The satirist: or, Every man in his humour

PREFACE.

"To print, or not to print,-this is the question.
Whether 'tis better in a trunk to bury,
The quirks and crotchets of outrageous fancy,
Or send a well wrote copy to the press,
And, by disclosing, end them!"-IAGO.

KIND READERS,

It is with trembling hand and palpitating heart, that I now presume to lay before a kind, and I hope generous public, the SATIRIST. Í confess, I am not in the least qualified to take in hand, such a work as the following: but the many injuries which a certain beloved friend has received and endured, have induced me (with the entreaties of a few friends) to take up my pen, weak and feeble as it is; (having always had an itching after writing) and having thus got myself hobbled upon the "stage," I must get off as well as I can.

Further; another inducement was, to return my most sincere thanks and hearty expressions of gratitude, to many of my friends, and a generous public, for the many favours they have been pleased to confer upon their eternally indebted servant. In the vain hope, that this feeble attempt may serve to amuse them a little

in their leisure hours. I have taken courage, and boldly proceeded to write the following simple little work: knowing, by painful experience, that I have to encounter a whole host of Hornets; I put on as bold a face as I can well assume, and if I have to experience the mortification of being derided and hissed off the Literary Stage; I must, as I have hitherto done, bear the frowns of Madam Fortune with patience; as the Poet beautifully says when describing her

"Wretched the man who trusts to thee,
Goddess of mutability!

He who upon thy smiles depends,

His life with disappointment ends;
How oft amidst his tow'ring schemes,

His deep laid plans, and golden dreams,
Dost thou with barbarous delight,

Put all his darling dreams to flight."

Alas! too well I know how weak and incapable I am to contend with my enemies; however I cherish the vain, delusive and presumptuous hope, that their august personages, the Critics, will be as light as possible in their censures; knowing that they have to deal with one who possesses, (in the opinion of a certain criterion in physic) as some Wise-Acres imagine, a very limited understanding, and what's worse, a very weak head.*

It has been asserted by many of my enemies God only knows the number that most of the Satires have been stolen, or taken. from other men's works. I need not say much upon: the subject, as the enlightened reader will see, what is new (or not stolen) and what is not. How

*For an explanation see page 99.

ever I shall say this, that the following piece is quite new-quotations excepted-and I challenge all my enemies, a whole host of Critics, yea, a whole world of Wise-Acres, to produce a single instance in this work where any is stolen'; Indeed I am surprised, yea honoured, in being thought capable of pilfering; as my friend Mr. FRIENDLY knows, or pretends to know, that I do not possess intellect sufficient for the purpose.

I shall not detain the reader with such uninteresting, and tedious cavils; indeed I know I am incompetent to contest with so many of my opponents, some of whom being (what the world calls) wits, and versed and learned in all the Arts and Sciences; yet great and terrifying as they may appear to some, I will endeavour to write and speak according to the dictates of right reason, and a good conscience; I may say in the words of Sacred Writ, "I speak the truth and lie not."

In writing the following pages, I have endeavoured to draw several of the Characters, as I have observed and seen in the present day; and though it is written in the manner of novels, yet it is not one strictly so; being (as the Title expresses) a satire, and every man in his humour; is intended to shew, that in all ranks and degrees of men, from His Sacred Majesty to the meanest of his subjects; that every man will have, or endeavour to have his humour or way.

Though I may have drawn a picture of virtue and vice, yet it is for the purpose of leading the reader to imitate the one and shun the other ;

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