DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48954#0031
INTRODUCTION. 15
What the author hath discovered or collected upon
that subjeft, he chuses to impart in the gay and agree-
able form of criticism ; imagining that this form will
be more relished , and perhaps beno le'ss instrussive,
than a regular and labored disquisition. His plan
is to aseend gradually to principles , from safts and
experiments ; instead of beginning with the former,
handled abstra&edly , and deseending to the latter.
But though criticism is thus his only declared aim ,
he willnotdisown, that all along it has been his view,
to explain the nature of man , considered as a sen-
sitive being capable of pleafure and pain : and
though he slatters himsclf with having made some
progress in that important science , he is however
too sensible of its extent and difficulty , to under-
take it professedly , or to avow it as the chief pur-
pose os the present work.
To censure works, not men, is the just prero-
gative of criticism ; and accordingly allpersonal cen-
sure is here avoided, unless where necessary to il-
lustrate some generalproposition. No praile is claim-
ed on that account; because censuring with a view
merely to find fault , cannot be entertaining to any
person of humanity. Writers, one shouldimagine,
ought, above all others, to be reserved on that
article, when they lie so open to retaliation. The
author of this treatise, far srom being confident of
What the author hath discovered or collected upon
that subjeft, he chuses to impart in the gay and agree-
able form of criticism ; imagining that this form will
be more relished , and perhaps beno le'ss instrussive,
than a regular and labored disquisition. His plan
is to aseend gradually to principles , from safts and
experiments ; instead of beginning with the former,
handled abstra&edly , and deseending to the latter.
But though criticism is thus his only declared aim ,
he willnotdisown, that all along it has been his view,
to explain the nature of man , considered as a sen-
sitive being capable of pleafure and pain : and
though he slatters himsclf with having made some
progress in that important science , he is however
too sensible of its extent and difficulty , to under-
take it professedly , or to avow it as the chief pur-
pose os the present work.
To censure works, not men, is the just prero-
gative of criticism ; and accordingly allpersonal cen-
sure is here avoided, unless where necessary to il-
lustrate some generalproposition. No praile is claim-
ed on that account; because censuring with a view
merely to find fault , cannot be entertaining to any
person of humanity. Writers, one shouldimagine,
ought, above all others, to be reserved on that
article, when they lie so open to retaliation. The
author of this treatise, far srom being confident of