N. 3 - 21 aprile 2001 - Giano Bifronte

210
AS to the various Tempers of Men in relation to reading Authors, the
chief of them may well be reduced to these following: The MOROSE; the
INSIPID; the BANTERING; the JUDICIOUS and CANDID.
NOW the first Set of these Creatures can seldom read any Book
without greatly condemning it; not so much thaf it realIy deserves it, but
because they cannot like it : For to them every Escape is a grand Fault,
and a Mistake tho' ever so small is unpardonable; in short, they like
Nothing that they have not a Hand in themselves, and yet it is seldom
seen that they do any thing at all; or, if it so happen that they do, it is
generally as ill performed by them, as by those whom they had the Ill-
Nature to condemn. The Whole of the Matter then is; Nothing can
please these Set of Men; and to be up with them, I think there should be
as little Care taken, on the other hand, to do it; which is my own Case
intirely: I will do my Best, and if they don't like it, let them do better if
they can; if not, let them even possess their Ill-Nature to themselves as a
due Reward to their Uncharitableness, and be therefore esteemed below
the Regard of all civil, discreet and candid Men.
THE next Set of Readers are the INSIPID; who read Books they know
not why, and run over them without either Sense, Knowledge, or
Design. These indeed, as they do no manner of God, they likewise do
no great Harm; only are so many Blanks among human Figures, and do
thereby betray either their Education, or Intellectuals, and represent so
many moving Statues without either Soul, Sense, or Taste in them.
BUT worse than either of these, are the BANTERING READERS, who can
toss up their Nose a every thing they do not understand, and with no
small Assurance reckon themselves competent Judges of all that can be
wrote or said, and even without ever so much as giving themselves
Leisure or Pains to read what they so condemn. Truly these are those
very Fools, of which Solomon says, That tho' they be even brayed in a
Mortar, yet they will not be made wise. These are Fools, indeed! who
scoff at Knowledge, and despise Wisdom, and there is greater Hopes of
any seeming Impossibility, than there is of reclaiming them. These are
the Gentlemen who neglect Knowledge, and hate Instruction; who say,
Cui Bono? What are we the better for these Things? As if, forsooth, a
Man who worships and adores his Maker with knowledge, had not the
Advantage of him who knows nothing but that he ought to do so. They
forget the sublime Thoughts of David, and the Sacred Philosophers,