The Critic elfe proceeds without remorse, I know there are,to whofe prefumptuous thoughts COMMENTARY. 175 VER. 169. Iknow there are, etc.] But as fome modern Critics have had the presumption to say, that this laft rule is only juftifying one fault by another, our author goes on [from 168 to 181] to vindicate the Ancients; and to fhew that this cenfure proceeds from rank Ignorance. As where their partial Judgment cannot fee that this licence is fometimes neceffary for the fymmetry and proportion of a perfect whole, from the point, and in the light wherein it must be viewed: or, where their hafty Judgment will not give them time to observe, that a deviation from rule is for the fake of attaining fome great and admirable purpofe. Thefe obfervations are further useful, as they tend to give modern Critics an humbler opinion of their own abilities, and an higher of the Authors they undertake to criticize. On which account he concludes with a fine reproof of that common proverb perpetually in the mouths of Critics, quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus; mifunderstanding the sense of Horace, and taking quandoque for aliquando: Those oft are ftratagems which errors seem, NOTES. VER. 175. A prudent chief, etc.] Olov TI WO1SCIV of Ogóví But with th' occafion and the place comply, 180 Still green with bays each ancient Altar ftands, Above the reach of facrilegious hands; Secure from Flames, from Envy's fiercer rage, Destructive War, and all-involving Age. COMMENTARY. VER. 181. Still green with bays, etc.] But now fired with the name of Homer, and tranfported with the contemplation of those beauties which a cold Critic can neither fee nor conceive, the Poet [from 180 to 201.] breaks into a rapturous exclamation on the rare felicity of thofe few Ancients who have rifen fuperior over time and accidents: And, as it were disdaining any longer to reafon with his Critics, offers this to them as the fureft confutation of their cenfures. Then with the humility of a fupplicant at the fhrine of Immortals, and the Sublimity of a Poet participating of their fire, he turns again to these ancient worthies, and apoftrophifes their Manes: Hail, Bards triumphant! etc. NOTES. μοι ςρατηλάται καὶ τὰς τάξεις τῶν ςρατευμάτων Dion. Hal. De ftruct. orat. VER. 180. Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.] "Mo"defte, et circumfpecto judicio de tantis viris pronunciandum "eft, ne (quod plerifque accidit) damnent quod non intelligunt. "Ac fi neceffe eft in alteram errare partem, omnia eorum le"gentibus placere, quam multa difplicere maluerim. Quint. P. VER. 18. Secure from flames, from envy's fiercer rage, Destructive war, and all-involving age.] The Poet here alludes to the four great caufes of the ravage amongst ancient See from each clime the learn'd their incense bring! 190. 195 Whofe honours with increafe of ages grow, COMMENTARY. VER. 200. T'admire fuperior fenfe, and doubt their own!] This line concludes the first divifion of the Poem; in which we' fee the Jubject of the first and second part, and likewise the con NOTES. writings: The deftruction of the Alexandrine and Palatine libraries by fire; the fiercer rage of Zoilus and Mevius and their followers against Wit; the irruption of the Barbarians into the empire; and the long reign of Ignorance and Superftition in the cloifters. Or all the Caufes which confpire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind, What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is Pride, the nevr-failing vice of fools. COMMENTARY. nexion they have with one another. It ferves likewife to introduce the fecond. The effect of studying the Ancients, as hitherto recommended, would be the admiration of their fuperior fenfe; which, if it will not of itself dispose Moderns to a diffidence of their own (one of the great ufes, as well as natural fruits of that study) the poet, to help forward their modefty, in his fecond part fhews them (in a regular deduction of the caufes and effects of wrong Judgment) their own bright image and amiable turn of mind. VER. 201. Of all the Caufes, etc.] Having, in the first part, delivered Rules for perfecting the Art of Criticism, the second is employ'd in explaining the Impediments to it. The order of the two parts was well judged. For the caufes of wrong Judgment being Pride, fuperficial Learning,, a bounded Capacity, and Partiality; They to whom this part is principally addreffed, would not readily be brought either to see the malignity of the caufes, or to own themselves concerned in the effects, had not the Author previoufly both enlightened and convicted them, by the foregoing obfervations, on the vastness of Art, and narrownefs of Wit; the extensive study of human Nature and Antiquity ; and the Characters of ancient Poetry and Criticism; the natural remedies to the four epidemic diforders he is now endeavouring to redrefs. Ibid. Of all the caufes, etc.] The firft caufe of wrong Judgment is PRIDE. He judiciously begins with it, [from 200 to 215.] as on other accounts, fo on this, that it is the very thing which gives modern Criticism its character; whose complexion is abufe and cenfure. He calls it the vice of Fools; by which are not meant those to whom Nature has given no Judg ment (for he is here fpeaking of what misleads the Judgment) but thofe in whom education and study has made no improvement; as appears from the happy fimilitude of an ill-nourished 205 Whatever Nature has in worth deny'd, COMMENTARY. 210 body; where the fame words which exprefs the caufe, express likewife the nature of pride : For as in bodies, thus in fouls we find, What wants in blood and fpirits, fwell'd with wind. 'Tis the business of reafon, he tells us, to difpel the cloud which pride throws over the mind: But the mifchief is, that the rays of reafon diverted by felf-love, fometimes gild this cloud, instead of diffipating it. So that the Judgment, by falfe lights reflected back upon itself, is ftill apt to be a little dazzled, and to miftake its object. He therefore advises to call in ftill more helps: Truft not yourself; but your defects to know, Make ufe of ev'ry Friend---and ev'ry Foe. Both the beginning and conclufion of this precept are remarkable. The queftion is of the means to fubdue Pride: He directs the Critic to begin with a diftruft of himself; and this is Modesty, the first mortification of Pride: And then to feek the affiftance of others, and make ufe even of an Enemy; and this is Humility the laft mortification of Pride: For when a man can once bring himself to fubmit to profit by an enemy, he has either already quite fubdued his Vanity, or is in a fair way of fo doing. NOTES. VER. 209. Pride, where Wit fails, fteps in to our defence, And fills up all the mighty void of fenfe.] Avery fenfible French writer makes the following remark on this fpccies of pride. "Un "homme qui fçait plufieurs Langues, qui entend les Auteurs |