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To tire our patience, than miflead our fenfe.
Some few in that, but numbers err in this,
Ten cenfure wrong for one who writes amifs;
A fool might once himself alone expose,
Now one in verfe makes many more in profe.

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none Go juft alike, yet each believes his own.. In Poets as true genius is but rare,

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not attending to the confiderations offered above, was what, per haps, mifled a very candid writer, after having given this Piece all the praises on the fide of genius and poetry which his true tafte could not refuse it, to say, that the obfervations follow one another like these in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodi. cal regularity which would have been requifite in a profe writer. Spec. No. 235. I do not fee how method can hurt any one grace of Poetry; or what prerogative there is in verfe to difpenfe with regularity. The remark is falfe in every part of it. Mr. Pope's Efay on Criticism, the Reader will foon fee, is a regular piece: And a very learned Critic has lately fhewn, that Horace had the fame attention to method in his Art of Poetry.

VER. 1. 'Tis hard to fay, &c.) The Poem opens (from v. 1. to 9.) with fhewing the use and seasonableness of the fubject. Its fe, from the greater mifchief in wrong Criticism than in ili Poetry, this only tiring, that misleading the reader: Its seasonblenese from the growing number of falfe Critics, which now vastly exceeds that of bad Poets.

VER. 9. 'Tis with our judgments etc.) The author having fhewn us the expediency of his fubje&t, the Art of Criticifm, next inquires (from v. 8. to 15.) into the proper Qualities of a true Critic: and obferves first, that JUDGMENT, fimply and alone, is not fufficient to conftitute this character, because Judgment, like the artificial measures of Time, goes different, and yet each relies upon his own. The reafon is conclufive; and the fimilitude extremly juft For Judgment, when alone, is allways regulated, or at least much influenced by custom, falchion and habit; and never certain and conftant but when founded upon TASTE: which is the fame in the Critic, as GENIUS in the Poet: both are derived from Heaven, and like the sun (the natural measure of Time) allways conftant and equal.

True Talte as feldom is the Critic's fhare;
Both must alike from Heav'n derive their light,
These born to judge, as well as thofe to write.
Let fuch teach others who themfelves excel,

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Nor need we wonder, that Judgment alone will not make a Critic in poetry, when we fhall find, that Genius and Taste are but one and the fame faculty, differently exerting itself under different names, in the two profeffions of Poet and Critic. For the Art of Poetry confifts in feletting, out of all those images which prefent themfelves to the fancy, fuch of them as are truly poecical: And the Art of Criticism in difcerning, and fully relishing what it finds fo felected. Tis the fame operation of the mind in both cafes and exerted by the fame faculty. Au the difference is, that in the Poet his faculty is eminently joined with a bright imagination, and extensive comprehenfion, which provide ftores for the selection, and can form that felection, by proportioned parts, into a regular whole: In the Critic, with a folid judgment and accurate difcernment; which penetrate into the causes of an excellence, and can fhew that excellence in all its variety of lights Longinus had taste in an eminent degree; fo this, which is indeed common to all true Critics, our Author makes his diftingguishing character, Thee, bold Longinus! all the Nine inspire, And blefs their Critic with a Poet's fire. COMMENTARY.

VER. 15. Let fuch teach others, etc.) But it is not enough that the Critic hath these natural endowments to entitle him to exercife his Art, he ought, as our author fhews us (tom v. 14. to 19,) to give a further test of his qualification, by fome acqui red talents: And this on two accounts: I. Because the office of a Critic is an exercife of Authority. 2. Because he being naturally as partial to his Judgment as the Poet is to his tvit, his partiality would have nothing to correct it, as that of the person jude ged hath. Therefore fome teft is reasonable; and the best and most unexceptionable is his paving written well himself, an approved remedy against Critical partiality; and the fureft means of fo maturing the Judgment, as to reap with glory what Longinus calls "the laft and most perfect fruits of much study and expe,,rience.,, Η ΓΑΡ ΤΩΝ ΛΟΓΩΝ ΚΡΙΣΙΣ ΠΟΛΛΗΣ ΕΣΦΙ ΠΕΙΡΑΣ ΤΕΛΕΥΤΑΙΟΝ ΕΠΙΓΕΝΝΗΜΑ.

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And cenfure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true,
But are not Critics to their judgment too?

Yet if we look more clofely, we shall find Moft have the feeds of judgment in their mind: 20 Nature affords at leaft a glimm'ring light;

The lines, tho' touch'd but faintly, are drawn right.
But as the flighteft fketch, if justly trac'd,
Is by ill-colouring but the more difgrac'd,

COMMENTARY.

VER. 19. Yet if we look, etc.) But having been fo free with this fundamental quality of Criticism, Judgment, as to charge it with inconftancy and partiality, and to be often warped by custom. and affection; that this may not be mistaken, he next explains (from v. 18. to 36.) the nature of Judgment, and the accidents occasioning those miscarriages before objected to it. He owns, that the feeds of Judgment are indeed fown in the minds of moft men, But by ill culture, as it fprings up, it generally runs wild: either on the one hand, by false knowledge, which pedants call Philology; or by false reasoning, which Philofophers call School - learning: Or on the other, by false wit, which is not regulated by fenfe; or by false politeness which is folely regulated by the fashion. Both thefe forts, who have their Judgments thus doubly depraved, the post obferves, are naturally turned to cenfure and reprehenfion; only with this difference, that the Duince always affects to be on the reasoning, and the Fool on the laughing fide, - And thus, at the fame time, our author proves the truth of his introductory obfervation, that the number of bad Critics is vastly superior to that of bad Poets.

NOTES.

VER. 15. Let fuch teach others.) "Qui fcribit artificiofe, ab "aliis commode fcripta facile intelligere poterit.,, Cic. ad Heren. "ib. iv. "De pictore, sculptore, fitore, nifi arti ex, judicare non "poteft,,, Pliny.

VER. 20. Most have the feeds.) "Omnes tacito quodam fenfu, "fine ulla arte, aut ratione, quæ fint in artibus ac rationibus recta & prava dijudicant.,, Cic. de Orat. lib. ili.

So by falfe learning is good fenfe defac'd:
Some are bewilder'd in the maze of fchools,
And fome made coxcombs Nature meant but fools.
In fearch of wit these lose their common sense,
And then turn Critics in their own defence:
Each burns alike, who can,
or cannot write,
Or with a Rival's, or an Eunuch's fpite.
All fools have ftill an itching to deride,
And fain would be upon the laughing fide.
If Mævius fcribble in Apollo's spight,

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There are, who judge ftill worfe than he can write, Some have at firft for Wits, then Poets past, 36 Turn'd Critics next, and prov'd plain fools at last,

VARIATIONS.

Between v. 25 and 26 were thefe lines, fince omitted by the author:

Many are spoil'd by that pedantic throng,

Who with great pains teach youth to reafon wrong,

Tutors, like Virtuofo's, oft inclin'd

By ftrange transfufion to improve the mind,
Draw off the fenfe we have to pour in new;

Which yet, with all their fkill, they ne'er could do.

COMMENTARY.

VER. 36. Some have at first for Wits, etc.) The Poets having enumerated, in this account of the nature of Judgment and its various depravations, the feveral farts of bad Critics, and ranked them into two general Claffes; as the first fort, namely the men fpoiled by false learning, are but few in comparison of the other, and likewise come lefs within his main view (which is poetical Criticifm) but keep groveling at the bottom amongst words and let ters, he thought it here fufficient juft to have mentioned them, propofing to do them right here after. But the men spoiled by falfe taste are innumerable; and these are his proper concern: He

NOTES.

VER. 25. So by falfe learning.) "Plus fine do&rina pruden'tia, quam fine prudentia valet doctrina.,, Quinc.

Some neither can for Wits nor Critics pass,
As heavy mules are neither horfe nor afs.
Thofe half-learn'd witlings, num'rous in our ifle,
As half-form'd infects on the banks of Nile;
Unfinish'd things, one knows not what to call,
Their generation's fo equivocal:

To tell 'em, would a hundred tongues require,
Or one vain wit's, that might a hundred tire. 45
But you who feek to give and merit fame,
And juftly bear a Critic's noble name,

COMMENTARY.

therefore, (from] v. 35. to 46.) fub-divides them again into the two claffes of thevolatile and heavy: He defcribes in few words the quick progrefs of the one thro' Criticism, from falfe wit to plain folly, where they end; and the fixed station of the other between the confines of both; who under the name of witlings have neither end nor measure. A kind of half formed creature from the equivocal generation of vivasity and ulness, like thofe on the banks of Nile, from heat and mud.

VER. 46. But you who seek, etc.) Our Author having thus far, by way of INTRODUCTION, explained the nature, use, and abuse of Criticism, in a figurative defcription of the qualities and characters of Critics, proceeds now to deliver the precepts of the Ait. The first of which, from v 47 to 68. is, that he who fets up for a Critic fhould previously examine his own ftrength, and fee how far he is qualified for the exercife of his profeffion. He puts him in a way to make this difcovery, in that admirable direction given v 51.

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NOTES.

VER. 43. Their generation's fo equivocal:) It is fufficient that a principle of philofophy has been generally received, whether it be true or false, to juftify a poet's use of it to fet off his wit. But to recommend his argument he fhould be cautious how he ufes any but the true. For falsehood, when it is fet too near, will tarnish the truth he would recommend. Befides the analogy between natural and moral truth makes the principles of true Philofophy the firreft for his ufe. Our Poet has been careful in obferving this rule.

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