Then unbelieving Priests reform'd the nation,
And taught more pleasant methods of falvation;
Where Heav'n's free fubjects might their right dif-
pute,

550

Left God himself fhould feem too abfolute :
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 skies,
And the prefs groan'd with licens'd blafphemies.
Thefe monsters, Critics! with your darts engage,
Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage!
Yet fhun their fault, who, fcandalously nice,
Will needs mistake an author into vice ;
All feems infected that th' infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundic'd eye.

560

LEARN then what MORALS Critics ought to fhow,

565

For 'tis but half a Judge's tafk, to know.
'Tis not enough, tafte, 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 sense;
And fpeak, tho' fure, with feeming diffidence:
Some pofitive, perfifting fops we know,

Who if once wrong, will needs be always fo; 579

VER. 547. The author has omitted two lines which stood here, as containing a National Reflection, which in his ftricter judgment he could not but difapprove on any People whatever.

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;

Blunt truths more mischief than nice falfhoods do;
Men must be taught as if you taught them not, 575
And things unknown propos'd as things forgot.
Without Good Breeding, truth is disapprov'd;
That only makes fuperior fenfe belov'd.
Be niggards of advice on no pretence :

For the worst avarice is that of sense.

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

Fear not the anger of the wife to raise;

580

Those beft can bear reproof, who merit praise. 'Twere well might Critics ftill this freedom take,

But Appius reddens at each word you speak,

586 And ftares, tremendous, with a threat'ning eye,

Like fome fierce Tyrant in old tapestry.

Fear moft to tax an Honourable fool,

Whose right it is, uncenfur'd, to be dull;
Such, without wit, are Poets when they please,

590

As without learning they can take Degrees.

VER. 587. And ftares 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 Essay and its author, in a manner perfectly lunatic: For, as to the mention made of him in 270. he took it as a Compliment, and faid it was treacherously meant to caufe him to overlook this Abufe of his Perfon.

Leave dang'rous truths to unfuccessful Satires,
And flattery to fulfome Dedicators,

Whom, when they praife, the World believes no

more,

595

600

Than when they promise to give fcribling o'er.
'Tis best sometimes your cenfure to restrain,
And charitably let the dull be vain:
Your filence there is better than your spite,
For who can rail fo long as they can write?
Still humming on, their drouzy courfe they keep,
And lafh'd fo long, like tops, are lash'd asleep.
False steps but help them to renew the race,
As, after stumbling, Jades will mend their pace.
What crouds 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 squeezings of the brain,
Strain out the last dull droppings of their sense,
And rhyme with all the rage of Impotence.

605

610

Such fhameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis

true,

615

There are as mad, abandon'd Critics too.
The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head,
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.

4.

With him, moft authors fteal their works, or buy; Garth did not write his own Difpenfary.

620

Name a new Play, and he's the Poet's friend,
Nay show'd his faults- but when would Poets
mend?

No place fo facred from fuch fops is barr'd,

Nor is Paul's church more fafe than Paul's churchyard:

Nay, fly to Altars; there they'll talk you dead; 625
For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.
Diftruftful fense with modeft caution speaks,
It still looks home, and fhort excurfions makes ;
But rattling nonfenfe in full vollies breaks,
And never fhock'd, and never turn'd aside,
Burfts out, refistless, with a thund'ring tide.

630

But where's the man, who counsel can bestow, Still pleas'd to teach, and yet not proud to know?

VER. 620. 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 slander most prevail'd; and it is now (perhaps the fooner for this very verfe) dead and forgotten.

VER. 632. But where's the man, etc.] He anfwers, That he was to be found in the happier ages of Greece and Rome; in the

VARIATIONS.

VER. 624. Between this and ✯ 625.

In vain you shrug and sweat, and strive to fly :

Thele know no Manners but of Poetry.

They'll ftop a hungry Chaplain in his grace,

To treat of Unities of time and place.

Unbiass'd, or by favour, or by fpite;

Not dully prepoffefs'd, nor blindly right;

635

Tho' learn'd, well-bred; and tho' well-bred, fincere;

Modeftly bold, and humanly fevere:

Who to a friend his faults can freely show,

And gladly praise the merit of a foe?

Bleft with a taste exact, yet unconfin'd;

A knowledge both of books and human kind;
Gen'rous converse; a foul exempt from pride ;
And love to praise, with reafon on his fide ?

643

perfons of Ariftotle and Horace, Dionyfius and Petronius, Quintilian and Longinus. Whole Characters he has not only exactly drawn, but contrasted them with a peculiar elegance; the profound science and logical method of Ariftotle being opposed to the plain common fenfe of Horace, conveyed in a natural and familiar negligence; the study and refinement of Dionyfius, to the gay and courtly ease of Petronius; and the gravity and minuteness of Quin tilian 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 question and answer we fee, he does not encourage us to fearch for the true Critic amongst modern writers. And indeed the discovery 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 thefe marks may be found. It is intitled, 2. Hor. Fl. Ars Poetica, et ejufd. Ep. ad Aug. with an English Commentary and Notes.

VER. 643. with REASON on his fide ?] Not only on his fide, but actually exercised in the fervice of his profeffion. That

I