An Essay on Criticism Part 7

Rome _was not built in a Day.

Better late than never._

_On laisse aux Discours du Peuple les manieres de s'appliquer en Proverbes._ 'Tis for the Vulgar only to express themselves by Proverbs.

But what are Proverbs, _&c._ to _Collier_'s huddling of Metaphors, a Vice in Eloquence which is hardly taken Notice of in _English_ Writings; _To be always pouring in Oil, is the Way to overset the Flame and extinguish the Lamp: If you lay a Country constantly under Water, you must spoil the Soil._ Here Fire and Water most lovingly agree together to do the same Business. _To overset a Flame_ is a fine Way of speaking, and as easily to be conceiv'd, as to overset a c.o.c.kboat or a _Wherry_.

Again, _I fancy we shall sift the Gentleman to the Bran, and make him run the Gauntlet before he gets clear._ The _Bran_ Gentleman having run the Gauntlet, we will add one Instance more, and have done with his Metaphors; _They will glean up the best Thoughts, they will draw of the Spirit of the Argument when the Mine has been work'd by such Hands._ The _Gleaner_, the Chymist, and the Miner, are at once at work for him in the same short Sentence. If the Writer or Reader's Head can be clear under such Operations, it will be a Wonder. The _Spectator_ has a Remark on this Subject, equally pleasant and judicious: _Thus I have known a Heroe compar'd to a_ Thunder-bolt, _a_ Lion, _and the_ Sea, all _and each of them proper Metaphors for Impetuosity, Courage, and Force; but by bad Management it hath so happen'd, that the_ Thunder-bolt _hath overflow'd the Banks, the_ Lion _has been darted through the Skie, and the Billows have roll'd not of the_ Lybian _Desart_; neither of which is so bad as _Collier_'s burning and drowning the same Thing at the same Time.

The _Declamatory_ Stile, another great Vice in Eloquence, is the Characteristick of these _Essays_; tho' I question not but it is thought to be the very Cream of the Discourse. If 'tis excuseable any where it is in Country Pulpits, where, if a Parcel of Words are well put together, we should not be too scrupulous about the Sense. _Then Commerce must give way to Religion, Baptism sway the Indenture, and the Gospel govern the_ Exchange. Are not the Gospel, Baptism, and Religion, the Exchange, Indenture, and Commerce, the same Things in the _Contrast_. I am far from affecting a foreign Word when we have as good a one of our own, much less when we have a better; and _Att.i.tude_ and _Contrast_ may be supplied by _Posture_ and _Opposition_, if the Reader pleases; out the former was used for Decorum sake, the idea being too gross when in an _English_ Dress. The Author is again declaiming: _It may be the Failing of Drunkenness is imperceptible in the single Instance, 'twill rise in the Sum_; _To go always a little out of the Way makes a strange Mistake upon the progress_; _A Grain will grew to a Burthen by Addition_; _To be always dipping an Estate, is the Way to turn Beggar_; _A Drop that's perpetually pelting Will make a Stone give way._ How new, how eloquent is all this, and that which comes after! He is preaching to the Booksellers about selling _Arian Books_, _Sceptical Books_, _Books of Divorce_, _Impotence_, &c. _Whatever they think on't,_ Atheism _and_ Lewdness _is the most fatal Mortality_;--_The Plague of the Heart the most frightful Distemper_--_Infection is safer lodged in the Veins, than in the Will_--_A Man had much better be poyson'd in his Blood, than in his Principle._ The Stream is the same still, but as a Boar p.i.s.ses it comes by Spirts. Again, _Are we never to do any Thing without a Majority_; _If we are govern'd by Numbers, we shall live strangely_; _If you go to Poll, Sense and Conscience will lose it in most Cases._ Of all the Modern Criticks, who have given us Rules, Dr.

_Felton_ upon the _Cla.s.sicks_ is the Author, who seems to have stood most upon his own Legs: Others have learnt much of the _French_, and have been much blam'd for it by those who have and have not read their Books. _Rymer_ confesses the _French_ began the _Art_ of _Criticism_ among the Moderns: _They fell not to it in earnest_, says he, in his Preface to _Rapin_, _till the_ Royal Academy _was founded,_ and _Cardinal_ Richelieu _encourag'd and rally'd all the scatter'd Wits under his Banner: Then_ Malherbe _reform'd their ancient licentious Poetry._ _Malherbe_ died Seven Years before the _Royal Academy_ was thought of; however he did begin the Reformation of the _French_ Poetry, and was happily follow'd by _Voiture_, _Sarazin_, _Maynard_, _G.o.deau_, &c. The _Academy_ have indeed a.s.sum'd to themselves the sole Glory of refining the _French_ Tongue, tho' they can by no means engross the Merit of it. _Malherbe_ began it before they had a Being, and several eminent _French_ Authors have written since, who were not of the _Academy_, as St. _Evremont_, _Menage_, _&c._ But there's something pleasant in the Complements that are paid to it, and the _Antiquaries_ have found out just such another Society in _Rome_, under the Patronage of _Augustus_, to refine the _Roman_ Language, which, by the way, had been refined before by _Terence_, _Lucretius_, _Cicero_, _Hortensius_, and their Contemporaries, at the latter End of the Republick. The Learned Antiquaries go so far as to name the _Roman Academicians_,

_Mecaenas_, _Pollio_, _Plotius_, _Valgius_, The Two _Messala's_, The Two _Bibulus's_, _Piso_, the Father, _Servius_, _Fulvius_, _Tibullus_, _Horace_.

_Ovid_ perhaps was left out because he was in Exile at _Tomos_; but why could they not have put in _Livy_, _Propertius_, &c. They have given this Academy, the Temple and Library of _Apollo_, to meet and study in, and it is pretended, that _Horace_'s Epistle to the _Piso's_ was written by Direction of the Academy, and if there had ever been such an Academy at all, one might the sooner have given Credit to it. The _French_ Academy set an Example to other learned and ingenious Men, to make themselves Masters of their own Language, and the Encouragement they met with from _Lewis_ XIV produced an Age of Poets, Orators, and Criticks.

The latter have done more towards explaining the _Cla.s.sicks_ than had been done before from the _Augustan_ Age to their own. They threw Pedantry and Jargon out of their Writings, and render'd them as polite as judicious. Such are the Criticisms of _Rapin_, _Bossu_, _Segrais_, _Boileau_, _Bouhours_, and _Dacier_, who are all read with like Profit and Pleasure; and this is the Reason of the frequent Use of them, and not an Affectation of foreign Phrases, and technical Cant, as is insinuated by such as never read, or never understood them, and by such too as have not only both read and understood them, but have learnt of them all the Reading they have, and yet make use of no other Names than _Quintillian_, _Longinus_, _Donatus_, _Eustathius_, and the Ancients.

This is very common, and I could easily prove it upon those who have charg'd others with Ignorance and Illiterature. The Reading _French_ Authors is inconceivably beneficial to such as do not understand _Latin_ so well as Mr. _Dryden_, and _Greek_ so well as Mr. _Pope_: They will learn as much of the _Greek_ History from _Ablancourt_'s _Thucydides_, and of the _Latin_ from _Du Ryer_'s _Livy_, as they could from the Originals. And as to the Poets, they had better read Madam _Dacier_'s _Homer_, and _Segrais_'s _Virgil_, which they do understand, than the Original _Homer_ and _Virgil_ which they do not. My Lord _Roscommon_ owns of the _French_,

_The choicest Books that_ Rome _or_ Greece _have known, Their excellent Translators made their own._

And tho' in all Translations the Spirit and Beauty of the Original must in a great measure be lost by Transfusion, yet in History especially you are sure to have the Method, the Facts, and the Politicks, tho' you have not the Strength and Ellegance of the Style. _Dryden_ tells the late Duke of _Bucks_, in the Dedication to his _Virgil_; _Impartially Speaking, the_ French _are as much better Criticks, as they are worse Poets._ The Latter is incontestable; and not to mention _Milton_, who is above all Parallel. They have nothing of _Epick_ Poetry so good as our King _Arthur_; neither are their _Corneille_ and _Racine_ a Match for our _Shakespear_ and _Otway_. They have no Body to name against _Wycherley_, _Etherege_, _Shadwel_, _Congreve_, _Vanburgh_, _Steel_.

_Moliere_, the best of their Comick Poets, could write _Scapius_, _Dandins_, _Sganarelles_, and all Kinds of Farce perfectly well; but for Wit and Humour, Repartee, Polite Conversation, for what the Criticks call the _Vis Comica_, you must have recourse to the _English_ Comedies, if you would know what it is. A _French Marquis_, as _Moliere_ shew'd him upon his Stage, would only make a very good Taylor upon ours. They have no _Hopkins_ for Elegy, no _Philips_ for Pastoral: _Scarron_ will hardly serve for a _Ralpho_ to our _Hudibras_. In the _Ode_, I think, _Malherbe_ is at least equal to _Cowley_, and _Voiture_ and _Sarazin_ are not behind our _Suckling_ and _Waller_, in the gallant Way: Nor is our _Prior_ behind their _La Fontaine_ for Taletelling. On the other Hand, I am afraid we must allow, that we have no Translation in _English_ equal to _Seagrais_'s _Virgil_ for Intelligence of the Original, and a correct as well as harmonious Diction, especially if the Character given of it by _Ruaeus_ is just. Did we look into other Sciences, we should find our selves more than a Match for them; What Names have they to set against our _Newton_ and _Halley_ in the Mathematicks, and our _Sydenham_ and _Willis_ in _Physick_. They have no _Bacon_, no _Boyle_ in Philosophy. In History indeed they have a _Varillas_ and a _Maimbourg_ for our _Nelson_ and _Brady_, and doubtless the Royal Historiographers will, in the History of _Lewis_ XIV, come up to the _Grand Rebellion_, and Mr. _Echard_'s History for Impartiality and Truth. If I were a _Frenchman_ I should make a Start here, and cry out, What is their _Tureune_ and their _Conde_ to our _Marlborough_, and their Great _Monarch_, who took Pleasure in Slaughter and Devastation, to our Glorious King _George_, whose only Care and Delight is to maintain Liberty and Peace.

Dr. _Felton_ declares we began to refine our Language much sooner than the _French_, and that the Writers in Queen _Elizabeth_'s Reign are far preferable to _Shakespear_, _Fletcher_, _Waller_, _Suckling_, _May_, _Sands_, and all the Writers from the _Gunpowder_ Plot to the Restoration. He will not be advis'd by the best Critick in Poetry, as he represents him. Mr. _Dryden_, who speaking of _Beaumont_ and _Fletcher_, writes thus; _I am apt to believe the_ English _Language in them arrived to its Perfection_: They wrote between the Beginning of King _James_ I and the Reign of King _Charles_ II, a Period in which Dr. _Felton_ makes the _English_ Language to have declin'd; though, if I were permitted to give Judgement, I should continue the Improvement of our Tongue till the Time of the _Spectator_, and the Translation of _Homer_, where, I think, it is in the greatest Purity and Elegance, and that one of the first deplorable Signs of its Declension was even the Discourse upon the _Cla.s.sicks_. _Dryden_ himself continues the good Taste till the Opening of the Long Parliament 1640, when, if you'l believe him, the Muses were struck dead at a Blow, abandon'd to a barbarous Race of Men, Enemies of all good Learning, such as _Selden_, _Whitlock_, _Bathurst_, _Wilkins_, and the immortal _Milton_. This Pa.s.sage should have been transplanted into the two famous Histories of those Times, publish'd since King _William_'s Death, particularly that of the _Grand Rebellion_, which Dr.

_Felton_ protests is the most impartial one that ever was written; but it is very well it does not stand in need of his Certificate, for there would have been great Exception taken against his Authority. As good a Word as the Doctor gives Mr. _Dryden_ as a _Critick_, _Dryden_ out-does him in his own Panegyrick.

_Let_ Dryden _with new Rules our Stage refine, And his great Models form by this Design._

This Piece of Modesty in Verse is excelled by another in Prose; _Our present Poets,_ himself the Top of them, _have far surpast all the antient and modern Writers of other Countries._

Thus has he put himself above _Homer_, _Sophocles_, _Virgil_, _Horace_, _Corneille_, _Racine_, _Boileau_, &c. Notwithstanding we were so happy in Mr. _Dryden_'s Criticisms, Doctor _Felton_ is of Opinion the Art is not brought enough to Perfection among us; and therefore earnestly sollicites Sir _Richard Steel_ to write Comments upon _Homer_ and _Virgil_, as Mr. _Addison_ has done upon _Milton_. I am satisfied Sir _Richard Steel_ did not keep his Countenance if ever that Pa.s.sage of the Doctor's came in his Way. I will not say the same of Mr. _Trap_, who, they tell me, is a Poet by his Place, or a _made_ Poet, better by half than one born so; but if Doctor _Felton_ had foreseen that the ingenious Gentleman would have came off as He did with _Virgil_, and in what a sad Place Doctor _Swift_ would find his Translation, I believe he would have postpon'd the Encomium, _What a polite Critick may do if he pleases_, says the Doctor, _and in how different an Aspect_ Criticism _appears, when formed by Men of Parts and Fire, we may see in Mr._ Trap; and the Encomium continues for a Page or two: But the aforesaid Translation having cut the Matter short, I will repeat no more of it.

_Cowley_ was in as great Vogue 60 or seventy Years ago, as any Composer or Translater of our Time has been, and Doctor _Felton_ without knowing that his Character is worn, informs us, that his _Davideis_ is as good an Epick Poem as the _Ilias_, that his Lyricks are as good as _Pindar_'s or _Horace_'s, that he wrote Elegies as well as _Tibullus_, Epistles as well as _Ovid_, Pastorals as well as _Theocritus_; and that his _Cutter of Colmanstreet_ is as good a Comedy as the _Adelphi of Terence_. The Doctor's own Words are; _He rivalled the_ Greek _and_ Latin _Poets in every Thing but Tragedy._ His saying so is the more remarkable, for that he had seen the Preface to _Dryden_'s Fables, wherein that incomparable Critick, as he terms him, says _Cowley_ is sunk in his Reputation, and the late Duke of _Bucks_ in his Essay acknowledges as much:

Cowley _might boast to have perform'd his Part, Had he with Nature joyn'd the Rules of Art: But ill Expression gives sometimes Allay To n.o.ble Thoughts------------ Tho' All appears in Heat and Fury done, The Language still must soft and easy run._

Doctor _Felton_ in Praise of Criticism tells us, with equal Elegance and Perspicuity, _If the Rules had not been given, we had not been troubled with_ many fewer _Writers:_ And in the Pursuit of his own excellent Work, he declares, _He has tempered the_ Briskness _of Thought with the Sedateness of Judgement._ The _French_ have their _Pensees Brusques_, but the Doctor could not fall so low as that. _Brusque_ signifying _blunt_, _rash_, and the like. This _Briskness_ is, I suppose, more agreeable to the Conception of a certain Bookseller, who being written to by a certain Squire for a _brisk History_, sent him by the next Carrier that of _Don Quixot_. This was thirty Years ago, before we were so well furnished with _brisk Histories_ as we have been since.

I take _brisk_ in our Tongue to be to _lively_, as _pert_ is to _witty_: But I cannot depend on my own Judgement; the Translator of _Homer_ having used _Briskness_ in the same Sense as Doctor _Felton_ uses it: _Heaven and Earth became engaged in the Subject, by which it rises to a great Importance, and is hastened forward into the briskest Scenes of Action._ If that Author could bear the least Objection to any Thing that belongs to him, I would ask the Reader whether he does not fancy there is some Affectation in the Expression. But let that pa.s.s; if we are rightly informed, the Word _Brisk_ is in the _Teutonick Friesch_, which is in plain English _Frisk_, and then for the G.o.ds and Demi-G.o.ds to frisk up and down the Field of Action, or the Doctor to frisk up and down his Closet is very indecorous. The Duke of _Buckingham_ in the _Rehearsal_ seems to take _Brisk_ in the latter Sense, as when Thunder and Lightning act their Parts on the Stage. The former says, I am the _bold Thunder_, the latter the _brisk Lightning I_. And not at all to derogate from the Character of Lightning, which has been so serviceable to all Sorts of Poetry and Poets, I cannot help confirming my Opinion by a very common Simile, and saying _As brisk as bottled Ale_.

Among all the Refiners of our Tongue, 'tis the vulgar Notion, that Sir _Roger L'Estrange_ was most eminent. True it is, Doctor _Felton_ owns he was good for nothing but _Banter_ and _Railing_; for that is what we in _England_ generally mean by Raillery. Tho' _Smith_ and _Johnson_ in the _Rehearsal_ are not the most lively Characters; yet their Dialogue with _Bayes_ is what the _French_ call _Raillery_. We in _England_ do mean very often the Dialogue of _Billinsgate_, where it is common enough to hear one Fish-Woman cry to another, _No more of your Raillery_, which is there the worst Sort of Railling; and for that and Banter the Doctor a.s.sures us _L'Estrange_ was most proper. The same say I, and that he understood no more of true Eloquence than he did of _Greek_, out of which the Booksellers hired him to translate _Josephus_, and he did it from the _French_ Translation. The Philosopher _Seneca_'s Works he pretended to translate from the _Latin_, and I wish Mr. _Trap_ would translate the following Phrases in his _Seneca_'s _Morals_ back into that Tongue again, _One good Turn is the shoeing Horn to another._ _He does me Good in spite of my Teeth._ _After a Matter of eight Years_; and this into _Greek_ for _Esop_'s Fables, The _Moon was in a heavy Twitter_: Yet I'm satisfied these fine Sayings are some of those that gained him the Reputation of being a polite Writer of _English_: I have heard that about the Moon very much commended, which shews that we are not sufficiently sensible how mean Words debase a Thought. _There's nothing_, says _Boileau_, _which debases a Discourse more than mean Words. A mean Thought exprest in n.o.ble Terms, is generally better than the most n.o.ble Thoughts exprest in mean Terms._ I know no greater Instance of the ill Effect of mean Terms, than what we find in two Verses of Mr. _Montague_'s Epistle to the Lord _Dorset_ on King _William_'s Victory at the _Boyne_. 'Tis in the greatest Heat of that glorious Action, and in the Middle of the _Sublime_, which is not wanting in that Poem.

_Stop, stop, brave Prince! What does your Muse, Sir, faint!

Proceed, pursue his Conquest. Faith I can't._

Mr. _Philips_'s Poems, the _splendid s.h.i.+lling_ and _Cyder_, are full of Instances where mean Thoughts are raised by n.o.ble Expressions, and they are wonderfully pleasing; as in _Cyder_; this of the _Pear-Tree_.

_What tho' the Pear Tree rival not the Worth Of_ Ariconian _Products, yet her Freight Is not contemn'd, and her wide branching Arms Best screen thy Mansion from the fervent Dog, Adverse to Life. The wintry Hurricanes In vain employ their Roar; her Trunk unmov'd, Breaks the strong Onset, and controuls their Rage; Chiefly the_ Bosbury, _whose large Increase, Annual in sumptuous Banquets, claims Applause.

Thrice acceptable_ Bevrage! _could but Art Subdue the floating_ Lee, Pomona_'s self Would dread thy Praise, and shun the dubious Strife.

Be it thy Choice, when Summer Heats annoy, To sit beneath her leavy Canopy, Quaffing rich Liquids, Oh! how sweet t'enjoy At once her Fruits, and hospitable Shade._

I have never met with any Author who so happily imitated the manner and stile of _Milton_ as _Philips_ has done, and there seems to be hardly any other Difference than that of the Subjects they wrote of.

What I have quoted out of _L'Estrange_ is nothing to the Delicacy of a modern Writer of Plays, who without Wit, Language, Learning, or Manners, wrote three or four Farces, which took as much as _Pradon_'s in _France_; but the _English_ have not recollected themselves so soon as the _French_ did; for _Pradon_ out-liv'd the Vogue he was in, and became a greater Jest than ever he had made. What think ye of our Poet's Delicacy and Wit, who in a gallant Letter to his Mistress, tells her, _He's gall'd with riding, Love is forging Darts in his Belly; he's a Dog in a Doublet_, &c. There's a deal of graver Nonsense with it, but it being mostly _Blasphemy_, I dare not repeat it. This Author had his Portion of temporary Fame. _Ogilvy_ had his Day, and _Dryden_ says:

_Fame, like a little Mistress of the Town, Is gain'd with Ease; but then she's lost as soon._

However, as long as the Credit lasts, these temporary Authors bear the Port of the greatest Genius, are clapt and star'd at, as those Merchants who are driving in their Coaches to Bankrupcy, have generally the best Equipage. What are become of the _Marots_, the _Ronsards_, the _Scuderies_ of our neighbour Nation, yet these Writers were infinitely superiour to what most of our taking Authors have been. Could any Body have thought that Sir _Richard Baker_'s Chronicle would ever have past from the Justice's Hall Window to the Butler's Cellar, or that _Cowley_'s _Mistress_ would have lost all her Charms in thirty Years Time, and become a Cast-Off for City Prentices and Lawyers Clerks, to say nothing of _Orinda_, _Flatman_, &c. Yet these Writers were Originals which raises their Merit much above all Sorts of Translators, and it ought to be a Lesson to all Poets and Historians, whether first Hand or second Hand, to pay the World for their Applause with Modesty, which is the surest Way to keep it in a good Humour; _Since 'tis Posterity only_, says _Boileau_, _which sets a Value upon all Writings, you must not, as admirable as you take a modern Author to be, presently put him upon a Level with those Writers who have been admired for so many Ages, because one cannot be sure his Works will pa.s.s with Glory to the next. Indeed without going far for Examples, How many Authors have we seen admired in our Age, whose Glory is vanished in a very few Years. How were_ Balzac_'s Works admired thirty Tears ago?_ So much that Cardinal _Richelieu_ at the same Time that he was meditating the universal Monarchy for the Crown of _France_, wrote in Vindication of them. The Bishop of _Rochester_ did the same for _Cowley_; but neither the Cardinal nor the Bishop could defend them from the Fate of all Temporary Authors. Neither _Cowley_ nor _Balzac_ are now any more mentioned in _France_ or _England_. And the main Reason why they lost their Credit was for want of duly considering what their particular Talents were adapted to; for that they had both very great Talents is universally acknowledged, _Mons. de_ Balzac _a pa.s.se toute sa vie a ecrire des lettres, dont il n'a jamais pu attraper le veritable Charectere._ Balzac _spent all his Time in writing Letters, but could never hit the true Character._ _Cowley_ applied himself to Poetry, and never enough knew the Power and Harmony of Numbers. He had a great deal too much Wit to charm his Mistress with his Pa.s.sion. Very few of us are let into this Secret. We cannot believe that a Poet can have too much Wit, and indeed the Offence given that Way is not very common. The last Duke of _Bucks_ rightly instructs us:

_Another Fault which often does befall,_ } _Is when the Wit of some great Poet shall_ } _So overflow, as to be none at all._ }

Again,

_That silly Thing we call sheer Wit avoid_.

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 Pa.s.sion, 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 Rivals.h.i.+p. 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 a.s.sembled 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 Pa.s.sage 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 Lords.h.i.+p more eminent and distinguished in the World_; and having taught his n.o.ble 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 _h.e.l.lebore_, 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 n.o.ble, and as just, according to the Subject, and the Language as pure and as harmonious. What can be more so, than this Pa.s.sage 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 G.o.d; not content with his Image, he would rob G.o.d 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'Embelliss.e.m.e.nt 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_:

--------Parvos femando libellos Sucratis populumq; rudem amorcando parolis.

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 a.s.sent 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 princ.i.p.al 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 _Ca.s.sandra_ 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:

_Though Composition is the n.o.bler Part, Yet good Translation is no easy Art._

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 Carca.s.s, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Pa.s.sions 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:

_For who, without a Qualm, hath ever look'd On holy Garbage, though by_ Homer _cook'd?

Whose railing Heroes, and whose wounded G.o.ds, Make some suspect he snores as well as nods.

But I offend_-------- Roscom.

_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_: