Sam2

<b>Opinionum commenta delet dies, naturae judicia
Confirmat.</b><BR/><BR/>

<i>Time obliterates the fictions of opinion, and confirms the decisions
of nature.</i><BR/><BR/>

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.<BR/><BR/>

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.<br />