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But when loud furges lafh the founding fhoar,
The hoarfe, rough verfe fhould like the torrent roar.
When Ajax ftrives fome rock's vaft weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move flow: 37L
Not fo, when fwift Camilla fcours the plain,
Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Hear how Timotheus' vary'd lays furprize,

And bid alternate paffions fall and rife!

375

While at each change, the fon of Libyan Jove Now burns with glory, and then melts with love;

W.

Nor his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow,

Now fighs fteal out, and tears begin to flow:
Perfians and Greeks like turns of nature found, 380
And the world's victor ftood fubdu'd by Sound!
The pow'r of Music all our hearts allow,

And what Timotheus was, is DRYDEN NOW.
Avoid Extremes; and fhun the fault of such,
Who ftill are pleas'd too little or too much,

COMMENTARY.

385

VER. 384. Avoid Extremes: etc.] Our Author is now come to the last caufe of wrong Judgment, PARTIALITY; IMITATIONS.

VER. 368. But when loud furges, etc.

Tum longe fale faxa fonant, etc. Vida, ib. 388.

VER. 370. When Ajax ftrives, etc.]

Atque ideo fi quid geritur molimine magno, &c.

Vida, ib. 417.

"

VER. 372. Not fo when swift Camilla, etc.)
At mora fi fuerit damno, properare jubebo, etc.
Vida, ib. 420.

NOTES.

VER. 374. Hear how Timotheus, etc.] See Alexander's Feaft, or the Power of Mufic; an Qde by Mr. Dryden. P,

At ev'ry trifle fcorn to take offence,

That always fhews great pride, or little sense:
Those heads, as ftomachs, are not fure the best,
Which nauseate all, and nothing can digeft.
Yet let not each gay Turn thy rapture move;
For fools admire, but men of sense approve :
As things feem large which we thro' mists descry,
Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

COMMENTARY,

390

the parent of the immediately preceding cause, a bounded capacity: nothing fo much narrowing and contracting the mind as prejudices entertained for or against things or perfons. This therefore, as the main root of all the foregoing, he profecutes at large [from ver. 383 to 473.] First, to ver. 394. he previously expofes that capricious turn of Mind, which, by running men into Extremes, either of praise or difpraife, lays the foundation of an habitual partiality. He cautions therefore both against one and the other; and with reafon; for excess of Praife is the mark of a bad tafte; and excefs of Cenfure of a bad digeftion.

VER. 394. Some foreign writers, etc.] Having explained the difpofition of mind which produces an habitual partiality, he proceeds to expose this partiality in all the shapes in which it appears both amongst the unlearned and the learned.

I. In the unlearned, it is seen, first, In an unreasonable fondness for, or averfion to, our own or foreign, to ancient or modern writers. And as it is the mob of unlearned readers he is here fpeaking of, he exposes their folly in a very appofite fimilitude:

"Thus Wit, like Faith, by each Man is apply'd "To one small sect, and all are damn'd befide.

But he fhews [from ver. 397 to 408.] that these Critics have as wrong a notion of Reafon as thofe Bigots have of God: for that Genius is not confined to times or climates; but, as the common gift of Nature, is extended throughout all ages and countries: that indeed this in

395

Some foreign writers, fome our own defpife;
The Ancients only, or the Moderns prize.
Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd
To one small fect, and all are damn'd befide.
Meanly they seek the bleffing to confine,
And force that fun but on a part to shine,
Which not alone the fouthern wit fublimes,
But ripens fpirits in cold northern climes;
Which from the firft has fhone on ages past,
Enlights the present, and shall warm the last ;
Tho' each may feel encreafes and decays,
And fee now clearer and now darker days.
Regard not then if Wit be old or new,

But blame the falfe, and value ftill the true.
Some ne'er advance a Judgment of their own,
But catch the spreading notion of the Town;

COMMENTARY.

400

405

tellectual light, like the material light of the Sun itself, may not fhine at all times, and in every place, with equal fplendor; but be fometimes clouded with popular ignorance; and fometimes again eclipsed by the discountenance of the Great; yet it fhall still recover itself; and, by breaking thro' the strongest of these impediments, manifest the eternity of its nature.

VER. 408. Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own,] A fecond inftance of unlearned partiality, is, (as he fhews from ver. 407 to 424.) men's going always along with the cry, as having no fixed nor well grounded principles

NOTES.

VER. 402. Which from the first, etc.] Genius is the fame in all ages; but its fruits are various; and more or lefs excellent as they are checked or matured by the influence of Government or Religion upon them. Hence in fome

They reafon and conclude by precedent,

And own ftale nonfenfe which they ne'er invent.

410

Some judge of authors names, not works, and then
Nor praife nor blame the writings, but the men.
Of all this fervile herd, the worst is he
That in proud dulnefs joins with Quality.

A conftant Critic at the great man's board,
To fetch and carry nonfenfe for my Lord.
What woful stuff this madrigal would be,
In some starv'd hackney sonneteer, or me?
But let a Lord once own the happy lines,

415

420

How the wit brightens! how the style refines!
Before his facred name flies ev'ry fault,

And each exalted ftanza teems with thought!
The Vulgar thus through Imitation err;
As oft the Learn'd by being fingular;

COMMENTARY.

425

A third is

whereon to raise any judgment of their own. reverence for names; of which fort, as he well obferves, the worft and vileft are the idolizers of names of quality; whom therefore he ftigmatizes as they deferve. Our Author's temper as well as judgment is here feen, in throwing this fpecies of partiality amongst the unlearned Critics: His affection for letters would not fuffer him to conceive, that any learned Critic could ever fall into fo low a proflitution.

VER. 424.-The Vulgar thus-As oft the Learn'd-] II. He comes in the fecond place [from ver. 423 to 452.] to confider the Inftances of partiality in the learned. 1. The firft is Singularity. For as want of principles, in the un

NOTES.

parts of Literature the Ancients excell; in others, the Moderns, juft as thofe accidental circumftances occurred.

So much they fcorn the croud, that if the throng
By chance go right, they purposely go wrong:
So Schifmatics the plain believers quit,

And are but damn'd for having too much wit.

COMMENTARY.

learned, neceffitates them to reft on the common judgment, as always right: fo adherence to falfe principles (that is, to notions of their own) mislead the learned into the other extreme, of fuppofing the common judgment always wrong. And as, before, our Author compared thofe to Bigots, who made true faith to confift in believing after others; fo he compares thefe to Schifmatics, who make it to confist in believing as no one ever believed before. Which folly he marks with a lively ftroke of humour in the turn of the thought:

"So Schifmatics the plain believers quit,

"And are but damn'd for having too much wit.

2. The fecond is Novelty. And as this proceeds fometimes from fondness, fometimes from vanity; he compares the one to the pallion for a mistress: and the other, to the pride of being in fashion: But the excufe common to both is, the daily improvement of their Judgment,

"Afk them the caufe, they're wifer ftill they fay; "And still, to-morrow's wiser than to day.

Now as this is a plaufible pretence for their inconftancy; and our Author has himself afterwards approved of it, as a remedy against obftinacy and pride, where he fays, ver. 573.

" But you with pleasure own your errors paft,
"And make each day a Critique on the last,

he has been careful, by the turn of the expreffion in this place, to fhew the difference between the pretence and the remedy. For Time, confidered only as duration, vitiates as frequently as it improves: Therefore to expect wisdom as the neceflary attendant of length of days, unrelated to long experience, is vain and delufive. This he illuftrates by a remarkable example; where we see Time, inflead of becoming wifer, deftroying good letters, to fub

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