No fingle parts unequally surprize,

All comes united to th' admiring eyes;

A

250

No monftrous height, or breadth, or length appear;
The Whole at once is bold, and regular.

Whoever thinks a faultlefs piece to fee,

255

Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
In ev'ry work regard the writer's End,
Since none can compafs more than they intend ;
And if the means be just, the conduct true,
Applaufe, in fpight of trivial faults, is due.
As men of breeding, fometimes men of wit,
T' avoid great errors, must the less commit:
Neglect the rules each verbal Critic lays,
For not to know fome trifles, is a praise.
Moft Critics, fond of fome fubfervient art,
Still make the Whole depend upon a Part:
They talk of principles, but notions prize,
And all to one lov'd Folly facrifice.

260

265

Once on a time, La Mancha's Knight, they say,
A certain Bard encount'ring on the way,
Difcours'd in terms as juft, with looks as fage,
As e'er could Dennis, of the Grecian ftage;
Concluding all were defp'rate fots and fools,
Who durft depart from Ariftotle's rules.
Our Author, happy in a judge fo nice,

270

Produc'd his Play, and begg'd the Knight's advice;
Made him obferve the fubject, and the plot,
The manners, paffions, unities, what not?

275

All

VER. 261. verbal Critic] Is not here used in its common fignification, of one who retails the fenfe of fingle words; but of one who deals in large cargo's of them without any fenfe at all.

All which, exact to rule, were brought about,
Were but a Combat in the lifts left out.

* What! leave the Combat out?" exclaims the

Knight;

Yes, or we muft renounce the Stagirite.

"Not fo, by Heav'n" (he anfwers in a rage)

280

66 Knights, fquires, and steeds, must enter on the "ftage."

So vaft a throng the stage can ne'er contain. “Then build a new, or act it on a plain."

Thus Critics, of lefs judgment than caprice, 285 Curious not knowing, not exact but nice, Form fhort Ideas; and offend in arts (As moft in manners) by a love to parts. Some to Conceit alone their tafte confine, And glitt'ring thoughts ftruck out at ev'ry line; 290 Pleas'd with a work where nothing's just or fit; One glaring Chaos and wild heap of wit.

H 4

Poets,

VER. 285. Thus Critics of lefs judgment than caprice, Curious not knowing, not exact but nice.] In these two lines the poet finely describes the way in which bad writers are wont to imitate the qualities of good ones. As true Judgment generally draws men out of popular opinions, fo he who cannot get from the croud by the affitance of this guide, willingly follows Caprice, which will be fure to lead him into fingularities. Again, true Knowledge is the art of treafuring up only that which, from its use in life, is worthy of being lodged in the memory. But Curiofity confifts in a vain attention to every thing out of the way, and which, for its ufeleffnefs, the world leaft regards. Lastly, Exactness is the jaft proportion of parts to one another, and their harmony in a whole: But he who has not extent of capacity for the exercife of this quality, contents himself with Nicety, which is a bufying one's felf about points and fyllables.

295

Poets, like painters, thus, unfkill'd to trace
The naked nature and the living grace,
With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part,
And hide with ornaments their want of art.
True Wit is Nature to advantage drefs'd,
What oft was thought, but ne'er fo well exprefs'd;
Something, whose truth convinc'd at fight we find,
That gives us back the image of our mind.
As fhades more sweetly recommend the light,
So modeft plainnefs fets off fprightly wit.

300

For

be

VER. 297. True Wit is Nature to advantage drefs'd, etc.] This definition is very exact. Mr. Locke had defined Wit to confift in the affemblage of ideas, and putting thofe together, with quickness and variety, wherein can found any refemblance or congruity, whereby to make up pleafant pictures and agreeable vifions in the fancy. But that great Philofopher, in feparating Wit from Judgment, as he does in this place, has given us (and he could therefore give us no other) only an account of Wit in general: In which falfe Wit, tho' not every species of it, is included. A friking Image therefore of Nature is, as Mr. Locke obferves, certainly Wit: But this image may ftrike on feveral other accounts, as well as for its truth and amiableness; and the Philofopher has explain'd the manner how. But it never becomes that Wit which is the ornament of true Poefy, whofe end is to reprefent Nature, but when it dreffes that Nature to advantage, and prefents her to us in the clearest and most amiable light. And to know when the Fancy has done its office truly, the poet fubjoins this admirable Teft, viz. When we perceive that it gives us back the image of our mind. When it does that, we may be fure it plays no tricks with us: For this image is the creature of the Judgment; and whenever Wit correfponds with Judgment, we may fafely Ironounce it to be true.

Naturam intueamur, hanc fequamur: id facillime acciut animi quod agnofcunt. Quintil. lib. viii. c. 3.

For works may have more wit than does 'em good, As bodies perifh thro' excefs of blood.

Others for Language all their care express, And value books, as women men, for Dress: Their praise is still, the Style is excellent:

The Senfe, they humbly take upon content.

305

310

}

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of fenfe beneath is rarely found.
Falfe Eloquence, like the prismatic glass,
Its gaudy colours spreads on ev'ry place;
The face of Nature we no more survey,
All glares alike, without diftinction gay :
But true Expreffion, like th' unchanging Sun,
Clears, and improves whate'er it shines upon,
It gilds all objects, but it alters none.
Expreffion is the drefs of thought, and still
Appears more decent, as more fuitable;
A vile conceit in pompous words exprefs'd,
Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd:
For diff'rent ftyles with diff'rent fubjects fort,
As feveral garbs with country, town, and court.

320

Some

VER. 311. Falfe eloquence, like the prifmatic glass, etc.] This fimile is beautiful. For the falfe colouring, given to objects by the prifmatic glafs, is owing to its untwisting, by its obliquities, thofe threads of light. which Nature had put together in order to fpread over its works an ingenuous and fimple candor, that should not hide, but only heighten the native complexion of the objects. And falfe Eloquence is nothing elfe but the ftraining and divaricating the parts of true expreffion; and then daubing them over with what the Rhetoricians very properly term, COLOURS; in lieu of that candid light, now loft, which was reflected from them in their natural ftate while fincere and entire.

Some by old words to fame have made pretence, Ancients in phrafe, meer moderns in their sense; Such labour'd nothings, in fo ftrange a style, 326 Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile. Unlucky, as Fungofo in the Play,

330

These sparks with aukward vanity display
What the fine gentleman wore yesterday:
And but fo mimic ancient wits at beft,
As apes our grandfires, in their doublets drest.
In words, as fashions, the fame rule will hold ;
Alike fantaftic, if too new, or old:

Be not the first by whom the new are try'd,
Nor yet the last to lay the old afide.

}

335

But moft by Numbers judge a Poet's fong; And fmooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong: In the bright Mufe tho' thoufand charms confpire, Her Voice is all thefe tuneful fools admire;

340 Who

VER. 324. Some by old words, etc.] Abolita et abrogata retinere, infolentiæ cujufdam eft, et frivole in parvis jactania. Quintil. lib. i. c. 6.

P.

Opus eft ut verba à vetuftate repetita neque crebra fint, neque manifefta, quia nil est odiofius affectatione, nec utique ab ultimis repetita temporibus. Oratio cujus fumma virtus eft perfpicuitas, quam fit vitiofa, fi egeat interprete? Erge at novorum optima erunt maxime vetera, ita veterum maxime nova. Idem. P.

VER. 328. unlucky as Fungofo, etc.] See Ben Johnfon's Every Man in his Humour.

P.

VER. 337. But most by Numbers, etc.]

Quis populi fermo eft? quis enim? nifi carmina molli
Nunc demum numero fluere, ut per læve feveros
Effundat juntara ungues: fcit tendere verfum
Non fecus ac fi oculo rubricam dirigat uno.
6

Perf, Sat. i. P.