Be filent always when you doubt your fenfe; And speak, tho' fure, with feeming diffidence: COMMENTARY. great Salmafius fiercely replied, Do you and Mr. Maussat join your felves to all that is learned in the world, and you fball find that I alone am a match for you all. Voffius tells us that, when Laur. Valla had fnarl'd at every name of the first order in antiquity, fuch as Ariftotle, Cicero, and one whom I should have thought this Critic was likelieft to pass by, the redoubtable Prifcian, he impioufly boasted that he had arms even against Christ himself. But Cedras Urcæus went further, and actually used those arms the other only threatned with. This man while he was preparing fome trifling piece of Criticism for the prefs, had the misfortune to hear his papers were burned: On which, he is reported to have broke out,-Quodnam ego tantum fcelus concepi, O Chrifte; quem ego tuorum unquam læfi, ut ita inexpiabili in me odio debaccheris? Audi ea, quæ tibi mentis compos & ex animo dicam. Si forte, cum ad ulrimum vitæ finem pervenero, fupplex accedam ad te oratum, neve audias, neve inter tuos accipias oro; cum infernis Diis in æternum vitam agere decrevi. Whereupon, fays my author, he quitted the converfe of men, threw himfelf into the thickest of a foreft, and there wore out the wretched remains of life in all the agonies of defpair. But to return to the poem. This third and laft part is in two divifions. In the first of which [from 559 to 631.] he inculcates the morals by precept: In the jecond [from 630 to the end] by example. His firft precept [from 561 to 566.] recommends CANDOUR, for its le to the Critic, and to the writer criticifed. The fecond trom 567 to 574-1 recommends MODESTY, which Some pofitive, perfifting fops we know, Who, if once wrong, will needs be always fo; COMMENTARY. manifests itself by these four figns: 1. Silence where it doubts, Be filent always where you doubt your fenje, 2. A feeming diffidence where it knows, And freak, the fure, with feeming diffidence ; 3, A free confeffion of error where wrong, But you with pleasure own your errors pali, 4. And a conftant review and fcrutiny even of thofe opinions which it full thinks right: And make each day a Critic on the last. 3. The third [from 573 to 584] recommends GOOD BREEDING, whofe art confifts not in dogmatically obtruding truth upon men as ignorant of it, but in gently infinuating it into them as not fufficiently attentive to it. But as men of breeding are liable to two oppofite extremes, he prudently cautions against both of them. The one is a backwardness in communicating their knowledge out of a falle delicacy, and fear of being thought Pedants: The other, and much more common extreme in men of breeding, is a mean complacence, which fuch as are worthy of your advice do not want to make it acceptable; for thofe can bell bear reproof in particular paints, who beft deferve commendation in general. But you, with pleasure own your errors paft, 570 And make each day a Critic on the laft. 'Tis not enough, your counfel still be true; For the worst avarice is that of sense. Fear not the anger of the wife to raise; Those best can bear reproof, who merit praise. 581 'Twere well might Critics ftill this freedom take; But Appius reddens at each word you fpeak, 585 COMMENTARY. VER. 484. 'Twere well might Critics, &c.] The poet having thus recommended, in thele general rules of Conduct for the Judgment, the three critical Virtues to the heart; fhews next [from 583 to 631.] on what three fort of Writers thefe Virtues, together with the advice conveyed under them, would be quite thrown away, and, which is worse, would be repaid with obloquy and flander. These arɔ the falfe Critic, the dull Man of Quality, and the bad Poet; cach of which incorrigible Writers he has very july and exactly characterized. And stares, tremendous, with a threat'ning eye, COMMENTARY.. But having drawn the laft of them at large, and being always attentive to his main subject, which is of writing and judging well, he reaffumes the character of the bad Critic (whom he had but touched upon before) to contraft him with the other, and makes the Characteristic common to both, to be a never-cealing Repetition of their own impertinence. The Poet, ftill runs on in a raging vein, $606, &c. &c. The Critic with bis own tongue ftill edifies his ears, 614, &c. Than which there cannot be an observation more juft, or more grounded on experience. NOTES. 586. And fares tremendous, &c.] This picture was taken to himself by John Dennis, a furious old Critic by profeffion; who, upon no other provocation, wrote against this Effay and its author, in a manner per fectly lunatic: For, as to the mention made of him in ✯ 270. he took it as a Compliment, and faid it was treacherously meant to caufe him to over-look this Abufe of his Perfon. Such, without wit, are Poets when they please, 590 Whom, when they praise, the world believes no more, Than when they promife to give fcribbling o'er. 595 Your filence there is better than your spite, 605 611 Such fhameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true, |