A little learning is a dang'rous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring : There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely fobers us again. 215 Fir'd at first fight with what the Muse imparts, In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts, 220 COMMENTARY. VER. 215. A little learning, etc.] We muft here remark the Poet's fkill in his difpofition of the causes obftructing true Judgment. Each general caufe which is laid down firft, has its own particular caufe in that which follows. Thus, the fecond caufe of wrong Judgment, SUPERFICIAL LEARNING, is what occafions that critical Pride, which he places first. VER. 216. Drink deep, etc.] Nature and Learning are the pole stars of all true Criticism: But Pride obftructs the view of Nature; and a jmattering of letters makes us infenfible of our ignorance. To avoid this ridiculous fituation, the Poet [from ver. 214 to 233.] advises, either to drink deep, or not to drink at all; for the leaft tafte at this fountain is enough to make a bad Critic, while even a moderate draught can never make a good one. And yet the labours and difficulties of drinking deep are fo great that a young author, "Fir'd with "ideas of fair Italy," and ambitious to fnatch a palm from Rome, engages in an undertaking like that of Hannibal : Finely illuftrated by the fimilitude of an unexperienced traveller penetrating thro' the Alps. NOTES. "Langues, qui entend les Auteurs Grecs et Latins, qui s'eleve "même jufqu'à la dignité de SCHOLIASTE ; fi cet homme "venoit à peser fon véritable mérite, il trouveroit fouvent "qu'il fe réduit, avoir eu des yeux et de la mémoire, il fe garderoit bien de donner le nom refpectable de fcience à 66 une erudition fans lumiere. Il y a une grande difference entre "s'enrichir des mots ou des chofes, entre alleguer des auto"ritez ou des raifons. Si un homme pouvoit fe furprendre à "n'avoir que cette forte de mérite, il en rougiroit plûtôt que "d' en être vain." While from the bounded level of our mind, Short views we take, nor fee the lengths behind; But more advanc'd, behold with strange furprize New diftant fcenes of endless science rife! So pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps we try, 225 And the first clouds and mountains feem the laft: VER. 225. VARIATIONS. 1 So pleas'd at firft the tow'ring Alps to try, The Traveller beholds with chearful eyes The lefs'ning vales, and feems to tread the fkies. COMMENTARY. VER. 233. A perfect Judge, etc.] The third caufe of wrong Judgment is a NARROW CAPACITY; the natural caufe of the foregoing defect, acquiefcence in fuperficial learning. This bounded Capacity our Author fhews [from 232 to 384.] betrays itfelf, two ways; in it's judgment both of the matter, and the NOTES. modo VER. 233. A perfect Judge, etc.] "Diligenter legendum eft "ac pæne ad fcribendi follicitudinem: Nec per partes "fcrutanda funt omnia, fed perlectus liber utique ex integro "refumendus." Quint. P. Survey the WHOLE, nor feek flight faults to find 235 Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind; Nor lose for that malignant dull delight, The gen'rous pleasure to be charm'd with wit. COMMENTARY. manner of the work criticised: Of the matter, in judging by parts, or in having one favourite part to a neglect of all the reft: Of the manner, in confining the regard only to conceit, or language, or numbers. This is our Poet's order: and we fhall follow him as it leads us; only just observing one general beauty which runs thro' this part of the poem; it is. that under each of these heads of wrong Judgment, he has inter mixed excellent precepts for the right. We fhall take notice of them as they occur. He expofes the folly of judging by parts very artfully, not by a direct description of that fort of Critic, but of his oppofite, a perfect Judge, etc. It is obfervable that our Author makes it almoft the neceffary confequence of judging by parts, TO FIND FAULT: And this not without much difcernment: For the feveral parts of a compleat Whole, when feen only fingly, and known only independently, must always have the appearance of irregularity; often of deformity: because the Poet's defign being to create a refultive beauty from the artful affemblage of feveral various parts into one natural whole; thofe NOTES. VER. 235. Survey the Whole, nor feek flight faults to find Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind;] The fecond line, in apologizing for thofe faults which the first fays fhould be overlooked, gives the reafon of the precept. For when a great writer's attention is fixed on a general view of Nature, and his imagination warm'd with the contemplation of great ideas, it can hardly be but that there' must be fmall irregularities in the difpofition both of matter and ftyle, because the avoiding these requires a coolness of recollection, which a writer fo qualified and fo bufied is not mafter of. 240 But in fuch lays as neither ebb nor flow, 245 But the joint force and full refult of all. No fingle parts unequally furprize, All comes united to th' admiring eyes; COMMENTARY. 250 parts must be fashioned with regard to their mutual relations, in the stations they occupy in that whole, from whence, the beauty required is to arife: But that regard will occafion fo unreducible a form in each pårt, when confidered fingly, as to prefent a very mis-shapen appearance. NOTES. VER. 248. The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome! J The Pantheon. There is fomething very Gothic in the tafte and judgment of a learned man, who defpifes this mafterpiece of Art, for thofe very qualities which deferve our admiration.. "Nous efmerveillons comme l'on fait fi grand "cas de ce Pantheon, veu que fon edifice n'eft de fi grande "induftrie comme l'on crie: car chaque petit Maffon peut "bien concevoir la maniere de fe façon tout en un instant: ઃઃ car eftant la base fi maffive, et les murailles fi efpaiffes, ne nous a femblé difficile d'y adjoufter la voute à claire voye." Pierre Belon's Obfervations, etc. The nature of the Gothic No monftrous height, or breadth, or length appear; The Whole at once is bold, and regular. Whoever thinks a faultlefs piece to fee, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er fhall be. In ev'ry work regard the writer's End, Since none can compass more than they intend; COMMENTARY. 255 VER. 253. Whoever thinks a faultless piece to fee,] He fhews next [from ver. 252 to 264.] that to fix our cenfure on single parts, tho' they happen to want an exactness consistent enough with their relation to the reft, is even then very unjust: And for these reasons, 1. Because it implies an expectation of a faultless piece, which is a vain imagination: 2. Because no more is to be expected of any work than that it fairly attains its end: But the end may be attained, and yet these trivial faults committed: Therefore, in fpight of fuch faults, the work will merit that praise that is due to every thing which attains its end. 3. Because fometimes a great beauty is not to be procured, nor a notorious blemish to be avoided, but by fuffering one of thefe minute and trivial errors. 4. And laftly, because the general neglect of them is a praise; as it is the indication of a Genius, attentive to greater matters. NOTES. ftructures apparently led him into this mistake of the Architectonic art in general; that the excellency of it confifted in raising the greatest weight on the least affignable support, so that the edifice fhould have strength without the appearance of it, in order to excite admiration. But to a judicious eye it would have a contrary effect, the Appearance (as our poet expreffes it) of a monstrous height, or breadth, or length. Indeed did the juft proportions in regular Architecture take off from the grandeur of a building, by all the fingle parts coming united to the eye, as this learned traveller feems to infinuate, it would be a reasonable objection to those rules on which this Master-piece of Art was conftructed. But it is not fo. The Poet tells us truly, "The Whole at once is BOLD and regular." |