If once right reafon drives that cloud away, A little learning is a dang❜rous thing; 215 There rance. COMMENTARY. VER. 216. Drink deep, &c.] Nature and Learning are the poleftars of all true Criticism: But Pride obftructs the view of Nature; and a smattering of letters makes us infenfible of our ignoTo avoid this ridiculous fituation, the Poet [from ver. 214 to 233.] advises either to drink deep, or not to drink at all; for the leaft fip at this fountain is enough to make a bad Crític, while even a moderate draught can never make a good one. And yet the labours and difficulties of drinking deep are so great that a young author," Fir'd with ideas of fair Italy," and ambitious to fnatch a palm from Rome, here engages in an undertaking like that of Hannibal: Finely illuftrated by the fimilitude of an unexperienced traveller penetrating through the Alps. WARBURTON NOTES. la dignité de SCHOLIASTE ; fi cet homme venoit à peser fon véritable mérite, il trouveroit fouvent qu'il se réduit, avoir eu des yeux et de la mémoire; il fe garderoit bien de donner le com refpectable de science à une erudition fans lumiere. Il y a une g ande difference entre s'enrichir des mots ou des chofes, entre alleguer des autorités ou des raifons. Si un homme pouvoit fe furprendre à n'avoir que cette forte de mérite, il en rougiroit plûtôt que d'en être vain.' "" VER. 213. your defeds to know,] Gray h defects to scan," and the exact knowledge duct as well as in writing, is perhaps e Pope's rule in either cafe is a very gov VOL. I. BARBURTON. Ex my own vir defects, in con. y difficult to attain. He followed it himself, here fhallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely fobers us again. Fir'd at first fight with what the Mufe imparts, In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts, 220 Short views we take, nor fee the lengths behind; So pleas'd at firft the tow'ring Alps we try, Mount o'er the vales, and feem to tread the sky, VARIATIONS. VER. 225. So pleas'd at firft the tow'ring Alps to try, 225 Th' Fill'd with ideas of fair Italy, The Traveller beholds with cheerful eyes The lefs'ning vales, and feems to tread the skies. NOTES. himself, with regard to his antagonist, Dennis. Some faults in this Effay, which Dennis detected, Pope had the good fenfe to correct. VER. 213. defects to know,] Akenfide injured his poem by too much correction. Ariofto, as easy and familiar as he feems to be, made many and great alterations in his enchanting poem. Some of Rochefoucault's Maxims were corrected and new written more than thirty times. The Provincial Letters of Pafcal, the model of good style in the French language, were fubmitted to the judgment of twelve members of the Port Royal, who made many corrections in them. All that can be faid about correction, is contained in these few incomparable words of Quintlian: "Hujus operis eft, adjicere, detrahere, mutare. Sed facilius in his fimpliciufque judicium, quæ replenda vel dejicienda funt; premere verò tumentia, humilia extollere, luxuriantia aftringere, inordinata dirigere, foluta componere, exultantia coercere, duplicis operæ." Quint. lib. x. c. 3. WARTON. Th' eternal fnows appear already past, And the first clouds and mountains feem the laft: The growing labours of the lengthen'd way, Hills peep Th' increasing profpect tires our wand'ring eyes, COMMENTARY. 230 Survey VER. 233. A perfect Judge, &c.] The third caufe of wrong Judgment is a NARROW CAPACITY; the natural cause of the foregoing defect, acquiefcence in fuperficial learning. This bounded capacity our Author fhews [from 232 to 384.], betrays itself two ways; in its judgment both of the matter, and the manner of the work criticised: Of the matter, in judging by parts, or in having one favourite part to a neglect of all the reft: Of the manner, in confining men's regard only to conceit, or language, or numbers. WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 225. So pleas'd, &c.] Dr. Warton does not agree with Johnson, who says "that this fimile is the moft apt, the most proper, and moft fublime of any in the English language. It is undoubtedly appropriate, illustrative, and eminently beautiful, but evidently copied from Drummond, as Warton obferves : Ah! as a pilgrim who the Alpes doth paffe, Or Atlas' temples crown'd with winter's glasse, Pyrene's cliffes where funne doth never shine, See alfo Silius Italicus, lib. iii. 528. VER. 233. A perfect Judge, &c.] "Diligenter legendum eft ac pæne ad fcribendi follicitudinem: Nec per partes modo feru / tanda Q2 Survey the WHOLE, nor feek flight faults to find 235 Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind; Nor lofe for that malignant dull delight, The gen'rous pleasure to be charm'd with wit. NOTES. But tanda funt omnia, fed perlectus liber utique ex integro refumendus." Quint. POPE. It is obfervable that our Author makes it almoft the neceffary confequence of judging by parts, to find fault: And this not without much difcernment: For the feveral parts of a complete Whole, when feen only fingly, and known only independently, muft always have the appearance of irregularity; often of deformity because the Poet's defign being to create a refultive beauty from the artful assemblage of several various parts into one natural whole; those parts muft be fathioned with regard to their mutual relations in the ftations they occupy in that whole, from whence the beauty required is to arife: But that regard will occafion fo unreducible a form in each part, when confidered fingly, as to prefent a very mis-fhapen Form. WARBURTON. VER. 235. Survey the WHOLE, nor feek flight faults to find Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind ;] The fecond line, in apologizing for thofe faults which the first fays fhould be overlooked, gives the reason of the precept. For when a great writer's attention is fixed on a general view of Nature, and his imagination become warmed with the contemplation of great ideas, it can hardly be, but that there must be small irregularities in the difpofition both of matter and ftyle, becaufe the avoiding these requires a coolnefs of recollection, which a writer fo qualified and fo bufied is not mafter of. WARBURTON. According to a moft just and judicious obfervation in the first book of Strabo, σε Καθαπερ γε εν τοις κολοσσικοις έργοις, & το καθ' όλε έκατον ακριβες ζητεμέν, αλλα τοις καθ' ὅλε προσεχομεν μαλλον ει ει καλώς το φλον έτως κ' αν τελοις ποιείσθαι δει την κρισιν. As in great coloffal works, we do not feek for exactness and accuracy in every part, but rather attend to the general effect, and beauty of the whole; fo ought we to judge of compofitions. And, as Quintilian fays, Ungues polire, & capillum reponere, is an ufelefs and ill-placed care. WARTON. 240 But in fuch lays as neither ebb nor flow, NOTES. 245 No VER. 236. Where nature moves, &c.] How finely do these lines characterise our wonderful Shakespear: Fancy's child Warbling his native wood-notes wild." VER. 237. delight,] Can we pafs over without cenfure fuch very objectionable rhymes, as "delight, and wit?" VER. 247. Thus when we view] This is juftly and elegantly expreffed. Akenfide has nobly fucceeded, in fpeaking of the fame fubject: "Mark, how the dread Pantheon stands, Amid the domes of modern hands! Amid the toys of idle ftate, How fimply, how feverely great! Then paufe !" WARTON. VER. 248. The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome !] The Pantheon, I would fuppofe; perhaps St. Peter's; no matter which; the obfervation is true of both. There is fomething very Gothic in the tafte and judgment of a learned man, who defpifes this mafter-piece of Art, the Pantheon, for those very qualities which deferve our admiration.- "Nous efmerveillons comme l'on fait si grande cas de ce Pantheon, veu que fon edifice n'eft de fi grande industrie comme l'on crie: car chaque petit Maffon peut bien concevoir la maniere de se façon tout en un instant: car eftant la bafe fi maffive, et les murailles fi efpaiffes, ne nous a |