Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 353, March 1845

Addison, in a commendatory critique in the Spectator, said, that the observations in the Essay "follow one another without that methodical regularity that would have been requisite in a prose writer." And Warton, in opposition to Warburton, who asserted that it was a regular piece, written on a regular and consistent plan, has spoken scornfully of the Bishop's Commentary, and concluded in his usual forcible-feeble way, that Pope had no plan in the poem at all. Roscoe spiritedly rates Warton for assuming to know Pope's mind better than Pope himself, who gave the Commentary his imprimatur. It may occasionally refine rather too ingeniously, but on the whole it is elucidatory, and Roscoe did well to give it entire in his edition of Pope. The Essay is in one book, but divided into three principal parts or numbers; and Warburton in a few words tells its plan: – "The rest gives the rules for the study of the art of criticism; the second exposes the causes of wrong judgment; and the third marks out the morals of the critic." And Roscoe says, with equal truth, that "a certain degree of order and succession prevails, which leads the reader through the most important topics connected with the subject; thereby uniting the charm of variety with the regularity of art." Adding finely, that "poetry abhors nothing so much as the appearance of formality and restraint."

An excellent feature of the Essay, giving it practical worth, and interesting as native to the character of the writer, is the strenuous requisition to the poet himself, that he shall within his own soul, and for his own use of his own art, accomplish himself in criticism. It is recorded that Walsh, "the muses' judge and friend," said to Pope – "There is at least one virtue of writing in which an English poet of to-day may excel his predecessors; that is – CORRECTNESS." But it is more likely that the perception of this virtue in the poetical intellect of Pope drew out the remark from Walsh, than that the remark suggested to the poet the pursuit of the virtue. Pope, in his verse, in his prose, in his life, rules himself. Deliberated purpose, resolutely adopted and consistently executed, characterises the man and the writer. It is nature, or some profounder control than a casual suggestion of a literary aim, that imparts this pervading character. As little could he owe to another the nice discrimination, the intellectual precision, the delicacy of perception – in a word, the critical sense and apprehension which make up one aspect of the mind, impressed upon the style, generally considered, of Pope. As far, then, as the virtue of correctness is to be predicated of his writings – and we do not believe that the countrymen of a poet go on predicating of him, for generation after generation, gratuitously – we must believe that we have to thank himself for it, and not Walsh.

We said, "UPON THE STYLE, GENERALLY CONSIDERED," – for we acknowledge exceptions and contradictions to the general position; inaccuracies and incorrectnesses, that would make an answer to the question – "What is the correctness of Pope?" a somewhat troublesome affair. But we resolutely insist that when, in his "Essay on Criticism," he calls upon the poet himself severely to school his own mind in preparation; when he requires, that in working he shall not only feel and fancy, but understand too; when, in a word, he claims that he shall possess his art AS AN ART; he speaks, his own spirit impelling; and so stamps a fine personality, which is one mode of originality, on his work.

The praise that is uppermost in one's mind of the Essay on Criticism, is its rectitude of legislation. Pope is an orthodox doctor – a champion of the good old cause. Hence, after almost a century and a half, this poem of a minor (Warburton says his twentieth year) carries in our literature the repute and weight of an authority and a standard. It is of the right good English temper – thoughtful and ardent – discreet and generous – firm, with sensibility – bold and sedate – manly and polished. He establishes himself in well-chosen positions of natural strength, commanding the field; and he occupies them in the style of an experienced leader, with forces judiciously disposed, and showing a resolute front every way of defence and offence. You do not curiously enquire into the novelty of his doctrines. He has done well if, in small compass, he has brought together, and vigorously compacted and expressed with animation, poignancy, and effect, the best precepts. Such writing is beneficial, not simply by the truths which it newly propounds, or more luminously than heretofore unfolds, but by the authority which it vindicates to true art – by the rallying-point which it affords to the loyal adherents of the high and pure muses – by the sympathy which its wins, or confirms, to good letters – by its influence in dispersing pestilent vapours, and rendering the atmosphere wholesome.

In perusing the "Essay on Criticism," the reader is occasionally tempted to ask himself "whether he has under his eyes an art of criticism or an art of poetry." 'Tis no wonder; since, in some sort, the two arts are one and the same. They coincide largely; criticism being nothing else than the reasoned intelligence of poetry. Just the same spirit, power, precision, delicacy, and accomplishment of understanding, which reign in the soul of the great poet creating, rule in that of the good critic judging. The poet, creating, criticizes his own work; he is poet and critic both. The critic is a poet without the creation. As Apelles is eye and hand, both; the critic of Apelles is eye only. This identification, so far as it goes, has been variously grounded and viewed. Of old, it was urged that only the poet is the judge of poetry, the painter of painting, the musician of music, and so on. Such positions proceed upon a high and reverential estimation of art. To judge requires the depth and sharpness of sensibility, the vivid and pathetic imagination, which characterize the artist. It asks more. To see the picture as it should be gazed upon, to hear the poem as it would be listened to, laborious preparation is needed – study, strenuous and exact, learned and searching – that ardent and lover-like communing with nature, the original of arts, and that experience in the powers, the difficulties, and the significancy of art, which only the dedication of the votary to the service of an art can easily be supposed to induce. There is, in practice, a verity and an intimacy of knowledge, without which theoretical criticism wants both light and life. So Pope contends —

"Let such judge others who themselves excel;And censure freely, who have written well."

He seems, at the same time, to be aware that this doctrine is not likely to find general favour; and that an objection will be taken up by those with whom it is unpalatable, grounded in the poet's liability to be seduced, beguiled, transported, misled, by his sympathy with that which is in the art specifically his own – the inventive power. And he admits the danger; but rebuts the objection by averring that, on the other side, the critic who is not a poet has his own temptation. He will be run away with by his intellectual propensities; the opinion of his own infallibillity; the pleasure of pronouncing sentence – dispositions all, that move to a hasty, and are adverse to a generous, decision.

"Poets are partial to their wit, 'tis true,But are not critics to their judgment, too?"

The two arts, poetry and the criticism of poetry, thus running together, so as that in the mind of the poet they are one thing, and that it is hard well to distinguish in speaking of them in prose, it will not seem surprising if Pope, intending to write of the lesser, and so inveigled into writing of the greater, should not always distinctly know of which he writes.

Let us cite a celebrated passage as an example of such almost unavoidable confusion.

"First fathom nature, and your judgment frameBy her just standard, which is still the same.Unerring Nature, still divinely bright,One clear, unchanged, and universal light;Life, force, and beauty, must to all impart,At once the source, and end, and test of art.Art from that fund each just supply provides,Works without show, and without pomp presides.In some fair body thus the informing soulWith spirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole,Each motion guides, and every nerve sustains,Itself unseen, but in th' effect remains.Some, to whom heaven in wit has been profuse,Want as much more to turn it to its use;For wit and judgment often are at strife,Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife.'Tis more to guide than spur the muse's steedRestrain his fury, than provoke his speed;The winged courser, like a generous horse,Shows most his mettle when you check his course."

Now, lend your ears. Pray, attend.

It these memorable twenty lines – memorable by the truth of the thinking, and the spirited or splendid felicity of expression – the subject of the rules delivered is for two verses – Criticism Proper, that is to say, the faculty of judging in the mind of the critic, who is not necessarily a poet, and whose function in the world is the judgment of the work produced and complete, and exposed for free censure.

"First fathom nature, and your judgment frameBy her just standard, which is still the same."

This general reference to the fountain-head of law and of power, is spoken to the critic – the writer of critiques – the public censurer – the man of judgment.

For the next four lines, the creative power, and the presiding criticism in the mind of the poet, and the judicial criticism in the mind of the official critic, are all three in hand together.

"Unerring Nature, still divinely bright,One clear, unchanged, and universal light;Life, force, and beauty, must to all impart,At once the source, and end, and test of art."

Warburton has remarked, that the two last verses run parallel to one another, inasmuch as "source" respects "life," the ever-welling – "end" reflects "force," for the force of any thing arises from its being directed to its end – and "test" looks back to "beauty," for every thing acquires beauty by its being reduced to its true standard. Very well said.

But in what sense is nature the "end" of art? Warburton explains the word, by "the design of poetry being to convey knowledge of nature in the most agreeable manner." Might not one think that nature is this "end" rather, inasmuch as art aims at reaching nature in our bosoms? In this acceptation, "end" and "force" would precisely belong to one another.

In the mean time, "life" and "source" distinctly concern the creative power in the soul of the poet; art's "end" must be known, and fixedly looked at, as the lodestar by the mariner, by presiding criticism in the same soul; and the "test" of art must evidently be applied by the critic discharging his peculiar functions; whilst "unerring nature," imaged as the sun, enlightens, of course, both poet and critic.

And now the critic, who was at the outset of the strain – six verses ago – alone in contemplation, is dismissed for good or for ill. The poet is on Pegasus's back; the lashing out of a heel kicks the unfortunate devil to the devil; and away we go.

For one verse, the creative power, and the presiding criticism in the mind of the poet, are confounded together under the freshly suggested name – ART.

"Art from that fund each just supply provides."

That is to say, "Art," as the inventive power in the poet, draws from the sole "fund," nature, its abundant "supplies." Art, as the critical power in the poet, takes care that precisely the "just" supply be drawn.

In the next line, this same art, signifies this presiding criticism only.

"Works without show, and without pomp presides."

Clearly, the intent, inostensive, virtuous faculty of criticism alone, influencing, guarding, leading, and ruling.

Then out of the four lines, which elaborate an excellent simile, due in propriety to the presiding criticism, two are chequered with a lingering recollection of the creative power —

"In some fair body thus the informing soulWith spirit feeds, with vigour fills the whole,Each motion guides, and every nerve sustains;Itself unseen, but in th' effect remains."

What feeds? What fills? You cannot help looking back to that provision of "supplies;" and yet a profounder truth would be disclosed, another brilliancy imparted, and an unperplexed significancy given to the fine image, if Criticism alone might be the informing soul – if the delicate Reason of Art in the accomplished poetical spirit, had been boldly and frankly represented as inspiriting and invigorating, no less than as guiding and supporting; for criticism is the virtue of art, ruling the passions, and surely neither orator, nor poet, nor philosopher, will pause in answering, that virtue "feeds" with "spirits," and "fills with vigour." That which, itself unseen, remains in its effect, is clearly that authorized criticism which genius, in the poet's soul, obeys.

In the next verse wit signifies the creative power alone.

"Some to whom Heaven in wit has been profuse."

In the next, wit is the presiding criticism alone.

"Want as much more to turn it to its use."

In the two following, wit is the creative power only, and judgment is the presiding criticism.

"For wit and judgment often are at strife,Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife."

The four closing verses, which deservedly ring in every ear, and grace every tongue – lucid and vigorous – born of the true poetical self-understanding – extol duly the presiding criticism, of which only they speak.

"'Tis more to guide than spur the muse's steed,Restrain his fury, than provoke his speed;The winged courser, like a generous horse,Shows most his mettle when you check his course."

A happy commentary on the "feeding with spirits," and "filling with vigour," as we would accept them. The rein provokes into action the plenitude of life that else lies unused.

By the by, Gilbert Wakefield, not the happiest of critics in his services to Pope, here rightly warns against the unskilful and indolent error of apprehending from the word "like" a most inapt simile, which would explain a horse by a horse, and exalt Pegasus by cutting off his wings. The words are clearly to be understood, "like a generous horse – AS HE IS."

We have seen, then, instructed reader, that the poet begins giving advice to the critic. Then he entangles for a moment the critic and poet together. Then he discards the critic wholly, and takes the poet along with him to the end. Do not forget, we beseech you, that there are, in the soul of the poet, two great distinct powers. There is the primary creative power, which, strong in love and passion and imagination, converses with nature, draws thence its heaped intellectual wealth, and transmutes it all into poetical substance. Then there is the great presiding power of criticism, which sits in sovereignty, ruling the work of the poet engaged in exercising his art. These two are confounded and confused by Pope once and again. They are so, under the name of Art! – which, at first, comprehends the two; and then suddenly means only the power of criticism in the poet. Again, they shift place confusedly under the name "Wit" – which at first means the creative power only – then, the critical power only. Then, once more, the creative power only; in which sense it is here at last opposed explicitly to judgment. The close is, under a fit and gallant figure, a spirited description of the creative power firily working under the control of criticism.

These deceiving interchanges run through a passage otherwise of great lucidity and beauty, and of sterling strength and worth. Probably, most attentive of readers, though possibly not the least perplexed, thou wilt not rest with less satisfaction upon what is truly good in the passage, now thou hast with us taken the trouble of detecting the slight disorder which overshadows it. The possibility of the first confusion which slips from the critic to the poet, attests the strength of the opinion in Pope's mind, that the poet must entertain as an intellectual inmate a spirit of criticism, as learned and severe as that of the mere critic. Perhaps the latter infers how close the cognation of the creative and the critical faculty.

And now for another striking instance of sliding, unconsciously, from critic to poet.

"But most by numbers judge a poet's song,And smooth or rough, with them is right or wrong:In the bright muse, though thousand charms conspire,Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire;Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear,Not mend their minds; as some to church repair,Not for the doctrine, but the music, there.These equal syllables alone require,Though oft the ear the open vowels tire;While expletives their feeble aid do join,And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.While they ring round the same unvaried chimes,With sure returns of still expected rhymes;Where'er you find the 'cooling western breeze,'In the next line, it 'whispers through the trees;'If crystal streams 'with pleasing murmurs creep,'The reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with 'sleep;'Then, at the last and only couplet fraughtWith some unmeaning thing they call a thought,A needless Alexandrine ends the song,That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes!" —

Who are the "MOST" that "JUDGE a poet's song by numbers?" with whom "smooth or rough is RIGHT or WRONG?" Who are "the tuneful fools," who, of the Muse's thousand charms, "ADMIRE her tuneful voice" only? The haunters of Parnassus, whose attraction thither is the "PLEASURE" of their ear, not the instruction of their mind; who "REQUIRE" nothing more than "equal syllables?" – For these first eight lines, you have the bad critic, and the bad critic only.

But who are "THEY" that "ring round the same unvaried chimes" of rhymes; who bestow upon "you," "the reader," – "breeze," "trees;" "creep," and "sleep;" whose one thought has no meaning; who have scotched the snake, not killed it; and who are to be abandoned to the solitary delight of their own bad verses? In these last ELEVEN lines, you have the bad poet, and the bad poet only. Whilst in the three intermediate verses, "Though oft the ear," &c., you have the imperceptible slide effected from critic to poet. Did Pope know and intend this? We think not; and we think there is in the construction itself proof positive to the inadvertency. For where is the antecedent referred to in

"While THEY ring round?"

He who looks for it will arrive first at the "THESE," who "equal syllables alone require." But he has now escaped from the bad poet's into almost worse company. The said "THESE" are clearly a SECOND smaller division of the condemned EAR-CRITICS. The greater division, the "MOST", have ears, forsooth, and can distinguish "smooth" and "rough." But "THESE" WOULD HAVE ears. They have none; they have only FINGERS. They can tell that the syllables keep the RULE of the measure, and that is all. They stand on the lowest round of the ladder, or on the ground at the foot of the ladder.

Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire,

is to them "excellent music," an unimpeachable verse, for it COUNTS RIGHT. They are the arithmeticians of the Muse – no musicians.

We agree with Warburton, who says that it is "impossible to give a full and exact idea of poetical criticism without considering at the same time the art of poetry, so far as poetry is an ART." But we must contend, that a poet who addresses or discourses of two such distinct species as the writer who criticizes, and the writer who is criticized – two human beings, at least, placed in such very different predicaments – is bound continually to know and to keep his reader aware, which he exhorts and which he smites – the sacrificer or the victim.

You have in your memory, and a thousand times recollected, the following fine passage; but are you sure that you have fully and clearly understood, as well as felt it?

"A little learning is a dangerous thing;Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;There shallow drafts intoxicate the brain,And drinking largely sobers us again.Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,While from the bounded level of our mindShort views we take, nor see the length behind;But more advanced, behold with strange surprise,Far distant views of endless science rise!So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky,Th' eternal snows appear already past,And the first clouds and mountains seem the last.But those attain'd, we tremble to surveyThe growing labours of the lengthen'd way,Th' increasing prospect tires our wondering eyes,Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise."

The precept must be given to somebody. To whom? The whole Essay addresses itself to two descriptions of persons – to those who will be critics, and to those who will be poets. Both are here addressed, and indistinctively. But we may distinguish – nay, must – in turning verse into prose. What is the counsel bestowed? "Meddle not with criticism, as a professed or unprofessed critic, unless you are prepared to invade the depths of criticism." "Touch not the lyre of Apollo to call forth a tone, unless you are willing to put your hand under the most rigorous discipline in the school of the musicians." What is the motive, the reason of the counsel? The twofold monitory and hortatory counsel, proceeds upon a twofold contemplation; upon the view of the beginning, and upon that of the end.

A taste of criticism – the possession of half a dozen rules – the sitting, for a few furtive and perilous instants, upon that august seat of high judgment, before which the great wits of all ages and nations come to receive their award – infatuates the youthful untempered brain with dazzling, bewildering, and blinding self-opinion. Enough to mislead is easily learned. Right dictates of clearest minds – oracles of the old wisdom – crudely misunderstood. Rules of general enunciation made false in the applying, by the inability of perceiving in the instance the differencing conditions which qualify the rule, or suspend it. So, on the other hand, canons of a narrower scope, stretched beyond their true intent. And last, and worst of all, in the ignorance and in the disdain of statutes, and sanctions, and preceding authoritative judgments – the humours and fancies, the likings and the mislikings, the incapable comprehension and the precipitate misapprehensions of an untrained, uninstructed, inexperienced, self-unknowing spirit, howsoever of Nature gifted or ungifted, to be taken for the standard of the worth which the generations of mankind have approved, or which has newly risen up to enlighten the generations of mankind!

Abstain, then, from judging, O Critic that wilt be! Humble thine understanding in reverence! Open thy soul to beliefs! Yield up thy heart, dissolving and overcome, to love! Cultivate self-suspicion! and learn! learn! learn! The bountiful years that lift up the oak to maturity, shall rear, and strengthen, and ripen thee! Knowledge of books, knowledge of men, knowledge of Nature – and solicited, and roused, and sharpened, in the manifold and studious conversation with books, and with men, and with Nature – last and greatest – the knowledge of thyself – shall bring thee out large-hearted, high-minded, sensitive, apprehensive, comprehensive, informed and original, clear and profound, genial and exact, scrutinizing and pardoning, candid, and generous, and just – in a word, a finished CRITIC. The steadfast and mighty laws of the moral and intellectual world have taken safe care and tutelage of thee, and confer upon thee, in thy now accomplished powers, the natural and well-earned remuneration of honestly, laboriously, and pertinaciously dedicated powers!

And as for thee, O Poet that wilt be, con thou, by night and by day, the biography of John Milton!

And now – in conclusion – for the very noblest strain in didactic poetry.

"Those Rules of old discover'd, not devised,Are Nature still, but Nature methodised;Nature, like Liberty, is but restrain'dBy the same laws which first herself ordain'd."Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites,When to repress, and when indulge our flights:High on Parnassus' top her sons she show'd,And pointed out those arduous paths they trod;Held from afar, aloft, th' immortal prize,And urged the rest by equal steps to rise:Just precepts thus from great examples given,She drew from them what they derived from Heaven.The gen'rous critic fann'd the poet's fire,And taught the world with reason to admire.Then Criticism the Muse's handmaid proved,To dress her charms, and make her more beloved.****"You, then, whose judgment the right course would steer,Know well each Ancient's proper character:His fable, subject, scope in ev'ry page;Religion, country, genius of his age:Without all these at once before your eyes,Cavil you may, but never criticise.Be Homer's works your study and delight,Read them by day, and meditate by night;Thence form your Judgment, thence your maxims bring,And trace the muses upward to their spring.Still with itself compared, his text peruse;And let your comment be the Mantuan muse."When first young Maro in his boundless mindA work t' outlast immortal Rome design'd,Perhaps he seem'd above the critic's law,And but from Nature's fountains scorn'd to draw:But when t' examine ev'ry part he came,Nature and Homer were, he found, the same.Convinced, amazed, he checks the bold design;And rules as strict his labour'd work confine,As if the Stagyrite o'erlook'd each line.Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem;To copy nature is to copy them.Some beauties yet no precepts can declare,For there's a happiness as well as care.Music resembles poetry; in eachAre nameless graces which no methods teach,And which a master-hand alone can reach.If, where the rules not far enough extend,(Since rules were made but to promote their end,)Some lucky license answer to the fullTh' intent proposed, that license is a rule.Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take,May boldly deviate from the common track;Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend,And rise to faults true critics dare not mend.From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,Which, without passing through the judgment, gainsThe heart, and all its end at once attains.In prospects thus, some objects please our eyes,Which out of nature's common order rise,The shapeless rock, or hanging precipice.But though the ancients thus their rules invade,(As kings dispense with laws themselves have made,)Moderns, beware! or if you must offendAgainst the precept, ne'er transgress its end;Let it be seldom, and compell'd by need,And have, at least, their precedent to plead,The critic else proceeds without remorse,Seizes your fame, and puts his laws in force.I know there are, to whose presumptuous thoughtThose freer beauties, ev'n in them, seem faults.Some figures monstrous and mis-shaped appear,Consider'd singly, or beheld too near;Which, but proportion'd to their light or place,Due distance reconciles to form and grace.A prudent chief not always must displayHis powers in equal ranks, and fair array,But with the occasion and the place comply,Conceal his force, nay seem sometimes to fly.Those oft are stratagems which errors seem;Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.Still green with bays each ancient altar stands,Above the reach of sacrilegious hands;Secure from flames, from Envy's fiercer rage,Destructive war, and all-involving age.See from each clime the learn'd their incense bring!Hear, in all tongues consenting paeans ring!In praise so just let ev'ry voice be join'd,And fill the gen'ral chorus of mankind.Hail, bards triumphant! born in happier days;Immortal heirs of universal praise!Whose honours with increase of ages grow,As streams roll down, enlarging as they flow;Nations unborn your mighty names shall sound,And worlds applaud that must not yet be foundO may some spark of your celestial fire,The last, the meanest of your sons inspire,(That on weak wings, from far, pursues your flights;Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes,)To teach vain wits a science little known,T' admire superior sense, and doubt their own!

A magnificent burst of thoughtful enthusiasm! an urgent and monitory exhortation, in which Pope calls upon rising critics and poets to pursue, in the great writings of classical antiquity, the study of that art which proceeds from the true study of Nature. It depictures his own studies; and expresses the admiration of a glowing disciple, who, having found his own strength and light in the conversation of his high instructors, will utter his own gratitude, will advance their honour, and will satisfy his zeal for the good of his brethren, by engaging others to use the means that have prospered with himself.