but omits to mention the poem ón Silence, compofed, I think, as early, with much greater elegance of diction, music of numbers, extent of observation, and force of thought. If he had happened to think on Baillet's chapter of Enfans celebres, he might have made on this occafion a very entertaining differtation on early excellence. He comes next to the Effay on Criticism, the ftupendous performance of a youth not yet twenty years old; and after having detailed the felicities of condition, to which he imagines Pope to have owed his wonderful prematurity of mind, he tells us that he is well informed this effay was first written in profe. There is nothing improbable in the report, nothing indeed but what is more likely than the contrary; yet I cannot forbear to hint to this writer and all others, the danger and weakness of trufting too readily to information. Nothing but experience could evince the frequency of falfe in-formation, or enable any man to conceive that fo many groundlefs reports fhould be propagated as every man of eminence may hear of himfelf. Some men relate what they think as what they know; fome men of confufed memories and habitual inaccuracy afcribe to one man what belongs to another;\ and fome talk on without thought or care. A few men are fufficient to, broach falfehoods, which are afterwards innocently diffufed by fucceffive relaters. He proceeds on examining paffage after paffage of this * In all the papers and criticifms Dr. Johnfon wrote for the Literary Magazine, he frequently departs from the customary we of anonymous writers. This, with his inimitable ftyle foon pointed him out as the principal perfon concerned in that publication. this effay; but we must pass over all thefe criticisms to which we have not fomething to add or to object, or where this author does not differ from the general voice of mankind. We cannot agree with him in his cenfure of the comparison of a ftudent advancing in fcience with a traveller paffing the Alps, which is perhaps the best fimile in our language; that in which the most exact refemblance is traced between things in appearance utterly unrelated to each other. That the laft line conveys no new idea, is not true; it makes particular what was before general. Whether the description which he adds from another author be, as he says, more full and ftriking than that of Pope, is not to be inquired. Pope's defcription is relative, and can admit no greater length than is ufually allowed to a fimile, nor any other particulars than fuch as form the correfpondence. Unvaried rhymes, fays this writer, highly disgust readers of a good ear. It is furely not the ear but the mind that is offended. The fault arifing from the ufe of common rhymes is, that by reading the paft line the fecond may be gueffed, and half the compofition lofes the grace of novelty. On occafion of the mention of an alexandrine, the critic obferves, that "the alexandrine may be thought a modern measure, but that Robert of Gloucefter's wife is an alexandrine, with the addition of two fyllables; and that Sternhold and Hopkins translated the pfalms' in the fame measure of fourteen fyllables, though they are printed otherwife." This feems not to be accurately conceived or exPreffed: an alexandrine with the addition of two fyllables, is no more an alexandrine than with the detraction EE 2 detraction of two fyllnbles. Sternhold and Hopkins did generally write in the alternate measure of eight and fix fyllables; but Hopkins commonly rhymed the first and third, Sternhold only the fecond and fourth: fo that Sternhold may be confidered as writing couplets of long lines; but Hopkins wrote regular ftanzas. From the practice of printing the long lines of fourteen fyllables in two fhort lines, arofe the licence of fome of our poets, who, though profeffing to write in ftanzas, neglected the rhymes of the firft and third lines. Pope has mentioned Petronius among the great names of criticifin, as the remarker justly observes without any critical merit. It is to be fufpected that Pope had never read his book, and mentioned him on the credit of two or three fentences which he had often feen quoted, imagining that where there was fo much there muft neceffarily be more. Young men in hafte to be renowned, too frequently talk of books which they have fcarcely feen. The revival of learning mentioned in this poem, affords an opportunity of mentioning the chief periods of literary hiftory, of which this writer reckons five; that of Alexander, of Ptolemy Philadelphus, of Auguftus, of Leo the Tenth, of Queen Anne. Thefe obfervations are concluded with a remark which deferves great attention: "In no polished - nation, after criticifm has been much fiúdied, and the rules of writing eftablifhed, has any very extraordinary book ever appeared." The Rape of the Lock was always regarded by Pope as the highest production of his genius. On occafion of this work, the hiftory of the comic hero is given; and we are told that it defcended from Faffoni Faffoni to Boileau, from Boileau to Garth, and from Garth to Pope. Garth is mentioned perhaps with · too much honour; but all are confeffed to be inferior to Pope. There is in his remarks on this work no difcovery of any latent beauty, nor any thing subtle or striking; he is indeed commonly right, but has difcuffed no difficult question. The next pieces to be confidered are the Verfes to the Memory of an unfortunate Lady, the Prologue to Cato, and Epilogue to Jane Shore. The firft piece he commends. On occafion of the fecond he digreffes according to his cuftom, into a learned differtation on tragedies, and compares the English and French with the Greek ftage. He juftly cen- . sures Cato for want of action and of characters; but fcarcely does juftice to the fublimity of fome fpeeches and the philofophical exactnefs in the fentiments. "The fimile of mount Atlas, and that of the Numidian traveller fmothered in the fands, are indeed in character," fays the critic, "but fufficiently obvious." The fimile of the mountain is indeed common; but of that of the traveller I do not remember. That it is obvious is eafy to fay, and easy to deny. Many things are obvious when they are taught. He proceeds to criticise the other works of Addifon, till the epilogue calls his attention to Rowe, whofe character hedifcuffes in the fame manner with fufficient freedom and fufficient candour. The tranflation of the Epistle of Sappho to Phaon is next confidered: but Sappho and Ovid are more the fubjects of this difquifition than Pope. We shall therefore pafs over it to a piece of more importance, the Epiftle of Eloifa to Abelard, which may juftly be be regarded as one of the works on which the reputation of Pope will ftand in future times. The critic purfues Eloifa through all the changes of paflion, produces the paffages of her letters to which any allufion is made, and interfperfes many agreeable particulars and incidental relations. There is not much profundity of criticism, because the beauties are fentiments of nature, which the learned and the ignorant feel alike. It is juftly remarked by him, that the wish of Eloifa for the happy paffage of Abelard into the other world, is formed according to the ideas of myftic devotion. These are the Pieces examined in this volume: whether the remaining part of the work will be one volume or more, perhaps the writer himself cannot yet inform us. This piece is, however, a complete work, fo far as it goes; and the writer is of opinion that he has difpatched the chief part of his task: for he ventures to remark, that the reputation of Pope as a poet, among pofterity, will be principally founded on his Windfor-Foreft, Rape of the Lock, and Eloifa to Abelard; while the facts and characters alluded to in his late writings will be forgotten and unknown, and their poignancy and propriety little relifled; for wit and satire are tranfitory and perishable, but nature and paffion are eternal. He has interfperfed fome paffages of Pope's life, with which most readers will be pleased. When Pope was yet a child, his father, who had been a merchant in London, retired to Binfield. He was taught to read by an aunt; and learned to write without a mafter, by copying printed books. His father The fecond volume of Dr. Warton's Effay was not published until the year 1782. C. |