touched with the symptoms of the writer's malady, endeavour to fortify myself against the infection, not without some weak hope that my preservatives may extend their virtue to others, whose employment exposes them to the same danger.
Laudis amore tumes? Sunt certa piacula, quae te
Ter pure lecto poterunt recreare libello.
Is fame your passion? Wisdom's powerful charm,
If thrice read over, shall its force disarm.
Francis.
It is the sage advice of Epictetus, that a man should accustom himself often to think of what is most shocking and terrible, that by such reflections he may be preserved from too ardent wishes for seeming good, and from too much dejection in real evil.
There is nothing more dreadful to an author than neglect; compared with which, reproach, hatred, and opposition, are names of happiness; yet this worst, this meanest fate, every one who dares to write has reason to fear.
I nunc, et versus tecum meditare canoros.
Go now, and meditate thy tuneful lays.
Elphinston.
It may not be unfit for him who makes a new entrance into the lettered world, so far
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