d be lost, lest a bad man should be trusted upon the
credit of his encomiast, or lest others should endeavour to obtain
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 panegyric
its value; and he is only considered at one time as a flatterer, and 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 errors 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 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 uncontrolled freedom of the press, and the assertion
that the "liberties taken by the writers of journals with their
superiors were exorbitant and unjustifiable," very ill became men who
have themselves not always shown the exactest regard to the laws of
subordination in their writings, and who have often satirised those that
at least thought themselves their superiors, as they were eminent
for their hereditary rank, and employed in the highest offices of the
kingdom. But this is only an instance of that partiality which almost
every man indulges with regard to himself: the liberty of the press is
a blessing when we are inclined to write against others, and a calamity
when we find ourselves overborne by the multitude of our assailants; as
the power of the Crown is always thought too great by those who suffer
by its influence, and too little by those in whose favour it is exerted;
and a standing army is generally accounted necessary by those who