kind, and having committed no other offence than that of betraying their own ignorance or dulness. I fhould think it cruelty to crufh an infect who had provoked me only by buzzing in my ear; and would not willingly interrupt the dream of harmlefs ftupidity, or destroy the jeft which makes: its author laugh. Yet I am far from thinking this tenderness univerfally neceffary; for he that writes may be confidered as a kind of general challenger, whom every one has a right to attack; fince he quitsthe common rank of life, steps forward beyond the lifts, and offers his merit to the publick judgment. To commence author is to claim praise, 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 furely be no exemptions pleaded to secure them from criticifm, who can no longer fuffer by reproach, and of whom nothing now remains but their writings and their names. Upon these authors the critick is undoubtedly at full liberty to exercise the ftricteft feverity, fince he endangers only his own fame, and, like Eneas when he drew his fword in the infernal regions, encounters phantoms which cannot be wounded. He may indeed pay fome regard to established reputation; but he can by that fhew of reverence confult only his own fecurity, for all other motives are now at an end. The The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because the influence of his example is more extenfive; and the interest of learning requires that they should be discovered and ftigmatized, before they have the fanction of antiquity conferred upon them, and become precedents of indifputable 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 study of writers who have more beauties than faults to be difplayed: for the duty of criticifm is neither to depreciate nor dignify by partial reprefentations, but to hold out the light of reafon, whatever it may difcover; and to promulgate the determinations of truth, whatever the fhall dictate. NUMB. 94. SATURDAY, February 9, 1751. -Bonus atque fidus Judex-per obftantes catervas Explicuit fua victor arma. Perpetual magiftrate is he, Who keeps ftrict juftice full in fight; Who bids the crowd at awful distance gaze, THE HOR. FRANCIS. HE refemblance of poetick numbers, to the fubject which they mention or describe, may be confidered as general or particular; as confifting in the flow and ftructure of a whole paffage taken together, or as comprised in the found of fome emphatical and defcriptive words, or in the cadence and harmony of fingle verses. The The general refemblance of the found to the fenfe is to be found in every language which admits of poetry, in every author whofe force of fancy enables him to imprefs images ftrongly on his own mind, and whofe choice and variety of language readily fupplies him with just representations. To fuch a writer it is natural to change his measure with his fubject, 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 pleasure to pleasure, and of grief to grief, without any immediate application to particular images. The fame flow 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. It is fcarcely to be doubted, that on many occafions we make the mufick which we imagine ourfelves to hear; that we modulate the poem by our own difpofition, and afcribe to the numbers the effects of the fenfe. We may obferve in life, that it is not easy to deliver a pleasant meffage in an unpleafing manner, and that we readily affociate beauty and deformity with those whom for any reason we love or hate. Yet it would be too daring to declare that all the celebrated adaptations of harmony are chimerical; that Homer had no extraordinary attention to the melody of his verse when he described a nuptial feftivity; Νύμφας Νύμφας δ ̓ ἐκ θαλάμων, δαἴδων ὑπολαμ πὶμενάων, Here facred pomp, and genial feast delight, POPE that Vida was merely fanciful, when he fuppofed Virgil endeavouring to reprefent by uncommon fweetnefs of numbers the adventitious beauty of Æneas; Os, humerofque Deo fimilis: namque ipfe decoram The Trojan chief appear'd in open fight, His mother goddefs, with her hands divine, Had form'd his curling locks, and made his temples shine; And breath'd a youthful vigour on his face. BRYDEN.. or that Milton did not intend to exemplify the harmony which he mentions: Fountains and ye that warble as ye flow, Melodious murmurs; warbling tune his praife. That Milton understood the force of founds well adjusted, and knew the compass and variety of the ancient measures, cannot be doubted, fince he was both a musician and a critick; but he feems to have confidered thefe conformities of cadence, as, either not often attainable in our language, or as petty excellencies unworthy of his ambition; for it it will not be found that he has always affigned the fame caft of numbers to the fame objects. He has given in two paffages very minute defcriptions of angelick beauty; but though the images are nearly the fame, the numbers will be found upon comparifon very different. And now a ftripling cherub he appears, In curls on either cheek play'd: wings he wore Of many a colour'd plume, sprinkled with gold. Some of the lines of this defcription are remarkably defective in harmony, and therefore by no means correfpondent with that fymmetrical elegance and eafy grace which they are intended to exhibit. The failure, however, is fully compenfated by the representation of Raphael, which equally delights the ear and imagination. A feraph wing'd: fix wings he wore to shade His lineaments divine; the pair that clad Each fhoulder, broad, came mantling o'er his breaft With régal ornament: the middle pair Girt like a ftarry zone his waist, and round Skirted his loins and thighs, with downy gold, And colours dipp'd in heaven: the third his feet Shadow'd from either heel with feather'd mail, Sky-tinctur'd grain! like Maia's fon he stood, And fhook his plumes, that heav'nly fragrance fill'd The circuit wide. The |