Henry Fielding

An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money. At these words he started up, and beheld—not his Sophia—no, nor a Circassian maid richly and elegantly attired for the grand Signior's seraglio. This fellow, I say, stiled himself a lawyer, but was indeed a most vile petty-fogger, without sense or knowledge of any kind; one of those who may be termed train-bearers to the law […] Indeed, there is much Reaſon to imagine, that there was not the leaſt Truth in what Mr. Weſtern affirmed, eſpecially as he laid the Scene of thoſe Impurities at the Univerſity, where Mr. Allworthy had never been. In fact, the good Squire was a little too apt to indulge that Kind of Pleaſantry which is generally called Rodomontade; but which may, with as much Propriety, be expreſſed by a much ſhorter Word; […]