From fhort ideas; and offend in arts

(As most in manners) by a love to parts. Some to Conceit alone their tafte confine,

295

And glitt'ring thoughts ftruck out at ev'ry line; 290
Pleas'd with a work where nothing's juft 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;
Something, whofe truth convinc'd at fight we find,
That gives us back the image of our mind.
As shades more fweetly recommend the light,
So modeft plainnefs fets off fprightly wit.

300

VER. 297. True Wit is Nature to advantage drefs'd, etc.] This definition is very exact. Mr. Locke had defined Wit to confift" in "the affemblage of ideas, and putting thofe together, with quick. "ness and variety, wherein can be found any resemblance or con

gruity, whereby to make up pleasant pictures and agreeable "vifions in the fancy." But that great Philofopher, in feparating Wit from Judgment, as he does in this place, has given us (and he could therefore give us no other) only an account of Wit in general: In which false Wit, though not every species of it, is included. A friking Image therefore of Nature is, as Mr. Locke obferves, certainly Wit: But this image may ftrike on feveral other accounts, as well for its truth and beauty; and the Philofopher has explained the manner how. But it never becomes that Wit, which is the ornament of true Poefy, whofe end is to reprefent Nature, but when it dreffes that Nature to advantage, and prefents her to us in the brightest and most amiable light. And to know when the Fancy has done its office truly, the poet fubjoins this admirable Teft, viz. When we perceive that it gives us back the image of our mind. When it does that, we may be fure it plays no tricks with us: For this image is the creature of the Judgment; and whenever Wit correfponds with Judgment, we may fafely pronounce it to be

true.

“Naturam intueamur, hanc fequamur: id facillime accipiunt animi quod agnofcunt.". Quintil. lib. viii. c. 3.

For works may have more wit than does 'em good, /
As bodies perish thro' excess of blood.

Others for Language all their care exprefs, And value books, as women men, for drefs: Their praife is ftill,-the ftyle is excellent :

305

The fenfe, they humbly take upon content.

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of fenfe beneath is rarely found.

Falfe eloquence, like the prifmatic glafs,
Its gaudy colours fpreads on ev'ry place;
The face of Nature we no more furvey,
All glares alike, without diftin&tion gay :
But true expreffion, like th' unchanging fun,
Clears and improves whate'er it shines upon,
It gilds all objects, but it alters none.
Expreffion is the drefs of thought, and flill
Appears more decent, as more fuitable;
A vile conceit in pompous words exprefs'd
Is like a clown in regal purple dreft:

310

315

325

For diff'rent flyles with diff'rent fubjects fort,
As feveral garbs, with country, town, and court.
Some by old words to fame have made pretence,
Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their fense; 325

VER. 311. Falfe eloquence, like the prifmatic glass, etc.] This fimile is beautiful. For the falfe colouring, given to objects by the prismatic glafs, is owing to its untwifting, by its obliquities, thofe threads of light, which Nature had put together in order to fpread over its work an ingenious and fimple candour, that should not hide, but only heighten the native complexion of the objects. And falfe Eloquence is nothing else but the straining and divaricating the parts of true expreffion; and then daubing them over with what the Rhetoricians very properly term COLOURS; in lieu of that candid light, now loft, which was reflected from them in their. natural ftate while fincere and entire.

VER. 324. Some by old words, etc.] "Abolita et abrogata retinere, infolentiæ cujufdam eft, et frivolæ in parvis jactantiæ.” Quint. lib. 1. c. 6.

Opus eft, ut verba à vetuftate repetita neque crebra fant

f

Such labour'd nothings, in fo ftrange a style,
Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned fmile.
Unlucky, as Fungofa in the play,**
Thefe fparks with awkward vanity display
What the fine gentleman wore yesterday;
And but fo mimic ancient wits at beft,
As apes our grandfires in their doublets dreft.
In words, as fashions, 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.

330

}

335

340

But moft by numbers judge a poet's fong; And fmooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong: In the bright Mufe tho' thousand charms confpire, Her voice is all thefe tuneful fools admire ; Who haunt Parnaffus but to please their ear, Not mend their minds; as fome to church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there. Thefe equal fyllables alone require,

Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire;

While expletives their feeble aid do join ;

And ten low words oft creep in one dull line:

345

"neque manifefta, quia nil eft odiofius affectatione, nec utique "ab ultimis repetita temporibus. Oratio cujus fumma virtus ef "perfpicuitas, quam fit vitiofa, fi egeat interprete? Ergo ut novorum optima erunt maxime vetera, ita veterum maxime nova." Idem.

VER. 328. —unlucky as Fungofa, etc.] See Ben Johnfon's Every Man in bis Humour

VER. 337. But most by numbers, etc.]

Quis populi fermo eft? quis enim? nifi carmina molli
Nunc demum numero fluere, ut per leve feveros
Effundat junctura ungues: fcit tendere verfum
Non fecus ac fi oculo rubricam dirigat uno.

Perf. Sat. i.

VER. 345. Tho' oft the ear, etc.] “Fugiemus crebras vocalium concurfiones, quæ vaftam atque hiantem orationem reddunt." Cic. ad Heren, lib. iv. Vide etiam Quint. lib. ix. c. 4.

While they ring round the fame unvary'd chimes,
With fure returns of ftill expected rhymes;
Where'er you find "the cooling western breeze," 350
In the next line it "whispers thro' the trees :"
If chrystal ftreams "with pleafing murmurs creep,"
The reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with" fleep :"
Then, at the laft and only couplet fraught

With fome unmeaning thing they call a thought, 355
A needlefs Alexandrine ends the fong,

That, like a wounded fnake, drags its flow length along.
Leave fuch to tune their own dull rhymes, and know
What's roundly fmooth, or languishingly slow;
And praise the easy vigour of a line,

360

Where Denham's ftrength, and Waller's sweetness join,
True cafe in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.
"Tis not enough no harfhness give offence,

365

The found muft feem an Echo to the fenfe:
Soft is the ftrain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth fiream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud furges lafh the founding fhore,
The hoarfe, rough verse should like the torrent roar.
When Ajax ftrives fome rock's vaft weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move flow:
Not fo, when fwift Camilla fcours the plain,

371

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and fkims along the main,

IMITATIONS.

VER. 366. Soft is the ftrain, etc.]

Tum fi læta canunt, etc. Vida Poet. 1. iii. ver. 403*

VER. 368. But when loud funges, etc.]

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

VER. 370. When Ajax ftrives, etc.]

Atque ideo fi quid geritur molimine magno, etc.

VER. 372. Not fo, when fwift Camilla, etc.]
At mora fi fuerit damno, properare jubebo,

Vida ib. 417

375

Hear how Timotheus' vary'd lays furprise,
And bid alternate paffions fall and rise!
While, at each change, the fan of Libyan Jove
Now burns with glory, and then melts with love;
Now his fierce eyes with fparkling fury glow,
Now fighs fteal out, and tears begin to flow:
Perfians and Greeks like turns of nature found, 380
And the world's vitor flood fubdu'd by found!
The pow'r of Mufic all our hearts allow,
And what Timotheus was, is DRYDEN now.
Avoid extremes; and fhun the fault of fuch,
Who ftill are pleas'd too little or too much.
At ev'ry trifle fcorn to take offence,
That always fhews great pride, or little fenfe;
Those heads, as flomachs, are not fure the best,
Which naufeate all, and nothing can digeft.

385

Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move;

390

For fools admire, but men of fense approve.:

As things feem large which we thro' mists desery,
Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

Some foreign wiiters, fome our own defpife;
The Ancients only, or the Moderns prize;
Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd
To one fmall fest, and all are damn'd befide.
Meanly they feek 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 first has fhone on ages past,
Enlights the prefent, and fhall warm the laft;
Tho' each may feel encreases and decays,
And fee now clearer and now darker days..

395

400

405

VER. 374. Hear bow Timotheus, etc.] See Alexander's Feaft

er the Power of Mufic; an Ode by Mr. Dryden.