ABSTRACT
CENSOR of Great Britain. MR. CENSOR,—As you was pleased to publish my last Letter,2 I have sent you the further Productions of my Friend on the same Subject. Without further Preface then, my Friend after having vindicated the Honour of the Moderns, as being, tho’ not the Inventors of the Pert, yet the undoubted Improvers and Enlargers thereof, and its Introductors into almost every Species of Writing, proceeds, like a true systematick Writer, to enquire what Geniuses are the fittest to receive, imbibe, and digest, the Doctrine of the Pert; and to shine most in the practical Application and Exercise thereof. In this Disquisition, which is pretty prolix, he displays an extensive Knowledge of the human Heart, as well as of the human Understanding; and at last concludes, that those are the most susceptible of the Efficacy of his Precepts, who have the best Opinion of themselves; and, on the other Hand, that those will profit least by his Instructions, who are most deeply tinctured with that aukward shame-faced Thing called Modesty. What he adds is somewhat extraordinary. ‘If a young Writer,’ saith he, ‘entertains a mean Opinion of his own Abilities, and is at the same Time, what is commonly called a Man of Sense, I despair of him, and I pronounce him incorrigible, and utterly incapable of relishing and profiting by my Instructions and Advices. He will jog on like a Mule at his own Pace, regardless of extrinsic Direction. But if he hath a tolerable Share of Folly, I have some Hopes of him, let him be ever so modest. Tho’ he has a poor Opinion of his own Parts at present, yet, ten to one, he will change his Mind in Time, and come to think himself a pretty mettled Fellow.’ And a little farther on, ‘that Man,’ continues he, ‘who after having hastily run through King Arthur,3 fancies himself qualified to compose a better Epic Poem than the Æneid; or who because he was in the Battle of-—, (no Matter whether he stood or fled) undertakes to write a System of the military Art; or who, by dipping in a Tindal and Bollingbroke, [sic]4 feels himself animated by a strong Impulse to subvert the Religion of his Country; that Man I admire, so promising a Genius I revere, and hail with a
That Writer, if he attends to, and diligently follows my Instructions, will in Time make a wonderful Figure; he will climb up to the Pinnacle of the true Pert.’
