THE SALE OF AUTHORS, A DIALOGUE, In IMITATION of LUCIAN's SALE oF PHILOSOPHERS. LONDON: Printed, and fold by the BOOKSELLERS in LONDON 1767. Blickwilli 10-2-35 30927 PREFACE. Twas a fenfible mortification to me fome few days after the dialogue of Lexiphanes appeared, when a Gentleman enquired at a boukseller's what fort of a thing it was, to hear him anfwered by the boy in the fhop, that it was fomething written against Dr. Jn. For the fame reafon the compliments which I have fometimes had paid me, by being told, that I had very well ridiculed Dr. J--n, have been received by me, almost as coolly, as a Great Man, who is either confcious of higher, accomplishments, or, what is the fame thing, thinks he poffeffes them, would receive his led Captain, who should tell him,that his Lordship danced an excellent Hornpipe, or played a good ftick on the fiddle. The truth is, my intention was not to ridicule Dr. J---n, whom I have only once feen, Virgilium tantum vidi, nor 10-3-35 Dr. A---e, nor any other particular Doctor expreffing themselves on all fubjects, and the pompous affected style used by them, and many other Doctors and Writers. Boffu in his in- genious treatise on the Epick Poem, imagines that Homer first of all fixed upon his moral, and then invented his fable,and chofe bis Hero. I cannot conceive this was really the cafe with Homer; neither do I affert it was literally fo at first with myself. I can only fay, that I bave at last conducted my plan, as if it bad In the fame manner, respecting the present ject of my fatire. For instance, when the Dra- matick Authors are expofed to fale, the ridicule of of real merit are difmiffed without being offered to fale at all, it is levelled against the low and trifling taste of the age in general; when Harris, Hoyle, and Heber are put up, against Debauchees and Gamefters, and when the anony mous Authors are fold, many frauds and artifices of the Bookfellers, or rather Bookmakers, are detected and expofed. Even in Lexiphanes's Rhapfody fomething more than a bare ridicule of that ftyle is intended; it is a faithful picture of a certain class in modern life, and two very common characters, that of the vociferating Grocer, and the fentimental Hibernian, are drawn in it. Befides, the whole ftory of the quarrel between the Grocer and the Caledonian Emigrant, (fee Lexiphanes, from page 31 to 37) is defigned as a fatire on the animofity which then fubfifted between the two nations,and the ridiculous caufes which occafioned it. It may be thought fomewhat officious in any writer to explain and comment upon his own productions; but perhaps it is now necessary, for our Criticks ap pear |