Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Dissertation On The Modern Art Of Scribbling.
A DISSERTATION ON THE MODERN ART OF SCRIBBLING .
Scribimus hidocli Hon .
AS there is no art so extensively cultivated as that of Scribbling , I intend to make a few remarks upon it ; and as Aristotle planned his rules for the antient drama from a critical examination of the antient dramatic writers , so shall I draw my observations on the Modern Art of Scribbling from the practice of the present numerous race of modern Scribblers . to be
First then , to proceed regularly , I shall define Scribbling the Art of putting words together without any regard to matter , method , manner , or meaning : under this definition therefore are included all the works and compositions of the present age . There are but very few things primarily requisite to constitute a professed Scribbler . It is indeed absolutely necessary that he should
, learn his alp habet at least ; and I think it would be some additional advantage to him , if he has made a tolerable proficiency in his Spelling-book : but this is not so material , because the printer ' s compositor , or the corrector of the press , whose reading is doubtless more expensive than the . author ' s , will rectify any mistakes of this sort in the . copy . The Scribbler indeed must learn to write , that is , to put his
letters together ; but it signifies little , how slovenl y soever he does it , as it is a mark of a good education to write almost illegibl y , and is always affected by the best authors . All other erudition is needless , and proves an incumbrance , as it cloo-s the invention , obliges a man to think before he writes , ties him down to the laborious task of revising and correcting , consequ ' ently takes off from that ligent spirit of easy freedom so essential to
moneg dern writings , by adding a scientific stiffness , and the reserved closeness of rational deduction . A Scribbler , with the advantages of the education before premised , wants nothing now to enable him to go to work directly , but the fortuitous assistance of pen , ink , and paper . We insist very little upon his having what is called a talent , or a competent knowledge of what if
he is about : ' he has very little occasion for a head , he has but a hand . Hence it is , that the booksellers , who are the task-masters of geniusses , and ( if I may be pardoned the allusion ) often oblige them to make brick without straw , have taken up the expression , " Such an " one is a good hand : he is but a poor fist : he has it at his finger ' s end , "' and so on . VOL . VI . < i
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Dissertation On The Modern Art Of Scribbling.
A DISSERTATION ON THE MODERN ART OF SCRIBBLING .
Scribimus hidocli Hon .
AS there is no art so extensively cultivated as that of Scribbling , I intend to make a few remarks upon it ; and as Aristotle planned his rules for the antient drama from a critical examination of the antient dramatic writers , so shall I draw my observations on the Modern Art of Scribbling from the practice of the present numerous race of modern Scribblers . to be
First then , to proceed regularly , I shall define Scribbling the Art of putting words together without any regard to matter , method , manner , or meaning : under this definition therefore are included all the works and compositions of the present age . There are but very few things primarily requisite to constitute a professed Scribbler . It is indeed absolutely necessary that he should
, learn his alp habet at least ; and I think it would be some additional advantage to him , if he has made a tolerable proficiency in his Spelling-book : but this is not so material , because the printer ' s compositor , or the corrector of the press , whose reading is doubtless more expensive than the . author ' s , will rectify any mistakes of this sort in the . copy . The Scribbler indeed must learn to write , that is , to put his
letters together ; but it signifies little , how slovenl y soever he does it , as it is a mark of a good education to write almost illegibl y , and is always affected by the best authors . All other erudition is needless , and proves an incumbrance , as it cloo-s the invention , obliges a man to think before he writes , ties him down to the laborious task of revising and correcting , consequ ' ently takes off from that ligent spirit of easy freedom so essential to
moneg dern writings , by adding a scientific stiffness , and the reserved closeness of rational deduction . A Scribbler , with the advantages of the education before premised , wants nothing now to enable him to go to work directly , but the fortuitous assistance of pen , ink , and paper . We insist very little upon his having what is called a talent , or a competent knowledge of what if
he is about : ' he has very little occasion for a head , he has but a hand . Hence it is , that the booksellers , who are the task-masters of geniusses , and ( if I may be pardoned the allusion ) often oblige them to make brick without straw , have taken up the expression , " Such an " one is a good hand : he is but a poor fist : he has it at his finger ' s end , "' and so on . VOL . VI . < i