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Article TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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To The Editor Of The Freemasons' Magazine.
wlncii the world is daily pestered by a set of young meo , to whom I shall give the appellation of Scribblers . These gentlemen have commonly learned to read , write , arid cast accounts , and are intended b y their parents for some reputable calling , as a grocer , mercer , or a cleric in an office ; when at the age cf about fifteen or sixteen , when the mind most readily receives impressions , unfortunatel y for their own reposeand the interest of their masters or friendssome of the works
, , of our best poets fall in their way . I have generally remarked that Thomson ' s Seasons is the first book that begins to-derange these youngsters ; this author is perhaps of all others the most agreeable to a young mind ; he has contrived to give such a romantic cast to the simple scenes of nature , without having recourse to fiction , that the youthful imagination pants to behold those Arcadian scenes which it
finds described , and which it is conscious may be realized , though adorned by all the magic of poetic imagery ; henceforth every beauty of nature brings to the recollection some elegant description of the poet , and thereby gives a poetical bias to tiie mind , very difficult to counteract and which has very dangerous effects on a weak capacity ; if then to this they should add Goldsmith ' s Deserted Village , Pope ' s
Essay on Man , and an odd volume of Shakspoare , they are irretrievably lost ; from this time you observe a strange alteration in their behaviour , they no longer speak the language of conversation , but are for ever filling up their periods with poetical rhapsodies ; they seldom can give an opinion but they add , " as Thomson says , " or " as Pope says , " & . c . Should any person express resentment against some one , a Scribblerwill tell him
, " You must really think no more on it , you know y . ope says , To err is human , to forgive divine . " If you mention the death of an acquaintance , " Ab ! " replies a Scribbler , " he is gone to That und ' iscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns . "
Independent of the foppery of such quotations , they do a real harm to people of true poetical taste , who absolutely contract a dislike to some of the finest passages of our best authors , by hearing them so often buzzed in their ears by these Parnassian flies ; it is just as if one were to hear one of the sublimest odes of Pindar or Horace repeated by an ape , which could never be read again without exciting our
risible faculties at the remembrance of the performance . Yet it would be weff if these gentry would only endeavour to amuse the world with their vocal performances ; but , like many of our modern sons of Thespis , from being ,-nere reciters they turn authors ; adieu then to ail rationality , from thenceforth their masters or friends can expect no good from them ; if in a shop , they write verses in the clay-book ,
scribble upon the waste paper , and are so entirely possessed by the poetical mania , that when asked for an v article the )' deal in , they start from . 1 profound reverie , and , inflated by their own vanity , bounce round the counter like a blown bladder , while the amazed customer either goes away unserved , or is in danger of having an ounce of snuff substituted for the same quantity of colfee . It is wonderful what a facility of making rhymes some of these Scribblers possess . I
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To The Editor Of The Freemasons' Magazine.
wlncii the world is daily pestered by a set of young meo , to whom I shall give the appellation of Scribblers . These gentlemen have commonly learned to read , write , arid cast accounts , and are intended b y their parents for some reputable calling , as a grocer , mercer , or a cleric in an office ; when at the age cf about fifteen or sixteen , when the mind most readily receives impressions , unfortunatel y for their own reposeand the interest of their masters or friendssome of the works
, , of our best poets fall in their way . I have generally remarked that Thomson ' s Seasons is the first book that begins to-derange these youngsters ; this author is perhaps of all others the most agreeable to a young mind ; he has contrived to give such a romantic cast to the simple scenes of nature , without having recourse to fiction , that the youthful imagination pants to behold those Arcadian scenes which it
finds described , and which it is conscious may be realized , though adorned by all the magic of poetic imagery ; henceforth every beauty of nature brings to the recollection some elegant description of the poet , and thereby gives a poetical bias to tiie mind , very difficult to counteract and which has very dangerous effects on a weak capacity ; if then to this they should add Goldsmith ' s Deserted Village , Pope ' s
Essay on Man , and an odd volume of Shakspoare , they are irretrievably lost ; from this time you observe a strange alteration in their behaviour , they no longer speak the language of conversation , but are for ever filling up their periods with poetical rhapsodies ; they seldom can give an opinion but they add , " as Thomson says , " or " as Pope says , " & . c . Should any person express resentment against some one , a Scribblerwill tell him
, " You must really think no more on it , you know y . ope says , To err is human , to forgive divine . " If you mention the death of an acquaintance , " Ab ! " replies a Scribbler , " he is gone to That und ' iscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns . "
Independent of the foppery of such quotations , they do a real harm to people of true poetical taste , who absolutely contract a dislike to some of the finest passages of our best authors , by hearing them so often buzzed in their ears by these Parnassian flies ; it is just as if one were to hear one of the sublimest odes of Pindar or Horace repeated by an ape , which could never be read again without exciting our
risible faculties at the remembrance of the performance . Yet it would be weff if these gentry would only endeavour to amuse the world with their vocal performances ; but , like many of our modern sons of Thespis , from being ,-nere reciters they turn authors ; adieu then to ail rationality , from thenceforth their masters or friends can expect no good from them ; if in a shop , they write verses in the clay-book ,
scribble upon the waste paper , and are so entirely possessed by the poetical mania , that when asked for an v article the )' deal in , they start from . 1 profound reverie , and , inflated by their own vanity , bounce round the counter like a blown bladder , while the amazed customer either goes away unserved , or is in danger of having an ounce of snuff substituted for the same quantity of colfee . It is wonderful what a facility of making rhymes some of these Scribblers possess . I