The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of 10): Poetry - Volume 2Pope, Alexander
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The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of 10): Poetry - Volume 2
Pope, Alexander
English poetry -- 18th century
Ver. 15. _Let such teach others, &c._] But it is not enough that the
critic hath these natural endowments of judgment and taste, to entitle
him to exercise his art; he should, as our author shows us, from ver. 14
to 19, in order to give a further test of his qualification, have put
them successfully into use. And this on two accounts: 1. Because the
office of a critic is an exercise of authority. 2. Because he being
naturally as partial to his judgment as the poet is to his wit, his
partiality would have nothing to correct it, as that of the person
judged hath by the very terms. Therefore some test is necessary; and the
best and most unexceptionable, is his having written well himself--an
approved remedy against critical partiality, and the surest means of so
maturing the judgment as to reap with glory what Longinus calls "the
last and most perfect fruits of much study and experience." Η γαρ των
λογων κρισις πολλης εστι πειρας τελευταιον επιγεννημα.
Ver. 19. _Yet, if we look, &c._] But the author having been thus free
with the fundamental quality of criticism, judgment, so as to charge it
with inconstancy and partiality, and to be often warped by custom and
affection, that he may not be misunderstood, he next explains, from ver.
18 to 36, the nature of judgment, and the accidents occasioning those
miscarriages before objected to it. He owns, that the seeds of judgment
are indeed sown in the minds of most men, but by ill culture, as it
springs up, it generally runs wild, either on the one hand, by false
learning, which pedants call philology, and by false reasoning, which
philosophers call school-learning, or, on the other, by false wit, which
is not regulated by sense, and by false politeness, which is solely
regulated by the fashion. Both these sorts, who have their judgment thus
doubly depraved, the poet observes, are naturally turned to censure and
abuse, only with this difference, that the learned dunce always affects
to be on the reasoning, and the unlearned fool on the laughing side. And
thus, at the same time, our author proves the truth of his introductory
observation, that the number of bad critics is vastly superior to that
of bad poets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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