"
I am, while you write like an honest man and a good Christian, your
hearty friend and well-wisher,
ABRAHAM ADAMS.
* * * * *
THE COVENT-GARDEN JOURNAL.
No. 10.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1752.
At nostri proavi Plautinos et numeros, et
Laudavere sales; nimium patienter utrumque,
Ne dicam stulte, mirati.
MODERNISED.
In former times this tasteless, silly town
Too fondly prais'd Tom D'Urfey and Tom Brown.
THE present age seems pretty well agreed in an opinion, that the
utmost scope and end of reading is amusement only; and such, indeed,
are now the fashionable books, that a reader can propose no more than
mere entertainment, and it is sometimes very well for him if he finds
even this, in his studies.
Letters, however, were surely intended for a much more noble and
profitable purpose than this. Writers are not, I presume, to be
considered as mere jack-puddings, whose business it is only to excite
laughter: this, indeed, may sometimes be intermixed and served up with
graver matters, in order to titillate the palate, and to recommend
wholesome food to the mind; and for this purpose it hath been used by
many excellent authors: "for why," as Horace says, "should not any one
promulgate truth with a smile on his countenance?" Ridicule indeed, as
he again intimates, is commonly a stronger and better method of
attacking vice than the severer kind of satire.
Pages:
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270