altogether. How many have taste and learning qualified for this office, who are by no means equal to original productions comparable in any degree to thofe, which they are able to illustrate and criticise with elegance and propriety? To this purpose I shall quote a lively paffage from Bofwell's Life of Johnson, vol. i. p. 373. 8vo.

D. "We have hardly a right to abufe this tragedy; « for, bad as it is, how vain fhould either of us be to " write one not near fo good!"

J. "Why fo, Sir? this is not just reasoning.

You

may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. "You may scold a carpenter, who has made you a table, "though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade "to make tables."

Ver. 30. This couplet ran thus in the first edition, with lefs neatnefs, precifion, and perfpicuity:

Thofe hate as rivals all that write; and others

But envy wits as eunuchs envy lovers.

The inaccuracy of the rhymes excited him to alteration, which incurred a fresh inconvenience; that of fimilar rhymes to those much too near, in the next couplet but, one below.

Ver. 68. First, follow Nature.

Dryden, in his Art of Poetry, on the Epic :
To study Nature be your only care.

Ver. 70. Unerring Nature, still divinely bright,

One clear, unchang'd, and universal light.

This noble couplet may poffibly be indebted to Rofe common's Effay:

Truth fill is one: Truth is divinely bright;

No cloudy doubts obscure her native light.

And a little before:

E

A pure,

A pure, an active, an aufpicious flame:

And bright as heav'n, from whence the blessing came.

Ver. 74. This couplet is polifhed to great perfection from the rudenefs of the first effort:

That art is beft, which most resembles her;
Which ftill prefides, yet never does appear.

Ver. 76. He first gave "the Sprightly foul;" then "the fecret foul," which rendered useless ver. 79. quoted below. Still, perhaps, the two claufes of ver. 77.

With fpirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole; are neither fufficiently diftinct, nor correfpondent to the prefent epithet informing. Thus?

In fome fair body thus the sprightly foul
Informs, invigorates, and feeds the whole.

Ver. 79. Itfelf unfeen, but in th' effects remains.

The paffage from Ovid is thus prettily rendered by Addifon: The caufe is fecret, but th' effect is known: and thus expreffed by Cowley, David. ii. 25. The manner how lies hid, th' effect we fee. Ver. 95. Reftrain his fury, than provoke his speed. B. Jonfon's Epigram to the Earl of Newcastle : When first, my lord, I faw you back your horfe, • Provoke his mettle, and command his force: and Waller in his Panegyric, nearly in the fame words: Provoke their courage, and command their rage.

Ver. 90. He wrote originally :

Nature, like monarchy :

which he judicioufly changed for liberty; because to a

limited monarch laws are prefcribed by others, and not imposed on itself.

Ver. 96.

Ver. 96. Held from afar, aloft, th' immortal prize,
And urg'd the reft by equal steps to rise.

The writer of the Epiftle to the Hebrews has an inimitably fine paffage of this kind in chap. xii. ver. 1-3. on which I have defcanted at large in my Silva Critica, tom. v. pp. 150, 151. And our poet follows Dryden at the end of his Art of Poetry :

And afar off hold up the glorious prize.

Ver. 98. It flood originally :

From great examples useful rules were given :

which, as it breaks in some measure the continuity of the conftruction was well fupplanted, I think, by the prefent reading.

Ver. 100. This entire paffage feems to be constructed on fome remarks of Dryden, in his Dedication to Ovid: 66 Formerly the critics were quite another species of men. "They were defenders of poets, and commentators on "their works; to illuftrate obfcure beauties, to place "fome paffages in a better light, to redeem others from "malicious interpretations; to help out an author's << modefty, who is not oftentatious of his wit; and, in fhort, to fhield him from the ill-nature of thofe fellows, "who were then called Zoili and Momi, and now take upon themselves the venerable name of Cenfors.-Are "C our auxiliary forces turned our enemies?-Are these "become rebels of flaves, and ufurpers of subjects; or,

to speak in the most honourable terms of them, are they from our feconds become principals against us?" Ver. 102. Then criticism the Mufe's handmaid prov'd, To drefs her charms.

Montaigne fomewhere obferves, with his ufual quaintness, that "critics are the brushers of authors' cloaths." W. Ver. 105.

E 2

Ver. 105. After this verfe followed another, to complete the triplet, in the first impreffions :

Set up themselves, and drove a fep'rate trade :

which feems to me not unsuitable to the familiar illuftrations of a didactic poem, nor of fuperior levity and playfulness to many other fpecimens in this Effay; and yet, I prefume, a fufpicion of this nature occafioned it's fuppreffion.

Ver. 118. This addrefs is in the fpirit of Boileau, l'Art Poet. i. 7.

O vous donc, qui brulant d'une ardeur périlleufe

Ver. 127. And trace the Mufes upward to their fprng. Dryden, Virg. Geo. iv. 408.

And upward follow Fame's immortal spring.

Ver. 142. For there's a happiness as well as care.
The Epilogue to Dryden's Aureng-Zebe:
But, after all, a poet muft confefs

His art's, like phyfick, but a happy guess.

Ver. 144. - nameless graces, which no methods teach. A writer in Dryden's Miscellanies, ii. p. 343. Ah! where the nameless graces, that were seen

In all thy motions, and thy mien ?

Ver. 150. In what edition Dr. Warton found this couplet immediately precede ver. 154, 155, fo as to give occafion to his cenfure, I have not been able to discover. All, that have fallen under my notice, from the earliest to the latest, exhibit the prefent arrangement of the paffage, except the very laft of all, which accompanies the life by Dr. Johnfon.

Ver. 152. Great wits fometimes may gloriously offend.

So

So Dryden, in Aureng-Zebe :

Mean foul! and dar'ft not gloriously offend? S.

Ver. 154. From vulgar bounds with brave diforder part, And fnatch a grace beyond the reach of art.

This ingenious and lively couplet, as well as the preceding, not inferior in merit, are a confiderable improvement on fome lines of Dryden in his Art of Poetry, Canto iv.

'Tis he will tell you to what noble height

A generous Mufe may fometimes take her flight;
When, too much fetter'd with the rules of art,
May from her ftricter bounds and limits part.

Ver. 160. Another couplet originally followed here; and the propriety of fuppreffing it may, perhaps, be reasonably doubted :

But care in poetry must still be had:

It asks discretion ev'n in running mad:

which is the infanire cum ratione, taken from Terence by Horace, at Sat. ii. 3. 271.

Ver. 179. Thofe oft are stratagems, which errors feem. Agreably to a remark of Rofcommon's in his Effay : For I mistake, or far the greatest part

Of what fome call neglect, was study'd art.

Ver. 182. Still green with bays each ancient altar stands,
Above the reach of facrilegious hands.
So Rofcommon's epilogue to Alexander the Great:
Secur❜d by higher pow'rs exalted stands
Above the reach of facrilegious hands.

Ver. 184. I like the original verse better :
Destructive war, and all-devouring age:

as in a metaphor much more perfpicuous and fpecific.