True eafe in writing comes from art, not chance,
As thofe move easiest who have learn'd to dance.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,
The found must feem an Echo to the sense: 365
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the fmooth ftream in fmoother numbers flows;
But when loud furges lafh the founding fhoar,
The hoarfe, rough verse should like the torrent roar :
When Ajax ftrives fome rock's vaft weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move flow;

Not

VER. 364. 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence;

The found muft feem an Echo to the fenfe :] The judi cious introduction of this precept is remarkable. The Poets, and even some of the best of them, have been fo fond of the beauty arifing from this trivial precept, that, in their practice, they have violated the very End of it, which is the encrease of harmony; and, fo they could but raise an Echo, did not care whofe ears they offended by its diffonance. To remedy this abuse therefore, the poct, by the introductory line, would infinuate, that Harmony is always prefuppofed as obferved; tho' it may and ought to be perpetually varied, fo as to produce the effect here recommended.

VER. 365. The found must feem an Echo to the fenfe :] Lord Rofcommon fays,

The found is fill a comment to the fenfe.

They are both well expreffed: only this supposes the fenfe to be affifted by the found; that, the found affifted by the fenfe.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 366. Soft is the firain, etc.]

Tum fi lata canunt, etc.

Vida Poet. 1. iii. v. 403.1

VER. 368. But when loud furges, etc ]

Tam longe fale faxa fonant, etc. Vida ib. 388.

VER. 370. When Ajax firives, etc.]

Atque ideo fi quid geritur molimine magno, etc.

Vida ib.

417.

Not fo, when swift Camilla fcours the plain,

372

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the

main.

Hear how Timotheus' vary'd lays furprize,

And bid alternate paffions fall and rise!

375

While, at each change, the son of Libyan Jove
Now burns with glory, and then melts with love;
Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow,
Now fighs steal out, and tears begin to flow:
Perfians and Greeks like turns of nature found,
And the World's victor stood subdu'd by Sound!
The pow'r of Mufic all our hearts allow,
And what Timotheus was, is DRYDEN now.
Avoid Extremes; and fhun the fault of fuch,
Who ftill are pleas'd too little or too much.
At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence,

That always fhows great pride, or little sense;
Those heads, as ftomachs, are not sure the best,
Which nauseate all, and nothing can digeft.

385

Yet let not each gay Turn thy rapture move; 390
For fools admire, but men of fense approve :

As things feem large which we thro' mifts defcry,
Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

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

395

Thus

VER. 374. Hear how Timotheus, etc.] See Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Mufick; an Ode by Mr. Dryden. P.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 372. Not so, when swift Camilla, etc.]

At mora fi fuerit damno, properare jubebo, etc.

$

Vida ib. 420.

400

Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd
To one fmall fect, and all are damn'd befide.
Meanly they seek the bleffing to confine,
And force that fun but on a part to shine,
Which not alone the fouthern wit fublimes,
But ripens fpirits in cold northern climes;
Which from the first has fhone on ages paft,
Enlights the present, and shall warm the last;
Tho' each may feel encreases and decays,.
And fee now clearer and now darker days.
Regard not then if Wit be old or new,
But blame the false, and value ftill 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,

405

410

415

And own ftale 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 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 nonfense for my Lord.
What woful stuff this madrigal would be,
In some starv'd hackney fonnetteer, or me?
But let a Lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens! how the style refines !

420

Before

VER. 402. Which from the firf, etc.] Genius is the fame in all ages; but its fruits are various; and more or lefs excellent as they are checked or matured by the influence of Government or Religion upon them. Hence in fome parts of Literature the Ancients excel; in others, the modern; juft as thofe accidental circumstances in fluenced them.

Before his facred name flies ev'ry fault,
And each exalted stanza teems with thought!
The Vulgar thus thro' Imitation err;

As oft the Learn'd by being fingular;

425

So much they scorn the croud, that if the throng

By chance go right, they purposely go wrong:
So Schifmatics 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.

431

A Mufe 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 fide.
Ask them the cause; they're wiser still, they say;
And still to-morrow's wifer than to-day.
We think our fathers fools, fo wife we grow ;
Our wifer fons, no doubt, will think us fo.
Once School-divines this zealous ifle o'er-fpread;
Who knew most Sentences, was deepest read;
Faith, Gospel, all, feem'd made to be difputed,
And none had sense enough to be confuted:
Scotifts and Thomifts, now, in peace remain,
Amidft their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane. 445

439

If

VER. 444. Scotifts and Thomifts] These were two parties amongst the fchoolmen, headed by Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas, of different opinions, and from that difference denominated Realifts and Nominalifts; they were perpetually difputing on the immaculate conception, and on fubjects of the like importance.

VER. 444. Scotifts] So denominated from Johannes Duns Scotus. He fuffered a miserable reverse of fortune at Oxford in the time of Henry VIII. That grave Antiquary

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;

And

tiquary Mr. Antony Wood fadly laments the deformation, as he calls it, of that Univerfity by the King's Commisfioners; and even records the blafphemous fpeeches 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 com"miffioners had fuch difrefpect for that most famous "Author J. Duns, who was fo much admired by our

66

66

predeceffors, and so DIFFICULT TO 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 an inferior note ?"- What indeed! But then, If fo be, that most famous J. Duns was fo difficult to be understood (for that this is a moft claffical proof of his great value, who doubts?) I fhould 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 purfuit of three of their moft 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 purpofe; it being obferved, 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 through the thickest night of Monkery,