§ 36. If the Complaisance, which is due to the fair Sex, does not excuse the Abuse of copying when it proves prejudicial to the Profession, what ought one then to say of those Men, who, instead of inventing, not only copy others of their own Sex, but also Women. Foolish and shameful!----Supposing an Impossibility, _viz._ that a Singer has arrived at copying in such a Manner as not to be distinguished from the Original, should he attribute to himself a Merit which does not belong to him, and dress himself out in the Habits of another without being afraid of being stripp'd of them?
§ 37. He, that rightly knows how to copy in Musick, takes nothing but the Design; because that Ornament, which we admire when _natural_, immediately loses its Beauty when _artificial_.
§38. The most admired Graces of a Professor ought only to be imitated, and not copied; on Condition also, that it does not bear not even so much as a Shadow of Resemblance of the Original; otherwise, instead of a beautiful Imitation, it will become a despicable Copy.
§ 39. I cannot decide, which of the two deserves most to be despised, one who cannot imitate a good Singer without _Caricatura's_, or He that cannot imitate any well but bad ones.
§ 40. If many Singers knew, that a bad Imitation is a contagious Evil, to which one who studies is not liable, the World would not be reduc'd to the Misfortune of seeing in a _Carnaval_ but one Theatre provided with eminent Performers, without Hopes of[98] an approaching Remedy. Let them take it for their Pains. Let the World learn to applaud Merit; and (not to use a more harsh Expression) be less complaisant to Faults.
§ 41. Whoever does not know how to steal the Time in Singing, knows not how to Compose, nor to Accompany himself, and is destitute of the best Taste and greatest Knowledge.[99]
§ 42. The stealing of Time, in the _Pathetick_, is an honourable Theft in one that sings better than others, provided he makes a Restitution with Ingenuity.
§ 43. An Exercise, no less necessary than this, is That of agreeably _putting forth_ of the Voice, without which all Application is vain. Whosoever pretends to obtain it, must hearken more to the Dictates of the Heart, than to those of Art.