In the two laft lines, there is a happy and noble combination of imagery and fentiment.

V

But the next chorus affords a beauty of the fofter kind, where the poet thus feelingly defcribes the delights of connubial love..

focial

"Oh fource of ev'ry focial tye,
"United with, and mutual joy!
"What various joys on one attend,

"As fon, as father, brother, husband, friend?
"Whether his hoary fire he fpies,
"While thoufand grateful thoughts arife;
"Or meets his fpoufe's fonder eye;
"Or views his fmiling progeny;
"What tender paffions take their turns,
"What home-felt raptures move?
"Iis heart now melts, now leaps, now burns,
"With rev'rence, hope, and love."

A mind endued with the leaft fenfibility, cannot fail of being affected by the delicacy and tenderness of these fentiments, as well as charmed by the force and propriety of the epithets, and the elegance and harmony of the numbers,

it

The next piece which falls under confideration, is the Effay on Criticifm, which, extraordinary as may feem, was written before our poet had attained his twentieth year; and published within two years afterwards, being as fhort a time as he ever fuffered any thing to lie by him.

It had not probably been published so foon, but for the importunity of his old friend Sir William Trumball, to whom he fent a copy of it, and who

was

was fo charmed with it, that, in a letter which he addreffed to him in return, he concludes thus,—— "All I can add is, that if your excefs of modefty "fhould hinder you from publishing this effay, "I fhall only be forry I have no more credit with you, to perfuade you to oblige the public, and in particular, Dear Sir, &c.

66

This poem, the writer of the effay candidly allows to be a mafter-piece of its kind, and that notwithstanding the partial commendation of Mr. Addison, who remarks that "the obfervations "follow one another, like those of Horace's Art of poetry *, without that methodical regularity, "which would have been neceffary in a profe "writer," yet it is evident that the plan is regu lar, and the conduct of it mafterly.

Indeed, it is difficult, as our poet's learned friend and commentator obferves, to conceive any prerogative in verfe, to difpenfe with method and regularity. Besides, in truth, our poet laid the plan, and digested all the matter in profe; and then, as he has been heard to fay, he turned it into verfe with great rapidity. Zenia sian

The general order and defign of this work is fully delineated in the admirable commentary fubjoined to it. But it would not be confiftent with the profeffed plan of this hiftory, fhould I omit to point out its moft diftinguished beauties and defects, which cannot be done, without giving a fhort analyfis of the poet's chain of argument:

That Horace attended to method in his Art of Poetry, has been fhewn by a learned critic. See Mr. Hurd's comment on the Epistle to the Pitos.

F 2

and

and I cannot help thinking it a capital objection to the essay above-mentioned on Mr. POPE's writings, &c. that the effayift frequently only felects detached paffages, as the foundation of his encomium or cenfure, without attempting to connect the fenfe. Unlefs we recollect the writer's general scope of reafoning, we cannot always fully relish the beauties of particular parts, more efpecially in Mr. POPE, who has the particular fkill to employ poetical ornament in aid of his arguAdd to this, that when parts are thus taken detached, we may fometimes impute faults to the writer, which are so only from the partial view we have given of his work *.

ments.

The poem confifts of one book, which is divided into three principal parts, or members. The firft of them giving rules for the ftudy of the art of criticism; the fecond expofing the caufes of wrong judgment; and the third, marking out the morals of the critic.

Though this piece is intitled fimply an Effay on Criticism, yet it contains feveral precepts, equally relative to the good writing, as to the true judging of a poem; which is fo far from violating the unity of the fubject, that it preferves and compleats it,

To this effect, fays our Poet, in the following lines:

"The critic eye, that microscope of wit.

"Sees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit:
"How parts relate to parts, or they to whole,
"The body's harmony, the beaming foul,

"Are things which Kufter, Burman, Waffe all fee, "When man's whole frame is obvious to a flea."

The

The poet having in the opening, fhewn the use and feasonableness of the subject, he proceeds to inquire into the proper qualities of a true critic.

"Tis with our judgments as our watches, none Go juft alike, yet each believes his own. "In Poets, as true genius is but rare, "True taste as feldom is the Critic's fhare;

"Both muft alike from Heav'n derive their light, "These born to judge, as well as thofe to write."

The reasoning in these lines,, as the learned commentator obferves, is conclufive; and the fimilitude extremely juft.

It may be neceffary, however, to confider this paffage refpecting the human faculties, fomewhat more critically; as it will be of use hereafter, in the attempt to afcertain the nature and extent of our author's genius.

It has been said that "judgment, when it goes "alone, is generally regulated, or at least much "influenced, by cuftom, fashion or habit; and never certain and conftant, but when founded upon TASTE; which is the fame in the critic, as GENIUS in the poet. That, in fact, genius "and tafte are but one and the fame faculty differently exerting itself under different names, "in the two profeffions of poetry and criticifm: "for that the art of poetry confifts in felecting "out of all thofe images which prefent them"felves to the fancy, fuch of them as are truly "beautiful: And the art of criticism in difcerning, "and fully relishing, what it finds fo felected." Though

F 3

Though it may be allowed, that judgment is never certain, but when ripened into taste: nevertheless we must be cautious how we fall into an error, which has been adopted by many writers, who have confidered judgment and tafte as things totally diftinct: for they appear to be the fame faculty, and to differ only in the degree and extent of their application. Tafte is nothing but judgment matured and refined. The faculty of judgment, is born with us; tafte is, in a great measure, acquired. Judgment, is the faculty of comparing and feparating our ideas: tafte, is the fame faculty of comparison improved, and applied to works of imagination and elegance.

The man of tafte feems at one glance, by a kind of intuition, to difcern what is beautiful and elegant; and this has mifled many to imagine that tafte is a faculty diftinct from judgment. But, in truth, we cannot difcover what is beautiful, but by comparison: and to compare, as has been said, is the office of judgment. Tafte, therefore, is the refult of repeated, tho' perhaps imperceptible operations of the judgment, by which, we at length acquire that quick difcernment of, and habitual relish for, the beautiful.

The excellence of tafte, depends on an extenfive knowledge in the fubjects of the fine arts; and on that habit of comparifon, which alone can enable us to difcern and relish what is truly beautiful. For inftance, fhould a man of good natural judgment who had never feen a picture, behold two portraits of the human figure, daubed upon a fign, of which the one was manifeftly a better imitation of nature than the

other,