An Essay on the Study of Literature; Written Originally in the French

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1764 edition. Excerpt: ... truly *. Under the first head are comprehended grammar, a knowledge of languages, and manuscripts; a capacity of distinguishing supposed from genuine performances, and of restoring the true reading (c)f corrupted passages. Under the second, is included the. whole theory of elocution and poesy. The third opens an immense field, the enquiry into the circumstances and truth of facts. Thus the whole generation of critics may be distinguished under three kinds, grammarians, rhetoricians and historians. The exclusive pretensions of the first have not only been prejudicial to their own endeavours, but to those of their whole fraternity. * Historically so; the truth os their evidence, not of their opinions; the latter is in the province of logic rather than of criticism. ., XXIV. All that relates to what men Materials of criti- are, or have been; all that creative genius hath invented; that the understanding hath considered; together with all which industry harh collected, are included in the department of criticism. A clear head, a fine taste, acute penetration, are all necessary to form a good critic. Follow the man of letters into his study, you will fee him surrounded by the literary productions of all ages; his library is stocked with them; and his mind informed without being overburthened by their perusal. 'He looks about him on all sides; nor is the author, whose writings may have the most distant relation to the subject of his thoughts, forgotten: he may happen to meet there with some accidental and striking passage, to confirm the discoveries of the critic, or stagger his hypotheses. And 2 here here ends the business of the scholar. The superficial reader looks no farther, but admires the reading and memory of the commentator; who.