And is not this a wretched affectation, not to be contented with what
fortune has done for them, and sit down quietly with their estates,
but they must call their wits in question, and needlessly expose
their nakedness to public view? Not considering that they are not to
expect the same approbation from sober men, which they have found
from their flatterers after the third bottle. If a little glittering
in discourse has passed them on us for witty men, where was the
necessity of undeceiving the world? Would a man who has an ill title
to an estate, but yet is in possession of it; would he bring it of
his own accord, to be tried at Westminster? We who write, if we want
the talent, yet have the excuse that we do it for a poor subsistence;
but what can be urged in their defence, who, not having the vocation
of poverty to scribble, out of mere wantonness take pains to make
themselves ridiculous? Horace was certainly in the right, where he
said, "That no man is satisfied with his own condition." A poet is
not pleased, because he is not rich; and the rich are discontented,
because the poets will not admit them of their number.
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