afraid of my learning, thought themselves not qualified to propofe any subject of prattle to a man fo famous for difpute, and there was nothing on either fide but impatience and vexation. In this conflict of fhame, as I was re-affembling my scattered sentiments, and, refolving to force my imagination to fome fprightly fally, had juft found a very happy compliment, by too much attention to my own meditations, I fuffered the faucer to drop from my hand. The cup was broken, the lap-dog was fcalded, a brocaded petticoat was ftained, and the whole affembly was thrown into diforder. I now confidered all hopes of reputation as at an end, and while they were confoling and affifting one another, ftole away in filence. The mifadventures of this unhappy day are not yet at an end; I am afraid of meeting the meanest of them that triumphed over me in this ftate of ftupidity and contempt, and feel the fame terrors encroaching upon my heart at the fight of thofe who have once impreffed them. Shame, above any other paffion, propagates itfelf. Before thofe who have feen me confufed, I can never appear without new confufion, and the remembrance of the weaknefs which I formerly discovered, hinders me from acting or fpeaking with my natural But is this mifery, Mr. Rambler, never to cease? have I spent my life in ftudy, only to become the fport of the ignorant, and debarred myfelf from all the common enjoyments of youth, to collect ideas which muft fleep in filence, and form opinions which I must not divulge? Inform me, dear Sir, by what means I may refcue my faculties from thefe thefe fhackles of cowardice, how I may rife to a level with my fellow beings, recal myself from this languor of involuntary fubjection to the free exertion of my intellects, and add to the power of reasoning the liberty of fpeech. I am, Sir, &c. NUMB. 158. SATURDAY, Sept. 21, 1751. Grammatici certant, et adhuc fub judice lis eft. -Criticks yet contend, HOR. And of their vain disputings find no end. C FRANCIS. the RITICISM, though dignified from earliest ages by the labours of men, eminent for knowledge and fagacity, and, fince the revival of polite literature, the favourite ftudy of European fcholars, has not yet attained the certainty and ftability of fcience. The rules hitherto rerceived, are feldom drawn from any fettled principle, or felf-evident poftulate, or adapted to the natural and invariable conftitution of things; but will be found upon examination, the arbitrary edicts of legislators, authorized only by themfelves, who, out of various means by which the fame end may be attained, felected fuch as happened to occur to their own reflection, and then, by a law which idleness and timidity were too willing to obey, prohibited new experiments of wit, reftrained fancy from the indulgence of her innate inclination to hazard and adventure, and condemned 311 condemned all future flights of genius to pursue the path of the Meonian eagle. This authority may be more juftly oppofed, as it is apparently derived from them whom they endeavour to controul; for we owe few of the rules of writing to the acutenefs of critics, who have generally no other merit than that, having read the works of great authors with attention, they have obferved the arrangement of their matter, or the graces of their expreffion, and then expected honour and reverence for precepts which they never could have invented: fo that practice has introduced rules, rather than rules have directed practice. For this reafon the laws of every species of writing have been settled by the ideas of him who first raised it to reputation, without enquiry whether his performances were not yet fufceptible of improvement. The excellencies and faults of celebrated writers have been equally recommended to pofterity; and fo far has blind reverence prevailed, that even the number of their books has been thought worthy of imitation. The imagination of the first authors of lyrick poetry, was vehement and rapid, and their knowledge various and extenfive. Living in an age when science had been little cultivated, and when the minds of their auditors, not being accuftomed to accurate inspection, were easily dazzled by glaring ideas, they applied themferves to inftruct, rather by fhort féntences and ftriking thoughts, than by regular argumentation; and finding attention more fuccefsfully excited by fudden fallies and unexpected exclamations, than by the more artful and placid beauties of methodical deduction, deduction, they loofed their genius to its own caufe, paffed from one fentiment to another, without expreffing the intermediate ideas, and roved at large over the ideal world, with fuch lightness and agility, that their footsteps are scarcely to be traced. From this accidental peculiarity of the ancient writers the critics deduce the rules of lyrick poetry, which they have fet free from all the laws by which other compofitions are confined, and allow to neglect the niceties of tranfition, to start into remote digreffions, and to wander without restraint from one scene of imagery to another. A writer of later times has, by the vivacity of his effays, reconciled mankind to the fame licentioufnefs in fhort differtations; and he, therefore, who wants skill to form a plan, or diligence to purfue it, needs only entitle his performance an effay; to acquire the right of heaping together the col lections of half his life, without order, coherence, or propriety. In writing, as in life, faults are endured without difguft, when they are affociated with tranfcendent merit, and may be fometimes recommended to weak judgments by the luftre which they obtain from their union with excellence; but it is the bufinefs of those who prefume to fuperintend the tafte or morals of mankind, to feparate delufive combinations, and distinguish that which may be praised, from that which can only be excused. As vices never promote happinefs, though when overpowered by more active and more numerous virtues, they cannot totally deftroy it; fo confufion and irregularity produce no beauty, though they cannot always obftruct obftruct the brightness of genius and learning.. To proceed from one truth to another, and connect distant propofitions by regular confequences,; is the great prerogative of man. Independent and unconnected fentiments flashing upon the mind in quick fucceffion, may, for a time, de-. light by their novelty, but they differ from fyftematical reafoning, as fingle notes from harmony, as glances of lightning from the radiance of the fun... When rules are thus drawn, rather from pre-. cedents than reason, there is danger not only from the faults of an author, but from the errors of those who criticife his works; fince they may often mislead their pupils by falfe representations, as, the Ciceronians of the fixteenth century were betrayed into barbarifms by corrupt copies of their darling writer. It is established at prefent, that the proemial lines of a poem, in which the general fubject is propofed, must be void of glitter and embellifh-. ment. "The firft lines of Paradife Loft," fays, Addifon, are perhaps as plain, fimple, and un-. "adorned, as any of the whole poem; in which "particular the author has conformed himself "to the example of Homer, and the precept of "Horace." This obfervation feems to have been made by an implicit adoption of the common opinion,, without confideration either of the precept or example. Had Horace been confulted, he would have been found to direct only what should be comprised in the propofition, not how it fhould be expressed, and to have commended Homer in oppofition to a meaner poet, not for the gradual elevation VOL. III.. P |