As there are none more ambitious of fame, than those who are converfant in poetry, it is very natural for fuch as have not fucceeded in it to depreciate the works of thofe who have. For fince they cannot raife themfelves to the reputation of their fellow-writers, they muft endeavour to fink it to their own pitch, if they would still keep themselves upon a level with them. The greateft wits that ever were produced in one age, lived together in fo good an understanding, and celebrated one another with fo much generofity, that each of them receives an additional luftre from his contemporaries, and is more famous for having lived with men of fo extraordinary a genius, than if he had himself been the fole wonder of the age. I need not tell my reader, that I here point at the reign of Auguftus, and I believe he will be of my opinion, that neither Virgil nor Horace would have gained fo great a reputation in the world, had they not been the friends and admirers of each other. Indeed all the great writers of that age, for whom fingly we have fo great an esteem, ftand up together as vouchers for one another's reputation. But at the fame time that Virgil was celebrated by Gallus, Propertius, Horace, Varius, Tucca and Ovid, we know that Bavius and Mævius were his declared foes and calumniators. In our own country a man feldom fets up for a poet, without attacking the reputation of all his brothers in the art. The ignorance of the moderns, the fcribblers of the age, the decay of poetry, are the topics of detraction, with which he makes his entrance into the world: but how much more noble is the fame that is built on candour and ingenuity, according to thofe beautiful lines of Sir John Denham, in his poem on Fletcher's works! "But whither am I ftray'd? I need not raife Trophies to thee from other mens difpraise: "Nor is thy fame on leffer ruins built, "Nor needs thy jufter title the foul guilt "Of eaftern kings, who to fecure their reign, "Muft have their brothers, fons, and kindred flain.” I am forry to find that an author, who is very juftly efteemed among the beft judges, has admitted fome ftrokes of this nature into a very fine poem; I mean the Art of Criticifm, which was published fome months fince, and is a master-piece in its kind. The observations follow one another like thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would have been requifite in a profe author. They are fome of them uncommon, but fuch as the reader muft affent to, when he fees them explained with that elegance and perfpicuity in which they are delivered. As for thofe which are the most known and the most received, they are placed in fo beautiful a light, and illuftrated with fuch apt allufions, that they have in them all the graces of novelty, and make the reader, who was before acquainted with them, ftill more convinced of their truth and folidity. And here give me leave to mention what Monfieur Boileau has fo very well enlarged upon in the preface to his works, that wit and fine writing do not confift fo much in advancing things that are new, as in giving things that are known an agreeable turn. It is impoffible for us, who live in the later ages of the world, to make obfervations in criticifin, morality, or in any art or fcience, which have not been touched upon by others. We have little elfe left us,. but to reprefent the common fense of mankind in more ftrong, more beautiful, or more uncommon lights. If a reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but very few precepts in it, which he may not meet with in Ariftotle, and which were not commonly known by all the poets of the Auguftan age. His way of exprefling and applying them, not his invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire. For this reafon I think there is nothing in the world fo tiresome as the works of thofe critics who write in a po-fitive dogmatic way, without either language, genius, or imagination. If the reader would fee how the best of the Latin critics writ, he may find their manner very beautifully defcribed in the characters of Horace, Petronius, Quintilian, and Longinus, as they are drawn in: the effay of which I am now speaking. Since I have mentioned Longinus, who in his reflections, has given us the fame kind of fublime, which he obferves in the feveral paffages that occafioned them; I' Bannot but take notice, that our English author has after, the fame manner exemplified feveral of his precepts in the very precepts themfelves. I fhall produce two or three inftances of this kind. Speaking of the infipid fmoothness which fome readers are fo much in love with, he has the following verses. "Thefe equal fyllables alone require, The gaping of the vowels in the fecond line, the expletive do in the third, and the ten monofyllables in the fourth, give fuch a beauty to this paffage, as would have been very much admired in an ancient poet. The reader may obferve the following lines in the fame view. "A needlefs Alexandrine ends the fong, "That like a wounded fnake drags its flow length along." And afterwards, "'Tis not enough no harthness gives offence, "The found mutt feem an echo to the fenfe. "Soft is the ftrain when Zephyr gently blows, "And the finooth ftream in fmoother numbers flows; "But when loud furges lafh the founding fhore, "The hoarfe rough verfe fhou'd like the torrent roar. "When Ajax strives fome rock's vaft weight to throw, "The line too labours, and the words move flow; "Not fo, when swift Camilla fcours the plain, "Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the "main." The beautiful diftich upon Ajax in the foregoing lines, puts me in mind of a defcription in Homer's Odyssey, which none of the critics have taken notice of. It is where Sifyphus is reprefented lifting his ftone up the hill, which is no fooner carried to the top of it, but it immediately tumbles to the bottom. This double motion of the stone is admirably defcribed in the numbers of these verses; as in the four firft it is heaved up by feveral fpondees intermixed with proper breathing places, and at laft trundles down in a continual line of dactyls. Καὶ μὴν Σίσυφον, εἰσεῖδον, κρατερ ̓ ἄλγε' ἔχοντα, Odyяf. 1. 11. "I turn'd my eye, and as I turn'd furvey'd "A mournful vilion! the Sifyphian shade: "With many a weary step, and many a groan, Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone: "The huge round ftone, refulting with a bound, "Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground." РОРЕ. It would be endless to quote verfes out of Virgil which have this particular kind of beauty in the numbers; but I may take an occafion in a future paper to fhew feveral of them which have escaped the obfervation of others. I cannot conclude this paper without taking notice that we have three poems in our tongue, which are of the fame nature, and each of them a mafter-piece in its kind; the effay on tranflated verfe, the effay on the art of poetry, and the effay upon criticism. C. N° 254. Friday, December 21. Σεμνὸς ἔρως ἀρετῆς, ὁ δὲ κυπρίδΘ ἄσχος ὀφέλλει. WHEN I confider the falfe impreffions which are received by the generality of the world, I am troubled at none more than a certain levity of thought, which many young women of quality have entertained, to the hazard of their characters, and the certain misfortune of their lives. The first of the following letters may best reprefent the faults I would now point at, and the anfwer to it the temper of mind in a contrary character. IF thou art fhe, but oh how fallen, how changed, what an apoftate! how loft to all that is gay and agreeable! To be married I find is to be buried alive; I cannot conceive it more difmal to be shut up in a vault to converse with the shades of my ancestors, than to be ⚫ carried down to an old manor-house in the country, and ⚫ confined to the converfation of a fober husband and an aukward chamber-maid. For variety I fuppofe you may entertain yourfelf with madam in her grogram gown, the fpoufe of your parish vicar, who has by this time I am fure well furnished you with receipts ⚫ for making falves and poffets, diftilling cordial-waters, making fyrups, and applying poultices. ་ ་ Bleft folitude! I with thee joy, my dear, of thy loved retirement, which indeed you would perfuade me is very agreeable, and different enough from what I have here defcribed: but, child, I am afraid thy brains are a little difordered with romances and novels: after fix months marriage to hear thee talk of love, and paint the country fcenes fo foftly, is a little extravagant; one would 'think you lived the lives of fylvan deities, or roved among the walks of Paradife, like the first happy pair. But pr'ythee leave thefe whimfies, and come to town in order to live and talk like other mortals. However, as I am extremely interested in your reputation, I would willingly give you a little good advice at your first appearance under the character of a married woman: it is a little infolent in me perhaps, to advise a matron; but I am fo afraid you will make fo filly a figure as a fond wife, that I cannot help warning you not to appear in any public places with your hufband, and never to faunter about St. James's Park together: if you prefume to enter the ring at Hyde-Paik together, you are ruined for ever; nor muft you take the leaft notice of one another at the play-houfe or opera, unless you would be laughed at for a very loving couple moft happily paired in the yoke of wedlock. I would recommend the example 6 |