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In fome fair body thus th' informing foul
With spirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole,
Each motion guides, and ev'ry nerve sustains ;
Itself unfeen, but in th' effects remains.

81

Some, to whom Heav'n in wit has been profufe,
Want as much more, to turn it to its ufe;
For wit and judgment often are at strife,
Tho' meant each other's aid, like man and wife.
'Tis more to guide, than spur the Muse's steed;
Restrain his fury, than provoke his speed;

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The winged courfer, like a gen'rous horse, Shows moft true mettle when you check his course, Thofe RULES of old discover'd, not devis'd, Are Nature ftill, but Nature methodiz'd;

VER. 80.

VARIATIONS.

There are whom Heav'n has bleft with ftore of wit,
Yet want as much again to manage it.

COMMENTARY.

might perhaps be imagined that this needed only Judgment to govern it: But, as he well obferves,

Wit and Judgment often are at strife,

Tho' meant each other's aid, like Man and Wife. They want therefore fome friendly Mediator; and this Mediator is Nature: And in attending to Nature, Judgment will learn where he should comply with the charms of Wit; and Wit how the ought to obey the fage directions of Judgment.

VER. 88. Thofe Rules of old, etc.] Having thus, in his fir precept, to follow Nature, fettled Criticifm on its true foundation; he proceeds to fhew, what affiftance may be had from

Nature, like Liberty, is but restrain'd

By the fame Laws which first herself ordain'd.

Hear how learn'd Greece her ufeful rules indites, When to repress, and when indulge our flights:

COMMENTARY.

Art. But, left this fhould be thought to draw the Critic from the ground where our Poet had before fixed him, he previ oufly obferves [from ver. 87 to 92.] that these Rules of Art, which he is now about to recommend to the Critic's obferv ancè, were not invented by the Fancy, but difcovered in the book of Nature; and that therefore, tho' they may seem to reftrain Nature by Laws, yet as they are Laws of her own making, the Critic is ftill properly in the very liberty of Nature. These Rules the antient Critics borrowed from the Poets, who received them immediately from Nature.

"Just Precepts thus from great Examples giv'n,

"Thefe drew from them what they deriv'd from Heav'n:" fo that both are to be well ftudied.

VER. 92. Hear how learn'd Greece, etc.] He fpeaks of the ancient Critics first, and with great judgment, as the previous knowledge of them is neceffary for reading the Poets, with that fruit which the end here propofed, requires. But have ing, in the previous obfervation, fufficiently explained the nature of ancient Criticifm, he enters on the fubject [treated of, from ver. 91 to 118.] with a fublime defcription of its end;

NOTES.

VER. 88. Thofe Rules of old, etc.] Cicero has, beft of any one I know, explained what that thing is which reduces the wild and fcattered parts of human knowledge into arts.— "Nihil eft quod ad artem redigi poffit, nifi ille prius, qui illa tenet, quorum artem inftituere vult, habeat illam fcientiam, ut ex iis rebus, quarum ars nondum fit, artem efficere poffit. "Omnia fere, quæ funt conclufa nunc artibús, difperfa et diffipata quondam fuerunt, ut in Musicis, etc. Adhibita

'

"eft igitur ars quædam extrinfecus ex alio genere quodam, quod fibi totum PHILOSOPHI affumunt, quæ rem diffolutam divulfamque conglutinaret, et ratione quadam conftringeret?” De Orat. 1. i. c. 41, 2.

High on Parnaffus' top her fons fhe show'd,
And pointed out those arduous paths they trod; 95
Held from afar, aloft, th' immortal prize,
And urg'd the reft by equal steps to rise.

Juft precepts thus from great examples giv'n,
She drew from them what they deriv'd from Heav'n.
The gen'rous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire,

And taught the world with Reason to admire.

COMMENTARY.

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which was to illuftrate the beauties of the best Writers, in order to excite others to an emulation of their excellence. From the rapture, which thefe Ideas infpire, the poet is brought back, by the follies of modern Criticism, now before his eyes, to reflect on its bafe degeneracy. And as the restoring the Art to its original purity and fplendor is the great purpofe of his poem, he first takes notice of those, who seem not to understand that Nature is exhauftlefs; that new models of good writing may be produced in every age; and confequently, that new rules may be formed from these models, in the fame manner as the old Critics formed theirs, which was, from the writings of the ancient Poets: But men wanting art and ability to form thefe new rules, were content to receive, and file up for ufe, the old ones of Ariftotle, Quintilian, Longinus, Horace, etc. with the fame vanity and boldness that Apothecaries practife, with their Doctor's bills: And then rafhly applying them to new Originals (cafes which they did not hit) it was no more in their power than in their inclination to imitate the candid practice of the Ancients, when

"The gen'rous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire,

"And taught the world with Reafon to admire ;"

NOTES.

VER. 98. fu precepts] "Nec enim artibus editis factum "eft ut argumenta inveniremus, fed dicta funt omnia ante

quam præciperentur; mox ea fcriptores obfervata et col"lecta ediderunt." Quintil. P.

Then Criticism the Muse's handmaid prov'd,
To dress her charms, and make her more belov'd:
But following wits from that intention ftray'd, 104
Who could not win the mistress, woo'd the maid;
Against the Poets their own arms they turn'd,
Sure to hate moft the men from whom they learn'd.
So modern 'Pothecaries, taught the art
By Doctor's bills to play the Doctor's part,
Bold in the practice of mistaken rules,
Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools.
Some on the leaves of antient authors prey,
Nor time nor moths e'er fpoil'd fo much as they.
Some drily plain, without invention's aid,
Write dull receipts how poems may be made. 115

COMMENTARY.

ΙΙΟ

For, as Ignorance, when joined with Humility, produces stupid admiration, on which account it is fo commonly observed to be the mother of Devotion and blind homage; fo when joined with Vanity (as it always is in bad Critics) it gives birth to every iniquity of impudent abuse and flander. See an example (for want of a better) in a late ridiculous and now forgotten thing, called the Life of Socrates: where the Head of the author (as a man of wit obferved, on reading the book) has juft made a fhift to do the office of a Camera obfcura, and represent things in an inverted order; himself above, and Sprat, Rollin, Voltaire, and every other writer of reputation, below.

NOTES.

VER. 112. Some on the leaves-Some drily plain,] The first the Apes of those Italian Critics who at the restoration of letters

These leave the sense, their learning to display,
And thofe explain the meaning quite away.
You then whofe judgment the right courfe
would fteer,

Know well each ANCIENT's proper chara&er;

COMMENTARY,

VER, 118, You then whofe Judgment, etc.] He comes next to the ancient Poets, the other and more intimate commentators of Nature. And fhews [from ver. 17 to 141.] that the ftudy of Thefe muft iudifpenfibly follow that of the ancient Critics, as they furnish us with what the Critics, who only give us general rules, cannot supply: while the ftudy of a great original Poet, in

« His Fable, Subject, scope in ev'ry page;

Religion, Country, genius of his Age;"

will help us to thofe particular rules which only can conduct us

NOTES.

having found the claffic writers miferably deformed by the hands of monkifh Librarians, very commendably employed their pains and talents in reftoring them to their native purity. The fecond, the plagiaries from the French Critics, who had made fome admirable commentaries on the antient critics. But that acumen and tafte, which feparately constitute the diftinct value of thofe two fpecies of Italian and French Cri- ticifm, make no part of the character of thefe paltry mimics at home, defcribed by our Poet in the following lines,

66

Thefe leave the fenfe, their learning to display, "And thofe explain the meaning quite away.”

Which fpecies is the leaft hurtful, the Poet has enabled us to determine in the lines with which he opens his poem,

"But of the two, lefs dang'rous is 'th' offence
To tire our patience, than mislead our fenfe."