I desired to know his reasons for decrying some works, which had
afforded me uncommon pleasure; and, as demonstration did not seem
to be his talent, I dissented from his opinion with great
freedom. Having been spoiled by the deference and humility of his
hearers, he did not bear contradiction with much temper; and the
dispute might have grown warm, had it not been interrupted by the
entrance of a rival bard, at whose appearance he always quits the
place -- They are of different cabals, and have been at open war
these twenty years -- If the other was dogmatical, this genius was
declamatory: he did not discourse, but harangue; and his orations
were equally tedious and turgid. He too pronounces ex cathedra
upon the characters of his contemporaries; and though he scruples
not to deal out praise, even lavishly, to the lowest reptile in
Grubstreet who will either flatter him in private, or mount the
public rostrum as his panegyrist, he damns all the other writers
of the age, with the utmost insolence and rancour -- One is a
blunderbuss, as being a native of Ireland; another, a half-starved
louse of literature, from the banks of the Tweed; a
third, an ass, because he enjoys a pension from the government; a
fourth, the very angel of
dulness, because he succeeded in a species of writing in which
this Aristarchus had failed; a fifth, who presumed to make
strictures upon one of his performances, he holds as a bug in
criticism, whose stench is more offensive than his sting -- In
short, except himself and his myrmidons, there is not a man of
genius or learning in the three kingdoms.
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