Date: 1790

"I shall, perhaps, deserve censure for concealing a name which belongs to so much excellence, but I fear to offend the delicacy of your nature; true merit is ever modest, and your mind, like the sensitive plant at the touch, would shrink from the voice of public celebrity."

— Anonymous

Date: 1796

"What an abominable thing is reading? by this means, the mind is put into a hot-house and forced like a pineapple in Europe; and then produces bad fruit."

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)