"So that, if there be no certain inspector or auditor established within us to take account of these opinions and fancies in due form and minutely to animadvert upon their several growths and habits, we are as little like to continue a day in the same will as a tree, during the summer, in the same shape, without the gardener's assistance and the vigorous application of the shears and pruning knife."
Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author  [collected in Characteristics]
A complicated publication history. At least 10 entries in ESTC (1710, 1711, 1714, 1733, 1744, 1751, 1757, 1758, 1773, 1790).<br>
<br> 
See <u>Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author</u> (London: John Morphew, 1710). &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T92975">Link to ESTC</a>&gt;&lt;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=-PEQAAAAYAAJ">Link to Google Books</a>&gt;<br>
<br>
See also "Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author" in <u>Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. In Three Volumes.</u> (London: John Darby, 1711). &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T30440">Link to ESTC</a>&gt;<br>
<br>
Some text drawn from ECCO and Google Books; also from Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury. <u>Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times</u>, ed. Lawrence E. Klein (Cambridge: CUP, 2001). Klein's text is based on the British Library's copy of the second edition of 1714. [Texts to be collated.]