Again,

This probably was a Rebuke to the Author of the Plain-Dealer and Country-Wife, who has transgressed in this kind as much as any Body, and was the best able to do it. The Author of the Relapse is not entirely free from this Censure, nor the Authors of Love for Love, and the Funeral. But it will not be more surprising than it is true, that Peter Motteux declared he had taken a great deal of pains with a Character in a Farce of his, to bring it within the Duke of Buckingham's Rule in those Places where he told me he had given it too much Wit. Mr. Walsh, one of the greatest Criticks of our Nation, observes, that the Softness, Tenderness, and Violence of Passion, are wanting in Mr. Cowley's Love Verses, insomuch that he could hardly fancy he was in Love when he wrote them. Pref. to Lett. Yet there were Variety and Learning enough in them, and more Wit than in all our witty Poets since the Restoration, excepting those above-mentioned. Mr. Wycherly, who wrote as good Comedies as any in the English, or any other Tongue, did not value himself so much upon them as on a Folio of as bad Verses as any. Creech having had Success in Lucretius, was put upon translating Horace, and it is said by Dryden, that he might lose so much of his Reputation, as to prevent Rivalship. Nay, Butler, tho' he knew the Follies of Mankind so perfectly well, did not perceive that there is no greater Folly than to undertake what one is not fit for, and was persuaded to let Hudibras translate Ovid. On this Rock many Authors have split, who would have succeeded had they consulted their Talents, and taken the right Course: but it is a general Maxim with us in England, Verses are Verses. He that can write one Thing, can write another, and till our Taste is so refined, that we can distinguish the Good and the Bad in the various Kinds of Thinking, Writers will not be at the Pains to consult their Talents, but content themselves with pleasing their own Fancy, or that of the Publick, by which Means, like Flies, they make a buzzing for a Day or two, and are forgotten for ever. The Spectator very judiciously animadverts on this Weakness: Our general Taste in England is for Epigram, Turns of Wit, and forced Conceits, which have no manner of Influence, either for the bettering or enlarging the Mind of him who reads them, and have been carefully avoided by the greatest Writers, both among the Antients and Moderns. He adds after Mr. Dryden, The Taste of most of our English Poets is extreamly Gothick, which I have endeavoured to banish in several of my Speculations.

Another remarkable Observation of Dr. Felton's is, that the best Performers are the best Judges. He has only Horace against him of the Antients, and Dacier of the Moderns, as is already observed in this Essay. I believe no Body will deny, but Mr. Walsh before-mentioned was one of our best Judges of Regularity and Wit, yet hardly any Body will say he was one of our best Performers. There's nothing more common with small Genius's and small Judges, than to demand of all Criticks to write themselves before they criticise upon others Writings. They would stare if it should be said, that Dursey knew no more of Poetry than he did of Philosophy, nor of English than of Hebrew; though it is very true, if it be understood of the Art of Poetry, and the Beauty of Language; yet, that he was a Performer, is I doubt not well known to the Doctor, and well approved of. To teach us good Language by Example, Dr. Felton expresses himself thus elegantly and unaffectedly. When I wrote these Sheets, my Lord Landsdown's Poems lay dispersed up and down in the Miscellanies; but some kind Hand, as for Instance the Bookseller, upon a very laudable Motive, hath assembled those scattered Stars, and added another Lyre to the Constellation; which, though it is meant, to do singular Honour to those Poems, must have an ill Effect in astronomical Observations; it makes thirteen to the Dozen in the twelve Houses, and must cause as much Confusion, as two Signs of the Harp in a short Lane. The Modesty of the following Passage adds as much to its Merit as to the Truth of it: If I offered any Thing which is not commonly observed, I hope it will not be interpreted any Singularity, but such as may render your Lordship more eminent and distinguished in the World; and having taught his noble Pupil what he should imitate, he gives him warning what he should avoid, and that is the Reading any Thing written by a Presbyterian: What crude indigested Volumes! How many tedious Sheets without Argument or Consistency, are the Writings of some of the Dissenters! whom does he mean, such as Bates, Manton, How, Pool, Clarkson, Alsop, &c. He and some other good Church-Criticks make Presbyterianism to be a Sort of Hellebore, if you do but snuff it up in your Nose you run mad immediately. Thence it is, that the Presbyterians are termed Fanatici, by the learned and sober Writers of our two famous Universities. Is it expected, that every Orthodox Doctor should know as much as Bishop Stillingfleet, or write as well as Archbishop Tillotson? Where is the Reason or Justice of censuring a Body of Men for the Enthusiasm and Ignorance of a few? Would this Doctor suffer the Tables to be turn'd, and a Judgement to be made of the Writings of good Church-men, by the Argument and Consistency of the Works, with which the learned World are obliged by those of the Country Clergy, whose Pieces can crawl to the Press, whether in Prose or Verse, Meditations or Hymns. I do verily believe he did not think of Dr. Bates, when he fell thus furiously on Dissenters, or had ever seen any of his Writings, which are as polite as the Politest of our Age; the Sentiments as pious, as great, as noble, and as just, according to the Subject, and the Language as pure and as harmonious. What can be more so, than this Passage of his Harmony of the divine Attributes, speaking of the Fall of Adam: Prodigious Pride! He was scarce out of the State of Nothing, no sooner created but he aspired to be as God; not content with his Image, he would rob God of his Eternity to live without End; of his Sovereignty to command without Dependance; of his Wisdom to know all Things without Reserve. Infinite Insolence! that Man the Son of Earth, forgetful of his Original, should usurp the Prerogatives, which are essential to the Deity, and set himself up a real Idol, was a Strain of the same Arrogancy which corrupted the Angels. This is what Dr. Felton calls Presbyterian Crudity. It is strange, but it is true, that there is a Narrowness of Soul, and a Conceit in some of our Ecclesiasticks founded on the Establishment which we do not meet with in others; nay, not in those who pretend to Supremacy and Infallibility. Father Bouhours, though as zealous a Jesuit as any in France, yet had so just a Notion of every one's Merit in polite Learning, that he freely owns the Refinement of the French Tongue, and the French Manners was owing to those of the reformed Religion, even to Presbyterians. Nous devons aux dernieres Heresies une partie de l'Embellissement de notre Langue, & de la politesse de notre Siecle.

And another French Bigot tells us; One of their Historians has observed, that the pretended Reformers began to speak well and write well, and were the First that shewed their Way to others. They were all of them Presbyterians:

Our Staunch Criticks will not allow, that a Presbyterian ever had or could have any Wit or any Eloquence, though it was only to make an ill Use of it. No, no Body must be well-born or well-bred, that is without the Pale. No Man must be brave, nor Woman beautiful. The Men are all painted with cropt Hair, and the Women with Forehead-Cloaths, unless they assent and consent. No Wit, no Language, no Honour, nor any Thing that's good, is to be had any more than Matrimony without a Licence. Vide Grand Rebellion, and Mr. Echard's History of England.

I am so very well entertain'd with Dryden's Virgil, that I am glad to meet with any Excuse for his Translation; and would allow Dr. Felton's, that the Faults are to be ascribed partly to some Defects of our Language; if the Doctor himself, a few Lines before, had not said of the same Language, that it is capable of all the Beauty, Strength, and Significancy of the Greek and Latin. The Faults which have been generally found with Dryden as to Virgil, have been his mistaking or altering the Sense of the Original, and turning the Epick Stile into Elegiack. I doubt not but the English Tongue has Expression for English Sentiments, let them be ever so great and sublime; but I may very well doubt whether it has Diction equal to the Strength and Dignity of the Ilias, without the Helps Milton made use of, as compounding of Words and reviving some old Teutonicks, which would look very uncouthly among the Softnesses and Gingles of our fine Writers of late.

I wish the Doctor had explain'd how he would have us to understand him, when he informs us, that to translate well is more difficult than to write well; by which he intimates, that to form a Fable for a great and important Action, to mark the Characters with suitable Sentiments, to conduct the One and maintain the Other with Art and Elevation diversify'd with proper Episodes; through such a Work as the Ilias, is so far from being the principal Part of an Epick Poem that it is no Part at all; for with all this the Translator has nothing to do. The Labour and Merit of it, according to Dr. Felton, consist in the Language and Verses, in finding Words to express the Action and Sentiments, and to adorn those Words with Numbers and Harmony. This is all that is necessary in a Translation; and being also but some Parts of the Original, it cannot be more difficult to do a Part than to do the Whole. Can one suppose, that to write such a History as Mr. Echard's from printed Books, written Books, from the Hearsay and Report of Men, Women and Children, is more difficult than to contrive and write such a One as the Cassandra of Calprenade? or in plain English, that to invent and tell a Story, is much easier than the bare telling it only? It needs no Reflection. If the Version of Homer had been born when he wrote, he must of Consequence have preferr'd it to the Ilias, which would have cost the Translator's Modesty, as much as Sir Richard Steele's to be put upon a Comment on Homer and Virgil. My Lord Roscommon has explain'd this Matter to us sufficiently:

Monsieur Maucroix, who translated Cicero into French, writes thus of translating to Monsieur Boileau: You have told me more than once, that Translation is not the Way to Immortality; and he excuses his meddling with it, on Account of his Want of Application and Knowledge: As to Immortality it is to be question'd, whether that was the main Thing our Translators had in View. It will not be deny'd, but that Dryden's Bookseller put him upon translating Virgil, by the Temptation of so much a Line. And other Undertakers pay well enough to make a mortal Life a little comfortable, it is not much Matter whether the Work be immortal or not. Ogilby however is sure of Immortality; for though his Translations are as dead as his Carcass, yet he will be remember'd in good Satyr for the Badness of them. My Author, says Monsieur Maucroix, is learned for me, the Topicks are all digested, the Inventing and Disposing are none of my Business; I have nothing to do but to utter my self. Which Utterance is much more difficult, as Dr. Felton will have it, than to study, to digest, to invent, to dispose, and to utter too. I do not suppose, that a Man ever applied himself to Translation, if he felt in himself any of the heavenly Fire which animates a great Genius, or was ambitious of Fame by the Merit of an Epick Poem. It must be own'd, that Judgement is requisite in Translation as well as Composition, not only to preserve the Spirit of the Original, but also to make Choice of such a One as the Translator may be best able to manage. Mr. Charles Hopkins was Master of this Secret; and instead of attempting Homer or Virgil, he contented himself with Ovid, and succeeded to Admiration. Hopkins knew, that the Manners and Sentiments in Ovid were natural and universal, which must please in all Ages; whereas, but a very few can relish the Quarrels and Battles, which are the main Subject of the Ilias. The Learned have explained to us, for what it is that our Adoration is due to Homer: For the Unity and Greatness of his Fable, the Variety and Dignity of his Characters, and his sublime Thought and Expression; I dare not say Diction and Sentiments, because the Spectator has disgraced the Use of technical Terms, by calling it Cant; and supposing, that those who use them, do it to disguise their Ignorance, and shew their Vanity in critical Phrase.

I should be glad to know, which it is of all Homer's before-mention'd Excellencies, that has so delighted the Ladies, and the Gentlemen who judge like Ladies; or whether ever a One of those Excellencies has been at all distinguished from the Other; or whether there is any Possibility of expressing the Sublime of the Greek Tongue in our Language. As to the Sentiments, which are a principal Part of Epick Poetry, they may be translated; we very probably think much after the same Manner the Greeks did, though we do not speak so. The Passions are the same in all humane Nature; and probably the Expression of them, by so great a Master of our Tongue as the Translator of Homer, may gain as much as it may lose by the Translation. But the Mischief of it is, these Sentiments are that Part of the Ilias which the Criticks have made most bold with:

Dormitat Homerus; that Homer sometimes sleeps, was said before by Horace. The Spectator informs us, that Homer is censured by the Criticks, for his Defect as to the Sentiments in several Parts of the Ilias and Odysses. However, it is most certain, that the Translation of Homer must have pleased Ladies and Gentlemen by these very Sentiments, or by the Translator's beautiful Diction and Versification. But then all the great Parts of Epick Poetry are lost to them, especially those that depend on the Dignity and Strength of Expression, which will not be pretended to be entirely preserved in the English Version.

Reading Dacier a few Days since, I was extreamly surprised at a Criticism of his on a Translation of Homer, by a much greater Critick than himself, even Horace his Master, who has thus translated the Beginning of the Odyssey:

I have aimed to be literal here, the better to explain Dacier's Remarks. There are considerable Faults in this Translation, says Monsieur Dacier, he has forgotten the Epithet p???t??p??, which marks Ulysses's Character; he neglects the Circumstance that makes us most concern'd for him, ?? a?a p??????, who wandered a long Time, he says in a loose Way, after the Taking of Troy; whereas, it is in Homer after having ruined Troy. Now, if Horace, who had studied and admired Homer so much, as to make him a Pattern for all future Writers of Heroick Poems, could mistake three Times in translating two Lines, what a Discouragement must it have been to those who knew how he had succeeded in attempting it? 'Tis true, no Poet will ever undertake a Translation with more Advantage than the last Translator of Homer had; for besides Eight or Ten Versions in Latin, Italian, French, &c. there are Three or Four in English; a Prose Translation by Madam Dacier, and a Cart-load of Comments in all Languages. I am satisfy'd so good a Versifyer as the Translator of the Ilias might with those Helps, have made a very good Translation, without understanding any more Greek than my self; and nothing in the World could have been more easy, than out of one Commentator to have corrected another, and to have alter'd and amended the Reading in the Name of any of the Criticks, from Eustathius down to Dacier. I do not boast of being Master of Greek enough to read Homer with so much Pleasure in the Original as I could do in a good Version, and it is much to be question'd, whether every one that can read him in the Original do understand what they read: Several Ladies and Gentlemen have subscribed for Chaucer of the Christ-Church Edition, but I doubt very much whether they understand him or not, and whether a great many, who can read Greek, do really know what they read. One of the greatest Masters of the Greek Tongue, in our Time, has often question'd whether there were Twenty Men in England who understood the Strength, Beauty, and Elegance of that Language, tho' there are a Thousand that pretend to it. He represented it as a Study for a Man's Life, and I am confirm'd in this Judgement by what Menage tells us of himself, and others upon this Subject. 'Tis well known Menage wrote several Things in Greek, particularly some Odes in Imitation of Anacreon, which are not thought inferiour to the Teian Poet's; J'ay toujours fait beaucoup de cas de ceux qui savent le grec, &c. He always highly valued those that understood Greek. He does not mean to construe and parse it as Boys do at School, which is the most of what we find in those who pretend to be Masters of it. Without this Language, continues he, a Man can't be said to be more than half Learned: Monsieur Cotelier, Monsieur de Treville, and Monsieur Bigot, are the only Men in France, who can read the Greek Fathers in the Original. I suppose the Fathers are not so difficult as Homer with respect to the Tongue at least; for the Language of Poetry is peculiar to it, a made Language compounded and metaphorical. If it be so, the Translation of the Ilias, from the Greek of Homer, must shew the Translator to be a greater Master of the Greek Language than all the Learned Men in France except Three, and all the Learned Men in England except about Twenty. For my own Part, I confess, I make bold with all Kinds of Versions to help me out in Originals, and am not asham'd to do as Menage did; I own I do not understand Pindar enough, says he, to take Pleasure in him. I have heard Pindar quoted a Hundred Times by Persons who were very far from being so modest as Menage, and fully satisfy'd themselves that they understood him as well as the GrÆcians, to whom he read his Odes, tho' I suspected the contrary. Menage, again; I never read a Greek Author without having before read the Translation.

I do not insinuate any thing to depreciate the Translator of Homer's excellent Performance, which, as I have observ'd, has the Merit of the most pure and harmonious Diction and Versification; but to hint a little of the Confusion of our Taste, and the Irregularity of our Judgement, which like Things for Beauties which they have not, and not for those which they have. Thus the Version of Homer is lik'd as a Translation of the best Epick Poem that ever was written, and not for the Softness and Sweetness of the Elegy, which are every where to be met with, as where the God Apollo appears in the Shape of Agenor:

This is what the French call Jeu des Mots, playing upon Words, and what Dryden's Virgil is full of, tho' he knew as well as any Body that it was a Fault: The Turn of Thoughts, and Words, says he, is the chief Talent of the French; but the Epick Poem is too stately to receive such little Ornaments, which would have been in Perfection in a Version of Ovid, and very little agrees with Waller in his Epistle to my Lord Roscommon;

In these Things our Taste is strangely confin'd: provided the Verses run smoothly, and the Language is soft and harmonious, we think it is fine: Let the Subject be a Boreas, or a Zephyr: Nay, I do not question but the Couplet I quoted out of the English Homer is reckon'd one of the finest of the Version by Ladies, and Gentleman who judge like Ladies, and who are the Nine in Ten of all Readers of Poetry. I confess, I am much more pleas'd with the following Verses, as rough and rumbling as they are, because they participate of the Roughness of the Thing which is imag'd to us,

When such assimilating the Sound to the Sense is not affected 'tis very agreeable; but when there is any Force or Affectation in it, 'tis puerile and distasteful.

The following Description of the Poetical Fire, which several Poets were enflam'd with, seems to be somewhat deficient, and to want farther Explanation; especially where the Translator tells us, Milton's Fire is like a Furnace, but Shakespear's like a Fire from Heaven: Virgil's like a Kenning-Glass, and Lucan's and Statius's like Lightning. The Kenning-Glass should have given me no Manner of Disturbance: But why is Milton's Celestial Fire compar'd to that which destroy'd the Three Children; the Fire of a Furnace is boisterous and voracious, consuming whatever is within its Reach. Milton's Fire, like that of the Sun, warms and enlivens; and if ever any was fetch'd from Heaven, 'twas that, which shines with so much radiant Brightness throughout his whole Poem. I was the more shockt with this Misrepresentation of Milton's Fire, for that there's something burlesque in the very Expression, a Furnace, and one can't help being jealous that this Passage of Hudibras might give the Hint for it.

Tho' I am very far from taking Dryden to be a perfect Master of Criticism, yet I do not think his Deficiency proceeded from Want of Judgement so much as from Inconsistency and Vanity, and an Opinion that he was Tyrant of Parnassus, and might govern by Will and Pleasure instead of Law and Reason. I have observed elsewhere that he adapts his Prefaces to the Circumstances of every Play and Poem, and very often contradicts in one what he had said in another: Nay, in his Essay on Dramatick Poetry, the Contradiction is within a few Lines of the Assertion, as thus; There is no Theater in the World has any Thing so absurd as the English Tragi-Comedy, which he confirms by this Verse;

And a little after; I cannot but conclude, to the Honour of our Nation, that we have invented, encreased, and perfected, a more pleasant Way of Writing than was ever known to the Antients or Moderns of any Nation, which is Tragi-Comedy. One of the most monstrous Inventions, says the Spectator, that ever enter'd into the Poet's Thought. An Author might as well think of weaving the Adventures of Æneas and Hudibras into one Poem, as of writing such a motley Piece of Mirth and Sorrow. Whatever others thought of Mr. Dryden's Criticisms, he did himself full Justice, and seem'd to despise all other Criticks at the same Time that he laid himself most open to them. These little Criticks do not well consider what the Work of the Poet is, and what the Graces of a Poem; the Story is the least Part of either. Pref. to Moch-Astrol. Against him is every Critick, ancient and modern, from Aristotle to Rimer, and more than all of them against him is his own self. In another Place he writes thus; The Fable is without doubt the chief Part of a Tragedy, because it contains the Action, and the Action contains the Happiness or Misery, which is the End of Tragedy. Without the Fable the Poet, who had otherwise good Manners, Sentiments, and Diction, would no more have made a regular Poem, than a Painter would have made a good Picture that had mingled Blue, Yellow, Red, and other Colours confusedly together. I do not mention these Things to lessen Mr. Dryden's great Character as a Poet; but to shew how well Dr. Felton could judge of it, when he recommended him to us as a Critick. Against Mr. Dryden, as to the Story, is Rapin, who he assures us would be alone sufficient, were all other Criticks lost, to teach a-new the Rules of Writing. Against his Rapin we find the Translator of Homer in an extraordinary Manner in his Notes on the Fifth Iliad. I hope it did not arise from any Resentment for that Jesuit's reflecting on those Poets who seem to place the Essence of Poetry in fine Language, and smooth Verse, to which he ascribes its present Decay. As if the Art consisted only in Purity and Exactness of Language: This indeed pleased well, and was much to the Advantage of Women that had a Mind to be tampering in Writing Verse: They found it their Concern to give Vogue to this Kind of Writing, of which they were as capable as the most Part of Men: For all the Secret was no more than to make some little easy Verses, in which they were content if they cou'd dress some soft passionate Thoughts, &c. The most of our modern Poets being interested in this Affair, I shall say no more of it.

I have hinted more than once, that such Poets, and their Admirers, almost always mistake Affectation for Beauty, and I wonder the Translator of Homer should give them the least Countenance by his Example; for I am very much deceiv'd if there is a more affected Period in the English Tongue than what follows: Nothing is more lively and Picturesque than the Attitude of Patroclus is describ'd in; The Pathetick of his Speech is finely contrasted by the Fierte of Achilles. Again, There's something inexpressibly riant in the Compartments of Achilles's Shield. In the Spectator, N^o 297. you read thus: The last Fault which I shall take notice of in Stile, is the frequent Use of technical Words or Terms of Art. The bringing in more French Words to soften and enervate our Stile is of very ill Consequence. The Translator, besides Riant, has also Traits, ensanguin'd, &c. I doubt, the Last is hardly a Word in any other Language, and does not at all enrich our own. Dryden, in an Epistle to the Earl of Orrery, has this Remark upon it: I wish we might at length leave to borrow Words of another Nation, which is now a Wontonness in us, not a Necessity: But so long as some affect to speak, there will not be wanting others, who will have the Boldness to write them.

If I might make Use of the Word Contrast, nothing can be more so than Affectation and Simplicity; and the Translator seems, either not to have a just Notion of the Latter, or to have a very ill Opinion of it: For without distinguishing between Simplicity and Negligence, he affirms, That Simplicity is a Word of Disguise for a shameful unpoetical Neglect of Expression, he makes no Exception in this general Charge. And thus one of the greatest Beauties of both Thought and Expression is rendered one of the greatest Deformities. Father Bouhours asserts, that Simplicity contributes the most of any Thing to make a Stile perfect; and again, The Holy Scripture, the Stile of which is, at the same Time, so simple and so sublime.

Mr. Addison has treated of the noble Force of Simplicity as it relates to Thought; and in the following Verses, if I am not mistaken, the Simplicity of Expression as well as Thought is noble:

It is certain, Simplicity, as well as other Virtues in Speech, has its Vice, and that is Meanness which falls naturally into Burlesque, as this Line:

Which the Spectator speaks of as inexpressibly beautiful for its Simplicity, though I think one can hardly repeat it with a grave Tone; and when I have heard it pronounced on the Stage in a burlesque Way, as it is in The Plot and No Plot; it has never fail'd of a hearty Laugh and Clap. Spectator, N^o 39. There is a Simplicity in the Words, which out-shines the utmost Pride of Expression; and he attributes it to the Break, good gods! He also informs us, that the Thought is at once natural, soft, passionate, and simple. It would have been well for us, if the learned Critick had told us in what this Thought is simple, in what passionate, in what soft, and in what natural, there being so few Words to express it; and I cannot help thinking, that it is but one fond Rant of an amorous Woman. True it is, Simplicity is not of it self very wordy, but methinks the Break, good gods! has more of the Passionate in it, than of the Simple or the Soft; and may be as well used in Anger as in Love, as well in a Fright as in a Transport. It would have gone a good Way in explaining the different Kinds of Thought, if the judicious Author had distinguished them in this Line; for there are not so many Kinds in one Verse in all Father Bouhour's Maniere de bien penser. I would not be mistaken here, nor be charged with Ostentation, in setting up my Judgement in Opposition to the Spectator's; from whose Writings and Lessons, I have learned more than from all other Authors. I only offer it as an Instance, that the Best of our Criticks do not seem to have gone to the Bottom of this Subject. It never enter'd into the Heads of Writers and Readers in General, that Thought was any Thing but Thought, or Stile any Thing but Stile, or that there were any other Terms or Distinctions for them, but the Good and the Bad, as is already hinted; nor were they at all sensible of my Lord Roscommon's Meaning in these Verses:

The same may be said of Thought.

I want very much to be informed, whether there is a perfect Agreement of Thought in these several Quotations out of Homer, or how they must be understood so as not to contradict one another. The first Couplet is against Wine:

The next Couplet is for Wine:

What follows taken out of the Notes upon Homer is against Wine. What Hector says against Wine in the two first Verses has a great Deal of Truth in it: It is a vulgar Mistake to imagine the Use of Wine, either raises the Spirits or encreases Strength.

The next Words are for Wine:

Again for Wine:

And the Translator's Observation, that the moderate Use of Wine does not raise the Spirits, is not the truer, because it is said by Hector, the Son of Priam. Father Sirmond, a sober reverend as well as learned Priest says quite another Thing:

Whoever reads an Author with Exactness cannot fail of meeting with several Passages, where Self-love, Humour, Party, or Complexion, are uppermost. Thus a good Catholick will never have a good Word for a Heretick, nor a Puritan for a Papist. Dr. Ch—— will never speak well of Punch, nor Dr. Mand—— of Watergruel. He who writes well is jealous of him who judges well, and he who judges well envies him who writes well. The Swifts turn every Thing into Grimace, the Whistons into Mathematicks, and whatever touches an Author's own Taste, he is always recommending to his Reader.

We all remember how the Duke of Malborough was treated by the blessed Peace-makers for beating their Friends the French. Delight in War was a Mark set upon him in a most solemn Manner, and a memorable Instance of our Wisdom and Gratitude. There is a Paraphrase upon it in the Version of Homer; and when the Application is made will turn the Epick into Satyr.

To tear a Country is very much in Heroicks. The Image of Discord has good Lines in it; but methinks they would not have been the Worse, if they had been heated a little in Milton's Furnace:

I refer to the Judgement of the Reader, whether the following Image of Discord taken from a modern burlesque Poem, has not more of the Epick in it:

The new invented Words made use of by the Translator of Homer are well enough chosen, and well warranted by the Practice of the greatest Poets, such as Moveless, Instarr'd, Inurn'd, Conglobe, Deathful, Fountful, Lengthful:

I have mention'd some of the Helps which were prepared for the Translator of the Ilias. But Dr. Felton informs us, Dr. Busby would not allow of Notes; a very curious Remark That. It is not impossible, but Dr. Busby himself might have read and taught Homer 50 Years as a Grammarian, without understanding him as a Poet. A Portion of that Genius which inspir'd the Author is requisite for the Reader to see all the Beauties that are in a Poem. I believe the Lord Roscommon's Judgement will be preferred to that of both those Doctors:

If the Translator of Homer search'd every Comment, his Labour was more than Herculean. I own my self extreamly edify'd by what he says of Antiquaries; applying a Saying of my Lord Bacon's to them: In General they write for Ostentation not for Instruction, and their Works are perpetual Repetitions. The Reason is plain, they have no Fund of their own, they must therefore borrow from those that have. It is necessary there should be such Men, but the Dryness and Barrenness of their Studies are inconsistent with a lively Fancy and a good Taste; and I know not which of the Antiquaries deserve most to be rever'd by us, those that would restore lost Words, Letters, and Points, or those that would recover lost Fable or History. To know exactly where Brute built his Palace Royal, where Bladud set up his Laboratory would be something; as also to prove, that Cassibelan liv'd where my Lord Essex now does at Cashiobury; or that Constantine the Great was a Yorkshire Man; which Things have been attempted, would be as much to the Glory of the Students in Antiquity, as to find out a lost Comma, or restore a Letter to a Word that was robb'd of it 1500 Years ago. But as for our Monkish Antiquaries, and the Monastick Learning, it seems to be reserv'd for the Improvement of those, whose Minds, like barren Soils, will never bear without dunging. They are always turning up the Ruins of old Convents, and hope like the Cock to find a Jewel in the Dunghill. They dig for holy Water-Pots and Crucifixes, as greedily as the modern Romans dig for Medals, Images, and Urns. To know whether such an Abbey was founded in the Papacy of Pope Joan or Pope Boniface, in what Dormitory such a Monk slept, and in what Penitentiary such a Nun was disciplined, must needs be very edifying. But most of all the Deciding of historical Debates by old Charters, which, with a little curious Examination, will be found to be forged ones. Many of this Kind are printed by Dugdale, as I shall have Occasion to remark elsewhere. If these Antiquaries could fix the same Authority on Monkish Writings, as we are told of Homer's, that the Claims of two Cities to certain Limits, were determined by what he said of them in his Ilias, it would be worth every one's while to read the Monks instead of the Classicks; And I doubt not Dr. Felton would have succeeded better if he had given us Instruction in the Monkish Learning, than he has done in the Classical. But since their Writings prove nothing but their Ignorance and Superstition, I believe Men of Taste and Genius will be so generous as to leave such hidden Treasures to enrich those, whose Invention and Judgement lie under the Calamity of the most extream Poverty. There is nothing but Labour and Patience requisite to acquire a Mastery in these Studies, whether the Matter collected be good or bad, 'tis the same Thing if it be Old, if it be Teutonick or Runick, Danish or Saxon, that's sufficient. A Man who has any Warmth in his Imagination, and any Delicacy in his Taste, cannot be always raking in the Rubbish of barbarous Ages, and groping in Gothick Darkness. A good Proof of the small Talent necessary for this Work is, that there hardly ever was an Author among these Monkish Antiquaries, but his Language was as barbarous as his Subject. Such Sort of Scholarship is, I own, very serviceable to those that know how to make a good Use of others Labours; but the Merit of the Scholar consists rather in the Goodness of his Eyes, and the Strength of his Head, than in the Fineness of his Genius, or the Regularity of his Judgement. I am apt to think the Translator of Homer had not the Admirers of these Antiquities in his Thoughts, but refer'd to the Criticks and Commentators on the Greek and Roman Authors: For he says, in another Place, To talk of the Genius of an Ancient, as Macrobius did, is at once the cheapest Way of shewing our own Taste, and the shortest Way of criticising the Wit of others. This must be only meant of those whom Mr. Dryden calls Dutch Commentators, of those that do by the Classicks, as Correctors of the Press do by their Copies, and instead of applying themselves to the Sense stick close to the Letters, and look out for Dele's and Addenda's. This they call correcting and restoring the Text; and it is much to be fear'd, that by this restoring and correcting of the Commentators, and the Mistakes, Blunders and Negligences of the Copiers, we have few or no Books of the Antients in their original Purity and Perfection. However, there is Perfection enough left in the Classical Writings to prove, That what the Translator of Homer says, does not relate to the Classicks themselves, but to those that make an ill Use of them, and under their Name and Authority insult the Moderns. The Lord Bacon says somewhere, that what we call the Antiquity was the Youth of the World, and that we are properly the Antients as the Inhabitants of an older World, and having made infinite Improvements in all the most useful Parts of Learning.

I dare not say, there is a Quibble in the Expression of so illustrious a Writer, but I must always take the Authors that wrote 1500 or 2000 Years ago to be the Antients; and one may very well Question, whether there was not as much useful Learning lost in twelve or thirteen Centuries of Barbarism and Ignorance, as has been discover'd, or rather recovered in two or three of the last Ages.

The Antiquaries the Translator speaks of would do Wonders, if they would make it out that the Letter sent to the King of Edessa, and the Passage in Josephus's Book XVIII, relating to our Saviour, are genuine, with several other Particularities, which are much insisted upon by Ecclesiastical Writers. The Spectator has told us something too of Antiquity, which wants the Confirmation of the Antiquaries, and that is a Quotation out of a Manuscript in the Vatican Library, where Longinus is made to say, Paul of Tarsus, the Patron of an Opinion not fully proved, must be reckon'd among the best GrÆcian Orators. This must be a downright Forgery: Longinus surely knew the Greek Tongue too well, to cry up the Eloquence of a Writer in it, who, as St. Jerome says, did not understand Grammar, and mentions the Places where he err'd, Propter Imperitiam Artis GrammaticÆ. See Gregory on the Septuagint. It were to be wished, that the Ecclesiastical Writers, even of the earliest Centuries, had suffer'd nothing to escape them that was improbable, if not incredible. 'Tis also much wanted to have further Proof of the Ceasing of Oracles at the Nativity of our Saviour, and that Virgil prophesy'd of it in his fourth Eclogue. We should be still more oblig'd to them, if they would prove, that the Sibyl's Verses are a Prophecy of the same Thing, which Things are generally asserted in the Writings of the Ecclesiasticks. As to Oracles Lucian tells us, Answers were given in his Time, that of the Emperor Commodus 160 Years after, Juvenal makes their Ceasing to be only 100 Years after:

Theodoret writes, that Julian the Apostate received an Answer from Apollo at Delphos, 300 Years after the Birth of our Saviour. All which may be seen in Bishop Potter's Greek Antiquities, a most excellent Book; and if we had more such Antiquaries as that learned Prelate's and Mr. Basil Kennet's who wrote the Antiquities of Rome, we might at the same Time improve ourselves both in antient and polite Learning. These being, I think the two most valuable Pieces of the Kind in any Language. As the middle Way is safest in all Things, so as to the Antients to run them down as Perrault has done, or cry them up as Boileau is perhaps equally dangerous, and out of the Medium. Whatever Advantages we have had of the Antients, probably they had the same of those that preceeded them. This we know, that the Latins borrow'd as much from the Greeks as we have borrow'd from them; and it would be no difficult Matter to prove, that in all the Branches of polite Literature, the Moderns, particularly the English, have excell'd the Antients in as many as the Antients excelled them.The Passage of my Lord Bacon's before cited, gave Occasion to Monsieur Perrault, to bring in that noble Author for an Evidence on his Side against the Antients: But Boileau vindicates him in this Point; and Father Bouhours, as another Instance of his excellent Judgement, declares he prefers the Lord Chancellor Bacon before the most celebrated Names of Antiquity. Rapin calls him the greatest Genius of England, and he has not more Glory from his own Countrymen than from the learned Men in France.

I expect no Quarter from the Dealers in monastick Learning, in Heraldry, and Genealogy, who generally doat upon them even to Frenzy. Du Val in his Geography informs us, that there is a Nation in America, bordering on the River of the Amazons, where old Women go off better than young; under a Notion, that the Knowledge of the One is preferable to the Vigour and Beauty of the Other. Thus these Men please themselves more with the Dryness and Gravity of Antiquity, than with a beautiful Imagination, and the Charms of Eloquence. I believe their Opinion will not have many Followers, nor their Example be much imitated. However, when such an Antiquary as the great Selden appears in the World, the Instruction it will receive from him, more than makes amends for the Labour and Time which others lose in hunting after worthless Manuscripts, forg'd Charters, and monkish Fables. The learned and polite Dr. Bathurst of Oxford, wrote an admirable Poem on the Death of Selden:

Selden etant sans Contredit le plus docte des Anglois moderns. 'Tis said by a Frenchman and a Papist; but as much as Selden was an Oracle, and a Glory to our Country, Archbishop Laud his Brethren would have thrust his learned Head into a Pillory, if they could have come at him. I don't know whether it was for his History of Tythes or not; but that would have been hard after he had been so fully answer'd by Doctors of both Universities; who, however, were not, Les plus Doctes des Anglois moderns. Judicious Antiquaries ever were, and ever will be in Esteem. Those that meddle with Things solid and useful. None of the Pretenders to this Sort of Knowledge, are more despicable than such as deal in old Terms and Phrases, who generally affect a Contempt for those that are in present Use as weak and effeminate. The Emperor Augustus could not bear these Men, any more than Punster's whom he heartily despis'd. The Spectator, N^o 470. has with much Pleasantry animadverted on those Criticks in Readings, and has brought in the Cotton Library, Aldus, Scaliger, Scioppius, Salmasius, the elder Stephens, and a Heap of old Manuscripts, to clear up the Difficulties in certain Lyrick Verses, about a Shape, an Eye, Wit, Charms, Corinna and Belvedera.

As scrupulous and as curious as these Antiquaries would be thought to be, one might fill Volumes with Examples of the most notorious Mistakes and Blunders in the Writings of the most learned among them; which are not taken notice of to lessen the Credit they have worthily acquir'd, but to shew the Infirmity of humane Nature, which will always be attended with Errours, and never arrive at Perfection as we have elsewhere observ'd after Horace:

But in such Authors, what is good more than atones for what is not so, and 'tis only where a Writer shews a Defect in Will as well as Judgement, that he renders himself blame-worthy, especially in History. Several of these Blunders are collected by Marville in his Melange, &c. 'Tis remark'd of Pliny, that in translating Democritus, he says, the Camelion is like a Crocodile, and altogether as big—The Crocodalos of Democritus is in the Jonick Dialect, a Lizard, which may be about some ten thousand Times less than a Crocodile, and yet a great many Times bigger than a Camelion. Eutychius speaking of Eusebius of Cesarea, sirnamed Pamphilus, calls him Eusebius, Bishop of the City of Phili. Quintus Curtius mistakes Arabia FÆlix for Arabia Deserta. He confounds the Euxine with the Caspian Sea, and makes the Rivers Tygris and Euphrates run through Media, which they never enter'd. Mr. Simon, in his critical History, takes Suna and Fratela, two Officers of the Gothick Army, for two German Ladies. The Life of Charlemagne, written by Acciaioli, having been often joyn'd with Plutarch's Lives, was published by Vicellius as written by Plutarch, who liv'd 6 or 700 Years before Charlemagne. Gerard Vossius affirms, that the Society of the Sorbonne was instituted by Robert, Brother of S. Lewis King of France, instead of Robert sirnamed Sorbonne from the Place of his Nativity. Pallavicini in his History of the Council of Trent, says Lansac, the French Ambassador, was Knight of the Order of the Holy Ghost, which was not instituted till twenty Years after; but what has particular Relation to us Englishmen is the Charge against Dodwel: Dodowel dans ses Dissertations sur Saint Cyprien prend la Ville d'Olympe pour une Olympiade, takes the City Olympus for an Olympiade, the Name of the Place where, for the Date of the Year when it was done, which is Matter of much Humiliation to all such as believe it impossible for so learned and orthodox a Man to commit so great an Oversight; and plainly proves to us, that those who write of what past 1000 or 2000 Years ago, are as likely to err, as those who write of what past three or fourscore Years ago. Whoever has a Curiosity to see more of the Blunderings, which the most learned are charg'd with, such as the Port Royal, Baronius, Vasquez, Du Cange, Varillas, L'AbbÉ, &c. may have full Satisfaction in Marville's Melange, p. 208. & seq. taken from a Book written by Boileau's Uncle, entituled, Colloquium Criticum de SphalmÆtis viromum in re literaria illustrium. Of what Size would the Book be, if we should examine with the same Exactness, Nalson, Heylin, Wharton, Collier, Dugdale, Brady, the Grand Rebellion, the Histories, &c. And collect and publish the Errours, both of the Will and the Judgement. Nor are these Names by any Means more illustrious, than those we meet with in the Colloquium.

The Translator of Homer has an Excuse for Mr. Dryden, which is much more generous than just: He says, His Haste in Writing ought not to be imputed to him as a Fault, but to those who suffer'd so noble a Genius to lie under the Necessity of it. Mr. Dryden's Genius did not appear in any Thing more than his Versification; and whether the Criticks will have it ennobled for that Versification only, is a Question. The Translator seems to make a good Genius and a good Ear to be the same Thing. Dryden himself was more sensible of the Difference between them, and when it was in Debate at Will's Coffee-house, what Character he would have with Posterity; he said, with a sullen Modesty, I believe they will allow me to be a good Versifier. If we will believe Mr. Dryden, he did not lie under the Necessity of Haste: In several of his Dedications and Prefaces, he has declared, He never wanted. When he renounced his Allegiance to King William, and disqualified himself for keeping the Laureat's Place with that of Historiographer, he had a Pension from the then Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Dorset, which was an Instance of Generosity that is rarely to be met with in the History of Lewis XIV, who paid more to Poets and Historians than all the Princes of Europe. His Bounty has been extoll'd, even by those whom his Bigotry had banish'd, yet he seldom let it extend to any of the Reformed Religion, let their Merit be ever so great. Mademoiselle le Fevre, afterwards Madam Dacier, dedicated a Book to that Prince, and the Duke de Montausier introduc'd her at Court; but the King would not accept of the Book, nor admit that his Name should be put before the Epistle.

The Duke, whose Character had some Bluntness in it, said, Sir, Is this the Way to encourage Learning: The Lady deserves well of your Majesty and the Publick, and if you will not reward her your self, suffer me to give her 100 Pistoles, I matter not whether I am paid again: or Words to that Effect. This Learned Lady was far from being an Enemy to the Government as Dryden was, and he did not stick to shew it upon all Occasions, even when he was pension'd by my Lord Chamberlain. The Truth is, he was like fond Fathers who can see no Faults in their Children; and as to his hasty Writing, 'tis pretty well known that as easy as his Verses appear to be, he came hard by them: He thought it a good Day's Work if he could finish 40 Verses a Day; and some learned Antiquaries, I suppose from a MSS. of Virgil's Amanuensis, assure us, that Maro wrote as many, and drawing them off the Lee afterwards, in his Poetical Limbeck, reduced them to Ten. Godeau, Bishop of Vence, us'd to write 2 or 300 Verses a-day. I my self paid a Visit once to a Verse-maker in an Afternoon, and saw 200 political Verses on his Table, which he told me he had written since Dinner: By this Dispatch he soon furnish'd out a Folio. Dryden was so far from spying Blemishes in his Works, that he often took them for Beauties, and particularly what the Italians call Concetti. This noted Rant in the Conq. Gran.

is happily imitated by him in his State of Innocence:

But to criticise on Dryden's Prefaces and Plays is a much greater Labour than to copy them all over, and equally ungenerous and impertinent: If any one will compare his Fall of Man with Milton's Paradise lost, he will quickly perceive to which of them it is that the noble Genius is to be apply'd; and if it belongs to Milton, some other Epithet should be thought of for Dryden.

I have already observ'd, that I did not intend to form a regular Discourse, and I think I have kept pretty well to my Intention: If the Reader misses any Thing of Instruction by it, he will find it made up in Entertainment. The Variety will excuse the Want of Method in a Subject not so capable of it as where the Matter is certain and well known. I wish I were able to give Examples of all Father Bouhour's several Kinds of Thoughts out of English Authors, but Examples are much nicer Work than Precepts. Every one may agree that a Thing ought to be so done, but saw that it is so done. Men's Idea's of the same Things, vary in the Reflection as much as their Views do in Prospect, according to the Light they appear in. Dr. Felton makes a Trifle of it in one Part of his Preface, and an insuperable Difficulty in another. I might, at once, with the Trouble only of Transcribing, have adorn'd the Work, and diverted the Reader. Contrary to this, he says, If any Body is pleas'd to try, he will hardly find it practicable to illustrate these Rules by Examples. The Quotations, which he had before term'd transcribing only, are not so easy as he imagin'd to be done with Beauty and Judgement, was he sure of writing out nothing but what was as much to the Purpose as if it had been made for it, otherwise he might have transcrib'd puffy Thoughts for sublime, trifling Thoughts for pretty, affected Thoughts for agreeable; in short, false Thoughts for fine ones, and I am afraid that would have been his Misfortune, had he attempted it. In his Preface he blames Tully for quoting himself, and Aristotle for being dry; but as he has not gone much beyond the Latter in his Criticisms, nor the Former in his Eloquence, so I believe their Reputation will not be much the worse for him, and it had been better if the Doctor had follow'd the Direction of Quintillian, Modesto tamen & Circumspecto judicio, &c. People should speak with a great deal of Modesty and Circumspection of such great Men, for it may happen, as it very often does, that they condemn what they do not understand.

I am apprehensive enough that this Undertaking will be censur'd as an Effect of Vanity and Arrogance, and I am well enough acquainted with the Spirit of the People I have to deal with,

But I please my self with the Reflection, that I have not mingled the least Spice of Malice in the Composition, as it relates to Criticism, and am so far from being vain and arrogant, that I frequently and sincerely declare, my chief Design was to excite some more capable Writer to do what I knew my self uncapable of; and if any such Person shall, by exposing my Errours, give the World a true Light, I will not only gratefully follow it, but rejoyce at it, and take hold or the Opportunity to have my Share of the Instruction, if it comes from clean Hands, and is not defil'd with ill Manners and ill Language: Such tutoring I shall despise, and it being very common for Authors to have as good an Opinion of themselves as of any Body else, I shall not think any Name of Authority enough to justify either Insolence or Scurrility. About 40 Years ago there was a Student at Oxford, who acquir'd a good Hand at a Fiddle; but, falling afterwards into Melancholy, he grew averse to Musick, and could not be prevail'd upon by his Friends to touch it: They had but one Way to excite him to it, and that was for some unskilful Hand to take his Violin and scrape upon it; he would then immediately snatch it away from him, and, in a Kind of Resentment, give it the utmost Elegance of Sound and Harmony. I freely own I had this Man's Example in my Head when I began this Essay, and should the Success be the same, the End of it is answer'd.

I cannot close this Essay without taking Notice of the Perverseness of Men, who pretend to Wit and Judgement, towards one another: It appears mostly in Pretenders, and is very well markt by Boileau, in these two Verses translated by Mr. Dennis, and equal to the Original:

It was not so when Judgement and Wit were something more than Pretence only, when they were in the Heighth of Excellence, under the Patronage of Augustus. My Lord Roscommon, in his Preface to Horace's Art of Poetry writes thus: I am below the Envy of the Criticks, but if I durst, I would beg them to remember, that Horace ow'd his Favour and his Fortune to the Character given of him by Virgil and Varius; that Fundanius and Pollio are still valued by what Horace say of them, and that in that Golden Age there was a good Understanding among the Ingenious; and those who were the most esteem'd were the best natur'd. Dryden has made the same Observation: Certainly, the Poets of Ovid's Age enjoy'd much Happiness in the Conversation and Friendship of one another. The antient Criticks, says the Spectator, are full of the Praises of their Contemporaries. They discover Beauties which escap'd the Observation of the Vulgar, and very often find out Reasons for palliating and excusing such Slips and Oversights, as were committed in the Writings of eminent Authors. Mr. Addison has imitated them in his Remarks upon Milton's Paradice Lost; but it must be allowed that the Task was made very easy, and the Beauties shine so brightly, that there's no taking one's Eye off of them. It has also been wish'd, that the two or three Slips in Expression which he quotes out of Milton had been excused, as they might have been by observing, that if there's a Pun in the Paradice Lost, 'tis the Devil that makes it.

One of the surest Signs, that the Wits of the past and present Age, English and French, are not of the Size of those of the Age of Augustus, is their Jealousies and Broils. The Spectator has this Remark, N^o 409; I cannot think, that Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Boileau, La Fontaine, Bruyere, Bossu, or the Dacier's, would have written so well as they did, had they not been Friends and Contemporaries. 'Tis said very much in Favour of good Nature, and therefore is very agreeable: But I Question, whether Emulation, and sometimes even Resentment, may not produce very good Effects in the Works of the Ingenious. Facit Indignatio versus. Godeau, Vaugelas, Malherbe, were Men of great Merit; and so were also, Maynard, La Mothe Le Vayer, and Costar; yet they wrote against one another with some Acrimony.

'Tis Envy and Spleen, that produce a Set of Writers in England, call'd Answerers, whose Modesty may be conceived by some of their Titles, The best Answer that ever was. Part 1st. The best Answer that ever was. Part the 2d. A better Answer than the best Answer. The Unanswerable Answer, by Lesley and others. You can't publish a Pamphlet or Essay, but it is immediately snapt at to be answer'd: Nay, Dr. Halley's Calculation of the Eclipse in a Half-sheet had two or three political Answers.

The Itch of Answering is so great, that some Authors have taken it in Dudgeon, not to have been thought worthy of an Answer; and to prevent such Disgrace a second Time, have written on Purpose that they might answer themselves. I have heard, that the learned and ingenious Robinson Crusoe is in the Number of these.

How can it be expected, that Men of Passions, worldly Minds, and Lay-men should escape this Infection, when the Fathers themselves in the first Ages of the Church, could not help writing against one another, with as much Sharpness as any modern Writers. St. Jerom, in Particular, is charg'd with this Weakness, in his Writings against Lactantius, St. Ambrose, St. Hilary, Didymus. 'Tis said, that he spar'd neither Antients nor Moderns; no not the inspir'd Elders that translated the Septuagint: Himself having translated the Bible into Latin, and he seem'd to be as fond of his Works as are other Translators.

Our Neighbours, the French, have not been altogether free from this Humour of Answering, or rather writing against one another; as will appear by the following List of a dozen Authors of a Side; most of them of the French Academy; and I might name as many more of equal Rank:

As the most delicate Praise is that which has the Face of Satyr, so the most delicate Satyr is that which has the Face of Praise. Of the latter Kind are the Verses to the honourable Edward Howard on his incomparable and incomprehensible Play. Those Verses were written by the Duke of Buckingham, the Lord Dorset, Mr. Waller, and others. Of the former Kind are several of Voiture's Letters to the Prince of Conde, and Boileau's to the Duke de Vivonne in Imitation of them. Indeed we must allow, that the French do understand the Belle Raillerie better than we do, at least for the Generality, there being some Authors in English, that have succeeded in fine Raillery as well as the French. Thus did Archbishop Tillotson treat Sergeant the Popish Priest: Thus Bishop Sprat handled Sorbiere; and Dr. Burnet of the Charter-house treated one Warren who had attack'd his Theory. If our Answerers could write as they did, they would both divert and instruct us. But we have already explained what they mean by Raillery. They know not how to parry like good Fencers, and therefore knock down like Cudgel Players.The last Word puts me in Mind of a lower Order of Criticks, which are rarely heard of within the Sound of Bow-Bell; and these are your Etymologists and your Orthographists, who turn to Rider or Holy Oak for the Derivation of Words, and have the learned Garretson and other Helps for Spelling: But I know not whether this Essay may travel far enough into the Country to be of any Use; and besides, I have not converst enough with those Criticks that deal in Words and Letters only, to be Master of the Subject, which is generally learn'd by such as make a Penny of it in Conversation by laying Wagers, the Power and Test of all rural Argument.

I must own the Etymologists are by much the greater Men of the Two than the Orthographists. I do affirm this, not only because it is necessary to know the Roots of Languages, but because it is a greater Mark of Scholarship, and has the Sanction of the most learned Universities. The profoundest of our own Antiquaries have, in Favour of the University of Oxford, found out an Etymology, that may match with the famous One of Diaper Napkin: From whence comes King Pepin. Bishop Stillingfleet informs us, that the Champions for the Antiquity of Oxford say, that the old Name is British, and it is read somewhere Iren which should be read Icen, and that again Ychen, and that Rydychen, and Rydychen in the British Tongue is Vadum Boum in Latin, and that in English, Oxenford, Oxford, and Oxon. Such wonderful Discoveries are made by the venerable Antiquaries. Iren runs the Gauntlet through three Languages Irish, Welsh, and Latin, before it drops into English, but considering there is more Greek in the Welsh Tongue than there is Latin, it may make Work for great Scholars, to shew their Scholarship in settling the Matter as it should be with a Salvo for the Rights of the University of Cambridge.

The Learned in France have an Etymology almost as good as that of Oxford from Iren, which is the Word Cemetiere a Church-yard; They derive it from the Latin Word cum with, and mittere to put, as much as to say the dead Bodies are put together in one burying Place. Thus the Boxes at the Opera are a Cemetiere or Church-yard, because the Ladies and Gentlemen are put with one another there, and thus by Virtue of the same Etymology, the Place where People are born and where they are bury'd are all one, from Cum with, and Mittere to put, as I have heard, that the same Word serves for Life and Death in one of the oriental Languages.

As to Orthography, the only Passage I have read in a polite Author concerning it is that of Boileau, who taxes Perrault with false Spelling, by putting an s in one Word, and leaving out an s in another. By putting an s into the Word Contemples, it lost the Imperative Mood which is Contemple; and by leaving out an s in the Word Casuiste, written Casuite, it became no Word at all. When Moods and Tenses, Numbers and Cases, Substantives and Adjectives, suffer by Orthography, the curious Country-man has reason to cry out, otherwise the Printer may be answerable for the Spelling.

After all that has been said of the Sublime, &c. perhaps the Criticks do make more of Things than is necessary, or in Nature: Tho' Poets pretend to Inspiration, and cry out, The god, the god, they are, in the Main, but meer Men, and have their Tricks and Quirks to keep up the Reputation of that Art: Nay, like other Professions, they would have us believe, that there's Mystery in it too; not, I suppose, as Divines understand it, but in the vulgar Sense, as it is understood when we say, the Trade or Mystery of a Cordwainer. Some of these Poetical Mysteries are as follow.

We are told that this Verse of Homer's Third Iliad was said, by Alexander the Great, to be the best in all the Poem:

Methinks our Gazette Men, and Courant Men, express themselves every whit as well, when in Honour of a defunct General, whose Activity had long furnish'd them with Matter for their News-Books, they tell us, He was great alike in the Camp, and in the Cabinet, which easily runs into as good a Verse as the other.

The next best Verses that ever were, are Boileaus; and they were said to be the best in all his Works, by La Fontaine: The Subject is the French King's setting up Lace-making at Roan.

Why these are better Verses than all other best Verses, is the Mystery we are speaking of, and like that of the Free-Masons, it cannot be unfolded but by a Brother; nay, one may suspect of this Mystery what is justly suspected of that; they do not tell it us, for fear we shou'd laugh at it.

Of this Kind, doubtless, is the famous Couplet, taken out of Sir John Denham's Coopers-Hill, which Dryden says, are the two best Verses in the English Tongue:

He said he would not reveal the Secret why they were the best Verses, but left it as a Riddle to Posterity. I dare say, there are a Thousand as good Verses in Mr. Pope's Homer, if by good Verses he means smooth ones, and one would think Three such Monysyllables as Yet, Not, Dull, all together, was enough to set aside the Claim of that Line.

Having said so much already of my honest Intention In this Essay, I must, at last, refer it to the Judgement of the Reader, and whatever it is, shall receive it with Pleasure, when it is given with Candour.

If he approves of what I have said, I cannot but be pleased with having given some few Hints to another.

If he does not approve of it, 'twill please me still more to receive new Light my self.

Since this Essay was finish'd, I have seen a Book written by a French Gentleman, which has been receiv'd with much Civility; and as that Gentleman is commanded to make Remarks on our Manners in England, he will not do us Justice unless he puts the Reception his Book has met with, among the Instances of our Humanity to Strangers.

I must own I have not learnt a good deal by it, and the Reading of it has not excited any Impatience in me to read any new Heroick Poem. I have long despair'd to see another good Dramatick, and much more an Epick Poem in English, and cannot hope now to see one in French, which never yet was seen: However, I wish so well to all such generous Enterprizes, that I think it barbarous to give them the least Discouragement.

My Objections to this Gentleman's Criticisms are for what he says too ill of Milton's Poem, and too good of Clarendon's History, which he highly commends for the fine Characters, tho' he seems not to understand them, or not to have inform'd himself sufficiently of the Facts on which they are founded. He assures us the Lord Clarendon has unravell'd all the Springs of the Civil Wars. I pass by the Expression to unravel a Spring, for that probably it sounds better in the French Idiom than in the English: But the Sense of it is not true in Fact. He has drawn, at full Length, the pictures of those whose Ambition shook the Foundation of his Country. He has drawn them at full Length indeed, but as Milton drew his shadowy Beings, Death, Sin, Chaos, by the Extent of his Imagination, and with little Regard to Historical Likeness, or copying after Nature; his Pictures on the King's Side being to a Man, all so many Heroes; on that of the Parliament so many Scoundrels; which was impossible to be true: For, besides that it was not in the Course, so it was not in the Nature of the Thing, that so many heroical Persons should take Party for Oppression and Superstition, and so many Blockheads and Poltrons espouse the Cause of Religion and Liberty.

But I do not wonder that this Critick is so extreamly civil to the Author of the History of the Rebellion. He censures Milton for drawing the Pictures of Death and the Devil with so much Deformity. Satan, Sin, and Death, must needs shock the Readers of a delicate Taste. As if it was possible for the Imagination to paint any Thing so ugly as the Devil is in every One's Conception, and that the more shocking such Painting is, it was not the more natural, as being the more conformable to the Idea which every one has conceiv'd of the Original. 'Tis true, the Devil and Death are not Subjects to touch the Delicacy of Readers, but are extreamly proper to move Horrour and Detestation, which are there the Moral of that Divine Poem. If the Scene of Paradise was opening, the Reader might have expected something to have touch'd his Delicacy; but when he came, as in Milton, to the Gates of Hell wide open, he certainly should have left his Delicacy behind him. Hans Holben's Death's Dance is a merry Piece, but was no more proper to admit of Delicacy than the Droll Pieces of Heemskirk; and it would not be more extravagant to put Perfumes among the Ingredients of a Stink-Pot, than to put Delicacy in a Picture of the Devil. One of the most masterly Pieces of the greatest Matter of the Lombard School, a Carcass on a Butcher's Stall with the Gutts and Garbage about it, was much admir'd by the Italians, whose Delicacy is exemplary to other Nations; whence one may conclude, that whatever Subject has Truth and Likeness in it according to Nature, or our Conception of it, will always please, as an exact: and lively Imitation. I shall take no more Notice of the Criticisms on Milton in this Place, nor perhaps in any other; but I can never read the Remarks of the Criticks on the Paradise Lost, without calling to Mind the Boast of King Alphonso, who criticising on the Form of the Creation, said, If he had been consulted in it, it should have been more perfect.