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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, Verfification, only, 288. 305. 339, etc. 4. Being too hard to please, or too apt to admire, # 384. 5. Partiality-too much love to a Sect, -to the Ancients or Moderns, 394. 6. 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. Modefty, 566. Good-breeding, 572. Sincerity and Freedom of advice,

fel is to be refrained, 584.

578. 2. When one's CounCharacter of an incorrigible

645•

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,
Horace, 653. Dionyfius, 665. Petronius, 667.
Quintilian, † 670. Longinus, ✯ 675. Of the Decay of
Criticism, and its Revival. Erafmus, † 693. Vida, † 705.
Boileau, 714. Lord R'ofcommon, etc. ✯ 725.

Conclufion.

ΑΝ

ESSAY

ON

CRITICISM.

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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 fenfe. Some few in that, but numbers err in this, Ten cenfure wrong for one who writes amiss;

5

An EfJay] The Poem is in one book, but divided into three principal parts or members. The first [to 201.] gives rules for the Study of the Art of Criticism: the fecond [from thence to 560.] expofes the Caufes 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 several parts, the penetration into Nature, and the compafs of Learning fo confpicuous throughout, he should then be told that it was the work of an Author who had not attained the twentieth Year of his age.

A fool might once himself alone expose,
Now one in verse makes many more in profe.

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go juft alike, yet each believes his own.
In Poets as true genius is but rare,

True Taste as feldom is the Critic's fhare;
Both muft alike from Heav'n derive their light,
These born to judge, as well as those to write.
Let fuch teach others who themselves excel,
And cenfure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true,
But are not Critics to their judgment too?

10

15

Yet if we look more clofely, we fhall find
Moft have the feeds of judgment in their mind: 20
Nature affords at leaft a glimm'ring light;

The lines, tho' touch'd but faintly, are drawn right.
But as the flighteft fketch, if juftly trac'd,
Is by ill-colouring but the more disgrac'd,
So by false learning is good fenfe defac'd :

VER. 15. Let fuch teach others] "Qui fcribit artificiofe, ab "aliis commode fcripta facile intelligere poterit." Cic. ad Heren. lib. iv. "De pictore, fculptore, fictore, nifi artifex, judicare 66 non poteft." Pliny.

VER. 20. Moft have the feeds] "Omnes tacito quodam fenfu, "fine ulla arte, aut ratione, quæ fint in artibus ac rationibus "recta et prava dijudicant." Cic. de Orat. lib. iii.

VER. 25. So by falfe learning] " Plus fine doctrina prudentia, quam fine prudentia valet doctrina. Quint.

26

Some are bewilder'd in the maze of fchools,
And fome made coxcombs Nature meant but fools.
In fearch of wit thefe lofe their common fense,
And then turn Critics in their own defence:
Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write,
Or with a Rival's, or an Eunuch's fpite.
All fools have still an itching to deride,
And fain would be upon the laughing fide.
If Mævius fcribble in Apollo's fpight,

30

There are, who judge ftill worse than he can write.
Some have at first for Wits, then Poets paft, 36
Turn'd Critics next, and prov'd plain fools at last.
Some neither can for Wits nor Critics pass,
As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass.
Those half-learn'd witlings, num'rous in our isle,40
As half-form'd infects on the banks of Nile;
Unfinish'd things, one knows not what to call,
'Their generation's fo equivocal:

To tell 'em, would a hundred tongues require,
Or one vain wit's, that might a hundred tire.

VARIATIONS.

45

Between 25 and 26 were these lines, fince omitted by the author:

Many are spoil'd by that pedantic throng,

Who with great pains teach youth to reafon wrong.
Tutors, like Virtuefo's, oft inclin'd

By ftrange transfufion to improve the mind,
Draw off the fenfe we have to pour in new;

Which yet, with all their skill, they ne'er could do.

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