Though triumphs were to gen'rals only due,
Crowns were reserv'd to grace the soldiers too.
Now, they who reach Parnassus' lofty crown,
Employ their pains to spurn some others down; 515
And while self-love each jealous writer rules,
Contending wits become the sport of fools:
But still the worst with most regret commend,
For each ill Author is as bad a Friend.

To what base ends, and by what abject ways, 520
Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!
Ah ne'er so dire a thirst of glory boast,
Nor in the Critic let the Man be lost.
Good-nature and good sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive, divine.

But if in noble minds some dregs remain
Not yet purg'd off, of spleen and sour disdain;

COMMENTARY.

525

Ver. 526. But if in noble minds some dregs remain, &c.] So far as to what ought to be the true Critic's principal study and employment. But if the sour critical humour abounds, and must therefore needs have vent, he directs to its proper object; and shews [from ver. 525 to 556.] how it may be innocently and usefully pointed. This is very observable; our author had made spleen and disdain the characteristic of the false Critic, and yet here supposes them inherent in the true. But it is done with judgment, and a knowledge of nature. For as bitterness and astringency in unripe fruits of the best kind are the foundation and capacity of that high spirit, race, and flavour which we find in them when perfectly concocted by the warmth and influence of the sun, and which, without those qualities, would gain no more by that influence than only a mellow insipidity: so spleen and disdain in the true Critic, when improved by long study and experience, ripen into an exactness of judgment and an elegance of taste: although, in the false Critic, lying remote from the influ

ence

530

Discharge that rage on more provoking crimes,
Nor fear a dearth in these flagitious times.
No pardon vile obscenity should find,
Tho' wit and art conspire to move your mind;
But Dulness with Obscenity must prove
As shameful sure as Impotence in love.
In the fat age of pleasure, wealth, and ease,
Sprung the rank weed, and thriv'd with large in-

crease:

COMMENTARY.

535

ence of good letters, they remain in all their first offensive harshness and acerbity. The Poet therefore shews how, after the exaltation of these qualities into their state of perfection, the very dregs (which, though precipitated, may possibly, on some occasions, rise and ferment even in a noble mind) may be usefully employed, that is to say, in branding OBSCENITY and IMPIETY. Of these, he explains the rise and progress, in a beautiful picture of the different geniuses of the two reigns of Charles II. and William III. The former of which gave course to the most profligate luxury; the latter to a licentious impiety. These are the crimes our author assigns over to the caustic hand of the Critic; but concludes however [from ver. 555 to 560.] with this necessary admonition, to take care not to be misled into unjust censure; either on the one hand, by a pharisaical niceness, or on the other by a self-consciousness of guilt. And thus the second division of his Essay ends the judicious conduct of which is worthy our observation. The subjects of it are the causes of wrong judgment : These he derives upwards from cause to cause, till he brings them to their source, an immoral partiality: For as he had, in the first part,

"trac'd the MUSES upward to their spring,"

and shewn them to be derived from Heaven, and the offspring of virtue; so hath he here pursued this enemy of the Muses, the BAD CRITIC, to his low original, in the arms of his nursing mother Immorality. This order naturally introduces, and at the same time shews the necessity of, the subject of the third and last division, which is, on the Morals of the Critic.

540

When love was all an easy. Monarch's care;
Seldom at council, never in a war:..
Jilts rul'd the state, and statesmen farces writ:
Nay wits had pensions, and young Lords had wit:
The fair sate panting at a courtier's play,
And not a mask went unimprov'd away :
The modest fan was lifted up no more,
And virgins smil'd at what they blush'd before.
The following licence of a foreign reign
Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain;
Then unbelieving priests reform'd the nation,
And taught more pleasant methods of salvation;
Where Heav'n's free subjects might their rights

dispute,

Lest God himself should seem too absolute:

545

550

Pulpits their sacred satire learn'd to spare,
And Vice admir'd to find a flatt'rer there!
Encourag'd thus, Wit's Titans brav'd the skies,
And the press groan'd with licens'd blasphemies.
These monsters, Critics! with your darts engage,
Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage!

NOTES.

Ver. 545. Did all the dregs, &c.] The seeds of this religious evil, as well as of the political good from whence it sprung (for good and evil are incessantly springing out of one another) were sown in the preceding fat age of pleasure. The mischiefs done during Cromwell's usurpation, by fanaticism, inflamed by erroneous and absurd notions of the doctrine of grace and satisfaction, made the loyal Latitudinarian divines (as they were called) at the Restoration, go so far into the other extreme of resolving all Christianity into morality, so as to afford an easy introduction to Socinianism: which in that reign (founded on the principles of liberty) men had full opportunity of propagating.

Warburton.

Yet shun their fault, who scandalously nice,
Will needs mistake an author into vice;

All seems infected that th' infected spy,

As all looks yellow to the jaundic'd eye.

III.

LEARN then what MORALS Critics ought to

show,

For 'tis but half a judge's task, to know.

COMMENTARY.

560

Ver. 560. Learn then, &c.] We enter now on the third part, the MORALS of the Critic; included in CANDOUR, MODESTY, and GOOD-BREEDING. This third and last part is in two divisions. In the first of which [from ver. 559 to 631.] our author inculcates these morals by precept: In the second, [from ver. 630 to the end] by example. His first precept [from ver. 561 to 566.] recommends CANDOUR, for its use to the Critic, and to the writer criticised.

2. The second [from ver. 565 to 572.] recommends MODESTY, which manifests itself in these four signs; 1. Silence where it doubts,

Be silent always, when you doubt your sense; 2. A seeming diffidence where it knows,

And speak, tho' sure, with seeming diffidence; 3. A free confession of error where wrong,

But

you with pleasure own your errors past;

4. And a constant review and scrutiny even of those opinions which it still thinks right,

And make each day a Critique on the last.

3. The third [from ver. 571 to 584.] recommends GOODBREEDING, which will not force truth dogmatically upon men, as ignorant of it, but gently insinuates it to them, as not sufficiently attentive to it. But as men of breeding are apt to fall into two extremes, he prudently cautions against them. The one is a backwardness in communicating their knowledge, out of a false delicacy, and for fear of being thought pedants: The other, and much

more

"Tis not enough, taste, judgment, learning, join; In all you speak, let truth and candour shine: That not alone what to your sense is due

All may allow; but seek your friendship too. 565
Be silent always, when you doubt your sense;
And speak, tho' sure, with seeming diffidence:
Some positive, persisting fops we know,

Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so;
But you with pleasure own your errors past, 570
And make each day a critique on the last.

'Tis not enough your counsel still be true;
Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do;
Men must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown propos'd as things forgot. 575
Without good-breeding truth is disapprov'd;
That only makes superior sense belov❜d.

Be niggards of advice on no pretence:

For the worst avarice is that of sense.

With mean complacence ne'er betray your trust, Nor be so civil as to prove unjust.

COMMENTARY.

more common extreme, is a mean complaisance, which those who are worthy of your advice do not need, to make it acceptable; for such can best bear reproof in particular points, who best deserve commendation in general.

NOTES.

Ver. 570. your errors past,] "Et ipsa emendatio habet finem; sunt enim qui ad omnia scripta, tanquam vitiosa redeunt ; et quasi nihil fas sit rectum esse quod primum est, melius existiment quidquid est aliud; idque faciunt quoties librum in manus resumpserint; similes medicis, etiam integra secantibus. Accidit itaque ut cicatricosa sint, et exanguia, et curâ pejora. Sit aliquando quod placeat; aut certè quod sufficiat ; ut plus poliat lima, non exterat."-Quintil. lib. 10. Warton.