Epistle XVIII. To Restitutus.
by
the Same. [Mr. Henley.]
[_]
He resents the Behaviour of some Auditors, at a Public Reading.
I Cannot help expressing to you by Letter, a little Resentment I took in the Auditory of a Friend;
since I cannot at present enjoy your Conversation. An excellent Work was reading;
two or three Persons, very witty, as themselves and a few others imagin'd,
heard it in the Posture of Men that were deaf and Dumb. They did not open their Lips,
nor move their Hands, nor rise up, tho' meerly by the Fatigue of Sitting.
What an Air of Gravity and profound Wisdom was here? Or rather, What Supineness,
Arrogance, Absurdity; or, more properly still, extravagant Folly, to spend a whole Day by way of Affront,
and to leave him an Enemy, whom you came to compliment as a particular Friend?
Are you Master of more Eloquence than he? You ought so much the less to envy him;
for an envious Man is always an Inferior. In short, whether you perform better or worse,
or equally, still applaud another, whether a
Superior, and Inferior, or an Equal: Your Superior, because if he does not merit Applause,
you will your self be disintitled to it: Your Inferior, or Equal, because it very much concerns your own Reputation,
to give a Lustre to one that you match or surpass. Truly I respect and admire all that perform any thing in Letters;
for the Point is attended with Difficulty, and shocks of Discouragement,
and the Contempt that falls on it, recoils to your self. Perhaps you may think differently;
tho' I do not know a Man that does more Honour to the Works of another,
or is a better natur'd Critick. For this Reason, I pitch'd upon you as the Confident of my Anger,
because I know you will share it with me.
Farewell.
