See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day!
No more the rifing w fun fhall gild the morn,
Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her filver horn,
But loft, diffolv'd in thy fuperior rays,

One tyde of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts: The light himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!

The feas fhall wafte, the skies in smoke decay,

1

Rocks fall to duft, and mountains melt away;

But fix'd his word, his faving pow'r remains;
Thy realm for ever lafts, thy own Meffiah reigns!

Cap. lx. . 19, 20.

Cap. li..6. and Cap. liv. .10.

AN

A N

ESSAY

ΟΝ

CRITICISM.

Written in the Year 1709.

-Si quid novifti rectius iftis,
Candidus imperti; fi non, his utere mecum.

HORAT.

કો

7

AN

ESSAY

O N

CRITICISM.

IS hard to fay, if greater want of skill \
Appear in writing or in judging ill;

[fence

But, of the two, lefs dang'rous is th' of-
To tire our patience, than mislead our fenfe.
Some few in that, but numbers err in this,
Ten cenfure wrong for one who writes amifs;
A fool might once himself alone expose,

Now one in verfe makes many more in profe.

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none Go juft alike, yet each believes his own.

In poets as true genius is but rare,

True tafte as feldom is the critick's fhare;. Both must alike from heav'n derive their light, These born to judge, as well as those to write.. Let* fuch teach others who themselves excell, And cenfure freely who have written well. Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, But are not crities to their judgment too?

Yet if we look more closely, we fhall find Moft have the feeds of judgment in their mind:: Nature affords at least a glimm'ring light;

The lines, tho' touch'd but faintly, are drawn right. But as the flightest sketch, if justly trac'd,.

Is by ill colouring but the more disgrac'd,
So by falfe learning is good fenfe defac'd:
Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools,
And fome made coxcombs nature meant but fools.
In fearch of wit these lose their common fenfe,.
And then turn critics in their own defence:

Qui fcribit artificiosè, ab aliis commodè fcripta fàcilè intelligere poterit. Cic. ad Herenn. lib. 4.

↑ Omnes tacito quodam fenfu, fine ullâ arte, aut ratione, qua fint in artibus ac rationibus recta ac prava dijudicant. Cic. de Orat.

lib. 3

Thofe