<p><b>Opinionum commenta delet dies, naturae judicia
Confirmat.</b></p>
<p><i>Time obliterates the fictions of opinion, and confirms the
decisions of nature.</i></p>
<p>It is necessary to the success of flattery, that it be
accommodated to particular circumstances or characters, and
enter the heart on that side where the passions stand ready to
receive it. A lady seldom listens with attention to any praise
but that of her beauty; a merchant always expects to hear of his
influence at the bank, his importance on the exchange, the
height of his credit, and the extent of his traffick: and the
author will scarcely be pleased without lamentations of the
neglect of learning, the conspiracies against genius, and the
slow progress of merit, or some praises of the
<B>magnanimity</B> of those who encounter poverty and contempt
in the cause of knowledge, and trust for the reward of their
labours to the judgment and gratitude of posterity.</p>
<p>An assurance of unfading laurels, and immortal reputation, is
the settled reciprocation of civility between amicable writers.
To raise monuments more durable than brass, and more conspicuous
than pyramids, has been long the common boast of literature;
but, among the innumerable architects that erect columns to
themselves, far the greater part, either for want of durable
materials, or of art to dispose them, see their edifices perish
as they are towering to completion, and those few that for a
while attract the eye of mankind, are generally weak in the
foundation, and soon sink by the saps of time.</p>
