47 I For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd, makes known No longer now that golden age appears, When Patriarch-wits furviv'd a thousand years: 485 Where VER. 468. For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd, etc.] This fimilitude implies a fact too often verified; and of which we need not feek abroad for examples. It is, that frequently thofe very Authors, who have at first done all they could to obfcure and depress a rifing genius, have at length, in order to keep themselves in fome little credit, been reduced to borrow from him, imitate his manner, and reflect what they could of his fplendor. Nor hath the poet been lefs artful, to infinuate alfo what is fometimes the cause. A youthful genius, like the Sun rifing towards the Meridian, difplays too firong and powerful beams for the dirty genius of inferior writers, which occafions their gathering, condenfing, and blackening. But as he defcends from the Meridian (the time when the Sun gives its gilding to the furrounding clouds) his rays grow milder, his heat more benign, and then - ev'n thofe Clouds at laft adorn its way. Reflect new glories, and augment-the day. Where a new world leaps out at his command, Unhappy Wit, like most mistaken things, 491 495 Like fome fair flow'r the early spring supplies, 501 And still the more we give, the more requir'd';, Whose fame with pains we guard, but lose with ease, Sure fome to vex, but never all to please ; 505 'Tis what the vicious fear, the virtuous shun, By fools 'tis hated, and by knaves undone ! If Wit fo much from Ign'rance undergo, Ah let not Learning too commence its foe! Of old, thofe met rewards who could excell, 510 And fuch were prais'd who but endeavour'd well: Tho' triumphs were to gen'rals only due, Crowns were referv'd to grace the foldiers too. VER. 507 by knaves undane!]. By which the Poet would infinuate, a common but fhameful truth, That Men in power, if they got into it by illiberal arts, generally left Wit and Science to ftarve Now, they who reach Parnaffus' lofty crown, 7 Nor in the Critic let the Man be loft. 520 Good-nature and good-fense must ever join; 525 But if in noble minds fome dregs remain 1131 Tho' wit and art confpire to move your mind; As fhameful fure as Impotence in love. 539 In VER. 519. But fill the Worft with moft regret commend, For each ill Author is as bad a Friend.] As Ignorance, when joined with Humility, produces ftupid admiration, on which account it is so commonly obferved to be the mother of Devotion and blind homage; fo when' joined with Vanity (as it always is in bad Critics) it gives birth to every iniquity of impudent abuse and flander. See an example (for want of a better) in a late worthlefs and now forgotten thing, called the Life of Socrates. Where the bead of the Author (as a man of wit obferved on reading the book) had just made a shift to do the office of a Camera obfcura, to represent things in an inverted order: himself above, and Sprat, Rollin, Voltaire, and every other Author of reputation, below. In the fat age of pleasure, wealth, and ease, 535 Sprung the rank weed, and thriv'd with large in crease: When love was all an eafy Monarch's care; Seldom at council, never in a war: Jilts rul'd the state, and statesmen farces writ; Nay wits had penfions, and young Lords had wit: The Fair fate panting at a Courtier's play, 541 And not a Mask went unimprov'd away: The modeft fan was lifted up no more, And Virgins smil'd at what they blush'd before. 545 Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain; Then unbelieving Priests reform'd the nation, And taught more pleasant methods of falvation; Where Heav'n's free subjects might their rights difpute, Left God himself fhould feem too abfolute : 550 And Vice admir'd to find a flatt'rer there! I 3 560 LEARN VER. 547. The author has omitted two lines which flood here, as containing a National Reflection, which in his stricter judgment he could not but difapprove on any People whatever. P. LEARN then what MORALS Critics ought to fhow, Be filent always when you doubt your sense; But 565 'Tis not enough, your counsel still be true; For the worst avarice is that of fenfe. 580 586 And VER. 562. For 'tis but balf a Judge's task, to know ] The Critic acts in two capacities, of Affeffor and of Judge: in the first, Science alone is fufficient; but the other requires morals likewise, |