...devolved from one generation to another, have received new honors at every transmission. But because human judgment, though it be gradually gaining upon...continued, may yet be only the approbation of prejudice or fashion; it is proper to inquire, by what peculiarities of excellence Shakespeare has gained and kept...

...there is always in Johnson a qualifying insistence that "approbation" is never absolutely certain, for "approbation, though long continued, may yet be only the approbation of prejudice or fashion" (Shakespeare, VII: 61). Indeed, the notion of the consensus gentium can actually mislead the...

...the common sense of literature was never altogether firm: "Human judgment," he writes in the preface, "though it be gradually gaining upon certainty, never...continued, may yet be only the approbation of prejudice or fashion." We may recall further certain facts immediately pertinent to literary common sense that Johnson...