But you, with pleasure own your errors past,
And make each day a Critique on the last.

"Tis not enough your counfel ftiil be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falfhoods do; Men must be taught as if you taught them not, 575 And things unknown propos'd as things forgot, Without Good Breeding, truth is disapprov'd; That only makes fuperior fenfe belov❜d.

Be niggards of advice on no pretence: For the worst avarice is that of sense.

580

With mean complacence ne'er betray your trust, Nor be fo civil as to prove unjust.

COMMENTARY.

VER. 585. 'Twere well might Critics, etc.] The Poet having thus recommended, in thefe general rules of Conduct for the Judgment, the three critical Virtues to the heart; fhews next [from 584 to 632.] on what three fort of Writers thefe Virtues, together with the advice conveyed under them, would be thrown away; and, which is worse, be repaid with obloquy and flander. Thefe are the falfe Critic, the dull Man of Quality, and the bad Poet; each of which incorrigible writers he hath very juftly and exactly characterized.

But having drawn the laft of them at large, and being always attentive to his main fubject, which is, of writing and judging

he re-affumes the character of the bad Critic (whom he hd bat touched upon before) to contraft him with the other; 2nd cases the Characteristic common to both, to be a nevercold og Repetition of their own impertinence.

Foet,-itili runs on in a raging vein, etc. 607, etc. You Critic with his own tongue ftill edifies his ears, 615, etc.

Fear not the anger of the wife to raise;
Those best can bear reproof, who merit praise.

"Twere well might Critics ftill this freedom take,
But Appius reddens at each word you speak, 586
And ftares, tremendous, with a threat'ning eye,
Like fome fierce Tyrant in old tapestry.
Fear moft to tax an Honourable fool,

Whofe right it is, uncenfur'd, to be dull;

599

Such, without wit, are Poets when they please, As without learning they can take Degrees. Leave dang'rous truths to unsuccessful Satires, And flattery to fulfome Dedicators,

Whom, when they praise, the World believes no

more,

595 Than when they promise to give scribling o'er. "Tis best sometimes your cenfure to restrain, And charitably let the dull be vain :

Your filence there is better than your spite,
For who can rail fo long as they can write? 600

NOTES.

VER.587. And flares, tremendous, etc.] This picture was taken to himself by John Dennis, a furious old Critic by profeffion, who, upon no other provocation, wrote against this Effay and its author, in a manner perfectly lunatic: For, as to the mention made of him in y 270. he took it as a Compliment, and faid it was treacherously meant to caufe him to overlook this

Still humming on, their drouzy course they keep,
And lafh'd fo long, like tops, are lafh'd asleep.
False steps but help them to renew the race,
As, after stumbling, Jades will mend their pace.
What crouds of thefe, impenitently bold, 605
In founds and jingling fyllables grown old,
Still run on Poets, in a raging vein,

Ev'n to the dregs and fqueezings of the brain,
Strain out the laft dull droppings of their sense,
And rhyme with all the
rage of Impotence. 610
Such fhameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true,
There are as mad, abandon'd Critics too,
The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,

615

With loads of learned lumber in his head,
With his own tongue ftill edifies his ears,
And always lift'ning to himself appears,
All books he reads, and all he reads affails,
From Dryden's Fables down to Durfey's Tales,
With him, most authors fteal their works, or buy ;
Garth did not write his own Difpenfary.

NOTES.

620

VER. 620. Garth did not write, etc.] A common flander at that time in prejudice of that deferving author. Our P. et did him this juftice, when that flander moft prevail'd; and it is now (perhaps the fooner for this very verfe) dead and forgotten. P.

Name a new Play, and he's the Poet's friend, Nay fhow'd his faults--but when wouldPoets mend? No place fo facred from fuch fops is barr'd,

Nor is Paul's church more safe than Paul's church yard:

Nay, fly to Altars; there they'll talk you dead; 625
For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.
Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks,
It still looks home, and short excurfions makes;
But rattling nonsense in full vollies breaks,
And never fhock'd, and never turn'd afide,
Bursts out, refiftlefs, with a thund'ring tide.
But where's the man, who counsel can bestow,
Still pleas'd to teach, and yet not proud to know?

VARIATIONS.

VER. 624. Between this and

625.

In vain you fhrug and fweat, and ftrive to fly
These know no Manners but of Poetry.
They'll stop a hungry Chaplain in his grace,
To treat of Unities of time and place.

COMMENTARY.

630

VER. 631. But where's the man, etc.] II. The fecond divifion of this laft part which we now come to, is of the Morals of Critics by example. For, having there drawn a picture of the falfe Critic, at large, he breaks out into an apoftrophe, containing an exact and finished character of the true, which, at the fame time, ferves for an eafy and proper introduction to this fecond

Unbiafs'd, or by favour, or by fpite;

Not dully prepoffefs'd, nor blindly right; 635
Tho' learn'd, well-bred; and tho' well-bred, fincere;
Modeftly bold, and humanly fevere:

Who to a friend his faults can freely fhow,
And gladly praise the merit of a foe?

Bleft with a taste exact, yet unconfin'd;

640

A knowledge both of books and human kind;

COMMENTARY.

man, etc. he anfwers [from 643 to 682.] That he was to be found in the happier ages of Greece and Rome; in the perfons of Ariftotle and Horace, Dionyfius and Petronius, Quintilian and Longinus. Whofe Characters he has not only exactly drawn, but contrafted them with a peculiar elegance; the profound fcience and logical method of Ariftotle being oppofed to the plain common fenfe of Horace, conveyed in a natural and familiar negligence; the study and refinement of Dionyfius, to the gay and courtly cafe of Petronius; and the gravity and minuteness of Quintilian to the vivacity and general topics of Longinus. Nor has the Poet been lefs careful, in thefe examples, to point out their eminence in the feveral critical Virtues he fo carefully inculcated in his precepts. Thus in Horace he particularizes his Candour, in Petronius his Good Breeding, in Quintilian his free and copious Inftruction, and in Longinus his great and noble Spirit.

NOTES.

VER. 632. But where's the man, etc.] The Poet, by his manner of afking after this Character, and telling'us, when he had defcribed it, that fuch once were Critics, does not encourage us to fearch for it amongst modern writers. And indeed the dif covery of him, if it could be made, would be but an invidious bufinefs. I will venture no farther than to name the piece of Criticifm in which thefe marks may be found. It is intitled, 2. Hor. Fl. Ars Poetica, et ejufd. Ep. ad Aug. with an English Commentary and Notes,