PREFACE.

difference is there between the meritsif not the wit of Cervantes, and Rabe-lais ? The last has a particular art ofthrowing a great deal of Genius, andLearning into frolick, and jest; butthe Genius, and the Scholar is all youcan admire; you want the Gentlemanto converse with, in him. He is like acriminal who receives his life for semeservices; you commend, but you par-don, too. Indecency offends our pride,as men, and our unaffected taste, asjudges of composition. Nature has wiselyform’d us with an aversion to it: And hethat succeeds in spight of it, is, *alienavenia, quam sua providentia Tutior .

Such Wits, like false Oracles of old,(which were Wits, and Cheats,) shouldset up for reputation among the weak ;in some Bœotia , which was the land ofOracles; for the wise will hbld them