y.

Fortune turns faster than a mill-wheel, and those who were
yesterday at top, may find themselves at bottom to-day.

Every one is the son of his own works.

The mind receives pleasure from the beauty and consistency
of what is presented to the imagination, not from that which
is incongruous and unnatural.

Fiction is always the better the nearer it resembles truth,
and agreeable in proportion to the probability it bears and
the doubtful credit which it inspires. Wherefore, all such
fables ought to be suited to the understanding of those who
read them, and written so as that, by softening
impossibilities, smoothing what is rough, and keeping the
mind in suspense, they may surprise, agreeably perplex, and
entertain, creating equal admiration and delight; and these
never can be excited by authors who forsake probability and
imitation, in which the perfection of writing consists.

Epics may be written in prose as well as verse.

To assert that there never was an Amadis in the world, nor
any other of the knights-adventurers of whom so many records
remain, is to say that the sun does not enlighten, the frost
produce cold, nor the earth yield sustenance.

The approbation of the judicious few should far outweigh
the censure of the ignorant.

An author had better be applauded by the few that are wise,
than laughed at by the many that are foolish.

Our modern plays, not only those which are formed upon
fiction, but likewise such as are founded on the truth of
history, are all, or the greatest part, universally known to
be monstrous productions, without either head or tail, and
yet received with pleasure by the multitude, who approve and
esteem them as excellent performances, though they are far
from deserving that title; and if the authors who compose,
and the actors who represent them, affirm that this and no
other method is to be practised, because the multitude must
be pleased; that those which bear the marks of contrivance,
and produce a fable digested according to the rules of art,
serve only for entertainment to four or five people of
taste, who discern the beauties of the plan, which utterly
escape the rest of the audience; and that it is better for
them to gain a comfortable livelihood by the many, than
starve upon reputation with the few; at this rate, said I,
if I should finish my book, after having scorched every hair