the reputation they had acquired --
Milton was harsh and prosaic; Dryden, languid and verbose; Butler
and Swift without humour; Congreve, without wit; and Pope
destitute of any sort of poetical merit -- As for his
contemporaries, he could not bear to hear one of them mentioned
with any degree of applause -- They were all dunces, pedants,
plagiaries, quacks, and impostors; and you could not name a
single performance, but what was tame, stupid, and insipid. It
must be owned, that this writer had nothing to charge his
conscience with, on the side of flattery; for I understand, he
was never known to praise one line that was written, even by
those with whom he lived on terms of good fellowship. This
arrogance and presumption, in depreciating authors, for whose
reputation the company may be interested, is such an insult upon
the understanding, as I could not bear without wincing.
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