is not particularly allowed "the freedom of saying careless
things," and his moral character and manners are to be estimated, as
well as his talents, before he is entitled to a certain station in
society.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 5: In the MS. it followed thus: "For my part, I confess, had I
seen things in this view at first, the public had never been troubled
either with my writings, or with this apology for them. I am sensible
how difficult it is to speak of one's self with decency: but when a man
must speak of himself, the best way is to speak truth of himself, or, he
may depend upon it, others will do it for him. I will therefore make
this preface a general confession of all my thoughts of my own poetry,
resolving with the same freedom to expose myself, as it is in the power
of any other to expose them. In the first place, I thank God and nature
that I was born with a love to poetry; for nothing more conduces to fill
up all the intervals of our time, or, if rightly used, to make the whole
course of life entertaining: _Cantantes licet usque (minus via laedet)._
It is a vast happiness to possess the pleasures of the head, the only
pleasures in which a man is sufficient to himself, and the only part of
him which, to his satisfaction, he can employ all day long. The muses
are _amicae omnium horarum_; and, like our gay acquaintance, the best
company in the world as long as one expects no real service from them. I
confess there was a time when I was in love with myself, and my first
productions were the children of self-love upon innocence. I had made an
epic poem, and panegyrics on all the princes in Europe, and thought
myself the greatest genius that ever was. I cannot but regret those
delightful visions of my childhood, which, like the fine colours we see
when our eyes are shut, are vanished for ever. Many trials and sad
experience have so undeceived me by degrees, that I am utterly at a loss
at what rate to value myself. As for fame, I shall be glad of any I can
get, and not repine at any I miss; and as for vanity, I have enough to
keep me from hanging myself, or even from wishing those hanged who would
take it away. It was this that made me write. The sense of my faults
made me correct: besides that it was as pleasant to me to correct as to
write."--WARBURTON.

Spence relates that Pope said to Mr. Saville: "If I was to begin the
world again, and knew just what I do now, I would never write a verse."
In the passage from