A little learning is a dang'rous thing; Drink deep, or tafte not the Pierian fpring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely fobers us again. 215 Fir'd at first fight with what the Mufe imparts, In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts, COMMENTARY. VER. 215. A little learning, etc.] We must here remark the Poet's skill in his difpofition of the caufes obftructing true Judgment. Each general cause which is laid down first, has its own particular caufe in that which follows. Thus, the second caufe of wrong Judgment, SUPERFICIAL LEARNING, is what occafions that critical Pride, which he makes the first. VER. 216. Drink deep, etc.] Nature and Learning are the pole ftars of all true Criticism: But Pride obftructs the view of Nature; and a smattering of letters makes us infenfible of our ignorance. To avoid this ridiculous fituation, the poet [from 214 to 233] advises, either to drink deep, or not at all; for the least taste at this fountain is enough to make a bad Critic, while even a moderate draught can never make a good one. And yet the labours and difficulties of drinking deep are fo great that a young author, "Fir'd with ideas of fair Italy," and ambitious to snatch a palm from Rome, engages in an undertaking like that of Hannibal: Finely illuftrated by the fimilitude of an unexperienced traveller penetrating thro' the Alps, 66 66 NOTES. "Grecs et Latins, qui s'eleve même jufqu'à la dignité de "SCHOLIASTE; fi cet homme venoit à pefer fon véritable "mérite, il trouveroit fouvent qu'il fe réduit à avoir eu des yeux et de la mémoire, il fe garderoit bien de donner le nom refpectable de science à une érudition fans lumiere. Il y a une grande difference entre s'enrichir des mots ou des choses, "entre alleguer des autoritez ou des raifons. Si un homme pouvoit fe furprendre à n' avoir que cette forte de mérite, il "en rougiroit plûtôt que d'en être vain." While from the bounded level of our mind, 221 And the first clouds and mountains seem the last: A perfect Judge will read each work of Wit With the fame fpirit that its author writ: VER. 225. VARIATIONS. So pleas'd at firft the tow'ring Alps to try, The Traveller beholds with chearful eyes The lefs ning vales and feems to tread the fkies. COMMENTARY. VER. 233. A perfect Judge, etc.] The third cause of wrong Judgment is a NARROW CAPACITY; the natural and certain caufe of the foregoing defect, acquiefcence in fuperficial learning. This bounded Capacity the poet fhews [from 232 to 384.] betrays itself two ways; in it's judgment both of the matter, and NOTES. VER. 233. A perfect Judge, ctc.] "Diligenter legendum eft ac pæne ad fcribendi follicitudinem: Nec per partes modo fcru"tanda funt omnia, fed perlectus liber utique ex integro refumendus. Quint. Survey the WHOLE, nor feek flight faults to find Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind; Nor lofe, for that malignant dull delight, The gen'rous pleasure to be charm'd with wit. COMMENTARY. manner of the work criticifed: Of the matter in judging by parts; or in having one favourite part to a neglect of all the reft: Of the manner, in confining the regard only to conceit, or language, or numbers. This is our Poet's order; and we shall follow him as it leads us; only juft obferving one great beauty which runs thro' this part of the poem; it is, that under each of these heads of wrong Judgment, he has intermixed excellent precepts for right. We fhall take notice of them as they occur. He expofes the folly of judging by parts very artfully, not by a direct description of that fort of Critic, but of his oppofite, a perfect Fudge, etc. Nor is the elegance of this conversion inferior to the art of it; for as, in poetic flyle, one word or figure is ftill put for another, in order to catch new lights from different images, and to reflect them back upon the subject in hand; fo, in poetic matter, one person or thing may be advantageously employed for another, with the fame elegance of representation. It is obfervable that our Author makes it almoft the neceflary confequence of judging by parts, to find fault: And this not without much difcernment: For the feveral parts of a compleat Whole, when feen only fingly, and known only indepen NOTES, VER. 235. Survey the Whole, nor feek flight faults to find, Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind;] The fecond line, in apologizing for thofe faults which the fir fays ihould be overlooked, gives the reafon of the precept. For when a writer's attention is fixed on a general view of Nature, and his imagination warm'd with the contemplation of great ideas, it can hardly be but that there must be finall irregularities in the difpofition both of matter and ftyle, because the avoiding thefe requires a coolness of recollection, which a writer fo bufied is not master of. But in fuch lays as neither ebb, nor flow, That fhunning faults, one quiet tenour keep; But the joint force and full refult of all. 240 245 Thus when we view fome well-proportion'd dome, (The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome!). No fingle parts unequally furprize, All comes united to th' admiring eyes; COMMENTARY. 250 dently, muft always have the appearance of irregularity; often of deformity: Because the Poet's defign being to create a refultive beauty from the artful affemblage of feveral various parts into one natural whole; thofe parts must be fafhioned with regard to their mutual relations in the ftations they occupy in that whole, from whence, the beauty required is to arife: But that regard will occafion fo unreducible a form in each part, when confidered fingly, as to prefent a very mis-fhapen appearance. NOTES. VER. 248. The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, Q Rome!] The Pantheon. There is fomething very Gothic in the taste and judgment of a learned man, who defpifes this mafter-piece of Art for thofe very qualities which deferve our admiration.-- Nous cfmerveillons comme l'on fait fi grand cas de ce Panthe"on, veu que fon edifice n'eft de fi grande induftrie comme l'oncrie: car chaque petit Maffon peut bien concevoir la ma"niere de fa façon tout en un inftant: car cftant la bafe si masfive, et les murailles fi efpaifles, ne nous à femblé difficile d'y No monftrous height, or breadth, or length appear; The Whole at once is bold, and regular. Whoever thinks a faultlefs piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. In ev'ry work regard the writer's End, 255 Since none can compass more than they intend; COMMENTARY. VER. 253. Whoever thinks a faultless piece to fee,] He fhews next [from y 252 to 263] that to fix our cenfure on fingle parts, tho' they happen to want an exactness consistent enough with their relation to the reft, is even then very unjuft: And for these reasons, 1. Because it implies an expectation of a faultlefs piece, which is a vain imagination : 2. Because no more is to be expected of any work than that it fairly attains its end: But the end may be attained, and yet these trivial faults committed: Therefore, in fpight of fuch faults, the work will merit that praise that is due to every thing which attains its end. 3. Because fometimes a great beauty is not to be procured, nor a notorious blemish to be avoided, but by fuffering one of these minute and trivial errors. 4. And lastly, because the general neglect of them is a praife; as it is the indication of a Genius, bufied about greater matters. NOTES. "adjouster la voute à claire voye." Pierre Belon's Obfervations, etc. The nature of the Gothic ftructures apparently led him into this mistake of the Architectonic art in general; that the excellency of it confifted in raifing the greatest weight on the leaft affignable fupport, fo that the edifice fhould have strength without the appearance of it, in order to excite admiration. But to a judicious eye it would have a contrary effect, the Appearance (as our poet expreffes it) of a monftrous height or breadth, or length. Indeed did the juft proportions in regular Architecture take off from the grandeur of a building, by all the fingle parts coming united to the eye, as this learned traveller feems to |