tion may be applied likewise to general cenfure or panegyric (where examples are not adduced) which a Critic hath no more right to fuppofe will pafs for current coin with his readers upon his ipfe dixit (a very few occafions excepted) than a stranger would have to expect that a man who never faw nor heard of him should lend him his money upon the first demand, though corroborated by no evidence or teftimony whatever, but the fimple promise of being repaid.

IN thefe laft cafes, however, a reader may be impofed upon by partial criticism; in the former, it is his own fault if he should ever be fo. When a face without an eye is reprefented in profile, the defect may be concealed until we fee the Original; or when the deformity is remarkable and univerfally acknowledged, we may take a man's word for it, without examining the portrait but when the various features are expofed feparately, instead of being shewn in their original union where the colouring, whether good or bad, is dafhed out, and fomething foreign is plainly fubftituted in its place; in thefe circumstances fufpicion is immediately excited, and no evidence is produced upon which a fenfible mind can either form a rational eftimate, or pronounce an equitable decifion.

;

THESE

THESE general obfervations on the Art of Criticism, I have not made with a view to any particular Authors whatever. Only, as I am here making a Collection of Pieces, which have in general been honoured by the public approbation, I mean to exercise a right common alike to every successful Author, that of laying down the rules by which the juftice of his claim to this approbation may at any time be decided. In order likewife to afcertain, if poffible, the poffeffion of fo agreeable an object, I have not only enlarged the first Volume with, feveral poetical Pieces never before published, but, in the Critique on Lyric Poetry, I have made observations on fome valuable fragments of antiquity, which had not fallen into my hands when that Effay was firft wrote. In the second Volume, befides feveral corrections made throughout in the Poem intitled Providence, I have improved the argument, particularly in the fecond book, where it was defective, by entering into a detail of fome length.-Justice calls upon me to acknowledge, that this improvement (if it shall be deemed fuch) as well as the additions made to the Effay, were originally fuggefted to me by the Critiques on each of these published in the Monthly Review. The Gentlemen concerned in that publication have done me a real favour, by pointing out such mistakes or omiffions as I could rectify; and (as far as my own judgment concurred with their animadverfions)

verfions) I have endeavoured to do fo.-I would willingly make the fame acknowledgment to the Authors of the other Review, or even to any other Libellers, who have honoured me (though indeed intentionally) with abuse. But with regard to these (particularly the former) this is altogether impoffible. The Authors of this paper, it must be acknowledged, have discovered much warmth both in their Friendship and in their Enmity. As, in the first case, when they were in good humour, their Critiques confifted almost wholly of pure Panegyric; so, in the last, when I had-"O triftis plane acerbeq; "dies!"—most unexpectedly forfeited all title to be treated even with common decency; their cenfure, to do them juftice, was compofed as compleatly of unmixed defamation. Thus, unhappily for me, I have received benefit from neither. Such difappointments as these fall

Thefe Authors, however refpectable while they appear thus candid and impartial Critics, yet cannot furely expect to have the fame attention paid to their remarks, when these become verbal and grammatical; especially when Prejudice appears to have held the pen in this last instance, and fuch ftudied Mifconftruction is employed, as will make nonsense of any performance whatever. Yet this (for whatever reafon thefe Writers appear

fall out often in life, when we are connected with men very warm paffions; who, taking their aim with pre

Flap this bug with gilded wings,

This painted child of dirt, that stinks and stings;
Whose buz the witty and the fair annoys,
Yet wit ne'er taftes, and beauty ne'er enjoys.

cipitance, overshoot the mark, at which a steady hand and penetrating eye are equally neceffary to level the fhaft. The Elyfium of the Poets therefore ftands without alteration in its original state. The Reader was warned in the advertisement prefixed to that poem, that the fentimental part would fall moft naturally in near the conclufion of the work, and whether it is deftitute of those characters which have not met with disapprobation in other pieces of this Collection, the Reader of Tafte and Candour must be left to determine.

errors

it might be faid, fweating under his burden) as " feeling weight, and unufual weight too ?" Surely, the above-mentioned will be thought peccadillo's to thefe. Yet, gentle Reader, with forrow I write, and with forrow will it be read, thefe are the words of John Milton! and the paffage from which both is felected, has always, till now, been looked on as one of the moft fublime and noble, either in ancient or modern Poetry" Then with expanded wings, he fteer'd his flight aloft," &c.-In fhort, by fuch Criticism as this, I will engage to make the Father of Epic Poetry himfelf, who, for three thousand years, has been fhaded by the confe rated veil of Antiquity, appear to have formed as wild and extravagant chimeras as ever entered into

the brain of Rabelais, even when he made honeft Satan be seized with a cholic (and no wonder!) after having devoured the foul of a Lawyer fricafeed to his breakfast.-It is almoft impoffible to be ferious on this fubject.-Let me fay however, that if thefe Gentlemen meant to have acted impartially, they ought furely to have given their readers fome example, from which they might judge of the Merit of the Poem (fince merit they allow it to have) as well as have fo minutely (to ufe their own Phrafe) pointed out what they judged to be its faults. That Painter would certainly be thought to execute his work very lamely, who should take off every difagreeable expreffion of a countenance, without any of its graces.

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