No pardon vile obfcenity fhould find,

Though wit and art confpire to move your mind;
But dulnefs with obscenity must prove,

As fhameful fure as impotence in love.

In the fat age of pleasure, wealth, and ease,

530

Sprang the rank weed, and thriv'd with large increase: When love was all an eafy Monarch's care;

Seldom at council, never in a war:

Jilts rul'd the ftate, and statesmen farces writ;
Nay wits had penfions, and young lords had wit:
The Fair fat panting at a Courtier's play,
And not a mask went unimprov'd away:
The modeft fan was lifted up no more,

540

And Virgins fmil'd at what they blush'd before.
The following licenfe of a foreign reign

Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain ;

545

Then unbelieving Priefts reform'd the nation,

And taught more pleasant methods of salvation;

Where Heaven's free fubjects might their rights difpute,

Left God himself should feem too abfolute :
Pulpits their facred fatire learn'd to spare,
And Vice admir'd to find a flatterer there!
Encourag'd thus, Wit's Titans brav'd the skies,
And the prefs groan'd with licens'd blafphemies.

550

Thefe

VARIATION.

Ver. 547. The Author has here omitted the two following lines; as containing a National Reflection, which in his ftricter judgment he could not but difapprove on any People whatever :

Then firft the Belgians' morals were extoll'd;
We their religion had, and they our gold.

VOL. I.

I

Thefe Monsters, Critics !' with your darts engage,
Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage! 555
Yet fhun their fault, who, fcandalously nice,
Will needs mistake an author into vice;
All feems infected that th' infected spy,

As all looks yellow to the jaundic'd eye.

LEARN then what MORALS Critics ought to fhow
For 'tis but half a judge's task, to know.
'Tis not enough, taste, judgment, learning, join;
In all you fpeak, let truth and candour fhine:
That not alone what to your fenfe is due
All may allow; but feek your friendship too.

Be filent always, when you doubt your sense;
And speak, though fure, with feeming diffidence:
Some pofitive, perfifting fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always fo;
But you, with pleasure, own your errors paft,
And make each day a critique on the last.

'Tis not enough your counsel ftill be true;

Blunt truths more mischief than nice falfehoods do;
Men must be taught as if you taught them not,

565

570

And things unknown propos'd as things forgot. 575 • Without good-breeding, truth is difapprov'd;.

That only makes fuperior fenfe belov❜d..

VARIATIONS.

Be

Ver. 562. "Tis not enough, wit, art, and learning join. Ver. 564. That not alone what to your judgment's due. Ver. 569. That if once wrong, &c.

Ver. 575. And things ne'er known, &c.

Ver. 576. Without good-breeding truth is not approv'd..

Be niggards of advice on no pretence; For the worst avarice is that of fenfe.

With mean complacence, ne'er betray your trust, 589 Nor be fo civil as to prove unjust.

Fear not the anger of the wife to raise;

Those best can bear reproof, who merit praife.
'Twere well might Critics ftill this freedom take
But Appius reddens at each word you speak,
And stares tremendous, with a threatening eye,
Like fome fierce tyrant in old tapestry.
Fear moft to tax an honourable fool,

585

Whose right it is, uncenfur'd, to be dull !

Such, without wit, are Poets when they please,

590

As without learning they can take degrees.
Leave dangerous truths to unfuccessful fatires,

And flattery to fulfome dedicators,

Whom, when they praise, the world believes no more Than when they promise to give scribbling o'er.

"Tis best sometimes your cenfure to restrain, And charitably let the dull be vain :

NOTE.

595

Your

Ver. 586. And ftares, tremendous, &c.] This picture was taken to himself by John Dennis, a furious old critic by profeffion, who, upon no other provoca❤ tion, wrote against this Effay, and its author, in a manner perfectly lunatic: For, as to the mention made of him in ver. 270. he took it as a compliment, and faid it was treacheroufly meant to caufe him to overlook this Abufe of his Perfon.

VARIATION.

Ver. 597. And charitably let dull fools be vain.

Your filence there is better than your spite,

For who can rail so long as they can write?

Still humming on, their drowzy courfe they keep, 600.
And lash'd fo long, like tops, are lash'd asleep.
False steps but help them to renew the race,
As, after ftumbling, jades will mend their pace.
What crowds of these, impenitently bold,
In founds and jingling fyllables grown old,
Still run on poets, in a raging yein,

Ev'n to the dregs and squeezings of the brain,
Strain out the last dull dropping of their sense,
And rhyme with all the rage of impotence.

605

With loads of learned lumber in his head,

Such fhameless Bards we have: and yet 'tis true, 610 There are as mad, abandon'd Critics too. The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,

615

With his own tongue ftill edifies his ears,
And always listening to himself appears.
All books he reads, and all he reads affails,
From Dryden's Fables down to Durfey's Tales:
With him, moft authors fteal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary.

Ver. 600,

VARIATION.

Name

Still humming on, their old dull course they keep.

NOTE.

Ver. 619. Garth did not write, &c.] A common flander at that time in prejudice of that deferving author. Our Poet did him this juftice, when that flander moft prevailed; and it is now (perhaps the fooner for this very verfe) dead and forgotten.

620

Name a new Play, and he's the Poet's friend,
Nay fhow'd his faults-but when would Poets mend? ·
No place so sacred from fuch fops is barr'd,

625

Nor is Paul's church more fafe than Paul's church-yard:
Nay, fly to Altars; there they'll talk you dead;
For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread..
Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks,
It still looks home, and fhort excurfions makes:
But rattling nonsense in full vollies breaks,
And, never shock'd, and never turn'd afide,
Bursts out, refistless, with a thundering tide.

But where's the man, who counsel can bestow,
Still pleas'd to teach, and yet not proud to know?
Unbiafs'd, or by favour, or by fpite;

Not dully prepoffefs'd, nor blindly right;

}

630

Though learn'd, well-bred; and though 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;

A knowledge both of books and human kind;

635

640

Generous

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 623. Between this and ver. 624.

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

Ver. 624. Nay run to Altars, &c.

Ver. 634. Not dully prepoffefs'd, or blindly right.