ould present a hideous
grim face of envy without heart, without any worthy feeling.

In writing against the present, fashionable style of ridiculing, I wish to
be well understood. I do not intend here, to dissuade writers from
exposing the ridicule of man in the abstract. On the contrary; I think,
for our improvements, nothing is more beneficial than the caricatures, or
the faults of real life, exposed in a ridiculous light, by which the
reader would correct his faults, if he has any like. But the writer should
give the caricatures with such modifications, or charged colors, with
which to avoid all personalities. And here, the writer, who must pen from
nature, may sometimes delineate a living character, whom he had forgotten,
or did never see: but, such a writer cannot be blamed for all the faults
of man; and as it is not a malicious composition, he, who has like
ridicules, has but to correct himself.

National faults also cannot be personalities. Besides, I may, for
instance, write, or speak of persons I met in a stage, in a private house,
theatre, or church, provided their names are not mentioned. If the
historical fact happened, only, with the person introduced in the tale,
nobody knows of whom the writer is speaking, or writing; if it happened
before other persons, the truth of the fact prevents, rather, those fond
of making false stories from the smallest event; the truth cannot offend
either of the parties. Besides, men would conduct themselves better, were
they afraid of being exposed: and if we have committed an offence towards
an innocent person, we should listen, and do better for the time to come.
I mean only to say here, were all writers, who can wield a pen, permitted
to book all the characters they meet with, writers should be avoided as
cholera: and though in this, and many other countries libeling did turn
fashionable, I understood that such writers are not the most welcome,
among those who do not like to see their private characters heralded; and
that America can not be offended in finding american families heralded,
because lords, and ladies of England are heralded also, it is the same as
to wish here, the same faults, permitted in that country, for no other
reason, because the lords of England cannot prevent an english editor from
prying into their private houses. If I preach morals, and at the same time
I act immorally, not only I wrong myself in exposing my hypocrisy; but, I
turn literature into an