Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Vol. 1 of 2 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Vol. 1 of 2

When we name criticifing, prejudices may perhaps arife, of the fame kind with thofe which I mentioned before with refpefit to rhetoric. As rhetoric has been fometimes thought' to fignify nothing more than the fcholaitic ftudy of words, and phrafes, and trepes, fo criticifm has. Been confidered as merely the art of finding faults as the frigid application 05 certain technical terms, by means of which perfons are taught to cavil and cenfure in a learned manner. But this is the criti cifm of pedants only. True criticifm is a liberal andshumane art. It is the offspring of good fenfe and refined talte. It aims at acquiring a juf't difcernment of the real merit of au thors. It promotes a lively relifh of their beauties, while it preferves us from that blind and implicit veneration which would confound their beauties and faults in our clteem. It teaches us, in a word, to admire and to blame with judgment.

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