215 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 sobers us again. Fir'd at first fight with what the Muse imparts, In fearless youth we tempt theheights of Arts, 220 COMMENTARY. VER. 215. A little learning, etc.] We must here remark the Poet's skill in his disposition of the causes obstructing true Judgment. Each general cause which is laid down first, has its own particular cause in that which follows. Thus, the fecond cause 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 obstructs the view of Nature; and a smattering of letters makes us insensible of our ignorance. To avoid this ridiculous situation, the Poet [from ver. 214 to 233.] advises, either to drink deep, or not to drink at all; for the least taste 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 so great that a young author, "Fir'd with " ideas of fair Italy," and ambitious to snatch 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 jusqu' à la dignité de SCHOLIASTE; fi cet homme "venoit à peser son véritable mérite, il trouveroit souvent 66 66 qu'il se réduit, avoir eu des yeux et de la mémoire, il se garderoit bien de donner le nom respectable de science à 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 raisons. Si un homme pouvoit se surprendre 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, So pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps we try, 225 VER. 225. VARIATIONS. So pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps to try, The Traveller beholds with chearful eyes The less'ning vales, and seems to tread the skies. COMMENTARY. VER. 233. A perfect Judge, etc.] The third cause of wrong Judgment is a NARROW CAPACITY; the natural cause of the foregoing defect, acquiescence in fuperficial learning. This bounded Capacity our Author shews [from 232 to 384.] betrays itself, two ways; in it's judgment both of the matter, and the NOTES. VER. 233. A perfect fudge, etc.] "Diligenter legendum est ac pæne ad fcribendi follicitudinem: Nec per partes modo " fcrutanda funt omnia, fed perlectus liber utique ex integro " refumendus." Quint. P. Survey the WHOLE, nor seek 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 shall 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 intermixed excellent precepts for the right. We shall take notice of them as they occur. He exposes the folly of judging by parts very artfully, not by a direct description of that fort of Critic, but of his opposite, a perfect Judge, etc. It is obfervable that our Author makes it almost the necessary confequence of judging by parts, TO FIND FAULT: And this not without much difcernment: For the several 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 design being to create a resultive beauty from the artful affemblage of feveral various parts into one natural whole; those OTES. VER. 235. Survey the Whole, nor seek flight faults to find Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind; The second line, in apologizing for those faults which the first says should be overlooked, gives the reason 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 small irregularities in the disposition both of matter and style, because the avoiding these requires a coolness of recollection, which a writer so qualified and fo busied is not mafter of. 240 But in such lays as neither ebb nor flow, 'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call, 245 Thus when we view some well-proportion'd dome, (The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome!) No fingle parts unequally surprize, 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 part, when confidered fingly, as to present a very mis-shapen appearance. NOTES. VER. 248. The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome!] The Pantheon. There is something very Gothic in the taste and judgment of a learned man, who despises this masterpiece of Art, for those very qualities which deserve our admiration." Nous esmerveillons comme l'on fait si grand cas de ce Pantheon, veu que fon edifice n'est de si grande " industrie comme l'on crie: car chaque petit Masson peut " bien concevoir la maniere de se façon tout en un instant : car eftant la base si massive, et les murailles si espaisses, ne " nous a semblé difficile d'y adjouster la voute à claire voye." Pierre Belon's Obfervations, etc. The nature of the Gothic No monstrous height, or breadth, or length appear; The Whole at once is bold, and regular. Whoever thinks a faultless piece to fee, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. In ev'ry work regard the writer's End, Since none can compass more than they intend; 255 COMMENTARY. VER. 253. Whoever thinks a faultless piece to fee,] He shews next [from ver. 252 to 264.] that to fix our censure on fingle parts, tho' they happen to want an exactness consistent enough with their relation to the rest, 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 spight of such faults, the work will merit that praise that is due to every thing which attains its end. 3. Because sometimes a great beauty is not to be procured, nor a notorious blemish to be avoided, but by suffering one of these minute and trivial errors. 4. And lastly, because the general neglect of them is a praise; as it is the indication of a Genius, attentive to greater matters. NOTES. structures apparently led him into this mistake of the Architectonic art in general; that the excellency of it consisted in raising the greatest weight on the least assignable support, fo that the edifice should 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 expresses it) of a monstrous height, or breadth, or length. Indeed did the just 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 seems 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." |