Or helps th' ambitious Hill the Heav'ns to scale, Or fcoops in circling theatres the Vale; 60 Calls in the Country, catches op'ning Glades, Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending Lines; COMMENTARY. 65 VER. 65. Still follow Senfe, &c.] But now when Good Senfe has led us up to Tafte, our fondnefs for the elegancies of our new mistress, oftentimes occafions us to neglect the NOTES. "Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending lines; "Paints as you plant, and, as you work, defigns." Mach in the fame manner as the plaftic Nature is fupposed to do, in the work of human generation. VER. 65. Still follow Senie, &c.] The not obferving this rule, bewildered a late noble Writer (diftinguished for his philofophy of Tafte) in the purfuit of the Grand and Magnificent in moral life: who, when God Senfe had led him up to the τὸ καλὸν καὶ τὸ πρέπον of antient renown, difcharged his Guide; and, captivated with the delights of Tafle, refolved all into the elegancies of that idea: And now, Reason, Morality, Religion, and the truth of things, were nothing else but TASTE; which (that he might not be thought altogether to have deferted his fage conductress) he fometimes dignified with the name of the moral fenfe: And he fucceeded, in the pursuit of Truth, accordingly. VER. 66. Parts anfw'ring parts, shall flide into a whole,] i. e. fhall not be forced, but go of themselves; as if both the Spontaneous beauties all around advance, Start ev'n from Difficulty, ftrike from Chance; COMMENTARY. plainnefs and fimplicity of the old; we are but too apt to forfake our Guide, and to give ourselves up folely to Tafte. Our Author's next rule therefore, 3. is, Still to follow Senfe, and let Senfe perpetually accompany us through all the works of Tafte. "Still follow Senfe, of ev'ry Art the Soul." That is, good fenfe fhould never be a moment abfent from the works of Tafie, any more than the foul from the body; for juft as the foul animates and informs every air and feature of a beauteous body, fo fenfe gives life and vigour to all the productions of Taste. VER. 66. Parts anfw'ring Parts, &c.] The Poet then explains the particular advantages of the union of Senfe with Tafte, (from this verfe to 71.) 1. That the beautiful parts which Taste has laid out and contrived, fenfe makes to answer one another, and to flide naturally, without violence, into a whole. 2. That many beauties will (pontaneously offer themfelves, fuggefted from the very neceffity which fenfe lays upon us, of conforming the parts to the whole, that no original invention of Tofte would have fupplied. 3. A third advantage is, that you are then always fure to have Nature on your fide; "Nature fhall join you" The expreffion is important; when we were bid to begin with fenfe, we were fhewn, how this would lead us to Tafte in the purfuit of Nature: but now, that he bids us to go on with fenfe, or fill to follow it, after having arrived at NOTES. parts and whole were not of yours, but of Nature's making. The metaphor is taken from a piece of mechanifm finished by fome great mafter, where all the parts are fo previously fitted, as to be eafily put together by any ordinary workman: and each part flides into its place, as it were through a groove ready made for that purpose. Nature shall join you; Time shall make it grow A Work to wonder at---perhaps a Srow. 70 Without it, proud Versailles! thy glory falls; And Nero's Terraces defert their walls: COMMENTARY. Tafte, he tells us, that Nature will then join us of her own accord: This has a great beauty, which arifes from the philofophic truth of the obfervation. For, as we obferved before,-fenfe being a right conception of Nature: and Tofte a right conception of beautiful Nature; when these are in conjunction Nature can stand out no longer, but presents herfelf to you without further pains or fearch. VER. 71. Without it, proud Verfailles, &c.] To illuftrate this doctrine, the Poet next fhews us (from Ver. 70 to 99.) that without this continued fupport of good fenfe, things even of the highest Tafte and utmoft Magnificence, fuch as the Buildings of Versailles, the Gardens of Villario, and the Groves of Sabinus (which are the inftances he gives) all, in a very little time, come to nothing; and no wonder: for the exercife of Tafte WITHOUT SENSE is, where fomething that is not beautiful Nature is mistaken for it; and ornamented as beautiful Nature should be; these ornaments, therefore, being destitute of all real fupport, must be continually fubject to change. Sometimes the owner himself will grow weary of them (as in NOTES. VER. 70. The feat and gardens of the Lord Viscount Cobham in Buckinghamshire. P. VER. 72. And Nero's Terraces defert their walls; The expreffion is very fignificant. Had the walls been faid to defert the terraces, this would have given us the image of a destruction, effected by time only; which had been foreign to the Poet's intention; who is here fpeaking of the punishment of unfupported Tafte, in the defigned fubverfion of it, either by good or bad, as it happens: one of which is fure to do its bu finefs and that foon: therefore it is with great propriety, he VOL. III. Z The vaft Parterres a thousand hands shall make, Lo! COBHAM comes, and floats them with a Lake: Or cut wide views thro' Mountains to the Plain, You'll wish your hill or fhelter'd feat again. 76 COMMENTARY. the cafe of Villario) and find at last, that Nature is to be pre ferred before them, "Tir'd of the fcene Parterres and Fountains yield, "He finds at laft, he better likes a Field." Sometimes, again, the Heir (like Sabinus's) will be changing a bad Tafte for a worse, "One boundless green, or flourish'd carpet views, "With all the mournful family of Yews." So that mere Tafte ftanding expofed between the true and falfe, like the decent man, between the rigidly virtuous, and thoroughly profligate, hated and defpifed by both, can never long fupport itfelf: and with this, the first part of the Epiftle concludes. NOTES. 6 fays, that the Terraces defert their walls, which implies purpose and violence in their fubverfion. VER. 74. Lo! COBHAM comes, and floats them with a Lake:] An high compliment to the noble perfon on whom it is beftowed, as making him the fubftitute of good Senfe.-This office, in the original plan of the Poem, was given to another Man of TASTE; who not having the SENSE to fee that a compliment was intended him, it convinced the Poet that it did not belong to him. VER. 75, 76, Or cut wide views thro' Mountains to the Plain, You'll wish your bill ar fhelter'd feat again.] This was done in Hertfordshire by a wealthy citizen, at the expence of above 5000l. by which means (merely to over Ev'n in an ornament its place remark, Behold Villario's ten-years toil compleat ; His Quincunx darkens, his Efpaliers meet; 80 The Wood fupports the Plain, the parts unite, And strength of Shade contends with strength of Light; NOTES. look a dead plain) he let in the north-wind upon his houfe and parterre, which were before adorned and defended by beautiful woods. P. VER. 78.-Set Dr. Clarke.] Dr. S. Clarke's bufto placed by the Queen in the Hermitage, while the Dr. duly frequented the Court. P. But he should have added-with the innocence and difinterestedness of an Hermit. VER. 81, 82. The Wood fupports the Plain, the parts unite, And frength of Shade contends with strength of Light;] The imagery is here taken from Painting in the judicious execution of the Pencil, and in the happy improvement of it by time. To understand what is meant by supporting (which is a term of art common both to Planting and Painting) we must confider what things make the natural defect or weakness of a rude uncultivated Plain; and these are, the having a difagreeable flatness, and the not having a proper termination. But a Wood, rightly difpofed, takes away the one, and gives what` wanting of the other. The utmoft which art can do, when it does its full office, is to give the work a confent of parts; but it is time only that can make the union here fpoken of. So in painting, the skill of the Master can go no further, in the chromatic part, than to fet thofe colours together, which have a natural friendship |