may indeed be rendered confpicuous from this felection of examples; but its extent and variety must be wholly loft, as well as that great effect which results from the union of fubordinate figures, as thefe at the fame time receive and reflect light upon the principal. Both the errors last mentioned indicate a mind unable to distinguifh the more, from the lefs important branches of its fubject, and giving upon the whole a proof of its own narrow investigation, instead of an accurate and confiftent detail of the performance fubmitted to its cognizance. For in all cafes whatever it holds equally true, that, Cui lecta potenter erit res, Hunc nec facundia deferet, neq; lucidus ordo. THE laft criterion we mentioned of inability in the Critical Art, is when we find the Writer adducing examples (of what kind foever) which contain a vein either of sentiment or of description wholly diversified, instead of being directly appropriated to the purpose for which it is introduced. Critics, who poffefs a small share of discernment, are skreened upon occafion very effectually by this general method of going to work; as, after having ventured to afcribe any determinate character to objects, of whofe nature their own ideas are no tfufficiently explicit, they felect examples, in which, among A TOWN ECLOGUE 119 JUPITER and the CLOWN. A Fable An Elegy on the DEATH of a LINNET An EVENING PIECE 124 133 136 To Mifs To the Memory of Mrs. with a Flower 139 SAPPHO'S Ode to VENUS tranflated To the Memory of Mr. H*** M***. An Elegy To the Memory of the late pious and ingenious Mr. Hervey The Third Chapter of HABAKKUK paraphrafed To a FRIEND in the Country Written extempore, on feeing a young Lady 141 143 148 and} 152 1 8 163 ibid. An EPIGRAM from CLAUDIAN To the Memory of the late Right Ho nourable JAMES, Earl of FINDLATER and SEAFIELD 170 THE PREFACE. F all the various fpecies of Composition, that which me to have greateft to which seems to have the greatest licence allowed to it, and whose abuse it is moft difficult (at least in many cases) either to detect, or to rectify, is the A Criticifm. This difficulty arifeth partly from that series of objects, almost perpetually diverfified, which the various researches of this Art present to the mind; partly from the complicated ingredients, of which particular objects are found to confist when examined feparately; but principally, no doubt, from the degrees of excellence and defect exhibited, not merely in fome performances, but appearing in every one, as indicating (in all cafes whatever) imperfection of that mind from which it derived its origin. It is the natural effect of these causes, that as a discourse, whose parts in general are difproportioned, may be fhewn in a favourable point of view, VOL. I. a where where the most unexceptionable paffages are selected for this purpose; fo, where the contrary is really the case, the Reader may receive an unfavourable prepoffeffion from having fuch objects only placed before him, in a connection likewife foreign to their original ftate, as tend to mislead and impofe upon his judgment. In order therefore to remove, at leaft fome part of this difficulty in the prefent cafe, I fhall here, by way of introduction to the following pieces, tried, as these have been, by standards of Criticism extremely different, throw together a few obfervations on the Art, which may enable an impartial Reader to diftinguish betwixt weakness and malevolence in a Critic in the various spheres of his profeffion, particularly in that where an extenfive field and diverfified fcenery render, his errors leaft fufceptible of immediate detection. CRITICISM, Confidered in general as an Art, extends its influence to every subject on which the mind is converfant. In the Sciences it judgeth of the precision, importance, and difpofition of fentiment, character or events, as in what we denominate the Fine Arts, it decides principally of imitative beauty, arifing from the conformity betwixt an Original and a Copy. ob In both the spheres above-mentioned, we may ferve with truth as general criterions, that an under 2 ftanding pur ftanding either naturally weak, or inadequate in fome. particular inftance to its fubject, will be rendered confpicuous, not only from a theory obviously deficient in some effential requifites; but, principally, from the examples by which certain principles are to be confirmed, as either selected improperly to give an adequate view of the subject, as applied without fimilarity to the pose of illustration, as confifting of circumftances comparatively infignificant; or, finally, as containing a vein of fentiment or description wholly diverfified, when the Author ought to have adapted his example wholly to some particular object.-A Critic is chargeable with the first of these principally in the provinces of Philosophy and History, when, in order to exemplify fome general obfervations, perhaps in themselves not foreign to the purpose, a weight appears to be laid in the former cafe upon sentiments the most simple and confpicuous, rather than upon fuch as discover the Writer's discernment and perfpicuity-in the latter, when, amidst the infinite variety of events and of characters, those are selected, as, exhibiting a compleat fpecimen of an Author equal to every part of his fubject, which tend only by their greatness to excite admiration, without displaying fuch at the same time as, being clearly developed from many intricate combinations, difcover a penetration equal to the most perplexing researches. In both thefe cafes we |