 farther together,
to give thee a few wholesome Admonitions; that thou may'st not as grosly
misunderstand and misrepresent us, as some of the said Editors have
misunderstood and misrepresented their Author.
    First, then, we warn thee not too hastily to condemn any of the Incidents in
this our History, as impertinent and foreign to our main Design, because thou
dost not immediately conceive in what Manner such Incident may conduce to that
Design. This Work may, indeed, be considered as a great Creation of our own; and
for a little Reptile of a Critic to presume to find Fault with any of its Parts,
without knowing the Manner in which the Whole is connected, and before he comes
to the final Catastrophe, is a most presumptuous Absurdity. The Allusion and
Metaphor we have here made use of, we must acknowledge to be infinitely too
great for our Occasion, but there is, indeed, no other, which is at all adequate
to express the Difference between an Author of the first Rate, and a Critic of
the lowest.
    Another Caution we would give thee, my good Reptile, is, that thou dost not
find out too near a Resemblance between certain Characters here introduced; as
for Instance, between the Landlady who appears in the Seventh Book, and her in
the Ninth. Thou art to know, Friend, that there are certain Characteristics, in
which most Individuals of every Profession and Occupation agree. To be able to
preserve these Characteristics, and at the same Time to diversify their
Operations, is one Talent of a good Writer. Again, to mark the nice Distinction
between two Persons actuated by the same Vice or Folly is another; and as this
last Talent is found in very few Writers, so is the true Discernment of it found
in as few Readers; though, I believe, the Observation of this forms a very
principal Pleasure in those who are capable of the Discovery: Every Person, for
Instance, can distinguish between Sir Epicure Mammon, and Sir Fopling Flutter;
but to note the Difference between Sir Fopling Flutter and Sir Courtly Nice,
requires a more exquisite Judgment: For want of which, vulgar Spectators of
Plays very often do great Injustice in the Theatre; where I have sometimes known
a Poet in Danger of being convicted as a Thief, upon much worse Evidence than
the Resemblance of Hands hath been held to be in the Law. In reality, I
apprehend every amorous Widow on the Stage would run the Hazard of being
condemned as a servile Imitation of Dido, but that happily very few of our
Play-house Critics understand enough of Latin to read
