him not only fail, but fail ridiculouſly; and when he ſucceeds beſt, he produces perhaps but one reading of many probable, and he that ſuggeſts another will always be able to diſpute his claims.
It is an unhappy ſtate, in which danger is hid under pleaſure. The allurements of emendation are ſcarcely reſiſtible. Conjecture has all the joy and all the pride of invention, and he that has once ſtarted a happy change, is too much delighted to conſider what objections may riſe againſt it.
Yet conjectural criticiſm has been of great uſe in the learned world; nor is it my intention to depreciate a ſtudy, that has exerciſed ſo many mighty minds, from the revival of learning to our own age, from the biſhop of Aleria to Engliſh Bentley. The criticks on ancient authors have, in the exerciſe of their ſagacity, many aſſiſtances, which the editor of Shakeſpeare is condemned to want. They are employed upon grammatical and ſettled languages, whoſe conſtruction contributes ſo murch to perſpicuity, that Homer has fewer paſſages unintelligible than Chaucer. The words have not only a known regimen, but invariable quantities, which direct and confine the choice. There are commonly more manuſcripts than one; and they do not often conſpire in the ſame miſtakes. Yet Scaliger could confeſs to Salmaſius how little ſatisfaction his emendations gave him. Illudunt nobis conjecturæ noſtræ, quarum nos pudet, posteaquam in meliores codices incidimus. And Lipſius could complain, that criticks were making faults, by trying to remove them, Ut olim vitiis, ita nunc
