Part 10 (1/2)
After all that has been said of the _Sublime, &c._ perhaps the Criticks do make more of Things than is necessary, or in Nature: Tho' Poets pretend to Inspiration, and cry out, _The G.o.d, the G.o.d_, they are, in the Main, but meer Men, and have their Tricks and Quirks to keep up the Reputation of that Art: Nay, like other Professions, they would have us believe, that there's Mystery in it too; not, I suppose, as Divines understand it, but in the vulgar Sense, as it is understood when we say, the Trade or Mystery of a _Cordwainer_. Some of these Poetical Mysteries are as follow.
We are told that this Verse of _Homer_'s Third _Iliad_ was said, by _Alexander the Great_, to be the best in all the Poem:
_Great in the Wars, and great in Arts of Sway._
Methinks our _Gazette_ Men, and _Courant_ Men, express themselves every whit as well, when in Honour of a defunct General, whose Activity had long furnish'd them with Matter for their News-Books, they tell us, He was great alike in the Camp, and in the Cabinet, which easily runs into as good a Verse as the other.
_Great in the Camp, and in the Cabinet._
The next best Verses that ever were, are _Boileaus_; and they were said to be the best in all his Works, by _La Fontaine_: The Subject is the _French_ King's setting up Lace-making at _Roan_.
Et nos voisins frustrez de ces tributs serviles, Que paiat a leur Art, le Luxe de nos Villes.
_No more by foreign Tributes are we griev'd, Which, from our Luxury, alien Arts receiv'd._
Why these are better Verses than all other best Verses, is the Mystery we are speaking of, and like that of the Free-Masons, it cannot be unfolded but by a Brother; nay, one may suspect of this Mystery what is justly suspected of that; they do not tell it us, for fear we shou'd laugh at it.
Of this Kind, doubtless, is the famous Couplet, taken out of Sir _John Denham_'s _Coopers-Hill_, which _Dryden_ says, are the two best Verses in the _English_ Tongue:
_Tho' Deep, yet clear; tho' Gentle, yet not dull; Strong without Rage, without o'erflowing full._