The fick and weak the healing plant shall aid, All crimes fhall cease, and ancient fraud fhall fail; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, 15 And white-rob'd Innocence from heav'n defcend. 20 REMARKS. See “biformis vates alludes to his being in formâ dei, and in formå "fervi. That the second part of the allegory points to the Do"minicans, who should preach and diffuse his gospel to distant “ nations; that alitem album, meant their white garments; and "refidunt pelles cruribus afpera, their boots!". VER. 17. ancient fraud] i. e. the fraud of the serpent. WARBURTON. VFR. 23. See Nature] Perhaps the dignity, the energy, and the fimplicity of the original, are in a few paffages weakened and diminished by florid epithets, and ufelefs circumlocutions. See Nature haftes her earliest wreaths to bring, Are lines which have too much prettiness, and too modern an air. IMITATIONS. VER. 23. See Nature haftes, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 18. "At tibi prima, puer, nullo munufcula cultu, Ifai. ch. xxv. ver. 4. 4 Ch. ix. ver. 7. ders "For See lofty Lebanon his head advance, See nodding forefts on the mountains dance: And Carmel's flow'ry top perfumes the skies! REMARKS. 25 Hark! ders poefy a more lively imitation of nature than profe. Pope has been happy in introducing the following circumstance: the prophet fays, "The parched ground fhall become a pool;" our Author expreffes this idea by faying, that the fhepherd fhall start amid the thirsty wild to hear New falls of water murm'ring in his eart. A striking example of a fimilar beauty may be added from Thomfon. Melifander, in the Tragedy of Agamemnon, after telling us he was conveyed in a veffel, at midnight, to the wildeft of the Cyclades, adds, when the pitilefs mariners had left him in that dreadful folitude, I never heard A found fo difmal as their parting oars! On the other hand, the prophet has been fometimes particular, when Pope has been only general. "Lift up thine eyes round about, and fee; all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: -The multitude of camels fhall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah: all they from Sheba fhall come: they shall bring gold and incenfe, and they shall fhew forth the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar fhall be gathered together unto thee; the rams IMITATIONS. of "For thee, O Child, fhall the earth, without being tilled, produce her early offerings; winding ivy, mixed with Baccar, and Colocafia with Smiling Acanthus. Thy cradle ball pour forth pleafing flow'rs about thee." Ifai. ch. xxxv. ver. 1. "The wilderness and the folitary place fball be glad, and the defert fhall rejoice and blossom as the rose.—Ch. lx. ver. 13. The glory of Lebanon fhall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of thy fanctuary.” + Ifaiah, ch. xxxv. ver. 2. + Meff. ver. 70. POPE. Hark! a glad voice the lonely defert cheers; f Prepare the way! a God, a God appears: The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity. REMARKS. 30 Lo, of Nebaioth fhall minifter unto thee *." In imitating this paffage, Pope has omitted the different beafts that in fo picturefque a manner characterise the different countries which were to be gathered together on this important event; and fays, only in undiftinguishing terms, See barbarous nations at thy gates attend, Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend; See thy bright altars throng'd with proftrate kings; VER. 31. A God, a God!-] The repetition is in the true fpirit of Poetry, "Deus, Deus ipfe ;"-the whole paffage indeed is finely worked up, from "Lofty Lebanon" to the magnifi cent and powerful appeal, "HARK! A GLAD VOICE," &c. It muft be however observed, that the line "See nodding forefts on the mountains dance," is too particular; it brings the image too close, and, by exhibiting the action ftronger than poetical propriety and fublimity required, deftroys the intended effect. In images of this fort, the greatest care should be taken just to present the idea, but not to detail it otherwise it becomes, in the language of Shakespear, like "AMBITION that Q'ER-LEAPS itself." IMITATIONS. VER. 29. Hark! a glad voice, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 46. 66 Aggredere ô magnos, aderit jam tempus, honores, Cara deûm foboles, magnum Jovis incrementum Ipfi lætitia voces ad fydera jactant Intonfi montes, ipfæ jam carmina rupes, Ipfa fonant arbufta, Deus, deus ille Menalca!" Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies! g Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold! And on the fightless eye-ball pour the day: 35 40 'Tis REMARKS. nodding forefts "-The VER. 35. With heads declin'd, &c.] This line is faulty, for the fame reafon as given in the remark on action is brought too near, and for that reafon the image no longer appears grand. Dr. Warton obferves, "the Prophet is fometimes particular where Pope is general, and vice verfâ:” the fact is, one of the greateft proofs of poetical judgment is knowing upon what occafions it is neceffary to be general, and when it is more proper to be particular and fpecific. VER. 39. He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,] The fenfe and language fhew, that by visual ray, the poet meant the fight, or, as Milton calls it, indeed fomething lefs boldly, though more IMITATIONS. "Oh come and receive the mighty honours: the time draws nigh, O beloved offspring of the Gods, O great encrease of Jove! The uncultivated mountains feud fhouts of joy to the flars, the very rocks fing in verfe, the very shrubs cry out, a God, a God!" Isaiah, ch, xl. ver. 3, 4. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord! make flraight in the defert a high way for our God! Every valley fhall be exalted, and every mountain and hill fhall be made low, and the crooked fhall be made ftraight, and the rough places plain" Ch. iv. ver. 23. "Break forth into finging, ye mountains! O foreft, and every tree therein! for the Lord hath redeemed Ifrael." 8 Ifai. ch. xliii. ver. 18. ch. xxxv. ver. 5,6. POPE. 'Tis he th' obstructed paths of found shall clear, h In adamantine chains fhall Death be bound, 45 50 Explores REMARKS. more exactly, the vifual nerve. However, no critic would quarrel with the figure which calls the inflrument of vision by the name of the cause. But though the term be noble and sublime, yet the expreffion of thick films is faulty; and he fell into it by a common neglect of the following rule of good writing, "That when a figurative word is used, whatsoever is predicated of it ought not only to agree in terms to the thing to which the figure is applied, but likewife to that from which the figure is taken." Thick films agree only with the thing to which it is applied, namely, to the fight or eye; and not to that from which it is taken, namely a ray of light coming to the eye. He fhould have faid thick clouds, which would have agreed with both. But thefe inaccuracies are WARBURTON. not to be found in his later poems. It is remarkable, that this obfervation bears a close resemblance to what Concanen fays of this paffage, p. 23. of his Supplement to the profound. 1728. WARTON. VER. 45. No figh, no murmur the wide world fhall hear,] I wonder Dr. Warton had not here pointed out the force and the beauty of this moft comprehenfive and ftriking line. VER.46 From ev'ry face, &c.] This line was thus altered by Steele. WARTON. "The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.”—Ifai. Thence Milton in Lycidas, "And wipe all tears for ever from his eyes." |