As things seem large which we through mist descry, Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

Some foreign writers, some our own despise; The Ancients only, or the Moderns prize.

COMMENTARY.

395

Ver. 394. Some foreign writers, &c.] Having explained the disposition of mind which produces an habitual partiality, he proceeds to expose this partiality in all the shapes in which it appears both amongst the unlearned and the learned.

I. In the unlearned it is seen, first, In an unreasonable fondness

NOTES.

for

understanding; and if it often attends light minds, it is also inseparable from that warmth of imagination which is requisite for the strong perception of what is excellent in art or nature. Innumerable instances might be produced of the rapturous admiration with which men of genius have been struck at the view of great performances. It is enough here to mention the poet's favourite critic, Longinus, who is far from being contented with cool approbation, but gives free scope to the most enraptured praise. Few things indicate a mind more unfavourably constituted for the fine arts, than a slowness in being moved to the admiration of excellence; and it is certainly better that this passion should at first be excited by objects rather inadequate, than that it should not be excited at all."-Aikin. Warton.

Ver. 394. our own despise ;] If any proof was wanting how little the Paradise Lost was read and attended to, at this time, our author's total silence on the subject would be sufficient to shew it. That an Essay on Criticism could be written without a single mention of Milton, appears truly strange and incredible; if we did not know that our author seems to have had no idea of any merit superior to that of Dryden! and had no relish for an author, who,

Extinxit stellas, exortus uti ætherius sol." Lucret.

Warton.

Ver. 395. The Ancients only,] A very sensible Frenchman says, "En un mot, touchez comme Euripide, étonnez comme Sophocle,

peignez

Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd
To one small sect, and all are damn'd beside.
Meanly they seek the blessing to confine,
And force that sun but on a part to shine,
Which not alone the southern wit sublimes, 400
But ripens spirits in cold northern climes;
Which from the first has shone on ages past,
Enlights the present, and shall warm the last;

COMMENTARY,

for, or aversion to, our own or foreign, to ancient or modern writAnd as it is the mob of unlearned readers he is here speaking of, he exposes their folly in a very apposite similitude:

ers.

"Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd

To one small sect, and all are damn'd beside."

But he shews [from ver. 396 to 408.] that these Critics have as wrong notions of Reason as those bigots have of God: for that Genius is not confined to times or climates; but, as the common gift of Nature, is extended throughout all ages and countries: that indeed this intellectual light, like the material light of the Sun, may not shine at all times, and in every place with equal splendour; but be sometimes clouded with popular ignorance; and sometimes again eclipsed by the discountenance of the Great; yet it shall still recover itself; and, by breaking through the strongest of these impediments, manifest the eternity of its na

ture.

NOTES.

peignez comme Homere, et composez d'après vous. Ces maîtres n'ont point eu de règles; ils n'en ont été que plus grands; et ils n'ont acquis le droit de commander, que parce qu'ils n'ont jamais obei. Il en est tout autrement en literature qu'en politique; le talent qui a besoin de subir des loix, n'en donnera jamais.”

Warton.

Ver. 402. Which from the first, &c.] Genius is the same in all ages; but its fruits are various, and more or less excellent as they are checked or matured by the influence of government or religion upon them. Hence in some parts of literature the Ancients ex

cel;

Tho' each may feel encreases and decays,
And see now clearer and now darker days,
Regard not then if Wit be old or new,

405

410

But blame the false, and value still the true.
Some ne'er advance a Judgment of their own,
But catch the spreading notion of the Town;
They reason and conclude by precedent,
And own stale nonsense which they ne'er invent.
Some judge of authors' names, not works, and then
Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men.
Of all this servile herd, the worst is he
That in proud dulness joins with Quality.
A constant Critic at the great man's board,
To fetch and carry nonsense for my Lord.
What woeful stuff this madrigal would be,
In some starv'd hackney sonneteer, or me?
But let a Lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens! how the stile refines!

COMMENTARY.

415

420

Ver. 408. Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own,] A second instance of unlearned partiality, is, (as he shews from ver. 407 to 424.) men's going always along with the cry, as having no fixed nor well grounded principles whereon to raise any judgment of their own. A third is reverence for names; of which sort, as he well observes, the worst and vilest are the idolizers of names of quality; whom therefore he stigmatizes as they deserve. Our Author's temper as well as his judgment is here seen, in throwing this species of partiality amongst the unlearned Critics: His affection for letters would not suffer him to conceive, that any learned Critic could ever fall into so low a prostitution.

NOTES.

cel; in others, the Moderns; just as those accidental circumstances occurred. Warburton.

Ver. 420. let a Lord] "You ought not to write verses, (said

George

Before his sacred 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 singular;

COMMENTARY.

425

Ver. 424. The Vulgar thus-As oft the learn'd—] II. He comes in the second place [from ver. 423 to 452.] to consider the instances of partiality in the learned. 1. The first is Singularity. For, as want of principles, in the unlearned, necessitates them to rest on the common judgment, as always right: so adherence to false principles (that is, to notions of their own) mislead the learned into the other extreme of supposing the common judgment always wrong. And as, before, our Author compared those to Bigots, who made true faith to consist in believing after others; so he compares these to Schismatics, who make it to consist in believing no one ever believed before. Which folly he marks with a lively stroke of humour in the turn of the thought:

"So Schismatics the plain believers quit,

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

2. The second is Novelty. And as this proceeds sometimes from fondness, sometimes from vanity; he compares the one to the passion for a mistress, and the other to the pride of being in fashion: But the excuse common to both is, the daily improvement of their Judgment:

"Ask them the cause; they're wiser still, they say;

And still to-morrow's wiser than to-day."

Now as this is a plausible pretence for their inconstancy; and our Author has himself afterwards approved of it, as a remedy against obstinacy and pride, where he says, ver. 573.

"But you with pleasure own your errors past,

And make each day a Critique on the last,"

he has been careful, by the turn of the expression in this place,

NOTES.

to

George the Second, who had little taste, to Lord Hervey,) 'tis beneath your rank; leave such work to little Mr. Pope; it is his trade." But this Lord Hervey wrote some that were above the level of those described here by our author.

Warton.

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

And are but damn'd for having too much wit.
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,
This hour she's idoliz'd, the next abus'd;
While their weak heads, like towns unfortify'd,
'Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their side.
Ask them the cause; they're wiser still they say;
And still to-morrow's wiser than to-day.
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow ;
Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so.
Once School-divines this zealous isle o'er-spread;
Who knew most Sentences, was deepest read;

COMMENTARY.

to shew the difference between the pretence and the remedy. For Time, considered only as duration, vitiates as frequently as it improves: Therefore to expect wisdom as the necessary attendant of length of days, unrelated to long experience, is vain and delusive. This he illustrates by a remarkable example; where we see Time, instead of becoming wiser, destroying good letters, to substitute school divinity in their place-The genius of which kind of learning; the character of its professors; and the fate, which sooner or later, always attends whatsoever is wrong or false, the poet sums up in those four lines;

"Faith, Gospel, all, seem'd made to be disputed," &c. And in conclusion, he observes, that perhaps this mischief from love of novelty, might not be so great, did it not, along with the Critic, infect the Writer likewise; who, when he finds his readers disposed to take ready wit on the standard of current folly, never troubles himself to think of better payment.