Both must alike from Heav'n derive their light,

These born to judge, as well as those to write.
Let fuch teach others who themselves excel,
And cenfure freely who have written well.

NOTES.

IŠ

Authors

Buckingham. These were the critical pieces that preceded our Author's Effay, which was published without his name, May III, about the fame time with Fenton's Epiftle to Southerne; and did not, as Lewis the bookseller told me, fell at first, till our Author fent copies, as presents, to several eminent persons.

It is faid, very fenfibly, by La Bruyere, "I will allow that good writers are scarce enough; but then I afk, where are the people that know to read and judge? An union of these qualities, which are feldom found in the fame perfon, feem to be indifpenfably neceffary to form an able critic; he ought to poffefs ftrong good fenfe, lively imagination, and exquifite fenfibility. And of these three qualities, the last is the most important; fince, after all that can be faid on the utility or neceffity of rules and precepts, it must be confeffed, that the merit of all works of genius, must be determined by taste and fentiment. "Why do you so much admire the Helen of Zeuxis?" faid one to Nicoftratus; "You would not wonder why I fo much admired it, (replied the painter), if you had my eyes." Of the three requifites to make a juft critic, mentioned above, Aristotle seems to have poffeffed the first, in the highest degree; Longinus the fecond; and Addison the third; on whom, however, a celebrated writer has paffed the following cenfure: "It must not be diffembled that criticism was by no means the talent of Addison. His tafte was truly elegant; but he had neither that vigour of understanding, nor chaftifed philofophical fpirit, which are fo effential to this character, and which we find in hardly any of the ancients, befides Ariftotle, and but in a very few of the moderns. For what concerns his criticifm on Milton, in particular, there was this accidental benefit arifing from it, that it occafioned an admirable poet to be read, and his excellencies to be obferved. But, for the merit of the work itself, if there be any thing juft in the plan, it was because Ariftotle and Boffu had taken the fame route before him. as to his own proper observations, they are for the most part fo general and indeterminate, as to afford but little instruction to the reader, and are not unfrequently altogether frivolous. They

And

are

Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true,

But are not Critics to their judgment too?

NOTES.

Yet

are of a kind with thofe, which the French critics (for I rather inftance in the defects of foreign writers than our own) fo much abound; and which good judges agree to rank in the worst fort of criticifm." Thus far Dr. Hurd, Notes on the Epistle to Auguftus, v. 210.

To this cenfure on Addifon Dr. Johnfon replied in the following excellent words: "It is not uncommon for thofe who have grown wife by the labour of others, to add a little of their own, and overlook their mafters. Addison is now despised by fome, who, perhaps, would never have seen his defects, but by the lights which he afforded them. That he always wrote, as he would think it neceffary to write now, cannot be affirmed; his inftructions were fuch as the character of his readers made proper. That general knowledge which now circulates in common talk, was in his time rarely to be found. Men not profeffing learning, were not afhamed of ignorance; and in the female world, any acquaintance with books, was diftinguished only to be cenfured. His purpose was to infufe literary curiofity, by gentle and unfufpected conveyance, into the gay, the idle, and the wealthy; he therefore prefented knowledge in the most alluring form; not lofty and auftere, but acceffible and familiar. When he fhewed them their defects, he fhewed them likewife that they might be eafily fupplied; his attempt fucceeded, enquiry was awakened, and comprehenfion expanded. An emulation of intellectual elegance was excited, and from his time to our own, life has been gradually exalted, and converfation purified and enlarged. Before the profound obfervers of the present race repofe too fecurely on the consciousness of their fuperiority to Addison, let them confider his Remarks on Ovid, in which may be found specimens of criticism, fufficiently subtle and refined; let them perufe likewife his Eflays on Wit, and on The Pleasures of Imagination, in which he founds art on the base of nature, and draws the principles of invention, from difpofitions inherent in the mind of man, with fkill and elegance, fuch as his contemners will not cafily attain." Lives of the Poets, vol. ii.

page 442.

Many men are to be found who can judge truly, though they may want the power of execution. And it was a proper answer

VOL. I.

N

of

Yet if we look more closely, we shall find

Most have the feeds of judgment in their mind:

NOTES.

19

Nature

of the Mifanthrope, in Moliere, who had blamed fome bad verfes, to the poet who defied him to make better;

"J'en pourrois par malheur faire d'auffi mechans,

Mais je me garderois de les montrer aux gens."

"Qui fcribit artificiofe, ab

VER. 15. Let fuch teach others,] " aliis commode fcripta facile intelligere poterit." Cic. ad Herenn. lib. iv. "De pictore, fculptore, fictore, nifi artifex, judicare non poteft." Pliny.

"Publish fome work of your own (faid a to a critic) before you cenfure mine.

P.

certain angry author

Cum tua non edas, carpis mea carmina ;

You print nothing for fear of reprifals."

Regnier, the predecessor of Boileau, in his ninth fatire, calls on his cenfors to publish something; and adds a ludicrous tale of a peasant who applied to the Pope, and begged he would fuffer priefts to marry; "that we laymen (faid he) may carefs their wives, as well as they carefs ours."

"In the large city of Paris, (fays Voltaire), containing fix hundred thousand inhabitants, there are not three thousand who have any true tafte for literature and the arts."

It is remarked by Dryden, I think, that none but a poet is qualified to judge of a poet. The maxim is however contradicted by experience. Ariftotle is faid indeed to have written one ode; but neither Boffu nor Hurd are poets. The penetrating author of The Reflections on Poetry, Painting, and Mufic, will for ever be read with delight, and with profit, by all ingenious artists;

nevertheless (fays Voltaire) he did not understand music, could never make verfes, and was not poffeffed of a fingle picture; but he had read, feen, heard, and reflected a great deal." And Lord Shaftesbury speaks with fome indignation on this subject ; “If a musician performs his part well in the hardest symphonies, he muft neceffarily know the notes, and understand the rules of harmony and mufic. But muft a man, therefore, who has an ear, and has studied the rules of mufic, of neceffity have a voice, or hand? Can no one poffibly judge a fiddle, but who is himself fiddler? Can no one judge a picture, but who is himself a layer of colours?" Quintilian and Pliny, who speak of the

a

works

Nature affords at least a glimm'ring light;

The lines, tho' touch'd but faintly, are drawn right. But as the slightest sketch, if juftly trac'd,

Is by ill-colouring but the more difgrac❜d,

So by falfe learning is good sense defac'd:

25

VARIATIONS.

Between ver. 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 skill, they ne'er could do.

NOTES.

P.

works of the ancient painters and ftatuaries with fo much tafte and fentiment, handled not themselves either the pencil or the chiffel, nor Longinus and Dionyfius the harp. But although fuch as have actually performed nothing in the art itself, may not, on that account, be totally disqualified to judge with accuracy of any piece of workmanship, yet, perhaps, a judgement will come with more authority and force from an artist himself. Hence the connoiffeurs highly prize the treatife of Ruben's concerning the Imitation of Antique Statues, the Art of Painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and the Lives of the Painters by Vafari. As, for the fame reasons, Rameau's Differtation on The Thorough Bafs; and The Introduction to a Good Taste in Mufic, by the excellent, but neglected, Geminiani, demand a particular regard. The prefaces of Dryden would be equally valuable, if he did not fo frequently contradict himself, and advance opinions diametrically oppofite to each other. Some of Corneille's difcourfes on his own tragedies are admirably just. And one of the best pieces of modern criticism, The Academy's Obfervations on the Cid, was, we know, the work of perfons who had themselves written well. And our Author's own excellent preface to his translation of the Iliad, one of the beft pieces of profe in the English language, is an example how well poets are qualified to be critics.

Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools,

And fome made coxcombs Nature meant but fools.

NOTES.

VER. 20. Moft have the feeds] "Omnes tacito quodam fenfu, fine ulla arte, aut ratione, quæ fint in artibus, ac rationibus recta et prava disjudicant." Cic. de Orat. lib. iii.

P.

VER. 25. So by falje learning]." Plus fine doctrina prudentia, quam fine prudentia valet doctrina." Quint.

P.

VER. 27. Made coxcombs] It is hardly poffible to find an example of an affected critic fo ridiculous as the following, taken from Spence's Anecdotes.

"The famous Lord Halifax was rather a pretender to taste than really poffeffed of it. When I had finished the two or three first books of my tranflation of the Iliad, that Lord defired to have the pleasure of hearing them read at his houfe. Addison, Congreve, and Garth, were there at the reading. In four or five places Lord Halifax ftopt me very civilly, and with a speech each time, much of the fame kind, "I beg your pardon Mr. Pope, but there is fomething in that paffage which does not quite please me;—be so good as to mark the place, and confider it a little at your leifure;-I am fure you can give it a little turn." I returned from Lord Halifax's with Dr. Garth in his chariot; and, as we were going along, was faying to the Doctor, that my Lord had laid me under a good deal of difficulty by fuch loose and general obfervations; that I had been thinking over the paffages almost ever since, and could not guefs at what it was that had offended his Lordship in either of them. Garth laughed heartily at my embarraffment; faid, I had not been long enough acquainted with Lord Halifax to know his way yet; that I need not puzzle myself about looking those places over and over when I got home. "All you need do (fays he) is to leave them just as they are; call on Lord Halifax two or three months hence, thank him for his kind observations on those passages, and then read them to him, as altered. I have known him much longer than you have, and will be anfwerable for the event." I followed his advice, waited on Lord Halifax fome time after; faid, I hoped he would find his objections to thofe paffages removed; read them to him, exactly as they were at first: and then his Lordship was extremely pleased with them, and cried out, "Aye, now they are perfectly right; nothing can be better."