Hear how Timotheus' vary'd lays furprize,

And bid alternate paffions fall and rife!

While at each change, the fon of Libyan Jove

Now burns with glory, and then melts with love; Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow,

375

Now fighs fteal out, and tears begin to flow:
Perfians and Greeks like turns of nature found, 380
And the world's victor ftood fubdu'd by Sound!
The pow'r of Mufic all our hearts allow,
And what Timotheus was, is DRYDEN now.

Avoid extremes; and fhun the fault of fuch,
Who ftill are pleas'd too little or too much.
At ev'ry trifle fcorn to take offence,

That always fhews great pride, or little sense:
Thofe heads, as ftomachs, are not fure the beft,
Which naufeate all, and nothing can digeft.
Yet let not each gay Turn thy rapture move;
For fools admire, but men of sense approve :

NOTES.

385

390

As

VER. 374. Hear how Timotheus, &c.] See Alexander's Feaft, or the Power of Mufic; an Ode by Mr. Dryden.

P.

"Some of the lines (fays Dr. Johnson) are without correspondent rhymes; a defect which the enthusiasm of the writer might hinder him from perceiving."

VER. 391. Fools admire, but men of fense approve :] "This prudish fentence has probably made as many formal coxcombs in literature, Lord Chesterfield's opinion on the vulgarity of laughter, has among men of high breeding. As a general maxim, it has no foundation whatever in truth.

as

"Proneness to admiration is a quality rather of temper than of understanding; and if it often attends light minds, it is also infeparable from that warmth of imagination which is requisite for the firong perception of what is excellent in art or nature. Innumerable inftances might be produced of the rapturous

admiration

As things feem large which we through mifts defcry, Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

NOTES.

admiration with which men of genius have been struck at the view of great performances. It is enough here to mention the poet's favourite critic, Longinus, who is far from being contented with cool approbation, but gives free scope to the moft enraptured praife. Few things indicate a mind more unfavourably constituted for the fine arts, than a flowness in being moved to the admiration of excellence; and it is certainly better that this paffion fhould at first be excited by cbjects rather inadequate, than that it fhould not be excited at all." These are the words of a fenfible observer on this effay, Dr. Aikin, in Letters to his Son.

"What I diflike is, the pedantry of appealing to fpeculative principles in oppofition to the decifions of tafte; and what I defpife is, the ridiculous vanity of attempting to demonftrate, by argument, that men ought to admire, when experience proves that no one does or can admire; and, on the other hand, that men are in the wrong to be pleased, when experience proves that it is impoffible to avoid it. In a word, of all kind of literary affectation, that which is molt difgufting is, the affectation of judging in matters of tafte by rule, and not by feeling; and this appears to me the fundamental defect of the work to which I have before alluded; I mean the Elements of Criticifm. Lord Kaims was no lefs remarkable for delicacy of tafte than acuteness of understanding; and he evidently feems to have thought it much below the dignity of a critic to embrace any opinion even in a mere matter of tafte, which was not fupported by fome rule. Where the rule was not already established, therefore, he was obliged to have recourse to his invention, which did not always fupply him with fuch as were of the moft fatisfactory kind; and he feems, through the whole of his elaborate work, to entertain much too high an idea of the importance of thofe rules; for he feems to confider them as founded in reason, and as laws by which tafte ought to be regulated;, whereas they are properly founded in taste, and the most judicious and best established rules are really nothing more than the different principles by which experience fhews that the decifions of taste are governed."

Effays Philofophical and Literary. The turn and manner of many paffages in our author are much like Dryden's prologues; and particularly the famous prologue and epilogue to All for Love.

Q2

Some

Some foreign writers, fome our own despise;
The Ancients only, or the Moderns prize.
Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd
To one fmall fect, and all are damn'd befide.
Meanly they feek the bleffing to confine,
And force that fun but on a part to shine,
Which not alone the fouthern wit fublimes,
But ripens fpirits in cold northern climes ;
Which from the firft has fhone on ages past,
Enlights the prefent, and fhall warm the laft;

NOTES.

395

400

VER. 394. Our own defpife;] If any proof was wanting how little the Paradife Loft was read and attended to, at this time, our author's total filence on the subject would be fufficient to fhew it. That an Effay on Criticism could be written, without a fingle mention of Milton, appears truly strange and incredible; if we did not know that our author feems to have had no idea of any merit fuperior to that of Dryden! and had no relish for an author, who,

"Omnes exftinxit ftellas, exortus uti ætherius fol."

Lucret.

VER. 395. The Antients only,] A very fenfible Frenchman says, "En un mot, touchez comme Euripide, etonnez comme Sophocle, peignez comme Homere, & compofez d' apres vous. Ces maitres n'ont point eu de regles; ils n'en ont eté que plus grands; & ils n'ont acquis le droit de commander, que parce qu'ils n'ont jamais obei. Il en est tout autrement en literature qu'en politique; le talent qui a befoin de fubir des loix, n'en donnera jamais."

VER. 402. Which from the firft, &c.] Genius is the fame in all ages; but its fruits are various; and more or lefs excellent as they are checked or matured by the influence of government or religion upon them. Hence in fome parts of literature the Ancients excel; in others, the Moderns; juft as thofe accidental circumftances occurred.

VER. 403. Enlights] An improper word for enlightens.

W.

Tho'

Tho' each may feel encreases and decays,
And fee now clearer and now darker days.
Regard not then if Wit be old or new,
But blame the falfe, and value ftill the true,

Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own,
But catch the spreading notion of the Town;
They reafon and conclude by precedent,

405

410

And own ftale nonsense which they ne'er invent.
Some judge of authors names, not works, and then
Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men.
Of all this fervile herd, the worst is he
That in proud dulnefs joins with Quality.

A conftant Critic at the great man's board,
To fetch and carry nonfenfe for my Lord,
What woful stuff this madrigal would be,
In some starv'd hackney fonneteer, or me?
But let a Lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens! how the stile refines!
Before his facred name flies ev'ry fault,
And each exalted ftanza teems with thought!

415

420

NOTES.

VER. 408. Some ne'er] There is very little poetical expreffion from this line to ver. 450. It is only mere profe, fringed with rhyme, Good fenfe in a very profaic ftyle. Reasoning, not poetry.

VER. 420. Let a Lord] "You ought not to write verses, (faid George the Second, who had little tafte, to Lord Hervey,) 'tis beneath your rank; leave fuch work to little Mr. Pope; it is his trade." But this Lord Hervey wrote fome that were above the level of thofe defcribed here by our author.

The Vulgar thus through Imitation err;
As oft the Learn'd by being fingular;

So much they scorn the croud, that if the throng
By chance go right, they purposely go wrong:
So Schifmatics the plain believers quit,

425

And are but damn'd for having too much wit. Some praise at morning what they blame at night; But always think the last opinion right.

A Mufe by these is like a mistress us'd,

This hour fhe's idoliz'd, the next abus'd;

431

While their weak heads, like towns unfortify'd,
'Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their fide.
Afk them the caufe; they're wifer ftill they fay; 436
And still to-morrow's wifer than to-day.

We think our fathers fools, fo wife we grow;

Our wifer fons, no doubt, will think us fo. 439
Once School-divines this zealous ifle o'er-spread;
Who knew most Sentences, was deepest read;
Faith, Gospel, all, feem'd made to be disputed,
And none had fenfe enough to be confuted:
Scotifts and Thomifts, now, in peace remain,
Amidft their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane.

445

NOTES.

If

VER. 425. By being fingular ;] Of which truth there cannot be a stronger example than the learned commentator on our author; "Who (to use his own excellent words on the character of Bayle) ftruck into the province of paradox, as an exercise for the restless vigour of his mind."

VER. 444. Scotifts] So denominated from Johannes Duns Scotus. Erafmus tells us, an eminent Scotift affured him, that it was impoffible to understand one fingle propofition of this famous

Duns,