 that
respect, than those people who sit at the head of taste? In every single
circumstance to which you have objected, he has expressly imitated, not to say
copied, the celebrated production of the universal patron.« »What! (replied the
other) you mean the famous Gosling Scrag Esq; son and heir of Sir Marma-duke
Scrag, who seats himself in the chair of judgment, and gives sentence upon the
authors of the age. I should be glad to know, upon what pretensions to genius
this preheminence is founded. Do a few flimsy odes, barren epistles, pointless
epigrams, and the superstitious suggestions of an half-witted enthusiast,
intitle him to that eminent rank he maintains in the world of letters? or did he
acquire the reputation of a wit, by a repetition of trite invectives against a
minister, conveyed in a theatrical cadence, accompanied with the most ridiculous
gestures, before he believed it was his interest to desert his master, and
renounce his party? For my own part, I never perused any of his performances, I
never saw him open his mouth in public, I never heard him speak in private
conversation, without recollecting and applying these two lines in Pope's
Dunciad,
 
Dulness delighted, ey'd the lively dunce,
Remembring she herself was pertness once.
 
Yet this antick piece of futility will decide dogmatically upon the merits of
every new work; and if the author has not previously scratched himself into his
favour, will pronounce upon it, with all the insolence and contempt of
supercilious presumption. Nor is the levity of his head less provoking than his
arrogance and self-conceit; the very performance which he yesterday applauded,
will he to-morrow condemn through mere caprice; and that which he yesterday
mentioned in terms of disdain, will he to-morrow extol to the skies, provided
the author will humble himself so far, as to adore his superior genius, and
meanly beg his protection. Never did he befriend a man of poetical merit, who
did not court and retain his favour by such slavish prostitution, except one
author, lately deceased; and even he extended his complaisance too far, in
complimental lines, which the warmth of his gratitude inspired, though he would
never submit to the tame criticisms of his patron, or offer such an outrage to
his own judgment, as to adopt the alterations which he proposed.«
    »One would imagine, (said the chairman) that you had made an unsuccessful
application to his patronage; but, notwithstanding all this eloquent
declamation, the truth of which I shall not pretend to invalidate
