349 While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, 354 That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes, and know What's roundly smooth, or languishingly slow; And praise the easy vigor of a line, 360 Where Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join. True ease in writing comes from art, not chance; As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance. "Tis not enough no harshness gives offence; The sound must seem an echo to the sense. 365 Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; 365 The sound must seem an echo to the sense. Johnson, in the 'Rambler,' justly controverts this principle; denies that Pope's examples exemplify any thing but the failure of his theory; and contemptuously asks, why the speed of Camilla should be pictured by the slowest line in our language? The obvious source of the error in the text exists in the supposition that the Greek and Roman quantities can be transferred to English poetry. The genius of the classic and the English tongues is totally distinct; and all attempts to mould English syllables into ancient harmony have only given additional evidence of the hopelessness of the enterprise. But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar: When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, 370 The line too labors, and the words move slow: 375 Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise, Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such, 385 390 That always shows great pride or little sense: Some foreign writers, some our own despise; 395 400 405 Meanly they seek the blessing to confine, then 410 415 Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men. 420 425 So much they scorn the crowd, that if the throng By chance go right, they purposely go wrong: So schismatics the plain believers quit, And are but damn'd for having too much wit. 429 Some praise at morning what they blame at night; But always think the last opinion right. 437 A Muse by these is like a mistress used; What wonder modes in wit should take their turn? Oft, leaving what is natural and fit, The current folly proves the ready wit; 450 Which lives as long as fools are pleased to laugh. 444 Scotists. The disciples of Johannes Duns Scotus, the great unintelligible doctor, the Kant of his day. Thomists,' the disciples of Thomas Aquinas, celebrated for his singular subtlety, and his Summa Summæ,' containing comments on Aristotle, &c. 445 Kindred cobwebs. Bale narrates, as a miracle of the seventh century, that, at the sixth general council of Constantinople, where the mass was established, and the clergy were forbidden to marry, a vast quantity of cobwebs were seen suddenly to fall on the heads of the people. 445 Duck-lane. A place where old and second-hand books were sold formerly, near Smithfield.-Pope. 455 Some, valuing those of their own side or mind, Still make themselves the measure of mankind: Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men. Parties in wit attend on those of state, And public faction doubles private hate. Pride, malice, folly, against Dryden rose, In various shapes of parsons, critics, beaux; But sense survived when merry jests were pass'd; For rising merit will buoy up at last. 459 465 Might he return, and bless once more our eyes, 469 458 Against Dryden rose. Dryden unhappily exposed himself too much to the censure of the moralist: living in a loose day, he submitted to the general habit, and increased the degeneracy which his powerful mind was given to reclaim. The parson here carelessly alluded to, was Jeremy Collier, a rough critic, but an honest writer: the critic was the duke of Buckingham, who ridiculed with memorable pleasantry the extravagances of Dryden's plays. 463 Milbourns. Luke Milbourn, a clergyman, and a tolerable critic; but, unluckily for his fame, opposed to Pope in his comments on Shakspeare. 465 Zoilus. A lesson to criticism in both his life and death: a general trafficker in abuse, he wrote against all the highest names of Greek literature, Homer, Aristotle, Plato, Demosthenes, &c.: having thus rendered himself obnoxious to his countrymen, he fled to Egypt, where, according to the narrative of Vitruvius, he was seized by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who, in his abhorrence of critical libel, ordered him to be stoned to death. |