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550

Pulpits their facred fatire learn'd to spare,
And Vice admir'd to find a flatt'rer there!
Encourag'd thus, Wit's Titans brav'd the kies,
And the prefs groan'd with licens'd blasphemies.
Thefe Monsters, Critics! with your darts engage,
Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage! 555
Yet fhun their fault, who, fcandalously nice,

Will needs mistake an author into vice;
All seems infected that th' infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundic'd eye.

LEARN then what MORALS Critics ought to show,
For 'tis but half a judge's task, to know. 561
"Tis not enough, taste, judgment, learning, join ;
In all you speak, let truth and candour shine :
That not alone what to your sense is due
All may allow; but feek your friendship too.

Be filent always, when you doubt your fenfe;
And speak, tho' fure, with feeming diffidence:
Some pofitive, perfifting fops we know,
Who if once wrong, will needs be always fo;
But you, with pleasure own your errors past,
And make each day a critique on the last.

'Tis not enough your counfel ftill be true;

565

570

Blunt truths more mischief than nice falfehoods do;
Men must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown propos'd as things forgot. 575
Without good-breeding, truth is difapprov'd;

That only makes fuperior fenfe belov'd.

Be niggards of advice on no pretence ;

For the worst avarice is that of fenfe.

With mean complacence ne'er betray your truft, 580 Nor be fo civil as to prove unjust.

Fear not the anger of the wife to raise;

Those best can bear reproof, who merit praise.

'Twere well might Critics ftill this freedom take,
But Appius reddens at each word you speak,
And flares, tremendous, with a threat'ning eye,
Like fome fierce tyrant in old tapestry.
Fear mo to tax an honourable fool,
Whofe right it is, uncenfur'd, to be dull!

Such, without wit, are Poets when they please,
As without learning they can take degrees.
Leave dang'rous truths to unfaccefsful fatires,
And flattery to fulfome dedicators,

585

590

Whom, when they praife, the world believes no more, Than when they promife to give fcribbling o'er. 595 'Tis beft fometimes your cenfure to restrain,

And charitably let the dull be vain:

Your filence there is better than your fpite,

For who can rail fo long as they can write?

Still humming on, their drowzy course they keep, 6c0
And lafh'd fo long, like tops, are lafh'd afleep.
Falfe fteps but help them to renew the race,
As, after ftumbling, jades will mend their pace.
What crowds of thefe, impenitently bold,
In founds and jingling fyllables grown old,
Still run on poets, in a raging vein,

Ev'n to the dregs and fqueezings of the brain,
Strain out the last dull dropping of their fenfe,
And rhyme with all the rage of impotence.

605

Such fhameless Bards we have: and yet 'tis true, 610 There are as mad, abandon'd Critics too. The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head.

VER. 586. And flares, tremendous, etc.] This picture was taken to himself by John Dennis, a furious old critic by profeffion, who, upon no other provocation, wrote against this Effay, and its author, in a manner perfectly lunatic: For, as to the mention' made of him in ver. 270. he took it as a compliment, and faid it was trea cherously meant to cause him to overlook this Abufe of his Perfon.

615

With his own tongue ftill edifies his ears,
And always lift'ning to himself appears.
All books he reads, and all he reads affails,
From Dryden's Fables down to Durfey's Tales:
With him, moft authors fteal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary.

620

625

Name a new Play, and he's the Poet's friend,
Nay fhow'd his faults-but when would Poets mend ?
No place fo facred from fuch fops is barr'd,
Nor is Paul's church more safe than Paul's church-yard:
Nay, fly to Altars; there they'll talk you dead;
For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.
Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks,
It still looks home, and short excurfions makes ;
But rattling nonfenfe in full vollies breaks,
And never shock'd, and never turn'd aside,
Burfts out, refiftless, with a thund'ring tide.

But where's the man, who counsel can bestow,
Still pleas'd to teach, and yet not proud to know?
Unbiass'd, or by favour, or by spite;

Not dully prepoffefs'd, nor blindly right;

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630

Tho' learn'd, well-bred; and tho' well-bred, fincere; Modeftly bold, and humanly fevere:

636

VER. 619. Garth did not write, etc.] A common flander at that time in prejudice of that deferving author. Our Poet did him this juftice, when that flander moft prevailed; and it is now (perhaps the fooner for this very verfe) dead and forgotten.

VER. 631. But where's the man, etc.] He anfwers, That he was to be found in the happier ages of Greece and Rome; in the perfons of Ariftotle and Horace, Dionyfius and Petronius, Quintilian

VARIATIONS.

VER. 623. Between this and ver. 624.

In vain you shrug and sweat, and strive to fly:
Thefe know no Manners but of Poetry.

They'll ftop a hungry Chaplain in his grace,
To treat of Unities of time and place.

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Who to a friend his faults can freely show,
And gladly praise the merit of a foe?
Bleft with a tafte exact, yet unconfin'd ;
A knowledge both of books and human kind;
Gen'rous converfe; a foul exempt from pride;
And love to praise, with reafon on his fide?

Such once were Critics; fuch the happy few,
Athens and Rome in better ages knew.

The mighty Stagyrite firft left the shore,

Spread all his fails, and durft the deeps explore;
He fteer'd fecurely, and difcover'd far,

Led by the Light of the Mæonian Star.

640

645

and Longinus. Whofe characters he has not only exactly drawn, but contrafted them with a peculiar elegance; the profound science and logical method of Ariftotle being oppofed to the plain common fenfe of Horace, conveyed in a natural and familiar negligence; the fudy and refinement of Dionyfius, to the gay and courtly ease of Petronius; and the gravity and minuteness of Quintilian, to the vivacity and general topics of Longinus. Nor has the Poet been lefs careful, in thefe examples, to point out their eminence in the several critical Virtues he fo carefully inculcated in his precepts. Thus, in Horace, he particularizes his Candour; in Petronius, his Good-Breeding; in Quintilian, his free and copious Inftruction: and in Longinus, his great and noble Spirit. By this queftion and answer, we fee, he does not encourage us to fearch for the true Critic amongst modern writers. And indeed the difcovery of him, if it could be made, would be but an invidious bufinefs. I will venture no farther, than to name the piece of Criticism in which these marks may be found. It is intitled, 2. Hor. Fl. Ars Poetica, et ejusd. Ep. ad Aug. with an English Commentary and Notes.

4

VER. 642. with REASON on his fide ?] Not only on his fide, but actually exercifed in the fervice of his profeffion. That Critic makes but a mean figure, who, when he has found out the excellencies of his author, contents himself in offering them to the world, with only empty exclamations on their beauties. His office is to explain the nature of those beauties, fhew from whence they arife, and what effects they produce; or, in the better and fuller expreffion of the Poet,

To teach the world with reafon to admire.

Poets, a race long unconfin'd, and free,
Still fond and proud of favage liberty,

Receiv'd his laws; and stood convinced 'twas fit,
Who conquer'd Nature, fhould prefide o'er Wit,
Horace ftill charms with graceful negligence,
And without method talks us into fenfe,
Will, like a friend, familiarly convey
The trueft notions in the easiest way.
He, who fupreme in judgment, as in wit,
Might boldly cenfure, as he boldly writ,

Yet judg'd with coolnefs, tho' he fung with fire;
His Precepts teach but what his works infpire.
Our Critics take a contrary extreme,

650

They judge with fury, but they write with flegm:

655

660

VER. 652. Who conquer'd Nature, fhould prefide o'er Wit.] By this is not meant phyfical Nature, but moral. The force of the obfervation confifts in our understanding it in this fenfe. For the Poet not only uses the word Nature for buman nature, throughout this poem; but alfo where, in the beginning of it, he lays down the principles of the arts he treats of, he makes the knowledge of buman nature the foundation of all Criticism and Poetry. Nor is the obfervation lefs true than appofite. For, Ariftot le's natural enquiries were fuperficial and ill-made, though extenfive: But his logical and moral works are incomparable. In thefe he has unfolded the human mind, and laid open all the receffes of heart and understanding; and by his Categories not only conquered Nature, but kept her in tenfold chains: Not as Dulness kept the Muses, in the Dunciad, to filence them; but as Arifiœus held Proteus in Virgil, to deliver Oracles.

VARIATIONS.

Between ver. 646 and 649, I found the following lines, fince fuppreffed by the Author..

That bold Columbus of the realms of wit,
Whofe firft difcov'ry's not exceeded yet,
Led by the light of the Mæonian Star,
He fleer'd fecurely, and difcover'd far.
He, when all Nature was fubdu'd before,

Like his great Pupil, figh'd, and long'd for more:
Fancy's wild regions yet unvanquish'd lay,

A boundless empire, and that own'd no sway.
Poets, etc.

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