Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
“
The worst conversation I ever remember to have heard in my life was that at Will's coffee-
house, where the wits, as they were called, used formerly to assemble; that is to say, five or six
men who had written plays, or at least prologues, or had share in a miscellany, came thither, and
entertained one another with their trifling composures in so important an air, as if they had been
the noblest efforts of human nature, or that the fate of kingdoms depended on them; and they
were usually attended with a humble audience of young students from the inns of courts, or the
universities, who, at due distance, listened to these oracles, and returned home with great
contempt for their law and philosophy, their heads filled with trash under the name of
politeness, criticism, and belles letters.
“
talking too much; talking of oneself; being clever at all costs; dictating and presiding;
pedantry (too frequent and unseasonable obtruding our own knowledge in common discourse,
and placing too great a value upon it); bad raillery; interrupting others impatiently; not
bearing to be interrupted; rude familiarity; re-telling the same story too often
”
“Reading, methinks, is but collecting the rough materials, amongst which a great deal must be laid
aside as useless. Meditation is, as it were, choosing and fitting the materials, framing the timber,
squaring and laying the stones, and raising the building. And discourse with a friend (for wrangling in a
dispute is of little use) is, as it were, surveying the structure, walking in the rooms, and observing the
symmetry and agreement of the parts, taking notice of the solidity or defects of the work, and the best
way to find out and correct what is amiss.”
Central issues:
► The qualifications of a critic = (moral) portrait over rigid rules; or: the critical persona
► The education of taste
Learn then what MORALS Criticks ought to show, / For 'tis but half a Judge's Task, to Know.
► 'Tis not enough, Taste, Judgment, Learning, join; / In all you speak, let Truth and Candor
shine: / That not alone what to your Sense is due, / All may allow; but seek your Friendship too.
► 'Tis not enough your Counsel still be true, / Blunt Truths more Mischief than nice Falsehood
do; / Men must be taught as if you taught them not; / And Things unknown propos'd as Things
forgot: / Without Good Breeding, Truth is disapprov'd; / That only makes Superior Sense
belov'd.