forgot which; and trouble themselves no farther to examine it, but only refer to its authority, whenever they thought fit. In consequence whereof, a while after, it grew a general mode, to wear an infinite number of points, most of them tagged with silver. Upon which, the scholar pronounced ex cathedra,* that points were absolutely jure paterno, as they might very well remember. It is true indeed, the fashion prescribed somewhat more than were directly named in the will; however that they, as heirs general of their father, had power to make and add certain clauses for public emolument, though not deducible, totidem verbis, from the letter of the will; or else multa absurda sequerentur. This was understood for canonical; and therefore, on the following Sunday they came to church all covered with points.

The learned brother so often mentioned, was reckoned the best scholar in all that or the next street to it; inasmuch as, having run something behindhand with the world, he obtained the favour from a certain lord,† to receive him into his house, and to teach his children. A while after, the lord died; and he, by long practice upon his father's will, found the way of contriving a deed of conveyance of that house to himself and his heirs. Upon which he took possession, turned the young 'squires out and received his brothers in their stead.

The Popes, in their decretals and bulls, have given their sanction to very many gainful doctrines, which are now received in the Church of Rome, that are not mentioned in Scripture, and are unknown to the primitive church. Peter accordingly pronounces ex cathedra. That points tagged with silver were absolutely jure paterno: and so they wore them in great numbers.-W. Wotton.

This was Constantine the Great, from whom the Popes pretend a donation of St. Peter's patrimony, which they have been never able to produce.-W. WOTTON. The Bishops of Rome enjoyed their privileges in Rome at first by the favour of the Emperors, whom at last they shut out of their own capital city, and then forged a donation from Constantine the Great, the better to justify what they did in imitation of this, Peter, "having run something behindhand in the world, obtained leave of a certain Lord," &c.-W. WOTTON.

SECTION III.

A DIGRESSION CONCERNING CRITICS.

THOUGH I have been hitherto as cautious as I could, upon all occasions, most nicely to follow the rules and methods of writing laid down by the example of our illustrious moderns; yet has the unhappy shortness of my memory led me into an error; from which I must immediately extricate myself, before I can decently pursue my principal subject. I confess with shame it was an unpardonable omission to proceed so far as I have already done, before I had performed the due discourses, expostulatory, supplicatory, or deprecatory, with my good lords the critics. Towards some atonement for this grievous neglect, I do here make humbly bold to present them with a short account of themselves and their art, by looking into the original and pedigree of the world, as it is generally understood among us, and considering the ancient and present state thereof very briefly.

By the word critic, at this day so frequent in all conversation, there have sometimes been distinguished three very dif ferent species of mortal men, according as I have read in ancient books and pamphlets. For, first by this term were understood such persons as invented or drew up rules for themselves and the world; by observing which, a careful reader might be able to pronounce upon the productions of the learned, from his taste to a true relish of the sublime and the admirable, and divide every beauty of matter or of style from

the corruption that apes it; in their common perusal of books, singling out the errors and defects, the nauseous, the fulsome, the dull, and the impertinent, with the caution that walks through Edinburgh streets in a morning; who is indeed as careful as he can, to watch diligently, and spy out the filth in his way; not that he is curious to observe the colour and complexion of the ordure, or take its dimensions, much less to be paddling in, or tasting it; but only with a design to come out as cleanly as he may. These men seem, though very erroneously, to have understood the appellation of critic in a literal sense; that one principal part of his office was to praise and acquit; and that of a critic, who sets up to read only for an occasion of censure and reproof, is a creature as barbarous as a judge, who should take up a resolution to hang all mer that came before him upon a trial.

Again, by the word critic, have been meant the restorers of ancient learning from the worms, and graves, and dust of manuscripts.

Now the races of these two have been for some ages utterly extinct; and, besides, to discourse any farther of them, would not be at all to my purpose.

The third, and noblest sort, is that of the TRUE CRITIC, whose original is the most ancient of all. Every true critic, is a hero born, decending in a direct line from a celestial stem, by Momus and Hybris, who begat Zoilus, who begat Tigellius, who begat Etcetera the elder, who begat B-tley, and Rym-r and W-tton, and Perrault, and Dennis, who begat Etcetera the younger.

And these are the critics from whom the commonwealth of learning has, in all ages, received such immense benefits, that the gratitude of their admirers placed their origin in heaven, among those of Hercules, Theseus, Perseus, and other great deservers of mankind. But heroic virtue itself hath not been exempt from the obloquy of evil tongues. For it hath

been objected, that those ancient heroes, famous for their combating so many giants, and dragons, and robbers, were in their own persons a greater nuisance to mankind, than any of those monsters they subdued; and therefore to render their obligatious more complete, when all other vermin were destroyed, should in conscience have concluded with the same justice upon themselves; as Hercules most generously did; and hath, upon that score, procured to himself more temples and votaries, than the best of his fellows. For these reasons, I suppose, it is, why some have conceived, it would be very expedient for the public good of learning, that every true critic, as soon as he had finished his task assigned, should immediately deliver himself up to ratsbane, or hemp, or leap from some convenient altitude; and that no man's pretensions to so illustrious a character should by any means be received, before that operation was performed.

Now, from this heavenly descent of criticism, and the close analogy it bears to heroic virtue, it is easy to assign the proper employment of a true, ancient, genuine critic; which is, to travel through this vast world of writings; to pursue and hunt those monstrous faults bred within them; to drag out the lurking errors, like Cacus from his den; to multiply them like Hydra's heads, and rake them like Augeas's dung; or else drive away a sort of dangerous fowl,' who have a perverse inclination to plunder the best branches of the tree of knowledge; like those Stimphalian birds that eat up the fruit.

These reasonings will furnish us with an adequate definition of a true critic; that he is a discoverer and collector of writers' faults. Which may be farther put beyond dispute by the following demonstration: that whoever will examine the writings in all kinds, wherewith this ancient sect has honoured the world, shall immediately find, from the whole thread and tenor of them, that the ideas of the authors have

been altogether conversant and taken up with the faults, and blemishes, and oversights, and mistakes of other writers; and let the subject treated on be whatever it will, their imaginations are so entirely possessed and replete with the defects of other pens, that the very quintessence of what is bad, does of necessity distil into their own; by which means, the whole appears to be nothing else but an abstract of the criticisms themselves have made.

Having thus briefly considered the original and office of a critic, as the word is understood in its most noble and universal acceptation, I proceed to refute the objections of those who argue from the silence and pretermission of authors; by which they pretend to prove, that the very art of criticism, as now exercised, and by me explained, is wholly modern; and consequently that the critics of Great Britain and France have no title to an original so ancient and illustrious, as I have deduced. Now, if I can clearly make out, on the contrary, that the most ancient writers have particularly described both the person and office of a true critic agreeably to the definition laid down by me; their grand objection, from the silence of authors, will fall to the ground.

I confess to have for a long time borne a part in this general error; from which I should never have acquitted myself, but through the assistance of our noble moderns; whose most edifying volumes I turn indefatigably over night and day, for the improvement of my mind, and the good of my country. These have with unwearied pains made many useful searches into the weak sides of the ancients, and given us a comprehensive list of them. Besides, they have proved beyond contradiction, that the very finest things, delivered of old, have been long since invented, and brought to light by much later pens;* and that the noblest discoveries those

[* See Wotton, of ancient and modern learning.]