s he judg'd of any the least
Advantage to the Poet; but says, that the Whole amounted to about
25 Words: and pretends to have annexed a compleat List of the Rest,
which were not worth his embracing. Whoever has read my Book will at
one glance see, how in both these Points Veracity is strain'd, so an
Injury might but be done. _Malus etsi obesse non pote, tamen cogitat_.

[Sidenote: _Literal Criticism_ defended.]

Another Expedient, to make my Work appear of a trifling Nature, has
been an Attempt to depreciate _Literal Criticism_. To this End, and
to pay a servile Compliment to Mr. _Pope_, an _Anonymous_ Writer
has, like a _Scotch_ Pedlar in Wit, unbraced his Pack on the
Subject. But, that his Virulence might not seem to be levelled
singly at Me, he has done Me the Honour to join Dr. _Bentley_ in
the Libel. I was in hopes, We should have been Both abused with
Smartness of Satire, at least; tho' not with Solidity of Argument:
that it might have been worth some Reply in Defence of the Science
attacked. But I may fairly say of this Author, as _Falstaffe_ does
of _Poins_;--_Hang him, Baboon! his Wit is as thick as _Tewksbury_
Mustard; there is no more Conceit in him, than is in a _MALLET_._ If
it be not Prophanation to set the Opinion of the divine _Longinus_
against such a Scribler, he tells us expresly, "That to make a
Judgment upon _Words_ (and _Writings_) is the most consummate Fruit
of much Experience." +he gar ton logon krisis polles esti peiras
teleutaion epigennema.+ Whenever Words are depraved, the Sense of
course must be corrupted; and thence the Readers betray'd into a
false Meaning. Tho' I should be convicted of Pedantry by some,
I'll venture to subjoin a few flagrant Instances, in which I have
observed most Learned Men have suffer'd themselves to be deceived,
and consequently led their Readers into Error: and This for want
of the Help of _Literal Criticism_: in some, thro' Indolence and
Inadvertence: in others, perhaps, thro' an absolute Contempt of It.
If the _Subject_ may seem to invite this Digression, I hope, the
_Use_ and _Application_ will serve to excuse it.

[Sidenote: _Platonius_ corrected.]

I. In that golden Fragment, which we have left of _Platonius_, upon
the three Kinds of _Greek_ Comedy, after he has told us, that when
the State of _Athens_ was alter'd from a Democracy to an Oligarchy,
and that the Poets grew cautious whom they libell'd in their
Comedies; when the People had no longer