Legiſlators in the ſeveral Sciences over which they preſided. This Office was all which the Critics of old aſpired to, nor did they ever dare to advance a Sentence, without ſupporting it by the Authority of the Judge from whence it was borrowed.
But in Proceſs of Time, and in Ages of Ignorance, the Clerk began to invade the Power and aſſume the Dignity of his Maſter. The Laws of Writing were no longer founded on the Practice of the Author, but on the Dictates of the Critic. The Clerk became the Legiſlator, and thoſe very peremptorily gave Laws, whoſe Buſineſs it was, at firſt, only to tranſscribe them.
Hence aroſe an obvious, and, perhaps, an unavoidable Error: For theſe Critics being Men of ſhallow Capacities, very eaſily miſtook mere Form for Subſtance. They acted as a Judge would, who ſhould adhere to the lifeleſs Letter of Law, and reject the Spirit. Little Circumſtances which were, perhaps, accidental in a great Author, were, by theſe Critics, conſidered to conſtitute his chief Merit, and tranſmitted as Eſſentials to be obſerved by all his Succeeſſors. To theſe Encroachments, Time and Ignorance,the
