•pheme groped out with his hands the ⚫ entrance of his cave, are perceived in the ⚫ cadence of the verfes which defcribe it. Κύκλωψ δὲ ςενάχων τε καὶ ὠδίνων ἐδύνησι, Mean time the cyclop raging with his wound, Spreads his wide arms, and fearches round and round. POPE. The critick then proceeds to fhew, that the efforts of Achilles ftruggling in his armour against the current of a river, fometimes refifting and fometimes yielding, may be perceived in the elifions of the fyllables, the flow fucceffion of the feet, and the ftrength of the confonants. Δείνον δ' αμφ' Αχιλῆα κυκώμενον ἴσατο κύμα, Ωθει δ' ἐν σάκεῖ πίπλων τοῦ ἐδὲ πόδεσσιν Ἔσκε ςηρίξασθαι.. So oft the furge, in watry mountains fpread, Beats on his back, or burts upon his head, Yet dauntless still the adverse flood he braves, And still indignant bounds above the waves. Tir'd by the tides, his knees relax with toil; Wash'd from beneath him, flides the flimy foil. POPE. When Homer defcribes the crush of men dafhed against a rock, he collects the most unpleafing and harth founds. Σὺν δὲ δύω μάρψης ὤτε σκύλακας ποτί γεια Κίπλ· ἐκ δ' ἐγκέφαλος χαμάδις ς' έε, δεῦε δὲ γαίαν. -His bloody hand · Snatch'd two, unhappy! of my martial band, And dash'd like dogs against the ftony floor; The pavement fwims with brains and ming led gore. POPE. And when he would place before the eyes fomething dreadful and aftonishing, he makes choice of the strongest vowels, and the letters of most difficult utter *ance. Τῆ δ ̓ ἐπὶ μὲν Γογρὼ βλοσυρῶσις ἐςεφανατο Δεινὸν δερκομήνων περὶ δὲ Δείμος τε φόβος τε. Tremendous Gorgon frown'd upon it's field, And circling terrors fill'd th' expreffive fhield. POPE. Many other examples Dionyfius produces; but thefe will fufficiently thew, that either he was fanciful, or we have loft the genuine pronunciation; for I know not whether, in any one of these inftances, fuch fimilitude can be discovered. It seems, indeed, probable, that the veneration with which Homer was read, produced many fuppofititious beau ties; for though it is certain, that the found of many of his verfes very juftly correfponds with the things expreffed, yet when the force of his imagination, which gave him full poffeffion of every object, is confidered, together with the flexibility of his language, of which the fyllables might be often contracted or dilated at pleafure, it will feem unlikely that fuch conformity fhould happen lefs frequently even without defign. It is not however to be doubted, that Virgil, who wrote amidit the light of criticif, and who owed fo much of his fuccefs to art and labour, endeavoured, among other excellencies, to exhibit this in this than in the other graces of verfififimilitude; nor has he been lefs happy cation. This felicity of his numbers was, at the revival of learning, difplayed with great elegance by Vida, in his Art of Poetry. Haud fatis eft illis utcunque claudere verfum.— Pectora pectoribus perrumpere, fternere turres Ingentes, totoque, ferum dare funera campo. 'Tis not enough his verfes to complete, In measure, number, or determin'd feet. To all, proportion'd terms he must dispense, And make the found a picture of the fenfe; The correfpondent words exactly frame, The look, the features, and the mien the fame. With rapid feet and wings, without delay, This fwiftly flies, and fmoothly fkims away: This blooms with youth and beauty in his face, And Venus breathes on every limb a grace; That, of rude form, his uncouth members ínows, Looks horrible, and frowns with his rough brows; His monstrous tail in many a fold and wind, Incumbent on the main that roars around, The prows wide echoing thro' the dark profound. To the loud call each distant rock replies; Toft by the storm the tow'ring furges rife Dafh'd from the ftrand, the flying waters roar. Flash at the shock, and gath'ring in a heap, The liquid mountains rife, and over-hang the deep. But when blue Neptune from his car furveys, And calms at one regard the raging feas, Stretch'd like a peaceful lake the deep fubfides, And the pitch'd vessel o'er the surface glides. When things are small, the terms should still be fo; For low words please us, when the theme is low. But when fome giant, horrible and grim, Enormous in his gait, and vaft in ev'ry limb, Stalks tow'ring on; the fwelling words must rife In just proportion to the monster's fize. If fome large weight his huge arms strive to shove, The verfe too labours; the throng'd words fcarce move. When each stiff clod beneath the pond'rous plough Crumbles and breaks, th' encumber'd lines muft flow. Nor lefs, when pilots catch the friendly gales, Unfurl their fhrouds, and hoift the wideftretch'd fails. But if the poem fuffers from delay, His rifing creft, and drive the ferpent back. When night defcends, or stunn'd by num'rous ftrokes, And groaning, to the earth drops the vaft ox; The line too finks with correfpondent found, Flat with the steer, and headlong to the ground. When the wild waves fubfide, and tempefts ceafe, And hush the roarings of the fea to peace; So oft we fee the interrupted strain Stopp'd in the midft---and with the filent ( main Pufe for a space---at laft it glides again. Then with the theme complies the artful fong; Provokes his flying courfer to the speed, plain. D d indeed, distinctly imaged, for it requires very little skill to make our language rough; but in these lines, which mention the effort of Ajax, there is no particular heaviness, obftruction, or delay. The swiftnefs of Camilla is rather contrafted than exemplified; why the verse fhould be lengthened to exprefs speed, will not eafily be difcovered. In the dactyls ufed for that purpose by the ancients, two fhort fyllables were pronounced with fuch rapidity, as to be equal only to one long; they therefore naturally exhibit the act of paffing through a long space in a fhort time. But the alexandrine, by it's pause in the midft, is a tardy and stately measure; and the word unbending, one of the most fluggish and flow which our language affords, cannot much accelerate it's motion. These rules and thefe examples have taught our prefent criticks to enquire very ftudiously and minutely into founds and cadences. It is, therefore, useful to examine with what skill they have proceeded; what discoveries they have made; and whether any rules can be established which may guide us hereafter in fuch researches. N° XCIII. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1751. EXPERIAR QUID CONCEDATUR IN ILLOS Juv. MORE SAFELY TRUTH TO URGE HER CLAIM PRESUMES, THE Baillet has introduced his collection of the decisions of the learned, by an enumeration of the prejudices which mislead the critick, and raife the paffions in rebellion against the judgment. His catalogue, though large, is imperfect; and who can hope to complete it? The beauties of writing have been obferved to be often fuch as cannot in the prefent state of human knowledge be evinced by evidence, or drawn out into demonftrations: they are therefore wholly fubject to the imagination, and do not force their effects upon a mind preoccupied by unfavourable fentiments, nor overcome the counter-action of a falfe principle or of stubborn partiality. To convince any man against his will is hard, but to pleafe him against his will is justly pronounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human abilities. Intereft and paffion will hold out long against the clofeft fiege of diagrams and fyllogifins, but they are abfolutely impregnable to imagery and fentiment; and will for ever bid defiance to the most powerful trains of Virgil or Homer, though they may give way in time to the batteries of Euclid or Archimedes. In trufting therefore to the fentence of a critick, we are in danger not only from from that vanity which exalts writers too often to the dignity of teaching what they are yet to learn, from that negligence which fometimes fteals upon the moft vigilant caution, and that fallibility to which the condition of nature has fubiected every human understanding; but from a thousand extrinsick and accidental caufes, from every thing which can excite kindness or malevolence, veneration or contempt. Many of those who have determined with great boldness upon the various degrees of literary merit, may be justly fufpected of having paffed fentence, as Seneca remarks of Claudius Una tantum parte audita, without much knowledge of the cause before them: for it will not eafily be imagin.d of Langbane, Borrichitus, or Rapin, that they had very accurately perufed all the books which they praife or cenfure; or that, even if nature and learning had qualified them for judges, they could read for ever with the attention neceffary for just criticism. Such performances, however, are not wholly without their ufe; for they are commonly just echoes to the voice of fame, and tranfmit the general fuffrage of mankind when they have no particular motives to fupprefs it. Criticks, like the rest of mankind, are very frequently misled by interest. The bigotry with which editors regard the authors whom they illuftrate or correct, has been generally remarked. Dryden was known to have written moft of his critical differtations only to recommend the work upon which he then happened to be employed; and Addifon is fufpected to have denied the expediency of poetical juftice, becaufe his own Cato was condemned to perish in a good cause. There are prejudices which authors, not otherwife weak or corrupt, have indulged without fcruple; and perhaps fome of them are fo complicated with our natural affections, that they cannot eafily be difentangled from the heart. Scarce any can hear with impartiality a comparifon between the writers of his own and another country; and though it cannot, I think, be charged equally on all nations, that they are blinded with this literary patriotism, yet there are none that do not look upon their authors with the fondne's of affinity, and efteem them as well for the place of their birth, as for their knowledge or their wit. There is, therefore, feldom much refpect due to comparative criticifm, when the competitors are of different countries, unless the judge is of a nation equally indifferent to both. The Italians could not for a long time believe, that there was any learning beyond the mountains; and the French feem generally persuaded, that there are no wits or reafoners equal to their own. I can fcarcely conceive that if Scaliger had not confidered himfelf as allied to Virgil, by being born in the fame country, he would have found his works fo much fuperior to thofe of Homer, or have thought the controversy worthy of fo much zeal, vehemence, and acrimony. There is, indeed, one prejudice, and only one, by which it may be doubted whether it is any difhonour to be fometimes mifguided. Criticifm has fo often given occafion to the envious and ill-natured of gratifying their malignity, that fome have thought it neceffary to recommend the virtue of cand ur without refriction, and to preclude all future liberty of cenfure. Writers poffeffed with this opinion are continually enforcing civility and decency, recommending to criticks the proper diffidence of themfelves, and inculcating the veneration due to celebrated names. I am not, of opinion that thefe profeffed enemies of arrogance and severity have much more benevolence or modesty than the rest of mankind; or that they feel in their own hearts any other intention than to diftinguith themselves by their foftnefs and delicacy. Some are modeft because they are timorous, and fome are lavish of praife because they hope to be repaid. There is indeed fome tendernefs due to living writers, when they attack none of thofe truths which are of importance to the happiness of mankind, and have committed no other offence than that of betraying their own ignorance or dul-, nefs. I fhould think it cruelty to crush an infect who had provoked me only by buzzing in my ear; and would not willingly interrupt the dream of harmlefs ftupidity, or deftroy the jeft which makes it's author laugh. Yet I am far from thinking this tenderness univerfally Ddz neceffary neceffary; for he that writes may be confidered as a kind of general challenger, whom every one has a right to attack; fince he quits the common rank of life, fteps forward beyond the lifts, and offers his merit to the publick judgment. To commence author is to claim praife, and no man can justly afpire to honour but at the hazard of difgrace. But whatever be decided concerning contemporaries, whom he that knows the treachery of the human heart, and confiders how often we gratify our own pride or envy under the appearance of contending for elegance and propriety, will find himself not much inclined to difturb there can be no exemptions pleaded to fecure them from criticism, who can no longer fuffer by reproach, and of whom nothing now remains but their writings and their names. Upon thefe authors the critick is undoubtedly at full liberty to exercise their ftri&teft feverity, fince he endangers only his own fame, and, like Æneas when he drew his fword in the infernal regions, encounters phantoms which cannot be wounded. He may indeed pay some re gard to established reputation; but he can by that fhew of reverence confuit only his own fecurity, for all other motives are now at an end. The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because the influence of his example is more extenfive; and the intereft of learning requires that they should be difcovered and ftigmatized, before they have the fanction of antiquity conferred upon them, and become precedents of indif putable authority. It has, indeed, been advanced by Addifon, as one of the characteristicks of a true critick, that he points out beauties rather than faults. But it is rather natural to a man of learning and genius, to apply himfelf chiefly to the ftudy of writers who have more beauties than faults to be difplayed; for the duty of criticism is neither to depreciate, nor dignify by partial reprefentations, but to hold out the light of reafon, whatever it may discover; and to promulgatę the determinations of truth, whatever she fhall dictate. N° XCIV. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1751. HE poetick numbers to the fubject which they mention or defcribe, may be confidered as general or particular, as confifting in the flow and ftructure of a whole paffage taken together, or as comprited in the fond of fome emphatical and deferiptive words, or in the cadence and harmony of fingle verses. THE refemblance of The general refemblance of the found to the fèric is to be found in every ianguage which admits of poetry, in every author whofe force of fancy enables him to imprefs images ftrongly on his own mind, and whole choice and variety of langung adily fupplies him with jutt reprotonations. To fuch a writer it is natural to change his measure with his FRANCIS. subject, even without any effort of the understanding, or intervention of the judgment. To revolve jollity and mirth neceffarily tunes the voice of a poet to gay and fprightly notes, as it fires his eye with vivacity; and reflection on gloomy fituations and difaftrous events, will fadden his numbers, as it will cloud his countenance. But in fuch paffages there is only the fimilitude of pleafure to pleafure, and of grief to grief, without any immediate application to particular images. The fame flowe of joyous verfification will celebrate the jollity of marriage, and the exultation of triumph; and the fame languor of melody will fuit the complaints of an abfent lover, as of a conquered king. |