with envy, so, at least in their own opinions, they will conceal it: like the silly bird, that thrusts its head into a hedge, to hide its body from its pursuers.

If they would detect nonsense, I would have them write nonsense themselves; because this will shew practically what it is. Ignorance of their subject is a good thing; because it serves to exercise the ingenuity of the reader. Ill manners is not amiss; for it often bullies the reader into a fancied comprehension of what in reality is incomprehensible.
I would have all their outworks of criticism fortified with threats, denunciations, and menaces. I would have these supported by impudence, arrogance, and cruelty. I would have them place about fascines of hints, insinuations, and conjectures; and when, by a powerful onset of truth and conviction, they were driven from these, I would have them take shelter in their strong hold of ipse dixit; that anticipater of argument, that reconciler of absurdity, that friend of ignorance, that vehicle of malevolence, that poisoned arrow, that coiled snake, that baneful flower, that smiling precipice!
Ipse dixit!—the skulking retreat of the shuffler,

the hypocrite, the villain, the traitor, and the rascal! Ipse dixit!—that shall blast the faith of honour, that shall fully the purity of virtue, that shall pervert truth, sanctify mischief, emulate murder, annihilate order, reprobate morality, dignify sacrilege, profane the throne, and defy heaven!
Let them utter ipse dixits then like so many fiats, but never let them presume to argue; lest, detected by ignorance, forsaken by truth, and exposed to scorn, they betray frontless impudence and scowling envy, hidden by a filmy veil of candour.
There are some subjects however with which I would not advise them to tamper. In particular, let them not risk the awkward predicament in which they would stand if they were hardy enough to censure the public for the warm and liberal reception afforded to my labours. Let them not venture to slander those men of worth and honour who approve in me, in opposition to them, a life of regularity, sobriety, and industry: and, above all, as it is impossible for human invention—not even their invention—to

give any other motive to the honourable and generous support by which I have the happiness to be distinguished by that nobleman who presides over public amusements, than unexampled and transcendant benevolence; let them, instead of attempting to describe it, scowl, bite their malignant quills, gnash their teeth, and hang their recreant heads in sullenness and despair.
With