Not only bounded to peculiar arts, Like Kings we lose the conquefts gain'd before, First follow Nature, and your judgment frame By her just standard, which is ftill the fame : COMMENTARY. VER. 68. First follow Nature, etc.] The Critic obferving the directions before given, and now finding himself qualified for his office, is fhewn next, how to exercise it. And as he was to attend to Nature for a Call, fo he is firft and principally to follow her when called. And here again in this, as in the foregoing precept, our Poet [from ver. 67 to 88.] fhews both the fitness and neceffity of it. I. It's fitness, 1. Because Nature is the fource of Poetic art; this art being only a representation of Nature, who is its great exemplar and original. 2. Because Nature is the end of Art; the defign of poetry being to convey the knowledge of NOT.ES. ercife of Fancy, the Poet himself feems to have intimated the caufe of it in the epithet he has given to the Imagination. For, if, according to the Atomic Philofophy, the memory of things be preferved in a chain of ideas, produced by the animal fpirits moving in continued trains; the force and rapidity of the Imagination, perpetually breaking and diffipating the links of this chain by forming new affociations, must neceffarily weaken and diforder the recollective faculty. VER. 67. Would all but floop to what they understand. The expreffion is delicate, and implies what is very true, that most men think it a degradation of their genius to use it in cultivating what lies level to their comprehenfion, but had rather employ their talents in the ambitious attempt of subduing what is placed above it. 70 Unerring NATURE, ftill divinely bright, COMMENTARY. Nature in the most agreeable manner. 3. Because Nature is the test of Art, as fhe is unerring, conftant, and ftill the fame. Hence the poet obferves, that as Nature is the fource, the conveys life to art: As fhe is the end, the conveys force to it, for the force of any thing arises from its being directed to its end: And as fhe is the teft, fhe conveys beauty to it, for every thing acquires beauty by its being reduced to its true ftandard. Such is the fenfe of thofe two important lines, Life, force, and beauty muft to all impart, At once the fource, and end, and test of Art. II. The neceffity of the precept is feen from hence. The two conftituent qualities of a Compofition, as fuch, are Art and Wit: But neither of these attains perfection, 'till the first be hid, and the other judiciously restrained; this only happens when Nature is exactly followed; for then Art never makes a parade; nor can Wit commit an extravagance. Art, while it adheres to Nature, and has fo large a fund in the resources which Nature fupplies, difpofes every thing with fo much ease and fimplicity, that we fee nothing but those natural images it works with, while itfelf ftands unobferv'd, behind: But when Art leaves Nature, mifled either by the bold fallies of Fancy, or the quaint oddneffes of Fafhion, fhe is then obliged at every step to come forward, in a painful or pompous oftentation, in order to cover, to foften, or to regulate the shocking difproportion of unnatural images. In the firft cafe, our Poet compares Art to the Soul within, informing a beauteous body; but in the laft, we are bid to confider it but as a mere outward garb, fitted only to hide the defects of a mis-fhapen one.-As to Wit, it VOL. I. M 76 In fome fair body thus th' informing foul 81 Some, to whom Heav'n in wit has been profufe, 85 The winged courfer, like a gen'rous horse, Shows most true mettle when you check his course, Thofe RULES of old difcover'd, not devis'd, Are Nature ftill, but Nature methodiz'd; VER. 80. VARIATIONS. There are whom Heav'n has bleft with store of wit, COMMENTARY. might perhaps be imagined that this needed only Judgment to govern it: But, as he well obferves, Wit and Judgment often are at ftrife, Tho' meant each other's aid, like Man and Wife. They want therefore fome friendly Medior; and this Mediator is Nature: And in attending to N. Judgment will learn where he should comply with the chas of Wit; and Wit how the ought to obey the fage directions of Judgment. VER. 88. Thofe Rules of old, etc.] Having thus, in his fir precept, to follow Nature, fettled Criticifm on its true foundation; he proceeds to fhew, what affistance may be had from Nature, like Liberty, is but restrain'd 90° Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites, When to repress, and when indulge our flights : COMMENTARY. Art. But, left this should be thought to draw the Critic from the ground where our Poet had before fixed him, he previ oufly obferves [from ver. 87 to 92.] that thefe Rules of Art, which he is now about to recommend to the Critic's obferv ance, were not invented by the Fancy, but difcovered in the book of Nature; and that therefore, tho' they may seem to reftrain Nature by Laws, yet as they are Laws of her own making, the Critic is ftill properly in the very liberty of Nature. These Rules the antient Critics borrowed from the Poets, who received them immediately from Nature. "Just Precepts thus from great Examples giv'n, "Thefe drew from them what they deriv'd from Heav'n :" fo that both are to be well studied. VER. 92. Hear how learn'd Greece, etc.] He fpeaks of the ancient Critics firft, and with great judgment, as the previous knowledge of them is neceffary for reading the Poets, with that fruit which the end here propofed, requires. But hav ing, in the previous obfervation, fufficiently explained the nature of ancient Criticifm, he enters on the fubject [treated of, from ver. 91 to 118.] with a fublime defcription of its end; NOTES. VER. 88. Thofe Rules of old, etc.] Cicero has, beft of any one I know, explained what that thing is which reduces the wild and scattered parts of human knowledge into arts."Nihil eft quod ad artem redigi poffit, nifi ille prius, qui illa tenet, quorum artem inftituere vult, habeat illam fcientiam, "ut ex iis rebus, quarum ars nondum fit, artem efficere poffit. "Omnia fere, quæ funt conclufa nunc artibus, difperfa et diffipata quondam fuerunt, ut in Musicis, etc. Adhibita "eft igitur ars quædam extrinfecus ex alio genere quodam, quod fibi totum PHILOSOPHI affumunt, quæ rem diffolutam divulfamque conglutinaret, et ratione quadam conftringeret" De Orat. l. i. 6. 41, 2. High on Parnaffus' top her fons fhe show'd, Juft precepts thus from great examples giv❜n, And taught the world with Reason to admire. COMMENTARY. 100 which was to illuftrate the beauties of the best Writers, in order to excite others to an emulation of their excellence. From the rapture, which thefe Ideas infpire, the poet is brought back, by the follies of modern Criticifm, now before his eyes, to reflect on its bafe degeneracy. And as the reftoring the Art to its original purity and fplendor is the great purpofe of his poem, he firft takes notice of thofe, who feem not to understand that Nature is exhaustless; that new models of good writing may be produced in every age; and confequently, that new rules may be formed from thefe models, in the fame manner as the old Critics formed theirs, which was, from the writings of the ancient Poets: But men wanting art and ability to form thefe new rules, were content to receive, and file up for ufe, the old ones of Ariftotle, Quintilian, Longinus, Horace, etc. with the fame vanity and boldness that Apothecaries practife, with their Doctor's bills: And then rafhly applying them to new Originals (cafes which they did not hit) it was no more in their power than in their inclination to imitate the candid practice of the Ancients, when "The gen'rous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire, NOTES. VER. 98. Just precepts]" Nec enim artibus editis factum "eft ut argumenta inveniremus, fed dicta funt omnia antequam præciperentur; mox ea fcriptores obfervata et col"lecta ediderunt." Quintil. P. 66 |