Nature affords at least a glimm'ring light;

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

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

So by false learning is good sense defac'd :

VARIATIONS.

25

Between ver. 25 and 26 were these lines, fince omitted by the author.

Many are spoil'd by that pedantic throng,

Who with great pains teach youth to reason wrong
Tutors, like Virtuofo's, oft inclin'd

By ftrange transfufion to improve the mind,

Draw off the fense we have, to pour in new;

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

NOTES.

works of the ancient painters and ftatuaries with so 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 difqualified 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 treatise of Ruben's concerning the Imitation of Antique Statues, the Art of Painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and the Lives of the Painters by Valari. As, for the fame reafons, 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 juft. And one of the best pieces of modern criticifm, 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 best 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 falfe 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 translation of the Iliad, that Lord defired to have the pleafure of hearing them read at his houfe. Addifon, 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 something in that paffage which does not quite please me;-be fo 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 almoft ever fince, and could not guefs at what it was that had offended his Lordship in either of them. Garth laughed heartily at my embarraЛffment; 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 obfervations on those paffages, and then read them to him, aa 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 those 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."

In fearch of wit thefe lofe their common fenfe,
And then turn Critics in their own defence:
Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write,

30

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 Maevius fcribble in Apollo's fpight,

36

There are, who judge ftill worse than he can write.
Some have at firft for Wits, then Poets paft,
Turn'd Critics next, and prov'd plain fools at last.
Some neither can for Wits nor Critics pafs,
As heavy mules are neither horfe nor ass.

NOTES.

Thofe

VER. 28. In fearch of wit 1 lofe their common fenfe,] This obfervation is extremely juft. Search of Wit is not only the occafion, but the efficient caufe of the lofs of common fenfe. For Wit confifting in chufing out, and fetting together fuch Ideas from whofe affemblage pleasant pictures may be drawn on the Fancy; the Judgment, through an habitual fearch of Wit, loses, by degrees, its faculty of feeing the true relation of things; in which confifts the exercise of common sense.

W.

VER. 35. Who judge ftill worfe] "Le plus grand malheur (fays Voltaire) d'un homme des lettres, n'eft peutetre pas d'etré objet de la jaloufie de fes confreres, la victime de la cabale, le mepris de puiffans du monde, c'eft d'etre jugé par des fots. L'homme de lettres, (fi on lui fait injuftice), eft fans secours; il refemble au poiffons volantes; s'il s'éleve un peu, les oifeaux le devorent; s'il fe plonge, les poiffons le mangent. Tout homme public paye tribut à la malignité; mais il eft payé en deniers & en honneurs." Questions fur L'Encycl. 7 T. 323

VER. 38. Some neither can for Wits nor Critics pass,] Thefe lines, and those preceding and following them, are excellently fatirical; and were, I think, the first we find in his works, that give an indication of that fpecies of poetry to which his talent was most powerfully bent, and in which, though not as we shall fee in others, he excelled all mankind. The fimile of the mule

Thofe half-learn'd witlings, numerous 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:

41

45

To tell 'em would an hundred tongues require,
Or one vain wit's, that might a hundred tire.
But you who seek to give and merit fame,
And justly bear a Critic's noble name,
Be fure yourself and your own reach to know,
How far your genius, tafte, and learning go;
Launch not beyond your depth, but be difcreet, 50
And mark that point where sense and dullness meet.
Nature to all things fix'd the limits fit,

And wifely curb'd proud man's pretending wit.
As on the land while here the ocean gains,
In other parts it leaves wide fandy plains;
Thus in the Soul while memory prevails,
The folid pow'r of understanding fails;

NOTES.

55

Where

heightens the fatire, and is new; as is the application of the infects of the Nile. Pope never fhines fo brightly as when he is profcribing bad authors.

"The Nile (fays Fenton on Waller) has been as fruitful of English fimiles as the fun; from both which it would be as fevere to restrain a young poet, as forbidding the ufe of fire and water was efteemed among the Romans."

VER. 56. Thus in the Soul] The beauty of imagery in these lines fhould not make us blind to the want of juftnefs in the thought. To represent strength of memory as incompatible with folidity of understanding, is fo obviously contrary to fact, that I prefume the author had in his eye only the cafe of extraordinary memory for names, dates, and things, which offer no ideas to the mind; which has, indeed, been often difplayed in great

perfection

Where beams of warm imagination play,
The memory's foft figures melt away.
One fcience only will one genius fit;

So vaft is art, so narrow human wit:

NOTES.

60

Not

perfection by mere idiots. For, it is difficult to conceive how the faculty of judgment, which confifts in the comparison of different ideas, can at all be exercised without the power of ftoring up ideas in the mind, and calling them forth when required. From the fecond couplet, apparently meant to be the converse of the firft, one would fuppofe that he consulted the understanding and the imagination as the fame faculty, else the counterpart is defective. Further, fo far is it from being true, that imagination obliterates the figures of memory, that the circumstance which causes a thing to be remembered is principally its being affociated with other ideas by the agency of the imagination. If the poet only meant, that thofe ideas about which imagination is occupied, are apt to exclude ideas of a different kind, the remark is true, but it fhould have been differently expreffed.

Voltaire fays well, "He that retains the greatest number of images in the magazine of memory, has the beft imagination." Encycl. v. xxxi. p. 187. And alfo in another place;

"The faculty of imagination depends entirely on the memory. We fee men, animals, horfes, gardens, and other fenfible objects; these perceptions enter our minds by the fenfes; the memory retains them; the imagination combines them; and this is the reafon why the Greeks called the Mufes the Daughters of Memory."

VER.60. One fcience only will one genius fit ;] When Tully attempted poetry, he became as ridiculous as Bolingbroke when he attempted philofophy and divinity. We look in vain for that genius which produced The Differtation on Parties, in his tedious philofophical works; of which it is no exaggerated fatire to say, that the reasoning of them is fophiftical and inconclufive, the style diffuse and verbose, and the learning feemingly contained in them not drawn from the originals, but picked up and purloined from French critics and tranflations; and particularly from Bayle, Rapin, and Thomaffin, (as perhaps may be one day minutely fhewn), together with the affiftances which our Cudworth and Stanley