EXTRACTED from Fielding's pamphlet, THE TRYAL OF
COLLEY CIBBER, Comedian, etc.; for writing a book
entitled AN APOLOGY FOR HIS LIFE, etc. ¹

Lo! He hath written a book!

Notwithstanding the Opinion of Cicero . . . That he
who commits his Thoughts to Paper without being able
methodically to range them, or properly to illustrate
them, gives us an instance of the most intemperate
Abuse of his own Time, of Letters themselves; and
tho' Quintilian hath asserted that Grammar is the
Foundation of all Science; nay, Horace himself denies
any Thing to be in the Power of Genius without Im-
provement; notwithstanding these Authorities, I have
very often suspected whether Learning be of such Con-
sequence to a Writer as is imagined. This however I
have hitherto kept to myself, and, perhaps, tho' Horace
hath in another place taken up the contrary Side to
what he declares above, and hath enumerated many
Advantages arising to a State from the Custom of
Writing as well without as with Learning, I might
perhaps have never ventured publicly to have declared
my Opinion, had I not found it supported by one of the
Greatest Writers of our own Age: I mean MR. COLLEY

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