is own practice.

Here then is a fund of wealth for the Reviewer, lying upon the very
surface. If he knows anything of his business, he will turn all these
materials against the Author: carefully suppressing the source of his
information; and as if drawing from the stores of his own mind long ago
laid up for this very purpose. If the Author's references are correct, a
great point is gained; for by consulting a few passages of the original
Works, it will be easy to discuss the subject with the air of having a
previous knowledge of the whole.

Your chief vantage ground is, That you may fasten upon any position in
the book you are reviewing, and treat it as principal and essential; when
perhaps it is of little weight in the main argument: but, by allotting a
large share of your criticism to it, the reader will naturally be led to
give it a proportionate importance, and to consider the merit of the
Treatise at issue upon that single question.

If anybody complains that the greater and more valuable parts remain
unnoticed; your answer is, That it is impossible to pay attention to all;
and that your duty is rather to prevent the propagation of error, than to
lavish praises upon that which, if really excellent, will work its way in
the World without your help.

Indeed, if the plan of your _Review_ admits of selection, you had better
not meddle with Works of deep research and original speculation; such as
have already attracted much notice, and cannot be treated superficially
without fear of being found out. The time required for making yourself
thoroughly master of the subject is so great, that you may depend upon it
they will never pay for the reviewing. They are generally the fruit of
long study, and of talents concentrated in the steady pursuit of one
object: it is not likely therefore that you can throw much new light on a
question of this nature, or even plausibly combat the Author's
propositions; in the course of a few hours, which is all you can well
afford to devote to them. And without accomplishing one or the other of
these points; your _Review_ will gain no celebrity, and of course no good
will be done.

Enough has been said to give you some insight into the facilities with
which your new employment abounds. I will only mention one more, because
of its extensive and almost universal application to all Branches of
Literature; the topic, I mean, which by the old Rhetoricians was called
[Greek: _ex enantion_], Tha