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And while the Mufe now ftoops, or now af

cends,

375 To Man's low paffions, or their glorious ends, Teach me, like thee, in various nature wife, To fall with dignity, with temper rife; Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe ; 380

NOTES.

of thofe five Species of elocution, from which, as from its fources, Longinus deduceth the SUBLIME*.

1. The first and chief is a grandeur and fublimity of con, ception:

"Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along; "O Master of the Poet, and the Song!

"And while the Mufe now ftoops, and now afcends, "To Man's low paffions, or their glorious ends"

2. The fecond, that pathetic enthusiasm, which, at the fame time, melts and inflames:

"Teach me, like thee, in various nature wife,
"To fall with dignity, with temper rise;
"Form'd by thy converfe, happily to steer
"From grave to gay, from lively to fevere;
"Correct with fpirit, eloquent with cafe,
"Intent to reafon, or polite to please."

3. A certain elegant formation and ordonance of figures:
"Oh! while along the ftream of Time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame,
Say, fhall my little bark attendant fail,
"Purfue the triumph, and partake the gale?"

* — πέντε πηγαί τινές εἰσιν τ ̓ ὑψηγορίας. 1. Πρῶτον μὲν καὶ κράτισον τὸ περὶ τὰς νοήσεις ἀδρεπήβολον. 2. Δεύτερον δὲ τὸ σφοδρὸν καὶ ἐνθυσιασικὸν παλο.. 3. Ποιὰ τῶν σχημάτων πλάσις. 4. Η γενναία φράσις. Πέμπλη δὲ μεγέθες αἰτία, καὶ συγκλείεσα τὰ πρὸ ἑαυτῆς ἅπαντα, ἡ ἐν ἀξιών ματι καὶ διάρσει σύνθεσις.

5.

Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reason, or polite to please.

Oh! while along the ftream of Time thy name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;

385

Say, fhall
my little bark attendant fail,
Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in duft repose,
Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verfe to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philofopher, and friend? 390
That urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art
From founds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light;
Shew'd erring Pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;

COMMENTARY.

VER: 394. Shew'd erring Pride, Whatever is, is right;] The Poet's addrefs to his friend, which concludeth this epiftle

4. A fplendid diction:

NOTES.

"When statesmen, heroes, kings, in duft repose, "Whose fons fhall blufh their fathers were thy foes, "Shall then this verse to future age pretend "Thou wert my guide, philofopher, and friend? "That urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art, "From founds to things, from fancy to the heart; "For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light;"— 5. And fifthly, which includes in itself all the rest, a weight and dignity in the compofition:

"Shew'd erring Pride, whatever is, is RIGHT;
"That REASON, PASSION, answer one great AIM;

That true SELF-LOVE and SOCIAL are the SAME;

That REASON, PASSION, anfwer one great

aim;

395

That true SELF-LOVE and SOCIAL are the fame;

COMMENTARY.

fo nobly, and endeth with a recapitulation of the general argument, affords me the following obfervation, with which I fhail conclude these remarks.-There is one great beauty that fhines through the whole Efay: The Poet, whether he fpeaks of man as an individual, a member of fociety, or the fubject of happiness, never miffeth an opportunity, while he is explaining his ftate under any of these capacities, to illuftrate it in the most artful manner by the inforcement of his grand principle, That every thing tendeth to the good of the Whole; from whence his system gaineth the reciprocal advantage of having that grand Theorem realized by facts: and his facts juftified on a principle of Right or Nature.

THUS I have endeavoured to analyfe and explain the exact reasoning of these four epiftles. Enough, I prefume, to convince every one, that it hath a precifion, force, and clofeness of connection, rarely to be met with, even in the most formal treatifes of philofophy. Yet in doing this, it is but too evident I have deftroyed that grace and energy which animates the original. And now let the Reader believe, if he be fo difpofed, what M. de Croufaz, in his Critique upon this work, infinuates to be his own opinion, as well as that of his friends; "Some perfons," fays he, "have conjectur'd, that Mr. Pope "did not compofe this Effay at once, and in a regular order; but that after he had written feveral fragments of poetry, "all finished in their kind, (one, for example, on the paral lel between Reason and Instinct, another upon Man's "groundless Pride, another on the Prerogatives of human "Nature, another on Religion and Superftition, another on "the Original of Society, and feveral fragments befides on "Self-love and the Paffions) he tacked thefe together as he

NOTES,

"That VIRTUE only makes our BLISS below;

And all our Knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW."

That VIRTUE only makes our Bliss below;
And all our Knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 397. That Virtue only, &c.] in the MS. thus,

That just to find a God is all we can,
And all the study of Mankind is Man.

COMMENTARY.

"could, and divided them into four epiftles; as, it is faid, "was the fortune of Homer's Rhapfodies." I fuppofe this will be believed as foon of one as of the other. But M. Du Refnel, our Poet's Tranflator, is not behind hand with the Critic, in his judgment on the work. "The only reason" (fays he) "for which this poem can be properly termed an

Effay, is, that the Author has not formed his plan with all "the regularity of method which it might have admitted." And again" I was, by the unanimous opinion of all those " whom I have confulted on this occafion, and amongst these, "of feveral Englishmen completely skilled in both languages, "obliged to follow a different method. The French are not jatif"fied with fentiments, however beautiful, unless they be metho"dically difpofed: Method being the characteristic that diftin"guishes our performances from thofe of our neighbours," &c. It is enough juft to have quoted these wonderful Men of method, and to leave them to the laughter of the world.

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