And it is to be
believed that he who commits the same crime often and without
necessity cannot but do it with some kind of pleasure.
To come to a conclusion: he is manifestly below Horace because he
borrows most of his greatest beauties from him; and Casaubon is so
far from denying this that he has written a treatise purposely
concerning it, wherein he shows a multitude of his translations from
Horace, and his imitations of him, for the credit of his author,
which he calls "Imitatio Horatiana."
To these defects (which I casually observed while I was translating
this author) Scaliger has added others; he calls him in plain terms
a silly writer and a trifler, full of ostentation of his learning,
and, after all, unworthy to come into competition with Juvenal and
Horace.
After such terrible accusations, it is time to hear what his patron
Casaubon can allege in his defence. Instead of answering, he
excuses for the most part; and when he cannot, accuses others of the
same crimes. He deals with Scaliger as a modest scholar with a
master.
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