An Essay on Criticism

Another remarkable Observation of Dr. _Felton_'s is, that the _best Performers are the best Judges_. He has only _Horace_ against him of the Antients, and _Dacier_ of the Modern...

John Oldmixon's _Essay on Criticism_, like his _Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to the Earl of Oxford, about the English Tongue_,[1] provides evidence to support Dr. Johnson's...

History is designed to instruct Mankind by Example, to shew what Men were by what they did, and from particular Instances to form general Lessons in all the various Stations of...

But in such Authors, what is good more than atones for what is not so, and 'tis only where a Writer shews a Defect in Will as well as Judgement, that he renders himself blame-wo...

Now let us see what an _English_ Poet has said on the First of _May_; and tho' there is in it hardly any Thing but Words, and those Words rustick to Affectation; yet they are _P...

I cannot repeat any more of it: These are Mr. _Dryden_'s Faults, in which, according to the _Guardian_, there are more Beauties than in the most elaborate Pieces of more correct...

I have hinted more than once, that such Poets, and their Admirers, almost always mistake Affectation for Beauty, and I wonder the Translator of _Homer_ should give them the leas...

The _Bantring_ and _Napping_, the _Skipper_, the _Dowdy Wife_, the _Cupboard_, the _Means_, and the _Blood_ and _Soul_, agree admirably with the Royal Characters of King _Ulysse...

_Ovid_ perhaps was left out because he was in Exile at _Tomos_; but why could they not have put in _Livy_, _Propertius_, &c. They have given this Academy, the Temple and Library...

My Objections to this Gentleman's Criticisms are for what he says too ill of _Milton_'s Poem, and too good of _Clarendon_'s History, which he highly commends for the fine Charac...