Part 7 (1/2)

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.