* A perfect judge will read each work of wit With the fame spirit that its author writ,

Survey the whole, nor feek flight fault to find;

Where nature moves, and rapture, warms the mind;

Nor lofe, for that malignant dull delight,

The gen'rous pleasure to be charm'd with wit;
But in fuch lays as neither ebb, nor flow,
Correctly cold, and regularly low,

That fhunning faults, one quiet tenour keep;
We cannot blame indeed- -but we may fleep.
In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts
Is not th' exactness of peculiar parts;
'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call,

But the joint force and full refult of all.

Thus when we view fome well-proportion'd dome, (The world's juft wonder, and ev'n thine O Rome!) No fingle parts unequally furprize;

All comes united to th' admiring eyes;

No monstrous height, or breadth, or length appear; The whole at once is bold, and regular.

*Diligenter legendum eft, ac pane ad fcribendi follicitudinem: Nec per partes modò fcrutanda funt omnia, fed perlellus liber utique ex integro refumendus. Quintil.

Whoever

Whoever thinks a faultlefs piece to see,

Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er fhall be.
In ev'ry work regard the writer's end,

Since none; can compass more than they intend';
And if the means be juft, the conduct true,
Applause, in fpight of trivial faults, is due.
As men of breeding, fometimes men of wit,
T'avoid great errors, muft the lefs commit:
Neglect the rules each verbal critic lays,

For not to know fome trifles, is a praise.
Moft critics, fond of fome fubfervient art,
Still make the whole depend upon a part,
They talk of principles, but notions prize,
And all to one lov'd folly facrifice.

Once on a time, La Mancha's Knight, they fay,
A certain Bard encount'ring on the way,
Difcours'd in terms as juft, with looks as fage,
As e'er could Dennis of the laws o'th' stage;
Concluding all were defpirate fots and fools,
That durft depart from Ariftotle's rules.
Our author, happy in a judge fo nice,
Produc'd his play, and begg'd the knight's advice;
Made him obferve the fubject, and the plot,

The manners, paffions, unities, what not?

All

All which, exact to rule, were brought about,

Were but a combate in the lists left out.

"What! leave the combate out"? exclaims the

(knight;

Yes, or we must renounce the Stagyrite ;
"Not fo by heav'n " (he answers in a rage)

« Knights,squires, and steeds,must enter on the stage”.
The stage can ne'er fo vaft a throng contain.
"Then build a new, or act it in a plain ".

Thus critics, of lefs judgment than caprice,
Curious, not knowing, not exact, but nice,
Form fhort ideas, and offend in arts

(As moft in manners) by a love to parts.
Some to conceit alone their taste confine,
And glitt'ring thoughts ftruck out at ev'ry line;
Pleas'd with a work where nothing's just or fit;
One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit.
Poets like painters, thus, unskill'd to trace
The naked nature and the living grace,
With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part,

And hide with ornaments their want of art.
True *wit is nature to advantage dress'd,

What oft' was thought, but ne'er fo well exprefs'd;

* Naturam intueamur, hanc fequamur ; id facillimè accipiunt animi quod agnofcunt. Quintil. lib. 8. c. 3.

Something

Something, whose truth convinc'd at fight we find,
That gives us back the image of our mind.
As fhades moft fweetly recommend the light,
So modeft plainnefs fets off sprightly wit:
For works may have more wit than does 'em good,
As bodies perish through excess of blood.

Others for language all their care express,
And value books, as women men, for dress:
Their praife is flill-the ftyle is excellent:
The fenfe, they humbly take upon content.
Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of fense beneath is rarely found.
Falfe eloquence, like the prifmatic glass;

Its gaudy colours fpreads on ev'ry place;
The face of nature we no more furvey,
All glares alike, without diftinétion gay:
But true expreffion, like th' unchanging Sun,
Clears, and improves whate'er it fhines upon,
It gilds all objects, but it alters none.
Expreffion is the drefs of thought, and ftill
Appears more decent, as more fuitable;
A vile conceit in pompous words exprefs'd,
Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd.

For diffrent ftyles with diff'rent fubjects fort,

As feveral garbs with country, town, and court.

*

Some by old words to fame have made pretence:

Ancients in phrafe, mere moderns in their fenfe!
Such labour'd nothings, in fo frange a ftyle,
Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned fmile.
Unlucky, as Fungofo in the † play,

Thefe fparks with aukward vanity difplay
What the fine gentlemen wore yesterday;

And but fo mimic ancient wits at beft,

As apes our granfires, in their doublets drest.
In words, as fafhions, the fame rule will hold;
Alike fantastic, if too new, or old;

Be not the first by whom the new are try'd,
Nor yet the last to lay the old afide.

}

But most by numbers judge a poet's fong, And smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong:

* Abolita & abrogata retinere, infolentiæ cujusdam eft, & frivela in parvis jactantia. Quintil. lib. 1. c. 6.

Opus eft ut verba à vetustate repetita neque crebra fint, neque ma nifefta, quia nil eft odiofius affectatione, nec utique ab ultimis repetita temporibus. Oratio cujus fumma virtus eft perfpicuitas, quàm fit vitiofa, fi egeat interprete? Ergo ut novorum optima erunt maximè vetera ita veterum maximè nova. 1dem.

+ Ben Johnson's Every man in his humour.

Quis populi fermo eft? Quis enim? nifi carmina molli
Nunc denum numero fluere, ut per læve feveros
Effundat junctura ungues: feit tendere verfum
Non fecus, ac fi ecule rubricam dirigat une.

Perfius, Sat. 1.

In