scarcity of originals: among sculptors and painters, a fine statue,
or a beautiful picture, of some great master, may deservedly employ
the imitative talents of young and inferior artists, that their
appropriation to one spot may not wholly prevent the more general
expansion of their excellence; but, among authors, the reverse is the
case, since the noblest productions of literature are almost equally
attainable with the meanest. In books, therefore, imitation cannot
be shunned too sedulously; for the very perfection of a model which
is frequently seen, serves but more forcibly to mark the inferiority
of a copy.

To avoid what is common, without adopting what is unnatural, must
limit the ambition of the vulgar herd of authors: however zealous,
therefore, my veneration of the great writers I have mentioned,
however I may feel myself enlightened by the knowledge of Johnson,
charmed with the eloquence of Rousseau, softened by the pathetic
powers of Richardson, and exhiliarated by the wit of Fielding and
humour of Smollett, I yet presume not to attempt pursuing the same
ground which they have tracked; whence, though they may have cleared
the weeds, they have also culled the flowers; and, though they have
rendered the path plain, they have left it barren.

The candour of my readers I have not the impertinence to doubt, and
to their indulgence I am sensible I have no claim; I have, therefore,
only to intreat, that my own words may not pronounce my condemnation;
and that what I have here ventured to say in regard to imitation, may
be understood as it is meant, in a general sense, and not be imputed
to an opinion of my own originality, which I have not the vanity,
the folly, or the blindness, to entertain.