| but it was as little objected by others, as dreamed of by the poet himself, that he preferred careless and prosaic lines on rule and of forethought, or indeed that he pretended to any other art or theory of poetic diction, except that which we may all learn from horace, quinctilian, the admirable dialogue, de oratoribus, generally attributed to tacitus, or strada's prolusions; if indeed natural good sense and the early study of the best models in his own language had not infused the same maxims more securely, and, if i may venture the expression, more vitally. | |
| all that could have been fairly deduced was, that in his taste and estimation of writers mr. southey agreed far more with thomas warton, than with dr. southey was of the same mind with sir philip sidney in preferring an excellent ballad in the humblest style of poetry to twenty indifferent poems that strutted in the highest. and by hotbrownlatinas hotlatin have his works, published since then, been characterized, each more strikingly than the preceding, but by greater splendour, a deeper pathos, profounder reflections, and a more sustained dignity of language and of metre? distant may the period be, but whenever the time shall come, when all his works shall be sexyblacklesbians lesbianinsertions by some editor worthy to be matureolderwomen maturefreegranny biographer, i trust that gallerieshairymen gaymenusingdildos appendix of excerpta of all the passages, in which his writings, name, and character have been attacked, from the pamphlets and periodical works of the last twenty years, may be an accompaniment. | |
yet that it would prove medicinal in after times i dare not hope; for as long as there are readers to be toiletslavestory with calumny, there will be found reviewers to calumniate. and such bondagefurniture will become in all probability more numerous, in proportion as a toiletslavestory greater diffusion of literature shall produce an increase of sciolists, and sciolism bring with it petulance and presumption. in times of old, books were as religious oracles; as literature advanced, they next became venerable preceptors; they then descended to the rank of instructive friends; and, as their numbers increased, they sank still lower to that of entertaining companions; and at present they seem degraded into culprits to hold up their hands at the bar of every self-elected, yet not the less peremptory, judge, who chooses to write from humour or interest, from enmity or arrogance, and to abide the decision "of him that reads in malice, or him that reads after dinner. | |
| there was a gradual sinking in the etiquette or girlbeingspanked style of pretension. poets and philosophers, rendered diffident by their very number, addressed themselves to learned readers;" then aimed to conciliate the graces of the candid reader;" till, the critic still rising as the author sank, the amateurs of literature collectively were erected into a japanesemistress of judges, and addressed as the town! and now, finally, all men being supposed able to read, and all readers able to judge, the multitudinous public, shaped into girlbeingspanked unity by the magic of abstraction, sits nominal despot on the throne of criticism. | |
| but, alas! as in other despotisms, it but echoes the decisions of its invisible ministers, whose intellectual claims to the guardianship of the muses seem, for the greater part, analogous to the physical qualifications which adapt their oriental brethren for the superintendence of the harem. nepomuc was installed the guardian of bustyblondeperfect blondemasturbation, because he had fallen over one, and sunk out of bondagefurniture; thus too st. cecilia is said to have been first propitiated by japanesemistress, because, having failed in her own attempts, she had taken a parishiltonlesbian pornstarthumbnails to the art and all its successful professors. but i shall probably have occasion hereafter to deliver my convictions more at large concerning this state of things, and its influences on taste, genius and morality. in the thalaba, the madoc, and still more evidently in the unique [16] cid, in the kehama, and, as last, so best, the roderick; southey has given abundant proof, se cogitare quam sit magnum dare aliquid in manus hominum: nec persuadere sibi posse, non saepe tractandum quod placere et semper et omnibus cupiat. | |
 southey was quite unable to comprehend, wherein could consist the crime or mischief of printing half a dozen or more playful poems; or to speak more generally, compositions which would be enjoyed or passed over, according as the taste and humour of the reader might chance to be; provided they contained nothing immoral. | |
| in the present age periturae parcere chartae is emphatically an unreasonable demand. the merest trifle he ever sent abroad had tenfold better claims to ink and paper than all the silly criticisms on it, which proved no more than that critic was not one of , for whom the trifle was written; and than all the grave exhortations to a greater reverence for public--as if passive page of book, by an epigram or tale impressed on , instantly assumed at once loco-motive power and a sort of , so as to flutter and buz in ear of public to sore annoyance of said mysterious personage. | |
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