It ought to be the first endeavour of a writer to distinguish nature from custom, or that which is established because it is right from that which is right only because it is established; that he may neither violate essential principles by a desire of novelty, nor debar himself from the attainment of beauties within his view by a needless fear of breaking rules which no literary dictator had authority to enact”, The above passage considered to be the death- knell of the neo-classical criticism is attributed to ________
Samuel Johnson
The passage is by Samuel Johnson, in The Rambler, No. 156. He distinguishes rules grounded in nature and reason from conventions whose authority rests only on custom.