Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows1,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,

The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar :

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw3,
"The line too labours, and the words move slow;
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain*,

370

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprize3,

And bid alternate passions fall and rise!

While, at each change, the son of Libyan Jove
Now burns with glory, and then melts with love,
Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow,
Now sighs steal out, and tears begin to flow:
Persians and Greeks like turns of nature found,
And the world's victor stood subdu'd by Sound!
The pow'r of Music all our hearts allow,
And what Timotheus was, is DRYDEN now 6.
Avoid Extremes; and shun the fault of such,
Who still are pleas'd too little or too much.
At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence,

That always shows great pride, or little sense;
Those heads, as stomachs, are not sure the best,
Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest.
Yet let not each gay Turn thy rapture move;
For fools admire7, but men of sense approve:
As things seem large which we thro' mists descry,
Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

Some foreign writers, some our own despise ;
The Ancients only, or the Moderns prize.
Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd
To one small sect, and all are damn'd beside.
Meanly they seek the blessing to confine,
And force that sun but on a part to shine,

Lord Roscommon says,

The sound is still a comment to the sense. They are both well expressed: only this supposes the sense to be assisted by the sound; that, the sound assisted by the sense.

1 Soft is the strain, &c.] "Tum si læta canunt,' &c.

Warburton.

Vida Poet. lib. III. v. 403. 2 But when loud surges, &c.] 'Tum longe sale saxa sonant,' &c. Vida ib. 838. 3 When Ajax strives, &c.] 'Atque ideo si quid geritur molimine magno,' &c. Vida ib. 417. 4 Not so, when swift Camilla, &c.] 'At mora si fuerit damno, properare jubebo,' &c. Vida ib. 420. [Pope's lines are slightly altered from Dryden's version of the Eneid, vii. 808 ff.]

5 Hear how Timotheus, &c.] See Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Music; an Ode by Mr Dryden. P. ['What Timotheus was' Pope had

ments.

380

390

hardly ascertained from a study of his FragTimotheus the dithyrambic poet of Miletus really died three years before the birth of Alexander, in 359.]

6 [Pope was from his earliest youth a constant reader and ardent admirer of Dryden. He used to say, that Dryden had improved the art of versification beyond any of the preceding poets, and that he would have been perfect in it, had he not been so often obliged to write with precipitation. Pope was introduced to Dryden, but the latter died before any intimacy could take place between them. See Ruffhead's Life of Pope, 22, 3. Johnson, commenting on Voltaire's comparison between Dryden and Pope, said, that 'they both drive coaches and six; but Dryden's horses are either galloping or stumbling: Pope's go at a steady even trot.' Boswell ad ann. 1766.]

7 [It need hardly be pointed out that the 'nil admirari' desiderated by Horace includes moral self-restraint as well as intellectual equanimity.]

Which not alone the southern wit sublimes,
But ripens spirits in cold northern climes ;
Which from the first has shone on ages past,
Enlights the present, and shall warm the last ;,
Tho each may feel increases and decays,
And see now clearer and now darker days.
Regard not then if Wit be old or new,
But blame the false, and value still the true.
Some ne'er advance a Judgment of their own,
But catch the spreading notion of the Town;
They reason and conclude by precedent,
And own stale nonsense which they ne'er invent.
Some judge of authors' names, not works, and then

Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men.
Of all this servile herd the worst is he
That in proud dulness joins with Quality.
A constant Critic at the great man's board,
To fetch and carry nonsense for my Lord.
What woful stuff this madrigal would be,
In some starv'd hackney sonneteer, or me?
But let a Lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens how the style refines !
Before his sacred name flies ev'ry fault,
And each exalted stanza teems with thought!

The Vulgar thus through Imitation err;

As oft the Learn'd by being singular;

So much they scorn the crowd, that if the throng
By chance go right, they purposely go wrong;
So Schismatics the plain believers quit,

400

410

420

And are but damn'd for having too much wit.

Some praise at morning what they blame at night;

430

But always think the last opinion right.

A Muse by these is like a mistress us'd,
This hour she's idoliz'd, the next abus'd;

While their weak heads like towns unfortify'd,

'Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their side.
Ask them the cause; they're wiser still, they say;
And still to-morrow's wiser than to-day.
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow,
Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so.
Once School-divines this zealous isle o'er-spread;
Who knew most Sentences, was deepest read1;
Faith, Gospel, all, seem'd made to be disputed,
And none had sense enough to be confuted:
Scotists and Thomists, now, in peace remain",

Sentences] [i.e. passages from the Fathers. Peter Lombard who made a collection of these which was to settle all disputed doctrines, hence received the name of 'the Master of the Sentences.']

2 ['The greatest of the schoolmen were the Dominican Thomas Aquinas, and the Franciscan Duns Scotus. They were founders of rival sects

440

which wrangled with each other for two or three centuries. But the authority of their writings, which were incredibly voluminous, impeded in some measure the growth of new men.' Hallam, whose account of the schoolmen (so severely judged by Bacon in the Novum Organon) will be found in the first chapter of his Introd. to the Liter. of Eur.

Amidst their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane',

If Faith itself has diff'rent dresses worn,

What wonder modes in Wit should take their turn?
Oft', leaving what is natural and fit,

The current folly proves the ready wit;
And authors think their reputation safe,

Which lives as long as fools are pleas'd to laugh.
Some valuing those of their own side or mind,
Still make themselves the measure of mankind:
Fondly we think we honour merit then,
When we but praise ourselves in other men.
Parties in Wit attend on those of State,
And public faction doubles private hate.
Pride, Malice, Folly, against Dryden rose,
In various shapes of Parsons, Critics, Beaus 2;
But sense surviv'd, when merry jests were past;
For rising merit will buoy up at last.
Might he return, and bless once more our eyes,
New Blackmores3 and new Milbourns
Nay should great Homer lift his awful head,
Zoilus again would start up from the dead,
Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue;
But like a shadow, proves the substance true;
For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd, makes known
Th' opposing body's grossness, not its own,
When first that sun too pow'rful beams displays,
It draws up vapours which obscure its rays;
But ev'n those clouds at last adorn its way.
Reflect new glories, and augment the day.

must arise:

Be thou the first true merit to befriend ;
His praise is lost, who stays, till all commend.
Short is the date, alas, of modern rhymes,
And 'tis but just to let them live betimes.
No longer now that golden age appears,
When Patriarch-wits surviv'd a thousand years:
Now length of Fame (our second life) is lost,
And bare threescore is all ev'n that can boast;
Our sons their fathers' failing language see,
And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be.

450

460

470

480

authors generally in the preface to his poem of Prince Arthur, and Dryden individually in A Satire on Wit. He is the Quack Maurus of Dryden's Prologue to The Secular Masque; and is referred to by Swift as one of the few who 'have reach'd the low sublime.' But he 'beat his painful way' in spite of critics great and small; and lived to be saluted by Dennis as the author of a poem equal to that of Lucretius in poetical beauty and superior to it in argumentative strength.]

4 Milbourn]. The Rev. Mr Luke Milbourn. See Pope's note to Dunciad, bk. 1. ver. 349.

So when the faithful pencil has design'd
Some bright Idea of the master's mind,
Where a new world leaps out at his command,
And ready Nature waits upon his hand;
When the ripe colours soften and unite,
And sweetly melt into just shade and light;
When mellowing years their full perfection give,
And each bold figure just begins to live,
The treach'rous colours the fair art betray,
And all the bright creation fades away!

Unhappy Wit, like most mistaken things,
Atones not for that envy which it brings.
In youth alone its empty praise we boast,
But soon the short-liv'd vanity is lost :
Like some fair flow'r the early spring supplies,
That gaily blooms, but ev'n in blooming dies.
What is this Wit, which must our cares employ?
The owner's wife, that other men enjoy;
Then most our trouble still when most admir'd,
And still the more we give, the more requir'd;

490

500

Whose fame with pains we guard, but lose with ease,
Sure some to vex, but never all to please;

'Tis what the vicious fear, the virtuous shun,
By fools 'tis hated, and by knaves undone !
If Wit so much from Ign'rance undergo,
Ah let not Learning too commence its foe!
Of old, those met rewards who could excel,
And such were prais'd who but endeavour'd well :
Tho' triumphs were to gen'rals only due,
Crowns were reserv'd to grace the soldiers too.
Now, they who reach Parnassus' lofty crown,
Employ their pains to spurn some others down;
And while self-love each jealous writer rules,
Contending wits become the sport of fools:
But still the worst with most regret commend,
For each ill Author, is as bad a Friend.
To what base ends, and by what abject ways,
Are mortals urg'd thro' sacred lust of praise !
Ah ne'er so dire a thirst of glory boast,
Nor in the Critic let the Man be lost.
Good-nature and good-sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive, divine.

But if in noble minds some dregs remain
Not yet purg'd off, of spleen and sour disdain ;
Discharge that rage on more provoking crimes,
Nor fear a dearth in these flagitious times.

510

520

No pardon vile Obscenity should find,

530

Tho' wit and art conspire to move your mind;

But Dulness with Obscenity must prove

As shameful sure as Impotence in love.

In the fat age of pleasure wealth and ease,

Sprung the rank weed, and thriv'd with large increase:

Nay wits had pensions, and young Lords had wit1:

The Fair sate panting at a Courtier's play,

540

And not a Mask went unimprov'd away":

The modest fan was lifted up no more,

And Virgins smil'd at what they blush'd before.
The following licence of a Foreign reign3

Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain;

Then unbelieving priests reform'd the nation",

And taught more pleasant methods of salvation;

Where Heav'n's free subjects might their rights dispute,
Lest God himself should seem too absolute:

Pulpits their sacred satire learn'd to spare,

And Vice admir'd to find a flatt'rer there!

Encourag'd thus, Wit's Titans brav'd the skies,

And the press groan'd with licens'd blasphemies.
These monsters, Critics! with your darts engage,
Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage!
Yet shun their fault, who, scandalously nice,
Will needs mistake an author into vice;
All seems infected that th' infected spy,

550

As all looks yellow to the jaundic'd eye.

LEARN then what MORALS Critics ought to show,
For 'tis but half a Judge's task, to know.
'Tis not enough, taste, judgment, learning, join;
In all you speak, let truth and candour shine:
That not alone what to your sense is due
All may allow; but seek your friendship too.

560

Be silent always when you doubt your sense;
And speak, tho' sure, with seeming diffidence:
Some positive, persisting fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so;
But you, with pleasure own your errors past,
And make each day a Critic on the last.

'Tis not enough, your counsel still be true;
Blunt truths more mischief than nice falshoods do;
Men must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown propos'd as things forgot.

[The principal wits to be found 'mongst noblemen' and men of fashion in the reign of Charles II. were, besides the duke of Buckingham, the earl of Rochester, the earl of Roscommon, the earl of Dorset, the marquis of Halifax, Lord Godolphin and Sir Charles Sedley. Though Dryden was laureate under Charles II., he was long left in indigence by the king, and, in laying his case before the government, bitterly exclaimed "Tis enough for one age to have neglected Mr Cowley, and starved Mr Butler.' See R. Bell's Life of John Dryden in Poetical Works, 1. 53, ff.]

570

Alluding to the custom in that age of ladies going in masks to the play. Bowles.

3 [Of William III., Tutchin's 'Foreigner.'] Pope, for obvious reasons, seems to forget there was such a King as James II. Bowles.

4 The author has omitted two lines which stood here, as containing a national reflection, which in his stricter judgment he could not but disapprove on any people whatever. P.

5 [viz. the 'Latitudinarian' divines of the Low Church party, of whom bishop Burnet was the most prominent.]