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They reafon and conclude by precedent,

410

And own stale nonfenfe which they ne'er invent.

415

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 style refines!

Before his facred name flies ev'ry fault,

And each exalted stanza teems with thought!

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

COMMENTARY.

420

425

author's temper as well as judgment is here very obfervable, in throwing this fpecies of partiality amongst the unlearned Critics: His affection for letters would not fuffer him to conceive, that any learned Critic could ever fall to fo low a proftitution.

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VER. 424.-The Vulgar thus-As oft the Learn'd-] II. He comes in the fecond place [from 423 to 452] to confider the Inftances of partiality in the learned. 1. The firft is Singularity. For as want of principles, in the unlearned, neceffitates them to reft on the general judgment as always right: fo adhe

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

And are but damn'd for having too much wit,

COMMENTARY.

leads the learned into the other extreme, of fuppofing the general judgment always wrong. And as, before, the Poet compared thofe to Bigots, who made true faith to consist in believing after others; fo he compares these to Schifmatics, who make it to confift in believing as no one ever believed before. Which folly he marks with a lively stroke of humour in the turn of the thought:

So Schifmatics the plain believers quit,

And are but damn'd for having too much wit.

2. The fecond is Novelty. And as this proceeds fometimes from fondness, fometimes from vanity; he compares the one to the paffion for a mistress; and the other, to the pride of being in fafhion: But the excufe common to both is, the daily improvement of their Judgment.

Afk them the caufe, they're wifer ftill they fay.

Now as this is a plaufible pretence for their inconftancy; and our author has himself afterwards laid down the like thought, in a precept for a remedy against obftinacy and pride, where he fays, 573.

But you with pleasure own your errors past,

And make cach day a Critique on the last,

he has been careful, by the turn of the expreffion in this place, to fhew the difference. For Time, confidered only as duration, vitiates as frequently as it improves: Therefore to expect wifdom as the neceffary attendant of length of years, unrelated to long experience, is vain and delufive. This he illuftrates by a remarkable example; where we fee Time, inftead of becoming wifer, destroying good letters, to fubftitute school divinity in their place The genius of which kind of learning; the character of its profeffors; and the fate, which, fooner or later, always at

Some praise at morning what they blame at night;
But always think the last opinion right.

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

431

This hour she's idoliz'd, the next abus'd;
While their weak heads like towns unfortify'd,
"Twixt fenfe and nonfenfe daily change their fide.
Ask them the cause; the're wiser still, they say;
And still to-morrow's wifer than to-day.
We think our fathers fools; fo wise 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 deepeft read;
Faith, Gospel, all, seem'd made to be disputed,
And none had sense enough to be confuted:
Scotifts and Thomifts, now, in peace remain,
Amidst their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane. 445

COMMENTARY.

tends whatsoever is wrong or falfe, the poet fums up in those four lines;

Faith, Gofpel, all feem'd made to be difputed, etc. And in conclufion, he obferves, that perhaps this mischief, from love of novelty, might not be fo great, did it not, with the Critic, infect the Writer likewife; who, when he finds his readers difpofed to take ready Wit on the ftandard of current Felly, never troubles himself to make better payment.

NOTES.

VER. 444. Scotifts] So denominated from Johannes Duns

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If Faith itself has diff'rent dreffes worn,

What wonder modes in Wit should take their turn? Oft', leaving what is natural and fit,

The current folly proves the ready wit;

VARIATIONS.

VER. 447. Between this and

448.

The rhyming Clowns that gladded Shakespear's age,
No more with crambo entertain the stage,
Who now in Anagrams their Patron praise,
Or fing their Miftrefs in Acroftic lays?
Ev'n pulpits pleas'd with merry puns of yore;
Now all are banish'd to th' Hibernian fhore!
Thus leaving what was natural and fit,
The current folly prov'd their ready wit;

And authors thought their reputation fafe,
Which liv'd as long as fools were pleas'd to laugh.

NOTES.

in the time of Henry VIII. That grave Antiquary Mr. Antony Wood (in the vindication of himself and his works from the reproaches of the Bishop of Salisbury) fadly laments the deformation, as he calls it, of that Univerfity by the King's Commiffioners; and even records the blafphemous speeches of one of them in his own Words" We have fet DUNCE in Boccardo, "with all his blind Gloffers, faft nailed up upon pofts in all "common houses of easement." Upon which our venerable Antiquary thus exclaims: "If fo be, the commiffioners had fuch "disrespect for that most famous Author J. Duns, who was so "much admired by our predeceffors, and so DIFFICULT TO

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BE UNDERSTOOD, that the Doctors of thofe times, namely "Dr. William Roper, Dr. John Kynton, Dr. William Mowfe, "etc. profeffed, that, in twenty eight years study, they could "not understand him rightly, What then had they for others of "inferior note?"-What indeed! But then, If fo be, that most famous J. Duns was fo difficult to be understood (for that this

And authors think their reputation fafe,

450

Which lives as long as fools are pleas'd to laugh.

Some valuing those of their own fide or mind, Still make themselves the measure of mankind:

COMMENTARY.

VER. 452. Some valuing thofe of their own fide or mind, etc.] 3. The third and laft inftance of partiality in the learned, is Party and Faction. Which is confider'd from 451 to 474. where he fhews how men of this turn deceive themfelves, when they load a writer of their own fide with commendation. Theyfancy they are paying tribute to merit, when they are only facrificing to felf-love. But this is not the worft. He further fhews, that this party fpirit has often very ill effects on Science

NOTES.

is a moft claffical proof of his great value, is paft doubt.) I should conceive our good old Antiquary to be a little mistaken. And that the nailing up this Proteus was done by the Commiffioners in honour of the most famous Duns: There being no other way of catching the fenfe of fo flippery an Author, who had eluded the pursuit of three of their most renowned Doctors, in full cry after him, for twenty eight years together. And this Boccardo in which he was confined, feemed very proper for the purpose; it being observed, that men are never more ferious and thoughtful than in that place. SCRIBL.

Ibid. Thomifts,] From Thomas Aquinas, a truly great Genius, who was, in thofe blind ages, the fame in Theology that Friar Bacon was in natural Philofophy: lefs happy than our Countryman in this, that he foon became furrounded with a number of dark Gloffers, who never left him till they had extinguished the radiance of that light which had pierced thro' the thickest night of Monkery, the thirteenth century, when the Waldenfes were fuppreffed, and Wickliffe not yet rifen.

VER. 445. Duck-lane] A place where old and fecond-hand books were fold formerly, near Smithfield. P.

VER. 450. And Authors think their reputation fafe, IVhich lives as long as fools are pleas'd to laugh.] This is a juft and ad

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