But when loud furges lafh the founding fhore,
The hoarfe, rough verfe fhould like the torrent roar :
When Ajax strives fome rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move flow: 371
Not fo, when swift Camilla fcours the plain,

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

main.

Hear how Timotheus' vary'd lays furprize,
And bid alternate paffions fall and rife!

While at each change, the son of Libyan Jove

Now burns with glory, and then melts with love;

NOTES,

375

Now

modate the found to the fenfe, in this famous paffage. This rule of making the found an echo to the fenfe, as well as alliteration, has been carried to a ridiculous extreme by feveral late writers. It is worth obferving, that it is treated of at length, and recommended by Taffo, page 168 of his Discorsi del Poema Eroico.

WARTON. VER. 374. Hear how Timotheus', &c.] See Alexander's Feaft, or the Power of Mufic; an Ode by Mr. Dryden.

POPE.

"Some of the lines (fays Dr. Johnfon) are without correfpon. dent rhymes; a defect which the enthusiasm of the writer might hinder him from perceiving."

IMITATIONS.

VER. 368. But when loud furges, &c.]

"Tum longe fale faxa fonant," &c. Vida, Poet. 1. iii. v. 388. VER. 370. When Ajax frives, &c.]

66

Atque ideo fi quid geritur molimine magno," &c.

Vida, ib. 417.

Vida, ib. 420.

VER. 372. Not fo, when fwift Camilla, &c.]
"At mora fi fuerit damno, properare jubebo," &c.

Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow,

385

Now fighs steal out, and tears begin to flow:
Perfians and Greeks like turns of nature found, 380
And the world's victor stood fubdu'd by Sound!
The pow'r of Mufic all our hearts allow,
And what Timotheus was, is DRYDEN now.
Avoid Extremes; and shun the fault of such,
Who still are pleas'd too little or too much.
At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence,
That always fhews great pride, or little fenfe:
Those heads, as stomachs, are not sure the best,
Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest.
Yet let not each gay Turn thy rapture move;
For fools admire, but men of sense approve :

390

As

COMMENTARY.

VER. 384. Avoid Extremes ; &c.] Our Author is now come to the laft caufe of wrong Judgment, PARTIALITY; the parent of the immediately preceding caufe, a bounded capacity: nothing fo much narrowing and contracting the mind as prejudices entertained for or against things or perfons. This therefore, as the main root of all the foregoing, he profecutes at large [from ver. 383 to 474]. WARBURTON.

NOTES.

VER. 391. fools admire, but men of fenfe approve:] "This prudish fentence has probably made as many formal coxcòmbs in literature, as Lord Chesterfield's opinion on the vulgarity of laughter, has among men of high breeding. As a general maxim, it has no foundation whatever in truth.

"Proneness to admiration is a quality rather of temper than of understanding; and if it often attends light minds, it is alfo infeparable from that warmth of imagination which is requifite for

the

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

Some foreign writers, fome our own despise;

The Ancients only, or the Moderns prize.

395

Thus

COMMENTARY,

VER. 395 Some foreign writers, Ee.] Having explained the difpofition of mind which produces an habitual partiality, he proceeds to expofe this partiality in all the fhapes in which it appears both amongst the unlearned and the learned.

I. In the unlearned, it is feen, first, in an unreasonable fondness for, or aversion to, our own or foreign, to ancient or modern writers. WARBURTON.

NOTES.

In

the strong perception of what is excellent in art or nature. numerable inftances might be produced of the rapturous admiration with which men of genius have been ftruck 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 praife. Few things indicate a mind more unfavourably conftituted for the fine arts, than a flownefs in being moved to the admiration of excellence; and it is certainly better that this paffion should at firft be excited by objects rather inadequate, than that it fhould not be excited at all." Aikin.

After all, nothing more is meant by Pope, than that Admira. tion is not Criticism.

VER. 394. our own defpife ;] If any proof was wanting how little the Paradife Loft was read and attended to, at this time, our author's total filence on the subject would be fufficient to fhew it. That an Effay on Criticifm could be written, without a fingle mention of Milton, appears truly strange and incredible; if we did not know that our author feems to have had no idea of any merit fuperior to that of Dryden! and had no relish for an author, who,

Exftinxit ftellas, exortus uti ætherius fol." Lucret.

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 past,
Enlights the prefent, and fhall 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 falfe, and value still the true.
Some ne'er advance a Judgment of their own,
But catch the spreading notion of the Town;

COMMENTARY.

400

405

They

VER. 408. Some ne'er advance a Judgment of their own,] A fecond inftance of unlearned partiality is, (as he fhews 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 fort, as he well obferves, the worst and vileft are the idolizers of names of quality, WARBURTON.

NOTES,

VER. 395. The Ancients only,] A very fenfible Frenchman fays, "En un mot, touchez comme Euripide, etonnez comme Sophocle, peignez comme Homere, & compofez d'apres vous. Ces maitres n'ont point eu de regles; ils n'en ont eté que plus grands; & ils n'ont acquis le droit de commander, que parce qu'ils n'ont jamais obei. Il en eft tout autrement en literature qu'en politique; le talent qui a befoin de fubir des loix, n'en donnera jamais." WARTON. VER. 402. Which from the firft, &c.] Genius is the fame in but its fruits are various, and more or less excellent as ther

all

ages;

They reafon and conclude by precedent,

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 nonsense for my Lord.
What woful stuff this madrigal would be,
In fome starv'd hackney fonneteer, or me?
But let a Lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens! how the stile refines!
Before his facred name flies ev'ry fault,
And each exalted ftanza teems with thought!
The Vulgar thus through Imitation err;
As oft the Learn'd by being fingular;

424

425

So

COMMENTARY.

VER. 424. The Vu'gar thus-As oft the Learn'd] II. He comes in the fecond place [from ver. 423 to 452.] to confider the inflances of partiality in the learned. 1. The firft is fingularity.

NOTES.

WARBURTON.

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 Moderns; just as thofe accidental circumftances occurred. WARBURTON.

VER. 403. Enlights] Warton calls "enlights" an improper word, it is, I believe, in Shakespear.

VER. 420. let a Lord] "You ought not to write verses, (faid George the Second, who had little tafte, to Lord Hervey,) 'tis beneath your rank; leave fuch work to little Mr. Pope; it is his But this Lord Hervey wrote fome that were above the level of thofe defcribed here by our author. WARTON.

trade."