In the bright Muse tho' thousand charms confpire, COMMENTARY. mony And fecondly, as it is varied in compliance to the fubject, where the found becomes an echo to the fense, so far as is confiftent with the prefervation of numbers; in contradiction to the monotony of false Harmony: Of this he gives us in the delivery of his precepts, four fine examples, of smoothness, roughness, flowness, and rapidity. The first ufe of this correspondence of the found to the fenfe, is to aid the fancy in acquiring a perfecter and more lively image of the thing reprefented. A fecond and nobler, is to calm and fubdue the turbulent and felfifh paffions, and to raife and inflame the beneficent: Which he illuftrates in the famous adventure of Timotheus and Alexander; and by referring to Mr. Dryden's Ode on that subject, turns it to a very high complement on that great poet. NOTES. 337. But mot by Num bers, &c.] Effugiat junctura ungues : These equal fyllables alone require, Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire ; 345 And ten low words oft' creep in one dull line; Leave fuch to tune their own dull rhimes, and know What's roundly fmooth, or languishingly flow; And praife the eafy vigour of a line, 360 Where Denham's ftrength, and Waller's fweetness join. NOTES. 345, Tho' oft the ear, &c.] Fugiemus crebras vocalium concurfiones, quæ va. Sam atque biantem oratio nem reddunt. Cic. ad. He- At ev'ry trifle fcorn to take offence, That always fhows great pride, or little fenfe; Some foreign writers, fome our own defpife: The Ancients only, or the Modern's prize. 395 COMMENTARY, perfons. This, therefore, as the main root of all the foregoing, he profecutes at large from 383 to 473: First he previously exposes that capricious turn of mind, which, by running men into Extrêmes, either of praise or difpraife, lays the foundation of an habitual partiality. He cautions therefore both against one and the other; and fhews that excels of Praife is the mark of a bad tafe, and excefs of Cenfure, of a bad digestion. VER. 394. Some foreign writers, &c.] Having explained the difpofition of mind which produces an habitual partiality, he proceeds to expofe this partiality in all the fhapes it appears in, both amongst the unlearned and the learned. I. In the unlearned, it is feen, 1. In an unreasonable fondness for, or averfion to our cwn or foreign, to ancient or modern writers. And as it is the mob of unlearned readers he is here fpeaking of, he expofes their folly in a very appofite fimilitude: Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd And fee now clearer and now darker days. 405 But blame the falfe, and value ftill the true. COMMENTARY. Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd But he fhews that these Critics have as wrong a notion of True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, roar. When Ajax, ftrives, fome rock's vast weight to throw, 37.0 The line too labours, and the words move flow; NOTES. 364. 'Tis not enough no barfbnejs gives offence; The found must seem an Echo to the fenfe,] The judicious introduction of this precept is remarkable. The Poets, and even fome of the belt of them, while too intent to give this beauty of making the found an Echo to the fenfe, fall fometimes into an unharmonious diffonance. But this is car rying a particular precept of the art into an extreme, that deftroys one of the general principles of it, which is Harmony. The poet therefore, by the introductory line would infinuate, that Harmony is always prefuppofed as obferved; tho' it may and ought to be perpetually varied, fo as to exprefs the beauty above fpoken of, |