ΑΝ

ESSAY

ΟΝ

CRITICISM.

Written in the Year м DCC IX.

CONTENTS

OF THE

ESSAY on CRITICISM.

PART I.

IN
"Ntroduction. That 'tis as great a fault to judge ill, as to
write ill, and a more dangerous one to the public,

1.

That a true Tafte is as rare to be found, as a true Genius,

9 to 18..

That most men are born with fome Tafte, but spoil'd by falfe

19 to 25.

Education,

The Multitude of Critics, and caufes of them,

26 to 45.

That we are to ftudy our own Tafte, and know the Limits of it,

46 to 67.

Nature the best guide of judgment, 68 to 87.

Improved by Art and Rules, which are but methodis'd Nature,

88.

Rules deriv'd from the Practice of the Ancient Poets, & id, t

110.

2

That therefore the Ancients are necessary to be ftudy'd by a Critic,

particularly Homer and Virgil, 120 to 138.

Of Licenses, and the use of them by the Ancients, 140 to

180.

Reverence due to the Ancients, and praise of them, ✈ 181,

etc.

PART II. Ver. 203, etc.

2. Im

Caufes bindering a true Judgment. 1. Pride, 208. perfect Learning, 215. 3. Judging by parts, and not by the whole, 233 to 288. Critics in Wit, Language, Versification, only, ✯ 288. 305. 339, etc. 4. Being too bard to pleafe, or too apt to admire, 384. 5. Partiality-too much love to a Sect, -to the Ancients or Moderns, 3946. Prejudice or Prevention, 408. 7. Singularity, ✯ 424. 8. Inconftancy, ✈ 430. 9. Party Spirit, 452, etc. 10. Envy, 466. Against Envy and in praise of Goodnature, 508, etc. When Severity is chiefly to be used by Critics, 526, etc.

PART III. Ver. 560, etc.

Rules for the Conduct and Manners in a Critic, 1. Candour, ✯ 563. Modesty, † 566. Good-breeding, ✯ 572. Sincerity and Freedom of advice, 578. 2. When one's Coun

fel is to be refrained, 584. Character of an incorrigible
Poet, 600. And of an impertinent Critic, 610, etc.
Character of a good Critic, 629. The Hiftory of Criti-
cism, and Characters of the beft Critics, Ariftotle, 645.
Horace, 653. Dionyfius, 665. Petronius, 667.
Quintilian, 670. Longinus, 675. Of the Decay of
Criticism, and its Revival. Erasmus, † 693.
Boileau, 714. Lord Rofcommon, etc. † 725.

Vida, † 705.
Conclufion.

ΑΝ

ESSAY

ΟΝ

CRITICISM.

IS hard to fay, if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill;

But of the two, lefs dang'rous is th' offence
To tire our patience, than mislead our sense.
Some few in that, but numbers err in this,
Ten cenfure wrong for one who writes amiss;

5

An Efay] The Poem is in one book, but divided into three principal parts or members. The first [to y 201.] gives rules for the Study of the Art of Criticism: the fecond [from thence to 560.] exposes the Causes of wrong Judgment ; and the third [from thence to the end] marks out the Morals of the Critic. When the Reader hath well confidered the whole, and hath obferved the regularity of the plan, the mafterly conduct of the feveral parts, the penetration into Nature, and the compafs of Learning fo confpicuous throughout, he fhould then be told that it was the work of an Author who had not attained