false Modesty, complain of the Imperfections of their own Works, yet would take it very ill, if the World should believe them: I will not add Hypocrisy to my other Faults, or act so absurdly as to invite the Reader to an Entertainment, and then tell him that there is nothing worth his eating; I have furnish'd out the Table according to my best abilities, if not with a splendid Elegance, yet at least with an innocent Variety.
But since this is the last time that I shall ever, perhaps, trouble the World in this kind, I will beg leave to speak something not as a Poet, but a Critic; that if my Credit should fail as a Poet, I may have recourse to my Remarks upon Homer, and be pardon'd for my Industry as the Annotator in part upon the Iliad, and entirely upon the Odyssey.
I will therefore offer a few things upon Criticism in general, a Study very necessary, but fal'n into contempt through the abuse of it. At the Restoration of Learning, itwas
