With his own tongue ftill edifies his ears,
And always list’ning to himself appears. 615
All books he reads, and all he reads allails,
From Dryden's Fables down to Durfey's Tales.
With him, most authors steal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary.
Name a new Play, and he's the Poet's friend, 620
Nay show'd his faults - but when wou'd Poets mend?
No place so facred from such fops is barr’d,
Nor is Paul's church more safe than Paul's church
yard :

11.5
Nay, Ay'to. Altars ; there they'll talk you dead;
For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread. 625
Distrustful fense with modeft caution speaks,
It still looks home, and short excursions makes;
But rattling nonsense in full vollies breaks,
And never shock'd, and never turn'd aside,
Bursts out, refiftless, with a thund'ring tide. 630

NOTES. 619. Garth did not this justice, when that sancurite, ca] A common der most prevaild; and it fiander at that time in pre. is now (perhaps the sooner judice of that deserving au- for this very verse) dead and Thor. Our poet did him forgotten.

But where's the man, who counsel can bestow, Still pleas’d to teach, and yet not proud to know? Unbiass’d, or by favour, or by fpite : Not dully prepossess’d, nor blindly right;

COMMENTARY. Ver. 631. But where's the man, &c.] II. The conclusion of the first divifion of this part, naturally leads him to the second; which is of the Morals of Critics by exam. ple. For, having there drawn at large the bad Critic ; he breaks out into an apostrophe, containing an exact and finished character of the true Critic; which is, at the same time, the moit easy and proper introduction to this second division. For, having asked [from Ý 630 to 643.) Where's the man, &c. he answers [from * 642 to 735.] 1. That he was principally to be found in the happier ages of Greece and Rome; in the persons of Arijittle and Hurace, Dionysius and Petronius, Quintilian and Longinus. Whole features [from 642 to 681.] he has not only exactly delineated, but contrafted with a peculiar elegance; the profound science and logical method of Arisictle being oppoled to the plain common sense of Horace, conveyed in a natural and familiar negligence; the study and refinement of Dionyfius, to the gay and courtly ease of Petronius; and the gravity and minuteness of Quintilian, to the pioncity and general topics of Longinus. Nor has the poet been leis careful, in these examples, to point out their eminence in the several critical Virtues he so carefully inculcated in his precepts. Thus in Horace he particularizes his Cardour, in Petroniús his Good Breeding, in Quintilian his free and copions Infruction, and in Longinus his noble Spirit.

Tho' learn'd, well-bred; and tho' well-bred, fincere ;

635
Modestly bold, and humanly severe :
Who to a friend his faults can freely show,
And gladly praise the merit of a foe?
Bleft with a taste exact, yet unconfin'd;
A knowledge both of books and human kind; 640
Gen'rous converse; a soul exempt from pride i
And love to praise, with reason on his fide ?

Such once were Critics; such the happy few,
Athens and Rome in better ages knew.
The mighty Stagyrite first left the shore,

645
Spread all his fails, and durft the deeps explore į
He steer'd securely, and discover'd far,
Led by the light of the Mæonian Star,

NOTES: ♡ 642. And love 10 praise them to the world, with with reason on bis side ??] only empty exclamations on Not only on his side, but their beauties. His office is actually exerciied in his ser- to explain the nature of vice. That Critic makes but those beauties, shew from a mean figure, who when whence they arise, and what he has found out the excel- effects they produce; or, in Jencies of his author, con- the better and fuller express cats himself in offering fion of the poet,

To teach the world with Reason to admire.

Poets, a race long unconfin'd, and free,
Still fond and proud of savage liberty, 650
Receiv'd his laws; and stood convinc'd 'twas fit
Who conquer'd Nature, should preside o'er Wit.

Between x 646 and 647. I found the following lines, fince supprest by the author:

That bold Columbus of the realms of wil,
Wboje first discov'ry's not exceeded yet.
Led by the light of the Meonian Star,
He fleer'd securely, and discover'd far.
He, when all Nature was fubdu'd before,
Like bis great Pupil, figbid, and long'd for more:
Fancy's wild regions yet unvanquisb'd lay,
4 boundless empire, and tbat orond no fway.
Peets, 6.

x 652. Who conquer'd also, where in the beginning Nature foould preide o'er of it he lays down the prinWit.] By this is not meant ciples of the arts he treats of, pbyfical Nature, but moral. he makes the knowledge of The force of the observation human nature the foundation consists in our understanding of all Criticism and Poetry. it in this senie. For the Nor is the observation less poet not only uses the word true than apposite. For, Nature for buman nature, Aristotle's natural enquiries throughout this poem ; but were superficial, and ill

F

655

Horace Atill charms with graceful negligence, And without method talks us into sense, Will, like a friend, familiarly convey The truest notions in the easiest way. He, who supreme in judgment, as in wit, Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ, Yet judg’d with coolness, tho? he sung with fire ; His Precepts teach but what his works inspire. 660 Our Critics take a contrary extreme,. They judge with fury, but they write with fle’me: Nor suffers Horace more in wrong Translations By Wits, than Critics in as wrong Quotations.

See Dionysius Homer's thoughts refine, 3665 And call new beauties forth from ev'ry line !

Fancy and art in gay Petronius please,
The scholar's learning, with the courtier's ease.

In grave Quintilian's copious work, we find
The justest rules, and clearest method join’d: 670

NOTES. made, tho' extensive: But quered Nature, but kept his logical and moral works her in tenfold chains : Not are incomparable. In these as Dulness kept the Muses, he has unfolded the human in the Dunciad, to silence mind, and laid open all the them ; but as Ariffeus held recenes of the heart and Proteus in Virgil, to deliver understanding; and by his Oracles. 1 Categories, noi only con