None but an author knows an author's cares,
Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears.

None but an author knows an author's cares,
Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears.

Dear authors! suit your topics to your strength,
And ponder well your subject, and its length;
Nor read more

Dear authors! suit your topics to your strength,
And ponder well your subject, and its length;
Nor lift your lad, before you're quite aware
What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear.

Write to the mind and heart, and let the ear
Glean after what it can.

Write to the mind and heart, and let the ear
Glean after what it can.

But every fool describes, in these bright days,
His wondrous journey to some foreign court,
And spawns read more

But every fool describes, in these bright days,
His wondrous journey to some foreign court,
And spawns his quarto, and demands your praise,--
Death to his publisher, to him 'tis sport.

Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one
direction, have great influence on the public mind.

Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one
direction, have great influence on the public mind.

Habits of close attention, thinking heads,
Become more rare as dissipation spreads,
Till authors hear at length read more

Habits of close attention, thinking heads,
Become more rare as dissipation spreads,
Till authors hear at length one general cry
Tickle and entertain us, or we die!

Smelling of the lamp.

Smelling of the lamp.

No author ever drew a character, consistent to human nature, but
what he was forced to ascribe to it read more

No author ever drew a character, consistent to human nature, but
what he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.

Will you have all in all for prose and verse? Take the miracle
of our age, Sir Philip Sidney.

Will you have all in all for prose and verse? Take the miracle
of our age, Sir Philip Sidney.