Nec semper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus: Atque ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis Aut bumana parum cavit natura. Thus Englished: Be not too rigidly censorious: A string may jar in the best master's hand, I will not quarrel with a small mistake, Hor. de Art. Poet. Roscommon. This noble translator of Horace, whom I here cite, has a very honourable opinion of Homer in the main, yet he allows him to be justly censured for some grosser spots and blemishes in him. For who without aversion ever look'd Whose railing heroes, and whose wounded gods, Such wise and just distinctions ought to be made when we pass a judgment on mortal things, but envy condemns by wholesale. Envy is a cursed plant; some fibres of it are rooted almoat in every man's nature, and it works in a sly and imperceptible manner, and that even in some persons who in the main are men of wisdom ahd piety. They know not how to bear the praises that are given to an ingenious author, especially if he be living and of their profession, and therefore they will, if possible, find some blemish in his writings, that they may nibble and bark at it. They will endeavour to diminish the honour of the best treatise that has been written on any subject, and to render it useless by their censures, rather than suffer their envy to lie asleep. and the little mistakes of that author to pass unexposed. Perhaps they will commend the work in general with a pretended air of candour, but pass so many sly and invidious remarks upon it afterward, as shall effectually destroy all their cold and formal praises * I grant when wisdom itself censures a weak and foolish performance, it will pass its severe sentence, and yet with an air of candour, if the author has any thing valuable in him; but envy will oftentimes imitate the same favourable airs, in order to make its false cavils appear more just and credible, when it has a mind to snarl at some of the brightest performances of a human writer, IX. WHEN a person feels any thing of this invidious humour working in him, he may by the following considerations attempt the correction of it. Let him think with himself how many are the beauties of such an author whom he censures, in comparison of his blemishes, and remember that it is a much more honourable and good-natured thing to find out peculiar beauties than faults; true and undisguised candour is a much more amiable and divine talent than accusation. Let him reflect again, what an easy matter it is to find a mistake in all human authors, who are necessarily fallible and imperfect. I confess where an author sets up himself to ridicule divine writers and things sacred, and yet assumes an air of sovereignity and dictatorship, to exalt and almost deify all the Pagan ancients, and cast his scorn upon all the moderns, especially if they do but savour of miracles and the gospel, it is fit the admirers of this author should know that nature and these ancients are not the same, though some writers always unite them. Reason and nature never made these ancient heathens their standard, either of art or genius, of writing or heroism. Sir Richard Steele in his little essay, called The Christian Hero, has shewn our Saviour and St Paul in a more glorious and transcendant light, than a Virgil or a Homer could do for their Achilles, Ulysses, or Æneas; and I am persuaded if Moses and David had not been inspired writers, these very men would have ranked them at least with an Herodotus and Horace, if not given them the superior place. But where an author has many beauties consistent with virtue, piety, and truth, let not little critics exalt themselves, and shower down their ill-nature upon him, without bounds or measure; but rather stretch their own powers of soul till they write a treatise superior to that which they condemn. This is the noblest and surest manner of suppressing what they censure. A little wit, or a little learning, with a good degree of vanity and ill-nature, will teach a man to pour out whole pages of remark and reproach upon one real or fancied mistake of a great and good author: and this may be dressed up by the same talents, and made entertaining enough to the world, who loves reproach and scandal: but if the remarker would but once make this attempt, and try to outshine the author by writting a better book on the 'same subject. he would soon bé convinced of his own insufficiency, and perhaps might learn to judge more justly and favourably of the performance of other men. A cobler or a shoemaker may find some little fault with the latchet of a shỏe that an Apelles had painted, and perhaps with justice too; when the whole figure and portraiture is such as none but an Apelles could paint. Every poor low genius may cavil at what the richest and the noblest hath performed; but it is a sign of envy, and malice, added to the littleness and poverty of genius, when such a cavil becomes a sufficient reason to pronounce at once against a bright author and a whole valuable treatise. X. ANOTHER, and that a very frequent fault in passing a judgment upen books, is this, that persons spread the same praises or the same reproaches over a whole treatise, and all the chapters in it, which are due only to some of them. They judge as it were by wholesale, without making a due distinction between the several parts or sections of the performance; and this is ready to lead those who hear them talk into a dangerous mistake. Florus is a great and just admirer of the late archbishop of Cambray, and mightily commends every thing he has written, and will allow no blemish in him: whereas the writ ings of that excellent man are not of a piece, nor are those very books of his, which have a good number of beautiful and valuable sentiments in them, to be recommended throughout, or all at once without distinction. There is his " Demonstration of the Existence and Attributes of God," which has justly gained an universal esteem, for bring ing down some new and noble thoughts of the wisdom of the creation to the understanding of the unlearned, and they are such as well deserve the perusal of the men of science, perhaps as far as the 50% Section; but there many of the following Sections which are very weakly written, and some of them built upon an enthusiastical and mistaken scheme, akin to the peculiar opinions of father Malebranche; such as Sect. 51, 53. "That we know the finite only by the ideas of the infinite." Sect. 55, 60. "That the superior reason in man, is God himself acting in him." Sect. 61, 62. "That the idea of anity cannot be taken from creatures but from God only:" and several of his Sections, from 65, to 68, upon the doctrine of liberty, seem to be inconsistent. Again, toward the end of his book he spends more time and pains than are needful in refuting the Epicurean fancy of atoms moving eternally through infinite changes, which might be done effectually in a much shorter and better way. So in his Posthumous Essays, and his Letters, there are many admirable thoughts in practical and experimental religion, and very beautiful and divine sentiments in devotion; but sometimes in large paragraphs, or in whole chapters together, you find him in the clouds of mystic divinity, and he never descends within the reach of common ideas or common sense. But remember this also, that there are but few such authors as this great man, who talks so very weakly sometimes, and yet in other places is so much superior to the greatest part of writers. There are other instances of this kind where men of good sense in the main set up for judges, but they carry too many of their pas sions about them, and then like lovers, they are in rapture at the name of their fair idol: they lavish out all their incense upon that shrine, and cannot bear the thought of admitting a blemish in them. You shall hear Altinese not only admire Casimire of Poland in his lyrics, as the utmost purity and perfection of Latin poesy, but he will allow nothing in him to be extravagant or faulty, and will vindicate every line; nor can I much wonder at it, when I have heard him pronounce Lucan the best of the ancient Latins, and idolize his very weaknesses and mistakes. I will readily acknowledge the odes of Ca❤ simire to have more spirit and force, more magnificence and fire in them, and in twenty places arise to more dignity and beauty than I could ever meet with in any of our modern poets: yet I am afraid to Say, that Palla sutilis e luce has dignity enough in it for "a robe made for the Almighty,” lib. 4, od, 7. l. 37. or that the man of Virtue in od. 3. 1. 44. "under the ruins of heaven and earth, will bear up the frag➜ ments of the fallen world with a comely wound on his shoulders." -late ruenti Subjiciens sua colla coelo Mundum decoro vulnere falciet ; Interque coeli fragmina----- YET I must needs confess also, that it is hardly possible a man should rise to so exalted and sublime a vein of poesy as Casimire, who is not in danger now and then of such extravagancies: but still they should not be admired or defended, if we pretend to pass a just judgment on the writings of the greatest men. Milton is a noble genius, and the world agrees to confess it; his poem of Paradise Lost is a glorious performance, and rivals the most famous pieces of antiquity; but that reader must be deeply prejudiced in favour of the poet, who can imagine him equal to himself through all that work. Neither the sublime sentiments, nor dignity of numbers, nor force or beauty of expression are equally maintained, even in all those parts which require grandeur or beauty, force or harmony. I cannot but consent to Mr Dryden's opinion, though I will not use his words, that for scores of lines together, there is a coldness and flatness, and almost a perfect absence of that spirit of poesy which breathes, and lives, and flames in other pages. IX. WHEN you hear any person pretending to give his judgment of a book, consider with yourself whether he be a capable judge, or whether he may not lie under some unhappy bias or prejudice, for or a gainst it, whether he has made a sufficient inquiry to form his justest sentiments upon it. Though he be a man of good sense, yet he is incapable of passing a true judgment of a particular book, if he be not well acquainted with the subject of which it treats; and the manner in which it is written, be it verse or prose; or if he hath not had opportunity or leisure to look sufficiently into the writing itself. Again, though he be never so capable of judging on all other accounts, by the knowledge of the subject, and of the book itself, yet you are to consider also, whether there be any thing in the author, in his manner, in his language, in his opinions, and his particular party, which may warp the sentiments of him that judgeth, to think well or ill of the treatise, and to pass too favourable or too severe a sentence concerning it. If you find that he is either an unfit judge because of his ignorance, or because of his prejudices, his judgment of that book should go for nothing. Philographo is a good divine, an useful preacher, and an approved expositor of scripture, but he never had a taste for any of the polite learning of the age: he was fond of every thing that appeared in a devout dress, but all verse was alike to him: he told me last week there was a very fine book of poems published on the three christian graces, Faith, Hope, and Charity; and a most elegant piece of oratory on the four last things, Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. Do you think I shall buy either of those books merely on Philographo's recommendation. CHAP. VI. OF LIVING INSTRUCTIONS AND LECTURES OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS. 1. THERE are few persons of so penetrating a genius, and so just a judgment, as to be capable of learning the arts and sciences without the assistance of Teachers. There is scarcely any science so safely and so speedily learned, even by the noblest genius and the best books, without a tutor. His assistance is absolutely necessary for most persons, and it is very useful for all beginners. Books are a sort of dumb teachers, they point out the way to learning; but if we labour under any doubt or mistake, they cannot answer sudden questions, or explain present doubts and difficulties: this is properly the work of a living instructor. . II. THERE are very few tutors who are sufficiently furnished with Such universal learning, as to sustain all the parts and provinces of |