And while felf-love each jealous writer rules,
Contending wits become the fport of fools:
But ftill the worst with most regret commend,
For each ill Author is as bad a Friend.
To what bafe ends, and by what abject ways, 520
Are mortals urg'd thro' facred luft of praise!
Ah ne'er fo dire a thirst of glory boast,

Nor in the Critic let the Man be loft.
Good-nature and good fenfe must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive, divine.

525

But if in noble minds fome dregs remain Not yet purg'd off, of fpleen and four disdain;

COMMENTARY.

VER. 526. But if in noble minds fome dregs remain, etc.] So far as to what ought to be the true Critic's principal study and employment. But if the four critical humour must needs have vent, he points to its right object; and fhews [from ver 525 to 556.] how it may be innocently and usefully diverted. This is very obfervable; our author had made spleen and difdain the characteristic of the falfe Critic, and yet here fuppofes them inherent in the true. But it is done with judgment, and a knowledge of Nature. For as bitterness and aftringency 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 fun, and which, without thofe qualities, would gain no more by that influence than only a mellow infipidity : fo fpleen and difdain in the true Critic, when improved by long ftudy and experience, ripen into an exactness of Judgment and an elegance of Tafte: But, in the false Critic, lying remote from the influence of good letters, continue in all their first offenfive harshness and acerbity. The Poet therefore fhews how,

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 confpire to move your mind;
But Dulness with Obscenity must prove
As shameful fure 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

after the exaltation of thefe qualities into their state of per fection, the very Dregs (which, tho' precipitated, may poffibly, on fome occafions, rise and ferment even in a noble mind) may be usefully employed in branding OBSCENITY and IMPIETY: Of these he explains the rife and progress, in a beautiful picture of the different genius's 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. Thefe are the criminals our Author affigns 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 cenfure; either on the one hand, by a pharifaical niceness, or on the other by a confcioufness of guilt. And thus the fecond divifion of his Effay ends: The judicious conduct of which is worthy our obfervation. The subject of it are the causes of wrong judgment: Thefe he derives upwards from caufe to caufe, till he brings them to their fource, an immoral partiality: For as he had, in the first part,

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

and fhewn them to be derived from Heaven, and the Offspring of Virtue; so hath he bere pursued this enemy of the Mufes, the BAD CRITIC, to his low original, in the arms of his nurfing mother Immorality. This order naturally introduces, and at the fame time fhews the neceffity of, the fubject of the third and last divifion, which is, on the Morals of the Critic.

When love was all an easy Monarch's care;
Seldom at council, never in a war :

Jilts rul'd the ftate, and statesmen farces writ : Nay wits had penfions, and young Lords had wit: The Fair fate panting at a Courtier's play, 540 And not a Mask went unimprov'd away:

The modeft fan was lifted up no more,

And Virgins fmil'd at what they blush'd before.
The following licence of a Foreign reign
Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain ; 545
Then unbelieving Priests reform'd the nation,
And taught more pleasant methods of falvation;

NOTES.

VER. 545. Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain ;] The feeds of this religious evil, as well as of the political good from whence it fprung (for good and evil are inceffantly ari fing from one another) were fown in the preceding fat age of pleasure. The mifchiefs done during Cromwell's ufurpation, by fanaticifm, inflamed by erroneous and abfurd notions of the doctrine of grace and fatisfaction, made the loyal Latitudinarian divines (as they were called) at the Restoration, go fo far into the other extreme of refolving all Christianity into Morality, as to afford an eafy introduction to Socinianifm? Which in that reign (founded on the principles of Liberty) men had full opportunity of propagating.

VER. 547. The author has omitted two lines which stood here, as containing a National Reflection, which in his ftricter judgment he could not but difapprove on any People whatever. P.

Where Heav'n's free subjects might their rights

dispute,

Left God himself should seem too abfolute :
Pulpits their facred fatire learn'd to spare, 550
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 blafphemies.
These monsters, Critics! with your darts engage,
Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage!
Yet fhun their fault, who, fcandalously nice, 556
Will needs mistake an author into vice;
All seems infected that th' infected fpy,
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 tafk, to know.

COMMENTARY.

560

VER. 560. Learn then, etc.] 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 divifions. In the first of which [from ver. 559 to 631] our author inculcates thefe morals by precept: In the fecond [from ver. 630 to the end] by example. His firft precept [from ver. 561 to 566] recommends CANDOUR, for its ufe to the Critic, and to the writer criticifed.

NOTES.

VER. 561. For 'tis but half a Judge's task, to know.] The Critic acts in two capacities, of Affeffor and of Judge: in the first, fcience alone is fufficient; but the other requires morale likewife.

"Tis not enough, taste, judgment, learning, join;
In all you speak, let truth and candour shine :
That not alone what to your fenfe is due
All may allow ; but feek your friendship too. 565
Be filent always, when you doubt your sense;

And speak, tho' fure, with seeming diffidence:
Some pofitive, perfifting fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always

COMMENTARY.

2. The Second [from ver. 565 to 572.] recommends Mos DESTY, which manifefts itself in these four figns; 1. Silence where it doubts,

Be filent always, when you doubt your sense;

2. A feeming diffidence where it knows,

And speak, tho' fure, with feeming diffidence 3. A free confeffion of error where wrong,

But you with pleasure own your errors paft;

4. And a conftant review and scrutiny even of thofe opinions which it ftill thinks right,

And make each day a Critique on the laft.

3. The third [from ver. 571 to 584.] recommends GooDBREEDING, which will not force truth dogmatically upon men, as ignorant of it, but gently infinuates it to them, as not fufficiently 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 common extreme, is a mean comiplaifance which thofe who are worthy of your advice do not want to make it acceptable; for fuch can best bear reproof in particular points, who beft deferve commendation in ge

neral.