Form fhort Ideas; and offend in arts (As most in manners) by a love to parts. Some to Conceit alone their taste confine, And glitt'ring thoughts ftruck out at ev'ry line; 290 295 Poets, like painters, thus, unskill'd to trace NOTES. VER. 290. And glittring thoughts] A rage that infected Marino, Donne, and his difciple Cowley. See Dr. Johnson's excellent Differtation on Cowley, and his fantastic ftyle, in the first volume of Lives of the Poets. Little can be added to his difcuffion on falfe and unnatural thoughts. It is, beyond comparison, the best of all his criticifms. VER. 296. Hide with ornaments] Nothing can excel the fine obfervation of Tully on this fubject, in the 3d Book de Oratore ; "Voluptatibus maximis, faftidium finitimum eft in rebus omnibus ; quo hoc minus in oratione miremur. In quâ, vel ex poetis, vel oratoribus poffumus judicare, concinnam, ornatam, feftivam, fine intermiffione, quamvis claris fit coloribus pieta, vel poefis, vel oratio, non poffe in delectatione effe diuturnâ. Quare bene & præclarè, quamvis nobis fæpe dicatur, bellè & festivè nimium fæpe nolo." VER. 297. True Wit is Nature to advantage drefs'd, &c.] This definition is very exact. Mr. Locke had defined wit to confift in the affemblage of ideas, and putting thofe together, with quickness and variety, wherein can be found any refemblance or congruity, whereby to make up pleasant pictures and agreeable vifions in the fancy." But that great philofopher, in feparating wit from judgment, as he does in this place, has given us (and he could therefore give us no other) only an account of Wit in general Something, whofe truth convinc'd at fight we find, NOTES. 300 As general: In which falfe wit, tho' not every fpecies of it, is included. A striking image therefore of Nature is, as Mr. Locke obferves, certainly Wit: But this image may ftrike on feveral other accounts, as well as for its truth and beauty; and the philofopher has explained the manner how. But it never becomesthat Wit which is the ornament of true poefy, whofe end is to represent nature, but when it dreffes that nature to advantage, and presents her to us in the brightest and most amiable light. And to know when the Fancy has done its office truly, the poet fubjoins this admirable teft, viz. When we perceive that it gives us back the image of our mind. When it does that, we may be fure it plays no tricks with us: For this image is the creature of the Judgment; and whenever Wit corresponds with Judgment, we may fafely pronounce it to be true. "Naturam intueamur, hanc fequamur: id facillime accipiunt animi quod agnofcunt." Quint. lib. viii. c. 3. W.. "The poet in cenfuring the narrow and partial taftes of some critics, begins with that for conceit, or a glitter of dazzling thoughts rifing one after another, without meaning or connection. This is falfe wit; as a contrast to which, he gives a definition of the true, in the preceding lines. But he evidently, by this purpose of contrasting the two kinds, has been led to a defcription which exhibits none of the peculiar features of wit, as other writers have reprefented it. By this definition, any just moral fentiment, any exact picture of a natural object, if clothed in good expreffion, would be wit. Its teft being an agreement with images previously exifting in our own minds, no other quality is requifite to it but truth. Even uncommonnefs is not taken into the character: for we must often have thought it, and be able to recognize it at fight. Nor has he given any diftinct idea of that advantageous dress which makes a natural thought witty. "No drefs can fuit fome thoughts fo well, as the most fimple. Exalted fentiments of the heart, and fublime objects in nature, generally ftrike moft when prefented in language the leaft ftudied. Indeed, he ufes, within a few lines, the very fame metaphor of drefs, in expofing the finical taste of those who value a work for the style rather than the fense; and the fact certainly is, that the moft P 4 As fhades more fweetly recommend the light, NOTES. moft confeffedly witty writers have been often little folicitous as to the manner of expreffing their notions. "Pope evidently entertains a different conception of wit, from that of the definition above quoted, in the lines immediately following: As fhades more fweetly recommend the light, So modeft plainnefs fets off fprightly wit. For works may have more wit than does them good, "Now "modeft plainnefs" is no foil or contraft to wit, as characterised in the definition, because it may be the most "advantageous drefs" for a thought. Again, that wit which may fuperabound in a work, must be a different thing from "natural imagery joined to good expreffion," for in thefe, what danger can there be of excefs? He was certainly now recurring in his mind to those brilliant flashes, which, though often introduced with falfe judgment, are not, however, falfe wit. "The two characters of bad critic and bad poet are grossly confounded in the paffage relating to poetical numbers; for though it be true, that vulgar readers of poetry are chiefly attentive to the melody of the verfe, yet it is not they who admire, but the paltry verfifier who employs monotonous fyllables, feeble expletives, and a dull routine of unvaried rhymes. Again, an ordinary ear is capable of perceiving the beauty arising from the found being made an echo to the fense; indeed it is one of the most obvious beauties in poetry; but it is no eafy task for the poet to fucceed in his attempts to render it fo, as Pope has fufficiently proved by the miferable failure of fome of his examples in illustration of the precept." Effays Hiftorical and Critical. VER. 297. True Wit is Nature,] Immediately after this the poet adds, For works may have more wit than does 'em good. "Now (fays a very acute and judicious critic) let us substitute the definition in the place of the thing, and it will stand thus; A work may have more of Nature drefs'd to advantage than will do it good. This is impoffible; and it is evident that the confufion arifes from the poet's having annexed two different ideas to the fame word." Webb's Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry, p. 68. For For works may have more wit than does 'em good, As bodies perifh through excess of blood. NOTES. VER. 298. What oft was thought,] In Dr. Johnfon's remarks on these poets, whom, after Dryden, he calls the metaphyfical poets, he says, very finely; "Pope's account of wit is undoubtedly erroneous; he depreffes it below its natural dignity, and reduces it from ftrength of thought to happiness of language. "If by a more noble and more adequate conception that be confidered as wit, which is at once natural and new, that which, though not obvious, is, upon its first production, acknowledged to be just; if it be that, which he that never found it, wonders how he miffed; to wit of this kind the metaphysical poets have seldom rifen. Their thoughts are often new, but seldom natural; they are not obvious, but neither are they juft; and the reader, far from wondering that he miffed them, wonders more frequently by what perverseness they were ever found. "But wit, abftracted from its effects upon the hearer, may be more vigorously and philofophically confidered as a kind of difcordia. concors; a combination of diffimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike. Of wit, thus defined, they have more than enough. The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ranfacked for illuftrations, comparisons, and allufions; their learning instructs, and their fubtilty furprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he fometimes admires, is feldom pleased. "From this account of their compofitions it will be readily inferred, that they were not fuccessful in reprefenting or moving the affections. As they were wholly employed on fomething unexpected and furprizing, they had no regard to that uniformity of fentiment which enables us to conceive and to excite the pains and the pleasures of other minds; they never enquired what, on any occafion, they fhould have faid or done; but wrote rather as beholders than partakers of human nature; as beings looking upon good and evil, impaffive and at leifure, as Epicurean deities, making remarks on the actions of men, and the viciffitudes of life, without intereft and without emotion. Their courtship was void of fondness, and their lamentation of forrow. Their wish was only to fay what they hoped had never been said before." Others Others for Language all their care exprefs, 305 And value books, as women men, for drefs: Their praise is still,-The Style is excellent; The Senfe, they humbly take upon content. Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, Much fruit of fenfe beneath is rarely found: 310 Falfe eloquence, like the prifmatic glafs, Its gaudy colours fpreads on ev'ry place; The NOTES. VER. 302. Modeft plainnefs.] Xenophon in Greek, and Cæfar in Latin are the unrivalled masters of the beautiful fimplicity here recommended. We have no English, French, or Italian Writer, that can be placed in the fame rank with them, for this uncommon excellence. VER. 311. Falfe eloquence,] The naufeous affectation of expreffing every thing pompously and poetically, is no where more vifible than in a poem by Mallet, entitled Amyntor and Theodora. The following inftance may be alleged among many others. Amyntor having a pathetic tale to discover, being choaked with forrow, and at a lofs for utterance, uses these ornamental and unnatural images. 66 O could I fteal Voltaire has given a comprehenfive rule with refpect to every Species of compofition. "Il ne faut réchercher, ni les pensées, ni les tours, ni les expreffions, et que l'art, dans tous les grands ouvrages, eft de bien raisonner, fans trop faire d'argument; de bien peindre, fans voiloir tout peindre, d'émouvoir, fans vouloir toujours exciter les paffions." In a word, true eloquence, a juft ftyle, confifts in the number, the propriety, and the placing of words; is content with a natural and fimple beauty; hunts not after foreign figures, disdains far-fought and meretricious ornaments. Just as the strength of an |