their injustice! The weaker sex is their most ordinary theme; and
the best and fairest are sure to be the most severely handled.
Amongst men, those who are prosperously unjust are entitled to a
panegyric, but afflicted virtue is insolently stabbed with all
manner of reproaches; no decency is considered, no fulsomeness
omitted; no venom is wanting, as far as dulness can supply it, for
there is a perpetual dearth of wit, a barrenness of good sense and
entertainment. The neglect of the readers will soon put an end to
this sort of scribbling. There can be no pleasantry where there is
no wit, no impression can be made where there is no truth for the
foundation. To conclude: they are like the fruits of the earth in
this unnatural season; the corn which held up its head is spoiled
with rankness, but the greater part of the harvest is laid along,
and little of good income and wholesome nourishment is received into
the barns. This is almost a digression, I confess to your lordship;
but a just indignation forced it from me. Now I have removed this
rubbish I will return to the comparison of Juvenal and Horace.

I would willingly divide the palm betwixt them upon the two heads of
profit and delight, which are the two ends of poetry in general. It
must be granted by the favourers of Juvenal that Horace is the more
copious and more profitable in his instructions of human life; but
in my particular opinion, which I set not up for a standard to
better judgments, Juvenal is the more delightful author. I am
profited by both, I am pleased with both; but I owe more to Horace
for my instruction, and more to Juvenal for my pleasure. This, as I
said, is my particular taste of these two authors. They who will
have either of them to excel the other in both qualities, can scarce
give better reasons for their opinion than I for mine. But all
unbiassed readers will conclude that my moderation is not to be