Thus the art had been fhifting reciprocally into two extremes. And in one or other of these extremes, it was likely to continue. For the fame and eminent ability of their great founders had made them confidered as models, in their different ways, of perfect criticifm. Only it was eafy to foresee which of them the humour of fucceeding times would be moft difpofed to emulate. The catching enthusiasm and picturesque fancy of the one would be sure to prevail over the coolness and aufterity of the other. Accordingly in the last and prefent century, when now the diligence of learned men had, by restoring the purity, opened an easy way to the ftudy, of the old claffics, a numberlefs tribe of commentators have attempted, after the manner of Longinus, to flourish on the excellencies of their compofition. And fome of them, indeed, fucceeded fo well in this me

thod,

2

thod, that one is not to wonder it foon became the popular and only authorized form of what was reputed juft Criticifm. Yet, as nothing but fuperior genius could make it tolerable even in the best of these, it was to be expected (what experience hath now fully fhewn), that it would at length, and in ordinary hands, degenerate into the most unmeaning, frivolous, and difguftful jargon, that ever difcredited polite letters.

This, Sir, was the ftate in which you received modern Criticism: a state, which could only fhew you, that, of the two models, antiquity had furnished to our use, we had learned, by an awkward imitation of it, to abuse the worst. But it did not content your zeal for the service of letters barely to remedy this abuse. It was not enough, in your enlarged view of things, to reftore either of these models to its an

tient fplendour. They were both to be revived; or rather a new original plan of criticism was to be ftruck out, which fhould unite the virtues of each of them. The experiment was made on the Two greatest of our own poets; and, by reflecting all the lights of the imagination on the fevereft reason, every thing was effected, which the warmeft admirer of antient art could promise to himself from fuch an union. But you went farther. By joining to thefe powers a perfect infight into human nature, and fo ennobling the exercife of literary, by the addition of the justest moral, cenfure, you have now, at length, advanced CRITICISM to its full glory.

fo

Not but, confidering the inveterate foible of mankind, which the poet justly fatirizes in the following work, I mean that, which difpofes them to malign and depreciate all the efforts of wit and virtue, -nifi

nifi quae terris femota fuisque Temporibus defuncta videt —

Confidering, I fay, this temper of mankind, you may fooner, perhaps, expect the cenfures of the dull and envious of all denominations, than the candid applaufe of the public, even for this fervice.

I apprehend this confequence the rather, because criticism, though it be the laft fruit of literary experience, is more expofed to the cavils of ignorance and vanity, than, perhaps, any other fpecies of learned application: all men being forward to judge, and few men giving themfelves leave to doubt of their being able to judge, of the merits of well-known and popular writers.

Nor is this all: When writers of a certain rank condefcend to this work of criticism, the innovation excites a

very

very natural ferment in the men of the profeffion.

Their JEALOUSY is alarmed, as if there was a defign to strip them of the only honour they can reasonably pretend to, that of fitting in judgment on the inventions of their betters. But to JUDGE, as well as to INVENT, is thought a violent encroachment in the republic of Letters; not unlike the ambition of the Roman emperors, who would be confuls, and cenfors too, that is, would have the privilege of excluding from the fenate, as well as of prefiding in it.

But if jealousy were out of the case, their MALIGNITY would be much inflamed by this intrufion. For who can bear to fee his own weak endeavours, in any art, difgraced by a confummate model?

Befides, to fay the truth, the conceptions of fuch writers, as I before spoke