General satyrists are usually tinctured with a degree of misanthropy;
they dislike the species for the faults of individuals, and they
attribute to the whole, what is due only to a small portion of mankind.
This talent of prying into the infirmities of human nature, is
frequently useful to the public; it is always inconvenient to the
possessor; it corrects the vanity, the affectation, and the vices of
other men, but it breeds conceit, pride, obstinacy and peevishness in
the mind of the owner. Though it maybe founded on good sense, it
destroys the best fruits of that invaluable blessing---self-happiness.
One cannot declaim against the world without dreading some retribution;
the satirist in the full career of triumph, trembles at the thoughts of
being hated by those he pretends to despise, and he commonly meets with
that contempt which he so liberally bestows.
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