Excerpt from Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 1 of 3

But of all mankind, there are none whom it so absolutely imports to conform to this golden rule, as an author; by neglecting this, Milton himself lay long in Obscurity, and the world had nearly lost the best poem which perhaps it hath ever seen. On the contrary, by adhering to it, Tom Durfey, whose name is almost forgot, and many others, who are quite forgotten, flourished most notably in their respective ages, and eat and were read very plentifully by their contemporaries.

In strict Obedience to this sovereign power, being informed by my bookseller, a man of great sagacity in his business, that nobody at present reads anything but newspapers, I have determined to conform myself to the reigning taste. The number indeed of these writers at first a little staggered us both; but upon perusal of their works, I fancied I had dis covered two or three little imperfections in them all, which somewhat diminished the force of this objection, and gave me hopes that the public will expel some Of them to make room for their betters.

The first little imperfection in these writings, is, that there is scarce a syllable of truth in any of them. If this be admitted to be a fault, it requires no other evidence than themselves, and the perpetual contradictions which occur not only on comparing one with the other, but the same author with himself at different days.

Secondly, There is no sense in them; to prove this, like wise, I appeal to their works.

Thirdly, There is, in reality, nothing in them at all. And this also must be allowed by their readers, if paragraphs which contain neither wit, nor humour, nor sense, nor the least importance, may be properly said to contain nothing. Such are the arrival of my Lord with a great equipage, the marriage of Miss of great beauty and merit, and the death of Mr. Who was never heard of in his life, &c., &c.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.