defire to exanvine ay wri'ings,5' you vrold probably fiave
 heard no more from me in this way; but you have chofen, it
 reems. to fit ill judgment on me and my abilities, and to ditate
 for me. It was my wifl that you might fee the work X had
 Written, before you would undertake to condemn it. If you
 had feen it, you would then have been able to judge whether
 ! wa3 competent to the tafk or not, and you would have had
 it in your power to point out to me any errours it. might con-
 tain; but no, you wait not for that, but at once, and in terms
 not altogether pleafing, fay, " That he my opinion 'hbatever it mlay
 is of my own abilitiesyou mwrf candidly tell me, that you arefarfrom coriwd-
 " eringme competent to the taJk Ibave undertaken." You likewife preface
 this with an expreffion, which, by its ambiguity and vulgar ufe,
 is an infinuation either of immorality in my condut, infinceri-
 ty in my heart, or ignorance in my head. To which of thefe, or
 whether to all, you have not thought fit to confine yourfelves.
 Your expreffion is  We have no defre to examine thy writings: it is
 Cc "sufiieint that ewe know thee, Thomas." It obvioufly appears by
 this expreffion (as I intimated above) that you mean to imply
 fomething prejudicial to my characlIer, fomething too bad to
 mention, as there is no evil condudt but what is implied in that
 exprefion. And from the opinion I entertained of your civility,
 I could not have believed you would have fo imitated the vul-
 gar part of mankind; and that when they are difpleafed, as it
 is then common for them to fay, " Ah, I know you; I know
 what you have done." Why, my friends, what do you know
 of me  Speak out, for fuchifarcafims and dark implications are
 unkind and ungenerous, and do not belong to a people making
 the profeffion which you do, of mildnefs and plainnefs of fpeech.
 But you know in truth, you cannot alledge any thing prejudi-
 cial to my charaer; and therefore you would imply every
 thing bad in a laconic, farcaffical fentence. And I could not
have believed you would have treated me thus for the kind-
nefs of may offer.
  You obferve, that " my letter prefints no lvery fa'vruralle fpecimen
  of literary talents." I confefs it does not: I have no pretenfions
to fiuch talents. But though I boaft not of Iitcrary talents, nor