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PART II: Ver. 203, etc.

Caufes bindering a true Judgment, 1. Pride, ver. 208. 2. Imperfect Learning, ver. 215. 3. Judging by parts, and not by the whole, ver. 233 to 288. Critics in Wit, Language, Verfification, only, ver. 288. 305. 339, etc. 4. Being too hard to please, or too upt to admire, ver. 384. 5. Partiality-too much love to a Sect,-to the Ancients or Moderns, ver. 394. 6. Prejudice or Prevention, ver. 408. Singularity, ver. 424. 8. Inconftancy, ver. 430. 9. Party Spirit, ver. 452, etc. 10. Envy, ver. 466. Against Envy and in praife of Good-nature, ver. 508, etc. When Severity is chiefly, to be used by Critics, ver. 526, etc.

PART III. Ver. 560, etc.

7.

Rules for the Conduct of Manners in a Critic, 1. Can

dour, ver. 563.

Modefty, ver. 566. Good-breeding, ver. 572. Sincerity and Freedom of advice, ver. 578. 2. When one's Counsel is to be restrained, ver. 584. Character of an incorrigible Poet, ver. 600. And of an impertinent Critic, ver. 610, etc. Character of a good Critic, ver. 629. The Hiftory of Criticism, and characters of the beft Critics, Ariftotle, ver. 645. Horace, ver. 653. Dionyfius, ver. 665. Petronius, ver. 667. Quintilian, ver. 670. Longinus, ver. 675. Of the Decay of Criticism, and its Revival. Erafmus, ver. 693. Vida, ver. 705. Boileau, ver. 714. Lord Rofcommon, etc. ver. 725. Conclufion.

A N

ESSAY

ΟΝ

CRITICISM.

IS hard to fay, if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill;

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

COMMENTARY.

An Effay.] The poem is in one book, but divided into three principal parts or members. The first [to ver. 201.] gives rules for the Study of the Art of Criticism: the second [from thence to ver. 560.] expofes the Caufes of wrong Judgment; and the third [from thence to the end] marks out the Morals of the Critic.

In order to a right conception of this poem, it will be necessary to observe, that tho' it be intitled fimply An Essay on Criticism, yet feveral of the precepts relate equally to the good writing as well as to the true judging of a poem. This is fo far from violating the Unity of the subject, that it preserves and completes it or from difordering the regularity of the Form, that it adds beauty to it, as will appear by the following confiderations: 1. It was impoffible to give a full and exact idea of the Art of Poetical Criticism, without confidering at the fame time the Art of Poetry; fo far as Poetry is an Art. These therefore being closely connected in nature, the author has, with much judgment, interwoven the pre

Some few in that, but numbers err in this,

5

Ten cenfure wrong for one who writes amifs;
A fool might once himself alone expose,
Now one in verfe makes many more in profe.
'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go juft alike, yet each believes his own.

COMMENTARY.

ΙΟ

cepts of each reciprocally thro' his whole poem. 2. As the rules of the ancient Critics were taken from Poets who copied nature, this is another reason why every Poet should be a Critic: Therefore, as the fubject is poetical Criticism, it is frequently addreffed to the critical Poet. And 3dly, the Art of Criticism is as properly, and much more usefully exercised in writing than in judging.

But readers have been milled by the modefty of the Title, which only promises an Art of Criticism, to expect little, where they will find a great deal; a treatife, and that no incomplete one, of the Art both of Criticism and Poetry. This, and the not attending to the confiderations offered above, was what, perhaps, mifled a very candid writer, after having given the ESSAY ON CRITICISM all the praises on the fide of genius and poetry which his true tafle could not refuse it, to fay, that the obfervations follow one another like thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would have been requifite in a profe writer. Spec. N° 235. I do not fee how method can hurt any one grace of Poetry; or what prerogative there is in Verfe to difpenfe with regularity. The Jemark is falfe in every part of it. Mr. Pope's Efay on Criticifm, the Reader will foon fee, is a regular piece: And a very learned Critic has lately fhewn, that Horace had the fame attention to method in his Art of Poetry. See Mr. Hard's Comment on the Epistle to the Pifos.

VER. 1. 'Tis hard to fay, etc.] The Poem opens [from ver. 1 to 9.3 with fhewing the ufe and feasonableness of the fubject. Its ufe, from the greater mischief in wrong Criticifm than in ill Poetry; this only tiring, that misleading the reader: Its feafonableness, from the growing number of bad Critics, which now vaftly exceeds that of bad Poets.

VER. 9.] 'Tis with our Judgments, etc.] The author having

CRITICISM

.

In Poets as true genius is but rare,

True Tafte as feldom is the Critic's fhare;
Both muft alike from Heav'n derive their light,
These born to judge, as well as those to write.

COMMENTARY.

fhewn us the expediency of his fubject, the Art of Criticifm, inquires next [from ver. 8 to 15] into the proper Qualities of a true Critic: and obferves firft, that JUDGMENT alone, is not fufficient to conftitute this character, because Judgment, like the artificial measures of Time, goes different, and yet each relies upon his own. The reasoning is conclufive; and the fimilitude extremely juft. For Judgment, when it goes alone, is generally regulated, or at least much influenced, by cuftom, fashion, and habit; and never certain and constant but when, founded upon TASTE: which is the fame in the Critic, as GENIUS in the Poet: both are derived from Heaven, and like the Sun, the natural measure of Time, always conftant and equable.

Nor need we wonder that Judgment alone, will not make a Critic in poetry, when we fee that it will not make a Poet. And on examination we fhall find, that Genius and Taste are but one and the fame faculty, differently exerting itself under different names, in the two profeffions of Poetry and Criticism. For the Art of Poetry confifts in felecting, out of all thofe images which prefent themselves to the fancy, fuch of them as are truly beautiful. And the Art of Criticism in difcerning, and fully relishing what it finds fo felected. 'Tis an exertion of the fame faculty of the mind in both cafes, and by almost the fame operation. The main difference is, that in the POET, this faculty is eminently joined to a bright imagination, and extenfive comprehenfion, which provide stores for the felection, and can form that felection, by proportioned parts, into a regular whole: In the CRITIC, to a folid judgment and accurate difcernment, which penetrate into the causes of an excellence, and fo, can difplay that excellence in all its variety of lights. Longinus had tafte in an eminent degree; therefore, this quality, which all true Critics have in common, our Author makes his diftinguishing character,

Thee, bold Longinus! all the Nine inspire,
And blefs their Critic with a Poet's fire.

i. e. with taste or genius.

Let fuch teach others who themselves excel, 15
And cenfure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true,
But are not Critics to their judgment too?
Yet if we look more closely, we shall find
Most have the feeds of judgment in their mind: 20

COMMENTARY.

VER. 15. Let fuch teach others, etc.] But it is not enough that the Critic hath these natural endowments of judgment and tafte, to entitle him to exercise his Art; he ought, as our author fhews us [from ver. 14 to 19] to give a further test of his qualification, by fome acquired talents: And this, on two accounts: I. Because the office of a Critic is an exercise of Authority. 2. Because he being naturally as partial to his Judgment as the Poet is to his Wit, his partiality would have nothing to correct it, as that of the perfon judged hath, by the very terms. Therefore fome teft is neceffary; and the best, and most unexceptionable, is his having written well himfelf; an approved remedy against Critical partiality; and the fureft means of maturing the Judgment, as to reap with glory what Longinus calls "the last and most perfect fruits of " much ftudy and experience.” Η ΓΑΡ ΤΩΝ ΛΟΓΩΝ ΚΡΙΣΙΣ ΠΟΛΛΗΣ ΕΣΤΙ ΠΕΙΡΑΣ ΤΕΛΕΥΤΑΙΟΝ ΕΠΙΓΕΝ NHMA.

VER. 19. Yet if we look, etc.] But the Author having been fo free with this fundamental quality of Criticifm, Judgment, as to charge it with inconftancy and partiality, and to be often warped by custom and affection; that he may not be mifunderstood, he next explains [from ver. 18 to 36.] the nature

NOTES.

VER. 15. Let fuch teach others]" Qui fcribit artificiofe, ab "aliis commode fcripta facile intelligere poterit." Cic. ad Herenn. lib. iv. "De pictore, fculptore, fictore, nifi artifex, ju"dicare non poteft." Pliny. P.

VER. 20. Moft have the feeds] " Omnes tacito quodam fen"fu, fine ulla arte, aut ratione, quæ fint in artibus ac ratio“nibus recta et prava dijudicant." Cic. de Orat. lib. iii. P.

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