gs and expose them: it
must be confessed, that Mr. Savage's esteem was no very certain
possession, and that he would lampoon at one time those whom he had
praised at another.

It may be alleged, that the same man may change his principles; and that
he, who was once deservedly commended, may be afterwards satirized with
equal justice; or that the poet was dazzled with the appearance of
virtue, and found the man whom he had celebrated, when he had an
opportunity of examining him more narrowly, unworthy of the panegyrick
which he had too hastily bestowed; and that as a false satire ought to
be recanted, for the sake of him whose reputation may be injured, false
praise ought likewise to be obviated, lest the distinction between vice
and virtue should be lost, lest a bad man should be trusted upon the
credit of his encomiast, or lest others should endeavour to obtain the
like praises by the same means.

But though these excuses may be often plausible, and sometimes just,
they are very seldom satisfactory to mankind; and the writer, who is not
constant to his subject, quickly sinks into contempt, his satire loses
its force, and his panegyrick its value; and he is only considered at
one time as a flatterer, and as a calumniator at another.

To avoid these imputations, it is only necessary to follow the rules of
virtue, and to preserve an unvaried regard to truth. For though it is
undoubtedly possible that a man, however cautious, may be sometimes
deceived by an artful appearance of virtue, or by false evidences of
guilt, such errours will not be frequent; and it will be allowed, that
the name of an author would never have been made contemptible, had no
man ever said what he did not think, or misled others but when he was
himself deceived. The Author to be let was first published in a single
pamphlet, and afterwards inserted in a collection of pieces relating to
the Dunciad, which were addressed by Mr. Savage to the earl of
Middlesex, in a dedication[76] which he was prevailed upon to sign,
though he did not write it, and in which there are some positions, that
the true author would, perhaps, not have published under his own name,
and on which Mr. Savage afterwards reflected with no great satisfaction;
the enumeration of the bad effects of the uncontrouled freedom of the
press, and the assertion that the "liberties taken by the writers of
journals with their superiours were exorbitant and unjustifiable," very
ill became men,