I must warn the reader to beware of applying to persons, what is here meant only of books in the most literal sense. So, when Virgil is mentioned, we are not to understand the person of a famous poet called by that name; but only certain sheets of paper, bound up in leather, containing in print the works of the said poet: and so of the rest.
The PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR.
SATIRE is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover every body's face, but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that so very few are offended with it. But if it should happen otherwise, the danger is not great; and I have learned, from long experience, never to apprehend mischief from those understandings, I have been able to provoke: for, anger and fury, though they add strength to the sinews of the body, yet are found to relax those of the mind; and to render all its efforts, feeble and impotent.
There is a brain, that will endure but one scumming: let the owner gather it with discretion, and manage his little stock with husbandry; but, of all things, let him beware of bringing it under the lash of his betters; because, that will make it all bubble up into impertinence, and he will find no new supply. Wit, without knowledge, being a sort of cream, which gathers in a night to the top, and by a skilful hand may be soon whipped into froth; but once scummed away, what appears underneath, will be fit for nothing, but to be thrown to the hogs.
