Perhaps he feem'd above the Critic's law, And but from Nature's fountain scorn'd to draw: NOTES. But It is a tradition preferved by Servius, that Virgil began with writing a poem of the Alban and Roman affairs; which he found above his years, and defcended first to imitate Theocritus on rural subjects, and afterwards to copy Homer in Heroic poetry. РОРЕ. "That Virgil, not only in his general plan, but in most of the fubordinate parts, was a clofe copyift of Homer, is undeniable, whatever be thought of the fuppofition that he fet out with a defign of drawing from the fources of nature, and was diverted from it by the discovery that "Nature and Homer were the fame." The modern idolatry of Shakespear has elevated him to the fame degree of authority among us; and critics have not been wanting, who have confidently drawn from his characters the proofs and illustrations of their theories on the human mind. But what can be more unworthy of the true critic and philofopher, than fuch an implicit reliance on any man, how exalted foever his genius, especially on those who lived in the infancy of their art? If an epic poem be a representation of nature in a course of heroic action, it must be susceptible of as much variety as nature herself: and furely it is more dearable that a poet of original genius. fhould give full scope to his inventive powers, under the restric tion of such laws only 2 are founded on nature, than that he fhould fetter himself with rules derived from the practice of a predeceffor. When Pope praises the ancient rules for compofition, on the ground that they were" discovered not devised," and were only nature methodized," he gives a juft notion of what they ought to be. But when he fuppofes Virgil to have properly "checked in his bold design of drawing from Nature's fountains," and in confequence, to have confined his work within rules as ftrict, "As if the Stagyrite o'erlook'd each line ;" how can he avoid the force of his own ridicule, where a little further, in this very piece, he laughs at Dennis for "Concluding all were defp'rate fots and fools Who durft depart from Aristotle's rules?" P4 Such ✓ But when t'examine ev'ry part he came, Convinc'd, amaz'd, he checks the bold design: Some beauties yet no Precepts can declare, COMMENTARY. 135 140 Mufic VER. 141. Some beauties yet no Precepts can declare, &c.] Our author, in these two general directions for studying Nature and her Commentators, having confidered Poetry as it is, or may be reduced to Rule; left this fhould be mistaken as fufficient to at tain PERFECTION either in writing or judging, he proceeds [from ver. NOTES. Such are the inconfiftencies of a writer who fometimes utters notions derived from reading and education; fometimes the fuggeftions of native good fenfe !" Dr. Aikin's Letters to his Son. VER. 134. But when t'examine, &c.] It is aftonishing, confidering the great care with which this Effay is written, that Pope fuffered fuch a line to remain. VER. 138. As if the Stagyrite] According to a fine precept in the fourteenth fection of Longinus, who exhorts us, when we aim at any thing elevated and fublime, to afk ourfelves while we are compofing, "how would Homer, or Plato, or Demofthenes, have exerted and expreffed themfelves on this fubject? And ftill more, if we should continue to ask ourselves; what would Homer or Demofthenes, if they had been prefent, and had heard this paffage, have thought of it, and how would they have been af. fected by it?" WARTON. VER. 141. Some beauties yet no Precepts] Pope in this paffage feems to have remembered one of the effays of Bacon, of which he is known to have been remarkably fond. "There is no excel lent Mufic resembles Poetry, in each Are nameless graces which no methods teach, And which a master-hand alone can reach. 145 If COMMENTARY. ver. 140 to 201.] to point up to those fublimer beauties which Rules will never reach, nor enable us either to execute or tafte: beauties, which rise so high above all precept as not even to be defcribed by it, but being entirely the gift of Heaven, Art and Reafon have no further fhare in them than just to regulate their operations. WARBURTON. NOTES. lent beauty that hath not fome ftrangeness in the proportion. A man cannot tell whether Apelles, or Albert Durer, were the more trifler whereof the one would make a perfonage by geometrical proportions; the other, by taking the best parts out of divers faces to make one excellent. Such perfonages, I think, would please nobody but the painter that made them. Not but I think, a painter may make a better face than ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity, as a mufician that maketh an excellent air in mufic, and not by rule. A man shall fee faces, that if you examine them, part by part, you shall find never a good one; and yet altogether do well." "Non ratione aliquâ (says Quintilian finely) fed motû nescio an inerrabili judicatur. Neque ab hoc ullo fatis explicari puto, licet multi tentaverint." Quintil. Inft. L. vi. In fhort, in poetry, we muft judge by tafte and fentiment, not by rules and reasoning. Different theories of philofophy, and different fyftems of theology, are maintained and exploded in different ages; but true and genuine pictures of nature and paffion, are not fubject to fuch revolutions and changes. The doctrines of Plato, Epicurus, and Zeno; of Descartes, Hobbes, and Malebranche, and Gaffendi, yield in fucceffion to each other; but Homer, Sophocles, Terence, and Virgil, being felt and relished by all men, still retain and preferve, unaltered and undisputed, admiration and applause. WARTON. VER. 143. Mufic resembles Poetry, &c.] Dr. Warton has remarked on this paffage, that he had been informed by one of the If, where the rules not far enough extend, (Since rules were made but to promote their end,) Some lucky Licence answer to the full Th' intent propos'd, that Licence is a rule. May boldly deviate from the common track. COMMENTARY. 150 From VER. 152. Great Wits fometimes may gloriously offend, &c ] He defcribes next the second fort, the beauties against rule. And even here, as he obferves [from ver. 151 to 161.], the offence is fo glorious, and the fault fo fublime, that the true Critic will not dare either to cenfure or reform them. Yet ftill the Poet is never to abandon himself to his imagination. WARBURTON. PARALLEL PASSAGES. VER. 152. gloriously offend,] Dryden's Aurengzebe: "Mean foul, and dar'st not gloriously offend!" NOTES. STEVENS. beft musicians of the age, that this obfervation was not accurate, nor agreeable to the rules of the art of mufic. It is not true, if applied to the rules of harmonic combinations, yet the analogy between the two arts, which Pope intended to illuftrate in the lines before us, is accurate. The moft fcientific musician will never learn by rule to introduce thofe inimitable touches which are to be found in many of the oldeft and most artlefs melodies. These can be derived from nature alone, nor will the ftudy of the poeti cal art infufe into the joul that fpirit which alone can dictate its happiest efforts. But it is true of both fciences that a mafterhand, that is, the hand of one who combines fcience, with genius, can alone reach that height of perfection which is to be obtained by directing the effufions of nature, and reducing them within thofe rules which are founded on invariable principles. 155 From vulgar bounds with brave diforder part, In prospects thus, fome objects please our eyes, } 161 165 (As Kings dispense with laws themselves have made,) NOTES. I know VER. 146. If, where the rules, &c.] "Neque enim rogationibus plebifve fcitis fancta funt ifta præcepta, fed hoc, quicquid eft, Utilitas excogitavit. Non negabo autem fic utile effe plerumque; verum fi eadem illa nobis aliud fuadebit Utilitas, hanc, relictis magistrorum autoritatibus, fequemur." Quintil. lib. ii, cap. 13. POPE. VER. 158. In profpects thus, &c.] This allufion to the picturesque is perhaps inaccurate. The shapeless rock and hanging precipice do not rise out of nature's common order; and the obferva. tion is not just, because these objects are characteristic of some of the features of nature; of thofe especially that are picturesque. The fault lies in the word nature. If he had faid, that amid cultivated scenery we are pleafed and ftruck with a hanging rock or precipice, the allufion would have been accurate. We ought not, however, to fcan a poetical effay fo minutely, general meaning is fufficiently obvious. VER. 161. Their means their own. when the |