What the weak head with ftrongest bias rules, She gives in large recruits of needful Pride; COMMENTARY. 205 extensive study of human Nature and Antiquity; and the Characters of ancient Poetry and Criticism; the natural remedies to the four epidemic diforders he is now endeavouring to redress. Ibid. Of all the causes, etc.) The first caufe of wrong Judg ment is PRIDE. He judicioufly begins with it, (from v 200 to 215.) as on other accounts, fo on this, that is it the very thing which gives modern Criticifm its character; whofe complexion is abuse and cenfure. He calls it the vice of Fools'; by which are not meant thofe to Whom Nature has given no Judgment (for he is here fpeaking of what mifleads the Judgment) but those in whom education and ftudy has made no improvement; as appeas from the happy fimilitude of an ill-nourished body; where the fame words which exprefs the cause, exprefs likewise the nature of pride: For as in bodies, thus in fouls we find, What wants in blood and fpiriis, fwell'd with wind. Tis the business of reafon, he tells us, to difpel the cloud which pride throws over the mind: But the mifchief is that the rays of reafon diverted by felf-love, fometimes gild this cloud, instead of diffipating it: So that the Judgment by falfe lights reflected back upon itself, is ftill apt to be a little dazzled, and to mistake its object. He therefore advifes to call in ftill more helps : Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, Make use of ev'ry Friend- and ev'ry Fee, Both the beginning and conclufion of this precept are remarkable. The question is of the means to fubdue Pride: He directs the Critic to begin with a diftruft of himself; and this is Modesty, the first mortification of Pride: And then to feck the affistance of others and make ufe even of an Enemy; and this is Humility, the la mortification of Pride: For when a man can once bring himfelf to fubmit to profit by an enemy, he has either already quite fubdued his Vanity, or is in a fair way of fo doing." What wants in blood and fpirits, fwell'd with wind: COMMENTARY. 215 VER. 215. A little learning, etc.) we must here remark the Poet's fkill in his difpofition of the causes obftructing true Judg ment. Each general caufe which is laid down first, has its own particular canfe in that which follows. Thus, the fecond cause of wrong Judgment, SUPERFICIAL LEARNING, is what occafions that critical Pride, which he makes the firft. VER. 216. Drink deep, etc.) Nature and Learning are the pole ftars of all true Criticism: But Pride obftructs the view of Nature; and a smattering of letters makes us infenfible of our Ignorance. To avoid this ridiculous fituation, the poet (from 214 to 233.) advifes, either to drink deep, or not at all; for the leaft tafte at this fountain is enough to make a bad Critic, while even a moderate draught can never make a good one. And yet the labours and difficulties of drinking deep are so great that a young author,,,Fir'd with ideas of fair Italy," and ambitious to fnath a palm from Rome, engages in an undertaking like that of Hannibal: Finely illuftrated by the fimilitude of an unexperienced traveller penetrating thro' the Alps. NOTES. VER. 209. Pride, where Wit fails, fieps in to our defence, And fills up all the mighty void of sense.) A very fenfible French writer makes the following temark on this fpecies of pride. Us homme qui fait plufieurs langues, qui erend les Auteurs Grecs & Latins, qui s'eleve meme jusqu'a la dignité de SCHOLIASTE; fi cet homme venoit a pefer fon véritable mérite, il trouveroit fouvent qu'il fe réduit à avoir eu des yeux & de la mémoire, il There fhallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 225 Fir'd at first fight with what the Mufe imparts, A perfect Judge will read each work of Wit VER. 225. VARIATIONS. So pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps to try, Fill'd with ideas of fair Italy, The Traveller beholds with chearful eyes The lefs'ning vales and feems to tread the fkies. COMMENTARY. 230 VER. 283. A perfekt Judge, etc.) The third caufe of wrong Judgment is a NARROW CAPACITY; the natural and certain cause of the fortgoing defect, acquiescence in fuperficial learning. NOTES. fe garderoit bien de donner le nom refpe&table de fcience à une érudition fans lumiere. Il y a une grande difference entre s'enri. chir des mots ou des chofes, entre alleguer des autorités, ou des taifons. Si un homme pouvoit fe furprendre à n'avoir que cette forte de mérite, il en rougiroit plutôt que d'en etre vain..., Survey the WHOLE, nor feck fligt faults to find 235 That fhunning faults, one quiet tenuor keep; COMMENTARY. 240 This bounded Capacity the poet fhews (from 232 to 384.) betrays itself two ways; in it's judgment both of the matter, and manner of the work criticifed: Of the matter in judging by parts; or in having one favourite part to a neglect of all the reft: Of the manner, in confining the regard only to conceit, or language, or numbers. This is our Poet's order; and we shall follow him as it leads us; only juft obferving one great beauty which runs duro' this part of the poem; it is, that under each of these heads of wrong Judgment, he has intermixed excellent precepts for right. We fhall take notice of them as they occur. He exposes the folly of judging by parts very artfully, not by a direct description of that fort of Critic, but of his opposite, a perfect Judge, etc. Nor is the elegance of this converfion infe rior to the art of it; for as, in poetic style, one word or figure is ftill put for another, in order to catch new lights from different images, and to reflected them back upon the fubject in hand, fo, in poetic matter, one perfon or thing may be advan tageously employed for another, with the fame elegance of reprefentation. It is obfervable, that our Author makes it almoft the neceffary confequence of judging by parts, to find fault: And this not without much difcernment: For the feveral parts of a compleat whole when feen only fingly, and known only independently, muft allways have the appearance of irregularity; often of defor. mity: Because the Poet's defign being to create a refultive beauty from the artful affemblage of several various parts into one natural whole; those parts must be fafhioned with regard to their mutual relations in the stations they occupy in that whole, from whence the beauty required is to arife. But that regard will occafion fo unreducible a form in each part, when confidered fingly, as to prefent a ̧ very mis-fhapen appearance. 245 We cannot blame indeed but we may fleep. In Wit, as Nature, what affects our hearts Is not th' exactness of peculiar parts; "Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call, But the joint force and full refult of all. Thus when we view fome well-proportion'd dome, (The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome') No fingle parts unequally furprize, 250 All comes united to th' admiring eyes; NOTES. VER. 248. The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, • Rome !) The Pantheon. There is fomething very Gothic in the taste and judgment of a learned man, who defpifes this master-piece of art for those very qualities which deferve our admiration. ,,Nous efmerveillons comme l'on fait fi grand cas de ce Pantheon, ,,veu que fon edifice n'eft de fi grande industrie comme l'on crie: ,,car chaque petit Maflon peut bien concevoir la maniere de fa ,,façon tout en un inftant: car eftant la base fi maffive, & les ,,murailles fi efpaiffes, ne nous a femblé difficile d'y adjouter la ,,Voute a claire voye.,, Pierre Belon's obfervations, etc. The nature of the Gothic Structures apparently led him into this mi stake of the Architettonic art in general; that the excellency of it confifted in raising the greatest weight on the leaft affignable fupport, fo that the edifice should have ftrength without the ap pearance of the it, in order to excite admiration. But to a judicious eye it would have a contrary effect, the Appearance (as our poet expreffes it) of a monstrous height or breadth, or length. Indeed did the juft proportions in regular Architecture take off from the grandeur of building, by all the fingle parts coming united to eye, as this learned traveller seems to infinuait would be a reasonable objection to those rules on which this Mafter piece of Art was constructed. But it is not fo. The Poet tells us, te, The Whole at once is BOLD and regular. |