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perfectly novel. "The reciprocal good opinion" (we are told) "which the publick and Mr. Malone appear to entertain of each other, does both parties infinite honour." It is, I believe, the firſt time that the good opinion of the publick has ever been ſtated as a matter of reproach to him who has had the good fortune to obtain it. If by my humble labours I had any title to ſuppoſe the publick had been pleaſed and benefited, I ſhould conſider myſelf as having obtained the beſt reward which it has to beſtow, or the ſons of literature ought to aſpire to.—To have merited publick approbation, muſt to an ingenuous mind ever afford a pleaſure which the cavils of criticiſm cannot diminiſh; and which nothing can ſo much augment as the diſapprobation of the ignorant, the envious, the petulant, and the vain.
Queen-Anne-Street, East,
April 23, 1792.
