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anonymous writing, he insists that I have been guilty of a much grosser folly, of incurring the certainty of shame and detection, by writings signed with my name! But this is a small flight for the towering Junius: "He is far from thinking meanly of my abilities", though "he is convinced that I want judgment extremely;" and can "really respect Mr. Sawbridge's character," though he declares him[1] to be so poor a creature, as not to "see through the basest design, conducted in the poorest manner!". And this most base design is conducted in the poorest manner by a man, whom he does not
- ↑ I beg leave to introduce Mr. Horne to the character ot the Double Dealer. I thought they had been better acquainted. "Another very wrong objection has been made by some, who have not taken leisure to distinguish the characters. The hero of the play (meaning Melefont) is a gull, and made a fool, and cheated.—Is every man a gull and a fool that is deceived?—At that rate, I am afraid, the two classes of men will be reduced to one, and the knaves themselves be at a loss to justify their title. But if an open, honest-hearted man, who has an entire confidence in one whom he takes to be his friend, and who (to confirm him in his opinion) in all appearance, and upon several trials, has been so, if this man be deceived by the treachery of the other, must he of necessity commence fool immediately, only because the other has proved a villain?" Yes, says parson Horne. No, says Congreve, and he, I think, is allowed to have known something of human nature.
